Toilets are dirty but this is the same everywhere in China
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yes
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Yunnan is located in the southwest of China. Recently I spent 8 days 7 nights in Yunnan province covering Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Shangrila. This is a typical Yunnan tour trail if you intend to cover Yunnan province in the shortest time. Yunnan attracted me because it is the province with most number of ethnic groups in China. To us, they are all Chinese but among themselves, they belong to different ethnic group like Han, Bai, Naxi etc. I flew direct from Kuala Lumpur to Kunming airport and the flight was 3 hours 30 minutes.
Day 1 My friend waited for me at Kunming airport and she arranged for a tour guide to bring us around. Kunming airport was small and so crowded as it is a major airport in Yunnan province. From the airport, we drove straight to Alu Karst Cave which is 200 km away. It's also called the first caves in Yunnan and consisting of three parts: the Ancient Alu Caves , Dailu Waterfall and Banqiaohe Reservoir . Steps were quite steep inside the cave and you need a guide along the way. Forget about the English translations as most of them are incorrect. One thing I enjoyed most was the underground river where we did sightseeing by boat. It reminded me of the salt mine in Krakow somehow. That night, our hotel was Xinya hotel which was supposedly the best hotel (3 star) in that area but the hotel was quite run down and the room rate was almost the same as our hotel on the 2nd night.
Day 2 In the morning, we visited Stone Forest which is a World Heritage Site. The area is huge and there were a lot a lot of tourists, mostly Chinese from other provinces. You also need a guide with you to explain to you how the stone forest was formed (natural phenomena). Strongly suggest you to visit the place early as more and more tourists crowd the place near noon. In the afternoon, we went back to Kunming. There's nothing much to see in Kunming really. We visited the florist market which is a must if you are in Kunming. Quite amazing to see how cheap the flowers are (only £5 for 99 roses). Yes I wish I could bring it back with me ! Before you enter the florist market, there is a big coffee museum + store for you to buy Yunnan coffee. Free testing along the way. After dinner, we watched a famous performance, Dream Yunnan. If you ask anyone in Kunming they would know where to watch it. Through the performance, you would further understand the various differences between the minority groups and there are also English translations on the screen but most of the time it's singing/dancing. The ticket was RMB180 and this would get you good seats as the hall isn't big. We spent the night at JinFangGong Hotel (4 star) and the hotel was good, comfortable and clean. Breakfast was the best throughout the trip as this is the only hotel that serves cereal besides Chinese breakfast. Hotel was 400RMB twin sharing (about £30).
Day 3 Didn't do anything much this morning. After lunch, we drove to Dali which was 4.5 hours away from Kunming. Ok I got to tell you this. Toilets in China are very very dirty + smelly and DO NOT GO unless you really need to. There were a few times when I nearly vomited due to the strong smell. One thing about Chinese toilets that I don't understand is why people throw toilet papers in the bin next to the toilet instead of flushing them down the toilet. It's all these toilet papers in the bin that caused the smell and even if you could go in without breathing, you would almost vomit looking at what's inside the bin. Furthermore, you need to pay to enter most toilets along the way. From Kunming to Dali, we used the 2-lane proper highway and arrived in Dali around 6pm. We stayed at ManWan Business Hotel and I also need you to be careful of this hotel. It's a 5-star hotel but if you book into a superior room, you are not staying in the main building but the annexe which is just next door but if it rains, you would have a hard time moving between these two buildings. Rooms in the annexe are of poor condition which is quite similar to the hotel we spent the 1st night. It should only be a 3 star and should not be advertised as a 5 star hotel for all the rooms. However, the location of this hotel is quite good as it is within walking distance to ErHai. ErHai Lake is one of the biggest freshwater lake in China. ErHai means 'ear sea' in Chinese. The reason is because the shape of the lake looks like human being's ear and in the olden days, people nearby has never seen sea before so they thought that a lake this big is sea. When people mention Dali, they always talk about ErHai and CangShan mountain.
Day 4 We visited Dali Ancient Town today. This was an important place for the 'Silk Road of the South' in the olden days. This town is 13 km from town and if you intend to visit this town on your own from the hotel, taxi costs about RMB100 return (about £8). The town has been commercialized and the locals are selling souvenirs along the streets. If you like this ancient town, you would like Lijiang ancient town more and that one is much bigger and its building are unique. After leaving the ancient town, we went to XiZhou which is a town with lots of Bai people. As mentioned earlier, Bai is one of the ethnic and their costumes are mostly in white colour as Bai means white in Chinese. Bai people have their own language but they share the same writing as Chinese. We went to visit a Bai people's house and watched a performance where they sing and dance while serving 3 different types of tea to visitors. This is their custom and it's quite interesting to see how different they are from the Han. Han is the biggest Chinese group in China and they have influenced the minorities a lot causing them to slowly shift away from their traditions. However, the Bai people in XiZhou still wear their Bai traditional costume and speak their language. In the evening, we drove to Lijiang, the World Heritage Town and home of Naxi people. It's about 4 hours and there's no highway between these two towns. All the way it was single lane which was quite dangerous. By the time we arrived at Lijiang, we ate dinner at ShuHe Ancient Town and checked in to our hotel in Lijiang Ancient Town itself. (ShuHe ancient town is a rebuilt ancient town as it was badly destroyed by the earthquake in 1996. It is nothing like Lijiang Ancient Town so you could skip this place) I strongly recommend you to stay in Lijiang Ancient Town as it's the best place to see Lijiang and experience Lijiang since Lijiang is known for its ancient town. Our hotel was Hexin Hotel in the ancient town and I felt like I was in old China as the furniture + settings are all quite ancient.
Day 5 Woke up early at 7am to go to Shangrila. If you read the book' The Lost Horizon', I'm sure you know Shangrila. For years, people have been looking for this paradise and a few cities in China were fighting for the name Shangrila to replace their city name. Finally, ZhongDian won the title as it is most parts of it are similar to what was mentioned in the book. ZhongDian changed its name to Shangrila from year 2002. Shangrila is about 5 hours away from Lijiang and the journey was even more dangerous as now we are moving up higher the highlands and the roads are windy. By noon, we arrived at Tiger Leaping Gorge. There are two ways to go the Tiger Leaping Gorge and we chose the one that's on the side of Shangrila as the scene was nicer. The Tiger Leaping Gorge located between the Yulong Snow Mountain of Lijiang and the Haba Snow Mountain of Zhongdian. It is one of the longest, deepest and narrowest gorges in the world. It got its name because people said that the tiger from Lijiang would jump onto the big rock in the middle of the gorge and then jump to Shangrila. You shouldn't miss this place if you are already in Lijiang or Shangrila as it's worth seeing. We then continued our journey to Shangrila. At Shangrila, we visited SongZanLin temple which is a typical Lama monastery. It's high up on the hill and you need walk a few hundred steps up the hill. It has been rebuilt many times and looks like the famous temple in Tibet. Shangrila is also known as mini Tibet. At night, we visited a Tibetan's house to watch performances and to try the local food. Hotel for the night was SaLong hotel, 3 star, and facilities are ok. Again, breakfast are purely Chinese food.
Day 6 This morning, we went to Shika Snow Mountain which is about 4440 meters above sea level. Some people might have difficulty breathing up there due to the lack of oxyen in highlands. It took us an hour to reach the top by cable car. You have to stop halfway and change to another cable car. Scene from the top was magnificent but there are not many tourists now as the government only recently started to promote this snow mountain. A lot of people still do not know about it or that they have been to YuLong Snow Mountain in Lijiang so they thought it's unnecessary to visit another one in Shangrila but I assure you it's very different as I went to both. After coming down from the snow mountain, we went to NaPaiHai Reserve but there's nothing much there to see you could skip this site. In the afternoon, we returned back to Lijiang and once again, windy roads all the way for 5 hours. I drank little water to avoid having to go to toilet along the way. By night time, we arrived at Lijiang and we checked in into the same hotel again. After dinner at a restaurant nearby, we quickly walked around Lijiang ancient town. It very commercialized now as all the local residents have rented out the front part of their houses for people to sell souvenirs or they have renovated parts of their houses as hotels/inns for travelers. The cobbled streets, the unique architecture, these can only be seen in Lijiang ancient town nowadays and it has high research value even to the Chinese. Go to the pub street and experience the Lijiang nightlife. There are pubs along both sides of the river and the youngsters would sing out to people at the opposite pub and wait for a response in the form of a song. Whenever one group runs out of songs, they would be scolded by their opponent. Walk around and look for unique Lijiang souvenirs such as combs made from yak horns.
Day 7 Visited Yulong snow mountain which everyone says a must if you ever go to Lijiang. I didn't find anything special about the snow mountain actually but my friend told me that this snow mountain is like god to the local Naxi people. Whenever people swear, they swear in the name of the snow mountain to show their sincerity. A lot of couples commit suicide in this area because while Naxi people are free to choose their lovers, they are not given freedom to choose their partner in marriage as this is decided by their parents. If their parents disagree the lover they found, they will commit suicide at the snow mountain area. They believe that if they can't be together when they are alive, they will die together at the snow mountain and travel to a beautiful place to live together. It's another cable car ride to the Yulong snow mountain and again, it's crowded. On the way back to Lijiang town from the mountain, we stopped at Bai Shui He which is a beautiful place. Lots of yaks there for people to take photo or you could ride them for 20RMB (£2). That night, after dinner, we went to Lijiang airport to fly back to Kunming so that we could save 9 hours of traveling time on the road. We took China Eastern Airline. Even toilets in the airport are dirty !!
Day 8 It's the last day in Yunnan China. Since there isn't any other tourist attraction in Kunming, I walked around the JinMa BikJi Square where lots of branded stores are located.
Things to note: 1. If you can't get used to Chinese food, it's better to get a hotel which serves Western breakfast if not you would end up eating nothing for breakfast. 2. Yunnan province is not very developed and it's not easy to find Western food everywhere. 3. You need to take off your shoes and your belt at the immigration whenever you take domestic flights however, this is not needed if you are leaving China. 4. You need a visa to enter China which you have to apply at the Chinese embassy before you travel to China. 5. You need to bargain for prices everywhere in Yunnan except in department stores and restaurants. 6. Beware of the weather as it can get quite hot during daytime but it might be 0 celcius at night. 7. Beware of pickpockets everywhere in China. 8. Bring enough cash with you as some ATMS do not accept foreign ATM cards and during night time you need to use your ATM card to swipe on the door but if yours is a foreign ATM card you wouldn't be able to enter to withdraw money.
Transport system is not developed and you wouldn't be able to cover the sites if you do not hire a tour guide and a driver. There are many tour agencies with websites it's better to compare their prices and ensure the things they cover.
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