8 Days Tour to Kunming-Xishuangbanna-Dali-Lijiang

Upon arrival, you’ll be picked up at Kunming airport by your local guide and chauffeured to the hotel to check in. You can either take a rest to shake off your jet lag, or you can spend the rest of the day exploring the city at your own pace.

 Breakfast & lunch

After breakfast, you’ll be chauffeured to the Stone Forest scenic area on a 1.5-hour road trip. The region is located 85 kilometers to the south of Kunming. Due to a process of weathering and erosion, nature has created an art gallery of limestone sculpture there. During your 2.5-hour visit, you’ll be amazed to discover the striking resemblance between the stones there and trees, animals and even fungi. The quintessential karst landscape will make every visitor lost in wonder. Altogether, you’ll explore a variety of bewitching landscapes including the Greater Stone Forest, the Lesser Stone Forest, the Naigu Stone Forest, the Zhiyun Cave, the Long Lake, the Da Dieshui Waterfall and the Qifeng Cave.

After that, you’ll be escorted to the airport, from where you’ll take a late afternoon flight to Jinghong, the capital city of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.

Xishuangbanna

Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, located in the southernmost tip of Yunnan Province, is a humid tropical area on the border of Myanmar and Laos. It is home to the ethnic Dai people as well as the golden peacock, the emblem of Yunnan Province, and also inhabited a number of ethnic groups, of which the ethnic Dai nationality has the largest population. Visitors will be fascinated by their special customs, festival activities, architectural styles, and garden-like villages.

 Breakfast & Lunch

After breakfast, you’ll be chauffeured to visit Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden. Located 96 km away from Jinghong, the Topical Botanical Garden is one of the major attractions in Xishuangbanna. Situated on Hulu Island, the garden contains 3,000 different types of plants. The environment here is spectacular, surrounded by rivers and mountains and containing a wealth of rare and unusual plants, trees and flowers.

You’ll return to Jinghong after the trip to the botanical garden. On your way back, you'll take a visit to Dais' Garden and join in the water-splashing game if possible.

 Breakfast & Lunch

Today, you need to get up earlier than usual to visit the Wild Elephant Valley. We'll drive around 50 KM to visit the Wild Elephant Valley in the morning. The Wild Elephant Valley is the place where elephants roam most freely, and are most often seen. The Wild Elephant Valley is an excellent place to see elephants in their natural state. It has become the most popular tourist site in Xishuangbanna. In the Wild Elephant Valley, the passenger cableway over the forest, (2,063 meters in length), sends tourists to the main scenic spot in which the wild elephants live.

After returning to Jinghong in the afternoon, we shall drive to the airport around 9:30am to catch the only flight between Jinghong and Dali. Upon arrival, be met and transfered to hotel.

When you arrive in Dali, the local guide will meet you at the airport, and take you to the hotel for a rest, and then you can explore the city at your own pace or walk around the old town.

 Breakfast & lunch

On your next day in Dali, you’ll firstly pay a visit to the sparkling Erhai Lake (which is actually an alpine fault lake) in a boat trip and marvel at its gleaming aquamarine water.

Jinsuo Island appears like a weaving shuttle when being overlooked from high above and therefore receives its name. The delightful island used to be a summer retreat for a local monarch thanks to its temperate climate and is now beckoning to tourists with its rolling hills and lush greenery. It’s located only 5-minute away from the nearest dock and it’s an ideal place to complement your journey to Erhai Lake.

Xizhou Ancient Town is a cozy ancient city where a cluster of traditional Bai ethnic architectures are well preserved. You’ll have a slurp of the fragrant three-course tea and explore the distinctive culture of the Bai ethnic group. The Three Pagodas in Chongsheng Temple is another unmissable spot as a typical historical symbol of Yunnan province and one of the oldest sublime architecture in South China.

After that, you’ll spend the rest of the day roaming around the Dali Old Town, which hosts a large collection of traditional Bai architectures. Once served as a vital gateway of cultural exchange and trade with southeastern Asian countries, the place retains its unique ancient charm despite of the constant stream of tourists it accommodates each year.

 Breakfast & lunch

In the morning, you’ll depart Dali and head to Lijiang on a beautiful road trip embraced by Cangshan Mountain on one side and Erhai Lake on the other.

We'll head to the picturesque Black Dragon Pool to explore the rich Naxi minority culture. Black Dragon Pool with the towering Jade Dragon Mountain as its backdrop, then pay a visit to Dongba Culture Museum to explore the rich Naxi minority culture. And then, we'll visit the Wangu Pavilion where we can enjoy a bird's eye view of the Old Lijiang Town.

You’ll visit the veteran Lijiang Ancient Town. This well-preserved UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site covers an immense area of 1255 square kilometers. Once the habitation of local Naxi people, the place is now crammed with a profusion of fancy restaurants and boutique hotels, yet its enduring allure never fails to fascinate visitors. You can have an exploration of what the stores have to offer at daytime and stroll through its meandering streets when the whole place is lit up by lanterns and neon at night. The city was found on the streets radiating out from the landmark Square Street, which can help you better navigate the maze-like place just in case you get lost in your ambling.

 Breakfast & lunch

The magnificent Jade Dragon Snow Mountain features a variety of landscapes given its souring height and immense range, and Ganhaizi Meadow located at the east foot of the mountain is the first stop to experience its tranquility and distinctive beauty. You’ll then ascend to a taller section of the mountain by chairlift and visit the splendid Baishui River, which is a glacial lake with a grayish white color. You’ll then board a passenger cable at the foot of the snow mountain to ascend to Yak Meadow. Situated at an elevation of 3600 meters, Yak Meadow is a perfect spot to gaze at the 13 magnificent peaks of the mountain. In summer, the meadow is carpeted with blooming flowers and lush grass dotted with grazing yaks. In winter, it is blanketed with snow with a tranquil allure. The ethereal and dewy quality of its frequent misty weather often adds the landscape with a mysterious and serene charm.

Next up, you’ll be delivered to visit the charming Baisha Village. Baisha Village is named after the signature white sands abound in the area and is located 16 km to the northwest of Lijiang Ancient Town. It’s the earliest settlement of the Naxi people and houses myriad cultural relics and ancient buildings. One of the biggest tourist draws in the village is the exquisite Baisha Mural, which consists of a series of paintings created 600 years ago, representing the first-class craftsmanship at that time and reflecting the spiritual pursuit and mundane life of Naxi people in ancient times. Not only does it stand out as a rare treasure of art, but it also serves as an important source of information for research on national religions, arts and history.

After that, you’ll be chauffeured to the charming Yufeng Lamasery situated at the south foot of the mountain. The design of the place is an artful combination of the architectural styles of Han Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Taoism and the local Naxi Dongba Religion. By the end of the trip, you’ll visit the former residence of the Austrian-American explorer and botanist Joseph Rock, who was among those first groups of westerns that had been intoxicated by the beauty of Lijiang and had lived there for decades.

 Breakfast

We'll take a morning flight returning to Kunming. We'll spend some time exploring the bustling Jingxing Flower and Bird Market before heading to the airport.