Yunnan Minority

Your private guide will be waiting for you outside the Baggage Claim Area of the airport and escort you with a private transfer to the hotel. Then you will be accompanied to visit the Golden Temple. The temple is built of brass and it glitters with golden light in the sunshine, hence the name. After that, you will visit the Green Lake Park. This beautiful park is for daily leisure and playing with seagulls for locals and travelers in Kunming.

Meals: No meals, advice freely available

Our private Yunnan trip begins with a traditional integrated market - Zhuanxin Famers' Market. You will see the locals selling various kinds of goods like vegetables, meat, cooked foods etc. Strolling around the market, you will be able to experience the local life of Kunming. Afterwards, we head to the spectacular Stone Forest. As the name implies, the Stone Forest is a karst forest of stones, which was formed about 270 million years ago. You will be impressed by the way that the magic of nature has formed the lime stone into various shapes.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch

An arranged transport will take you to the railway station for a morning bullet train to Dali which will spend 2 hours on the way. On arriving, another local guide will meet you at the railway station and settle you at your hotel in Dali Old Town. After a short break, our guide will lead you to take a relaxing walk around the tranquil Dali Old Town where you can have a taste of the local snacks and buy some souvenirs in Yunnan style. Then proceed to the symbol of Dali, the Three Pagoda Temple. Built in the 9th century, it is one of the oldest and most majestic buildings in Yunnan. Afterwards, you will travel around the Erhai Lake by taking a horse-drawn carriage and enjoy the gorgeous view of peaceful water, blue sky, the lofty Cangshang Mountain covered with snow and ice, and dense primeval woods. Before going back to the hotel, you will also visit the nearby ancient villages.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch

This morning we will take a drive lasting about three hours to Lijiang. On the way, you stop at the Bai Traditional House in Xizhou and then Zhoucheng, famous for tie dyeing. Bai Minority makes up 65 percent of Dali population. Their traditional residence features distinctive and delicate decorations of screen walls, colored murals and wood carvings. Here you will also have chance to learn to cook a well-known local food - Xizhou Baba. After checking in the hotel in Lijiang, we visit the Square Street of Lijiang Old Town. Situated at the center of the town, the Square Street is a trapezoid-shaped square, where many dazzling shops, tea houses, unique bars and restaurants cluster.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch

We start this pleasant day with a trip to Baisha Village, where you will learn about the unique custom and splendid culture of Naxi ethnic group by visiting to a local Naxi family and Baisha Murals. 

After that, we proceed to the Rock Joseph's Former Residence in Yuhu Village. Rock is the earliest foreign scholar who has introduced Lijiang to the western world most comprehensively. His former residence is also the former base of Yunnan Expedition of the National Geographic Society. Then, you will pay a visit to the huge Black Dragon Pool Park (Jade Spring Park). It is a huge and beautiful park, which offers an unforgettable sight with its various temples and the lake with a bridge. The nearby Dongba Cultural Museum is very interesting. It is a folk cutural museum about Naxi People, its character, scripture, painting, music and dance.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch

After breakfast, we will head to Shangri-La with a drive taking about 4 to 5 hours. En route, we stop at the First Bend of the Yangtze River, Stone Drum Town and the Tiger Leaping Gorge. With the vertical height of 3,790 meters (12,434 feet), the Tiger Leaping Gorge is considered as one of the deepest gorges in the world. It is also said that the narrowest part of the gorge is only 30 meters (98.4 feet) wide, allowing a tiger to leap from a reef to the other side of the river, hence its name. Late in the afternoon, we get to legendary Shangri-La and check in at the hotel.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch

Our first destination today is Songzanlin Temple, the biggest Tibetan Buddhist Temple in Yunnan. Next we visit the tranquil Bitahai Lake located in 35 kilometers east of Shangri-la Old Town. Surrounded by many types of vegetation on each side, it shows an incredible beauty of nature to you. If you're lucky, you will see and hear the locals in their ethnic dress singing folk songs. Usually some vendors are selling the fresh yak milk and yak meat sticks near the sites. We then continue to walk to the Shudu Lake. Before getting back to Shangri-La, we pay visit to a Tibetan Family.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch

After breakfast, we will see you off at the airport. We hope our service has given you a pleasant vacation and wish you a nice journey home!

Meals: Western buffet breakfast