11 Days Yunnan Classic Tour: XishuangBanna-Shangrila-Lijiang-Dali-Kunming
Tour Overview
This tour is one of the most classic tours in Yunnan. It will take you to the best of Yunnan covering all the highlights in Xishuangbanna, Kunming, Dali, Lijiang...
Code of Tour: YET-KDLSXT-YCT01
Length of Travel: 11 Day
Destinations of Tour: Xishuangbanna-Shangri-la-Lijiang-Dali-Kunming
Departure City:
Price of Tour: Request
Type of Tour:
Features of Tour: Nature Culture History Minorities Landscape Photograph Mountains Ancient towns ethnic villages Speed train
This tour is one of the most classic tours in Yunnan. It will take you to the best of Yunnan covering all the highlights in Xishuangbanna, Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-La which will give you a better view of Yunnan. Experience a very different side of China, well away from the factories and big cities.
Highlights
- Appreciate the fabulous natural sceneries, including the world natural heritage-the Stone Forest, Tiger Leaping Gorge and Pudacuo National Park.
- Meet diverse Yunnan ethnic cultures of Yi, Dai, Bai, Tibetan and Naxi.
- Explore the profoud history of Yunnan in ancient towns;
- Have a summer experience in Xishuangbanna.
Breif Itinerary
- Day 1 Arrive in Jinghong
- Day 2 Jinghong
- Day 3 Jinghong
- Day 4 Jinghong-Shangrila by Flight
- Day 5 Shangrila
- Day 6 Shangrila-Lijiang
- Day 7 Lijiang
- Day 8 Lijiang-Dali
- Day 9 Dali
- Day 10 Dali-Kunming
- Day 11 Departure from Kunming
Google Map
Detailed Itinerary
Day 1 Arrive in Jinghong
Sightseeing and Activities:
Accommodation: Jinghong
Meals: Breakfast
You’ll begin your journey from Jinghong. Upon arrival at the Jinghong airport, meet your local guide and transfer to the hotel.
Day 2 Jinghong
Sightseeing and Activities: Wild Elephant Valley, Dafosi Temple
Accommodation: Jinghong
Meals: Breakfast
Drive to Jinghong. Full day excursion to Wild Elephant Valley and visit Dafosi Temple on the way back to Jinghong City.
–Wild Elephants Valley is the place in Xishuangbanna where wild elephants move about most often and frequently. Convenient in traffic, distinctive in equatorial forest landscape and easy to see wild elephants, it has become the popular tourist site in Xishuang Banna.
Day 3 Jinghong-Mengla
Sightseeing and Activities: Menglun Botanical Garden, Dai Minority Garden, Jinuo minority village
Accommodation: Mengla
Meals: Breakfast
Drive to Mengla, visit Menglun Botanical Garden and Dai Minority Garden on the way, visit the Jinuo minority village as well.
—-Located in Menglun town of Menglai county around 80km away from Jinghong city, Menglun tropical botanical garden is the largest tropical botanical garden in China. It was established in 1959 by Chinese famous botanists including Prof. Cai Xitao, who devoted all his life to related scientific research with remarkable achievements. The garden boasts more than 4000 species of tropical plants covering an area of 900 hectares, quite a few of which are rare elsewhere, forming a colorful botanical landscape.
–The Dai Ethnic Garden, located in the Ganlan Basin in Menghan County, proudly holds a national 4A rating as one of China’s top scenic spots. Within the Dai Ethnic Garden, five Dai villages – Manjiang, Manchunman, Manting, ManZha, and Manga – cover an area of 3.36 square kilometers and consist of 309 families, or 1487 individual villagers. Rainforest surrounds and permeates the villages. The well-proportioned bamboo-constructed houses of the Dai people are dotted here and there, hidden in the coconut palms, Areca Catechu palms, mango trees, Litchi trees, Bombay Blackwood, and pomelo trees.
Day 4 Mengla-Jinghong-Shangri-la
Sightseeing and Activities: Dukezong Ancient Town, Guishan Hill
Accommodation: Shangrila
Meals: Breakfast
Drive back to Jinghong. Take flight to Shangri-la in the afternoon.
Meet your local guide in Shangir-la. Walk around Dukezong Ancient Town, an important town of the Ancient Tea-horse Trade Caravan from Yunnan to Tibet and India. Walk up to the top of Guishan Hill or tortoise Hill, you will see the largest Prayer Wheel of the world and have a panoramic view of shangrila county and Dukezong Ancient Town.
Check in hotel.
Day 5 Shangri-la
Sightseeing and Activities: Songzanlin Monastery, Tibetan village, Shudu Lake, Pudacuo National Park
Accommodation: Shangrila
Meals: Breakfast
In the morning, visit the Ganden Sumtseling Monastery, the largest Tibetan monastery in Yunnan. Songzanlin Monastery has another alias – ‘the little Potala Palace ‘, so named because the whole monastery is in the traditional style with mysterious atmosphere.
Then drive to visit a Tibetan Village and a local family.
And afterwards you’ll visit the tranquil Shudu Lake in Pudacuo National Park. Pudacuo National Park is located in one of the most biologically-diverse regions of the world. While the region comprises only 0.7 percent of China’s land area, but more than 20 percent of the country’s plant species, about one-third of its mammal and bird species and almost 100 endangered species.
Day 6 Shangri-la–Tiger Leaping Gorge-Lijiang
Sightseeing and Activities: Tiger Leaping Gorge, Iron Chain Bridge, the Red Army’s Long March Memorial Monument
Accommodation: Lijiang
Meals: Breakfast,Lunch
From Shangri-la, drive to Qiaotou Town. Visit the Tiger Leaping Gorge, the deepest gorge in the world. With 34 rapids of the Yangtze River, it is called the Jinsha River in this area because you can find gold in the river.
Then drive to Shigu Town. Visit the Iron Chain Bridge, the Red Army’s Long March Memorial Monument in the Shigu town. The town of Stone Drum got its name from a large, cylindrical, marble tablet shaped like a drum. The scenery is magnificent as the road running through the Lijiang valley which is filled with wheat fields and drying haystacks.
Drive to Lijiang. On the way, you’ll have a stop to see the First Bend on the Yangtze River with imposing gorge scenery.
Day 7 Lijiang
Sightseeing and Activities:Yulong Snow Mountain, Ganhaizi Meadow, Baishui River and Terraces, Baisha Old Town and Murals
Accommodation: Lijiang
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
Enjoy the sunrise of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and Lijiang Ancient Town in the morning, drive about 30KM to Ganhaizi Meadow(3100M), you will take the sightseeing bus for a short visiting through the Baishuihe River, take the chairlift up to visit Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The cableway will be arranged according to the condition of the mountain. You will hike around 1 hour in the original forest in Spruce Meadow (3200M).
After lunch, you will enjoy the Impression Lijiang Ethnic Show directed in Ganhaizi Meadow(3100M). A cultural show demonstrating the traditions and lifestyles of the Naxi, Yi and Bai peoples of the area. The show takes place inside Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Park at 3500m in an outdoor theater specifically designed to showcase the mountain which is used as a backdrop. The production itself was designed by Zhang Yimou, Fan Yue and Wang Chaoge, with a cast of over 500 people and a number of horses.
In the afternoon, you’ll stroll through Baisha Old Town, which is an enchanting traditional Yunnan town. Visit the Baisha Murals about 600 years old, which is one part of the World Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO 1997.
Day 8 Lijiang-Dali by Private Car
Sightseeing and Activities:Xizhou Town, Zhoucheng Village, Black Dragon Pool, Dongba Museum, Lijiang Ancient Town
Accommodation: Dali
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
In the morning, you’ll head for the scenic Black Dragon Pool and the Dongba Museum to explore the rich Naxi minority culture.
Then explore Lijiang Old Town. Lijiang Old Town has a history of more than 800 years; it was listed as the World Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO 1997. Here you will see the wonderful wooden architecture of Naxi ethnic people.
Afternoon, drive to Dali. You will head for Xizhou Town to fully appreciate Bai-style traditional architectural courtyards, taste their fragrant Three-Course Tea and explore their distinctive culture. Visit Zhoucheng Village and the Bai people’s Tie-dying cloth workshop where you can take some special souvenir with the Bai ethnic style.
Day 9 Dali
Sightseeing and Activities:Three-pagodas in Chongsheng Temple, Erhai Lake Cruise, Dali Ancient Town
Accommodation: Dali
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
In the morning, visit the Three Pagodas in Chongsheng Monastery which has a history of over 1,800 years and located at the foot of Cangshan Mountain facing to the Erhai Lake. Three Pagodas are made of three ancient independent pagodas forming a symmetrical triangle.
After lunch, you’ll cruise in Erhai Lake by the small boat to the Jinsuo Islet in the east Erhai Lake. There are 200 Bai ethnic families around 1000 people in Jinsuo Island. In Erhai Lake cruise, you will enjoy a view of the green Cangshan Mountain and the Three Pagodas from a far as well as lots of birds and seagulls flying over the lake.
At last, you will visit the Ancient Dali Town, walk around the Foreigner Street and enjoy the relax time with local people. After climbing up to the City Wall of Dali, you will have a panoramic view of the Erhai Lake.
Day 10 Dali-Kunming by Bullet Train
Sightseeing and Activities:Stone Forest
Accommodation: Kunming
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
In the morning, take a bullet train to Kunming. Upon arrival, you will drive 86 km to the Stone Forest. An old local saying says that ‘If you have visited Kunming without seeing the Stone Forest, you have wasted your time.’ Truly, the Stone Forest is one of the most important attractions of Yunnan.
Drive back to Kunming for overnight.
Day 11 Kunming Departure
Sightseeing and Activities:Stone Forest
Accommodation: none
Meals: Breakfast
Drive to Kunming airport for departure. Service ends.
Recommended Hotels
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Service Included:
- Admission fees for all of the sightseeing spots listed in the itinerary;
- Meals as listed in the itinerary;
- Hotels as listed in the itinerary;
- Private English-speaking tour guide;
- Private vehicle for transfers & sightseeing with skilled driver;
- Service charge & government taxes;
- Luggage transfers between airports and hotels;
- High speed train tickets from Dali to Kunming (2nd class seats);
- Air tickets from Jinghong to Shangri-la(economy-class).
Service Excluded:
- Any arrival and departure international airfares or train tickets;
- Chinese visa fees;
- Excess baggage charged by Airlines;
- Single room supplement;
- Tips to guides and drivers;
- Personal expenses and gratuities to service staff;
- Personal travel accident insurance;
- All optional programs.
