I was clueless of where these places in the itinerary and never bother to check on details. The tour leader contacted us a week before departure, informing us the temperature will be between 1 - 10°c.
Lucky I have packed enough thick clothes as we traveled, the further we traveled was actually the higher we were above sea level. And I did not even noticed that we are going to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain! Freezing cold it was -7°c when we were up there, 4506m above sea level!
Well, if you follow tour, you need to wake up early and for this tour, we changed hotel on daily basis but best thing was everything has been arranged for you. We departed from hotel daily between 8 - 9 am. We flew with Air Asia and were relieved that the flight only departed at 1300 hours (meaning no need to wake up early to airport), arriving Kunming at 1655 hours. As we touched down Kunming Airport, the 4th biggest in China after Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhao, a local tour guide, Mr Lew was waiting at the arrival hall. We then boarded a 32 seaters coach to Shilin, for dinner and to our accommodation at Ashima Hotel, 80km from airport!
Ashima hotel was merely 5 minutes away to Stone Forest which we visited on our second day. Stone Forest (Shilin), a well known First wonder of the world. These natural wonder where stalagmites springing up from the ground form a twisted jungle of stone. Then we proceeded to Jiuxiang cave, had a scenic boat ride before we entered the cave. Quite lots of steps to climb up the cave but thank God we took the chairlift down. In the evening, we were back to Kunming city, visited the Golden Horse & Green (Jade) Rooster Archways, symbol of Kunming city. We drove pass East and West Temple Pagoda. The pagodas were 200 metres apart. After dinner, we went for Kunming Dynamic Yunnan Show, an optional which cost RMB260/pax.
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| Stone Forest |
Addressing different gender in every place we went was different. In Kunming, Ashima for a girl and Aheige for a boy. We checked into DaGuan Hotel for a night stay.
This was a two way coach itinerary meaning lots of travelling on the road, but I did not really mind as most of the time I could sleep in the coach. There was one itinerary with domestic flight if you do not wish to travel by road. Next morning which were our 3rd day, we traveled to Dali, 5 hours from Kunming. I really salute our coach driver, in his fifties, the only driver throughout our 8 days 7 nights there. We suppose to visit Dali Ancient Town upon our arrival before we checked into N Hotel, the hotel that we loved most. But due to our late arrival to Dali, the guide has suggested we moved it to tomorrow.However, some of us still took a cab to visit Dali Ancient Town and did some shopping.
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| Night View of Dali Ancient Town |
The next morning, we took a buggy which our local guide, Nancy suggested as to speed up our coverage of Dali Ancient Town since it was a large area here, with five main streets from south to north and eight main streets from east to west. We were required to pay for the buggy as it was optional RMB15, if I have not mistaken.
We covered Erhai Lake, Xizhou Village with Three Course Tea Perfomance and drove passed the Three Pagoda before heading to Lijang, about 2 hours from Dali.
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| Black Dragon Pond |
Upon reaching Lijang, our local guide, Lian took us to Black Dragon Pond and Lijang Ancient Town before checking into Green Melody Hotel. Black Dragon Pond is place where its water reflected Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.
The next day (5th day), we were all ready to travel up to Yulong Snow Mountain by one of the highest altitude cable car to this wonderful glacier park. We then visited Ganhaizi (Dry Sea), White River, Yushui Village and Dongba God Garden.
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| Yulong (Jade Dragon) Snow Mountain |
On our 6th day, we bid goodbye to Lijang and proceeded our trip to Zhongdian/Shangrila, a place with Tibetan culture. In Tibetan, Shangri-La means Sun and Moon in heart. Located at a point where Tibet, Sichuan and Yunnan meet. On the way there, we stopped at Tiger Leaping Gorge, scenic canyon on Jinsha (Gold Sand) River. We stayed at Gu Shun Yang Shen Hotel, the best thing of this hotel was our bed was provided with heater but their breakfast was the worst.
Next morning on our 7th day, we covered Shangri-La/Zhongdian, visited Songzanlin Monastery, Zang Minority Home Visit and Spinning Prayer Wheel. Songzanlin is the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery inYunnan.Done with all these, had our lunch and ready for our 4 hours journey back to Lijang,
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| Songzanlin Monastery |
Along the way, we stopped a few places and also at the First Bend of the Yangtze River. This river makes a more than 100 degree turn from south to east within a distance of 1 kilometer. Back to Lijang, one of us asked Lian about Romantic Show of Lijang. So out of 22 person, 14 wanted to watch this show which cost RMB280 while the other 8 went and checked into Green Melody Hotel. This show took about 1.5 hours, we then went back there to pick them and proceeded to our dinner. All of them who went for the show had given a thumbs up for the show which worth watching. After dinner, we went back to our hotel. Most of us then went to Lijang Ancient Town for another round of shopping by walking 15-20 minutes from the hotel. If walking is not your cup of tea, take a cab, 5 minutes away for 1.6 km.
The next morning on our day 7, we departed from hotel back to Kunming and it was, 7 hours journey back to Kunming. We had our big bowl of yummylicious Cross Bridge Rice Noodle for dinner upon reaching Kunming. And then to Zheng Yi Shopping Street. Since we left Lijang at about 9am, we were not able to go to Kunming Old Street Bird and Flower Market which closed at 6 pm.
Next day, our final day in Kunming before our 5.40 pm flight, we covered another Flower Market and Pearl outlet. After lunch, we headed to airport.
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| Flower Market |
Overall it was a nice tour with a small 22 pax group of friendly people. The other 11 were 5 couples with 1 couple who brought along their 11 years old son.
The special cuisine served which I liked most were wild mushrooms steamboat, Cross Bridge Rice Noodle that came with a small bowl of chicken treasure soup and also a Cantonese meal which were all in Kunming.
All the hotels we stayed were accredited with 4* except Ashima, 3* and N Hotel was the one I liked best.
Our group felt that we were all very lucky as throughout the days we were there, only on the last day morning, it showered a while but both places we visited were indoor. After we boarded our coach, it started to drizzle but it stopped when we wanted to get out from the coach. Normally China Tour, you could only expect a mandarin speaking guide. Personally I was happy as both our guide from Kunming and Dali could speak fluent English.
If you know mandarin, you can always DIY your tour in China which gave you more ample time and choose the places that really interest you. As for us, it still better to follow tour. But do bear in mind, China tour normally needs a lot of walking.
According to Kunming local guide, Mr Lew best month to visit will be April/May/September/October but do avoid if there is any chinese festival as road traffic will be very bad.
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