Summary

Join our Yunnan classcic tours and find a place to celebrate life. Spring city Kunming with the Stone Forest, traditional architecture complex of Bai minority in Daili and tranquil Lijiang old town. All of these will captivate you and leave a deep inpression for your tour in Yunnan.Take Kunming,Dali,Lijiang,Shangrila and XishuangBanna as the most popular destinations of Yunnan Province, Yunnan Classic Tour mainly focus on the ethnic culture experience, you will enjoy Yis in the Stone Forest, Bais in Dali,Naxis in Lijiang,Dais in Jinghong, Tibetan in Shangri-la. In these tours, we arrange some popular destinations and trekking tour, rafting tour and photogaph tour together with Yunnan Classic Tours. This will make Yunnan Classic Tour more mysterious.

Day 1 Arrive in Kunming

Sightseeing and Activities:the Green Lake if time permits

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Welcome to Kunming, the Spring City of China! Upon arrival at the Kunming airport/train station, the local tour guide and driver will meet you in the arrival hall and escort you to your hotel.You'll begin your journey to the diverse and captivating province of Yunnan from the capital city, Kunming.

After a short rest, stroll in the most picturesque park in Kunming urban area - the Green Lake Park,a charming area of teahouses and small boutiques selling handicrafts and beautiful local paintings.. Here you can share the happiness of local people’s doing tai chi, performing local opera, and other vibrant activities. If you visit the park in November or December, you will see the grandeur of huge flocks of red-beaked seagulls that migrate there from Siberia.

Day 2 Kunming-Stone Forest-Kunming-Dali by night train( B , L )

Sightseeing and Activities:the Stone Forest, Qixing Village, the Flowers and Birds Market

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After breakfast, you’ll be driven 86 km to the renowned Stone Forest, the 'First Wonder of the World'. You'll marvel at its natural stone masterpieces and be bewitched by the intricate formations. You feel like come into a 'stone world'.

Afterwards, visit Qixing Village of Sani Ethnic People, to admire their colorful minority costumes and exotic tradition cultures. You'll have a nice chance to listen to the touching love story of Ashima told by local old people. The Sani minority people are one group of the branches of the Yi. The Sani Minority Villages around the Stone Forest cluster many small Yi ethnic villages.

After the tour, be transferred to Kunming and visit the Flowers and Birds Market in the downtown.Take the night train to Dali and stay in the train.

-- The Stone Forest is in Shilin Yi Nationality Autonomous County, which is about 120 kilometers from Kunming and requires only a three-hour drive. It covers an area of 400 square kilometers (96,000 acres) and includes both large and small stone forests, as well as many other scenic spots. The Stone Forest has unique karst topography which is one of the best of its kind within China. There are six scenic spots in the Stone Forest: 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.

Day 3 Dali( B , L )

Sightseeing and Activities:the Three-pagoda in Chongshen Temple, Erhai Lake Cruise,Xizhou Town, Zhoucheng Village

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Arrive in Dali Raiwai Station, meet your local guide and driver, transfer to the hotel for your breakfast.

Dali which is a historically and culturally famous city of China, is renowned for her historical interest and Bai ethnic culture. After landing, you visit the Three Pagodas in Chongshen Monastery 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.

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 the green Cangshan Mountain and the Three Pagodas from a far as well as lots of birds and seagulls flying over the lake.

After landing, 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.

At night, you can visit the Dali Ancient Town by yourself, 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 panoramic view of the Erhai Lake.

Day 4 Dali-Shaxi-Tiger Leaping Gorge( B , L )

Sightseeing and Activities:Shaxi Old Town, Shibaoshan Mountain,the Ancient Grottoes of Shizhong Temple, Baoxiang Hanging Temple,Shigu Old Town,the Stone Drum, the First Bend of Yangtze River, the Upper Tiger Leaping Gorge

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This morning, drive to visit Shaxi Old Town. Shaxi is the last remaining ancient market town of its kind on the Tea & Horse Caravan Trail. This trail is a trading route that connected Tibet, Sichuan, and Yunnan to countries in southeast Asia, also called the Southern Silk Road.The World Monuments Fund (WMF) has listed Shaxi as one of the 100 most endangered sites in the world in 2001.

Then drive to Shibaoshan. The most prominent sight at Shi bao Shan is the Stone Bell Temple with its 139, well preserved stone carvings. These magnificent stone carvings date as far back as 1300 years to the once powerful Nanzhao Kingdom during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).Explore the ancient temple complex including Baoxiang Temple, Haiyun Temple, Shizhong Temple and the Ancient Grottoes. If you are lucky enough, you also can see a lot of wild monkey group around Baoxiang Temple.

Afterwards, go 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 Old 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.

Visit the Tiger Leaping Gorge, 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.

Tonight you will have overnight at Tina's House.

Day 5 Tiger Leaping Gorge-Shangrila( B , L )

Sightseeing and Activities:Tiger Leaping Gorge trekking tour,Wanut Grove Garden Village,Dukezong Old Town,the Giant Prayer Wheel,Guishan Hill Park and Guishan Monastery

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This morning, you can have your free time around Tina's House.

Optional: you can also take the Tiger Leaping Gorge trekking tour. Start from Tina's House passing a small but high waterfall on the way and trek to Half-way Guesthouse, you can enjoy the wonderful Jade Dragon Snow Mountain facing to Bendiwan Village, then have a rest. Go on trekking to a place named 14 Gongli(14km). The driver will pick you up there. Afterwards drive to visit Wanut Grove Garden Village.

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. 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.

Day 6 Shangrila( B , L )

Sightseeing and Activities:Sogzanlin Monastery, the Bita Lake & Shudu Lake, Dabao Monastery

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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 Bita Lake & 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, 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 Dabao Monastery on the way back from Pudacuo National Park. Then drive back to the hotel.

Day 7 Shangrila-Lijiang( B , L )

Sightseeing and Activities:Shangrila-Lijiang, Lijiang Old Town, Black Gragon Pool, Shuhe Old Town

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Drive to Lijiang. You will be relaxed around Lijiang Old Town, a well-preserved old city of ethnic minorities with brilliant culture, is a central town of the Lijiang Autonomous County of the Naxi Ethnic Minority in Yunnan Province. Located on the plateau which is 2,400 meters above the sea level and embraced by the tree-covered Lion Mountain in the west, Elephant and Golden Row Mountains in the north, vast fertile fields in the southeast and crystal clear water running through, the old town looks like a big jade ink slab, therefore got the alias the Town of Big Ink Slab (Dayanzhen).

Then visit the Black Dragon Pool (also Heilongtan), or Jade Spring(Yuquan) Park is the main headwater of the Yushui River which goes through the Old Town. People believe that the gods of the Naxi people are living in the chestnut woods, beside the mouth of springs, behind the carved doors and below the bridges. The springs come from the god-protected mountains and gather in this place and finally form the dragon pool. Then water goes down a waterfall and becomes the Yuhe River, pouring life to the Old Town.

Afterwards, visit Shuhe Old Town. It is not only a very important town in the Tea-horse Road that leads to Tibet, but also a famous cobbler town. The cobblers here are as skillful as those in Italy. The leather products that they make are the best seller in Tea-horse Road. Because of trading activities along this road, the Naxi people gradually gave up the nomadic life and settled for farming and later started to do business.

Day 8 Lijiang( B , L )

Sightseeing and Activities:Baishui River and Terraces,Yulong Snow Mountain,Spruce Meadow,Yuhu Village and the Former Residence, Baisha Village and Murals,

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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 sightseeig 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 around1 hours in the original forest in Spruce Meadow (3200M).

After lunch, you you'll visit Yuhu Village and the Former Residence of Joseph Rock who was an Austria-American botanist and explorer, lived in Yuhu village and other places in that region from 1922 to 1949. He was also a naturalist and Photographer, and the first foreign scholar to introduce Lijiang ethnic culture to the western world.

Stroll through Baisha Old Town, which is an enchanting traditional Naxi style old town. Visit the Baisha Mural about 600 years old, which is one part of the World Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO 1997.

--Jade Dragon Snow Mountain stretches a length of 35 kilometers (22 miles) and a width of 20 kilometers (13 miles). Looking from Lijiang Old Town in the south which is 15 kilometers (nine miles) away, the snow-covered and fog-enlaced mountain resembles a jade dragon lying in the clouds, hence, the name Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The highest peak named Fan Peak (Shanzidou in Chinese) which is about 5596 meters above sea level. There are three cablecars in the mountain, the fist to the Glacier Park(4500M),the second to Spruce Meadow(3200M),the third to Yak Meadow(3700M).

Day 9 Departure from Lijiang( B )

Sightseeing and Activities:Departure from Lijiang

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Today, drive to the airport in Lijiang and departure from Lijiang. Service ends.

What's Include

Accommodation with daily breakfast as indicated in the hotel list as below.

Chinese lunches and dinners as listed in the itinerary.

All land transfers & transportation with private air-conditioned coach.

All transfers and sightseeing with skilled English-speaking tour guide.

All entrance fees as mentioned in the itinerary.

Domestic train tickets from Kunming to Dali of soft sleeper.

Service charge and all government taxes.

Luggage transfers between airport and hotels.

Travel Agency's Responsibility Insurance coverage.

What's Exclude

Any arrival and departure international airfares or train tickets.

Any meals which are not specified in the tour itinerary.

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.