10 Days Yunnan Classic Tour with XishuangBanna Tropical Forest
Tour Overview
For this 10 days Yunnan classic tour, you will visit the highlights of Kunming (昆明), Dali (大理), Lijiang (丽江),Shangri-La (香格里拉) and XishuangBanna (西双版纳). This is also a minority discovery tour, because you will find minority...
Code of Tour: CDT0000000885
Length of Travel: 10 Day
Destinations of Tour: Kunming-Jinghong-Dali-Lijiang-Shangri-La-Kunming
Departure City: Yunnan
Price of Tour: Request
Type of Tour: Private
Features of Tour: Minority Landscape Wildlife
For this 10 days Yunnan classic tour, you will visit the highlights of Kunming (昆明), Dali (大理), Lijiang (丽江),Shangri-La (香格里拉) and XishuangBanna (西双版纳). This is also a minority discovery tour, because you will find minority diversity during your trip, the minorities such as Yis, Bais, Naxis , Tibetan and Dais. You will have both winter experience at Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and summer experience in XishuangBanna. Plant diversity could also be found in XishuangBanna. If you are lucky enough, wild Asian elephants will be seen in tropical forest. If you come to Yunnan on middle April, you may have a chance to experience the Water-Splashing Festival (泼水节) of Dai minority. Men and women indulge themselves in the spree of the Water-Splashing Festival. The three-to-four-day Water-Splashing Festival is for the Dai people to send off the old and welcome the new, and to wish each other well.
Highlights:
- Enjoy the breathtaking tropical scenery in Xihuangbanna.
- Explore the folk customs of local people.
Brief Itinerary
- Day 1: Kunming Arrival
- Day 2 Kunming -Jinghong
- Day 3 Jinghong -Menglun
- Day 4 Menglun-Jinghong
- Day 5 Jinghong – Dali
- Day 6 Dali – Lijiang
- Day 7 Lijiang
- Day 8 Lijiang- Shangri-La
- Day 9 Shangri-La
- Day 10 Shangri-La Departure
Google Map
Detailed Itinerary
Day 1 Kunming Arrival
Sightseeing and Activities: Kunming Arrival
Accommodation: Kunming
Meals: Lunch
You’ll begin your journey to the diverse and captivating province of Yunnan from the capital city, Kunming. Upon arrival at the Kunming International Airport, meet your local guide and transfer to the hotel.
You will take a leisurely stroll along the Green Lake (翠湖), a charming area of teahouses and small boutiques selling handicrafts and beautiful local paintings. If time permits, you will have a Kunming city tour.
Day 2 Kunming – Jinghong
Sightseeing and Activities: Stone Forest , flight to Jinghong
Accommodation: Jinghong
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
You will drive 86 km to the Stone Forest (石林). 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. After lunch drive back Kunming , transfer to airport for the flight to Jinghong City (景洪) in XishuangBanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture (西双版纳傣族自治州) located in south Yunnan Province. Be picked up from airport to hotel check in.
Day 3 Jinghong -Menglun
Sightseeing and Activities: Ganlanba Morning Bazaar, Dai ethnic Village, Menglun
Accommodation: Menglun
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
After breakfast, transfer to visit Ganlanba (Olive Dam，橄榄坝) with an elevation of 530 meters above the sea level, a small town where you will see typical Dai bamboo cabins, Dai ethnic villages, Mangting Park, tropical plants and colorful fruits. Visit the Morning Ganlanba bazaar, here you will see some ethnic people decorated colorful costume in the market. After lunch, step cross a suspension bridge to visit Menglun Tropical Botanical Garden (勐仑热带植物园), which has the riches plant diversity in China.
Drive back to Jinghong City in the late afternoon. —-Monglun Tropical Botanic Garden is located in a island which is called Calabash Island. Its shape just likes a calabash with two ends big and middle narrow. The silver-belt-like Luosuo River (罗梭江)surrounds the three sides of the island and only a narrow path connects it with the high Cuiping Peak (翠屏峰). This is the home of XishuangBanna Tropical Plants Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Science. The environment here is so beautiful with mountain and river around it. It is praised as “the Emerald on the Crown of the Kingdom of Plants”.
Day 4 Menglun-Jinghong
Sightseeing and Activities: Wild Elephant Valley, the elephant show, the primitive raining forest, Jinuo Ethnic Village
Accommodation: Jinghong
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
After breakfast, transfer back to Jinghong to visit Dry Dai people Village on the way back as well as the Jinuo Ethnic village (基诺山寨).
In the afternoon, visit the Wild Elephants Valley (野象谷) covers an area of 369 hectares by the Sancha River in Mengyang Town, and is situated 47 kilometers north of the city of Jinghong. With hills rolling gently at an altitude ranging between 747 and 1055 metres, the valley is covered by tropical rain forests, crisscrossed by rivers and streams, and teeming with such endangered species as Asian wild elephants, wild oxen, green peacocks and monkeys. In the Wild Elephants Valley, the first passenger cableway with 2,063 meters of length in the equatorial forest sends the tourists to the main scenic spot in which the wild elephants live.
Day 5 Jinghong – Dali
Sightseeing and Activities: Erhai Lake Cruise, Dali Ancient Town, the Foreigner Street, City Wall
Accommodation: Dali
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Take the morning flight to Dali which is a historically and culturally famous city of China, is renowned for her historical interest and Bai ethnic culture.
You’ll cruise in Erhai Lake (洱海) by the small boat to the Jinsuo Islet (金梭岛) in the east Erhai Lake. There are 200 Bai ethnic families around 1000 people in Jinsuo Island.In Erhai Lake cruise, you will enjoy the green Cangshan Mountain (苍山) 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 Dali Ancient Town (大理古城), walk around the Foreigner Street (洋人街) and enjoy the relax time with local people. After climbing up to the City Wall of Dali, you will have panoramic view of the Erhai Lake. –Erhai Lake is the largest highland lake next to Dianchi and one of the seven biggest fresh water lakes in China. It means, ‘sea shaped like an ear’, in Chinese. Implying that the lake is ear shaped and as large as a sea, hence it was so named. It is like a crescent lying between Cangshan and Dali city as seen from Cangshan Mount. In a sunny day, the crystal waters of Erhai Lake and the snow mantled Cangshan Mount radiate with each other. Thus the scene was commonly described as ‘Silver Cangshan and Jade Erhai’.
Day 6 Dali – Lijiang
Sightseeing and Activities: The Three Pagodas, Xizhou Town, Zhoucheng Village, Lijiang Ancient Town
Accommodation: Lijiang
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
In the morning, you visit the Three Pagodas in Chongshen Monastery (崇圣寺三塔) which has a history of over 1,800 years 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. Before leaving for Lijiang, you will head for Xizhou Town (喜洲镇) to fully appreciate Bai-style traditional architectural courtyards, taste their fragrant Three-Course Tea and explore their distinctive culture. Visit Zhoucheng Village (周城村) and the Bai people’s Tie-dying cloth workshop where you can take some special souvenir with the Bai ethnic style.
Drive about 180KM to Lijiang with the beautiful farmlands and ethnic villages on the way. In the late afternoon, explore Lijiang Ancient Town. Lijiang Ancient Town (丽江古城) has a history 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.
Day 7 Lijiang
Sightseeing and Activities: Jade Dragon Snow Mountain,Spruce Meadow, Baisha Village
Accommodation: Lijiang
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Today drive about 30KM to Ganhaizi Meadow(甘海子，3100M), you will take the sightseeing bus for a short visiting through the Baishuihe River (白水河), take the chairlift up to visit Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山). The cableway will be arranged according to the condition of the mountain. You will hike around1 hours in the original forest in Spruce Meadow (云杉坪，3200M).
After lunch, you will enjoy the Impression Lijang 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, a cast of over 500 people, and a number of horses.In the afternoon, you’ll stroll through Baisha Village (白沙古镇), which is an enchanting traditional Yunnan village. Visit the Baisha Mural (白沙壁画) about 600 years old, which is one part of the World Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO 1997.
Day 8 Lijiang- Shangri-La
Sightseeing and Activities: Shigu Ancient Town, the Iron Chain Bridge, Stone Drum,Tiger Leaping Gorge
Accommodation: Shangri-La
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
From Lijiang, you’ll drive about 60KM to the First Bend on the Yangtze River with imposing gorge scenery, visit the Iron Chain Bridge,the Red Army’s Long March Memorial Monument in the Shigu Town (石鼓镇). 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.
Visit the Tiger Leaping Gorge (虎跳峡), the deepest gorge in the world. With 34 rapids of the Yangtze River, it is called the Jinsha in this area because you can find gold in the river. Afternoon, you’ll head for Shangri La, the former Zhongdian which is welknown as the paradise destination for every tourist. Upon arrival in Shangri-La, you will have entered the Tibetan cultural area and a landscape of barley fields and yaks scattered in the valleys. Walk around Dukezong Ancient Town, an important town of the Ancient Tea-horse Trade Caravan from Yunnan to Tibet and India.
Day 9 Shangri-La
Sightseeing and Activities: Sogzanlin Monastery, the Bita Lake & Shudu Lake, Dukezong Ancient Town, the largest Prayer Wheel
Accommodation: Shangri-La
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
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.And afterwards you’ll visit the tranquil Shudu Lake (属都湖) in Pudacuo National Park (普达措国家公园). 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, it contains more than 20 percent of the country’s plant species, about one-third of its mammal and bird species and almost 100 endangered species.
Visit Dukezong Tibetan Ancient Town (独克宗古城) in the late afternoon, climb up to the top of Guishan Hill (龟山), you will see the largest Prayer Wheel of the world and have a panoramic view of Shangri-La County (香格里拉县) and Dukezong Ancient Town.
Day 10 Shangri-La Departure
Sightseeing and Activities: Shangri-La Departure
Accommodation: None
Meals: Breakfast
Free at leisure before transfer to airport for the departure flight.
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;
- Domestic train tickets of soft sleeper.
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.
