Looking forward to more.

I wouldn't regard 6-7 hotel reviews for Kunming as too many - just my personal opinion.

Looking for more!

Back to the report. So I checked the book, for Hong Kong there are 13 pages of hotel reviews, and some pages entirely photos of fancy hotels. This is wasteful and not what I want from a guidebook. In Kumming, about 1.3 pages are dedicated to hotels, which is fine, but only about half a page to attractions!!! Now back to my trip and I'll explain...

We had originally planned to go to the Stone Forest, having a 6:30 pm flight to Lijiang. First a bit about Kunming - they recently opened a new, humongous, very impressive airport. So there are worse places to have a layover. The hotel in Kunming was centrally located, and if you walked about 2 blocks there was some western food (starbucks, Dicos - the PRC version of KFC) and plenty of Chinese. We tried the famous Brother's Jiang noodles on our morning in Kunming. We skipped the Over the Bridge Noodles as I am a picky eater in favor of basic noodle soups, one spicy and one not spicy. Tasty, but nothing amazing. If you do want to try Over the Bridge noodles, I recommend one of the Brother's Jiang outlets as there are many and are very popular.

From there we checked out and via Trip Advisor and Lonely Planet info, decided to skip the Stone Forest as it's 2 hours each way from Kunming. Xi Shan (west mountain) was recommened and only about 30 - 45 mins from our hotel, so we went there instead. This is a beautiful, quiet, mountain area on the outskirts of Kunming that has is nicely set up for a day out as there's a circuit for tourists that starts with a nice cable car ride across a lake, then up the side of the mountain (great view of Kunming). Once you alight the cable car, you can walk up the side of the mountain to Dragon's Gate, which has a great view of the city. From Dragon's gate you can walk further and then take an open ski lift back down. I felt the omission of this entire area from the Fodor's book was a definite strike against it. We did the circuit, took lots of pictures and then stopped for lunch after the ski lift. We had great bao and my husband really enjoyed the stinky tofu. Even though it was a Saturday, there were no waits at all for the cable cars, and were able to go alone as a couple even though the cable cars seat up to 6. English is none to minimal, but if you're even considering going to this region of China I'm sure you know this. I am not Chinese but I do speak the language - but with a heavy American accent that sometimes gets me funny looks.
When we had finished our day at Xi Shan, we took a taxi back to the Grand Hotel (about 50 rmb for at least a 30 minute ride) to get our luggage and head to the airport for our flight to Lijiang. We got to the hotel around 4pm and they could not find a taxi due to the time of day and some festival. Once they did find a taxi, I heard the driver complain to the hotel staff about sending him foreigers to the airport. The hotel staff claimed he was switching shifts and would have to charge us 120 RMB. I complained a bit in Chinese about the foreigner price, but hey, an extra 50 RMB is a small price to pay not to miss my flight!! So off we were back to KMG. Once there our flight was on time however there was an issue with a kid traveling alone from Shanghai not being able to find his luggage, so we all got held up for an extra 40 minutes, and we didn't get to Lijiang until about 8:30 pm.

Once in Ljiang we immediately took a taxi to the Crowne Plaza. I booked this hotel for one night and the Banyan Tree for the final three because I figured we could go out in the old town one night and check it out the morning we were in the Crowne Plaza, and then move on to the Banyan Tree and do our other planned excursions from there.

The Crowne Plaza was impressive. The main lobby was beautiful and reminiscent of a slightly Chinese version of a fancy ski lodge in Aspen or somewhere. Much better than expected. I booked a basic room which was upgraded to a superior room. These were great. A two part room, when you came in, a sitting area, and then desk/table area (free wifi), and the other side of the room had the bed in the middle, with a large bathtub on one side and the other side of the bed contained a separate shower, toilet, and sink area. When I saw this room I wondered why I was paying extra to move to the Banyan Tree! Alas, nothing is perfect. The heat in the Crowne Plaza didn't seem to work very well...TBC

Continuing in pieces as to not accidentally lose everything I write!

Our first night in Lijiang my husband wanted to go to town to try Lamu's House of Tibet. This restaurant is recommended on Trip Advisor, in Fodor's, LP....we had Tibetan food in Jiuzhaigou and in Shanghai and my husband and I really enjoyed the food, especially the yak momos, in Jiuzhaigou. None of the front desk at the Crowne Plaza knew the restaurant, but they kindly called to check to see when they were open, which was until 11. They showed us on a map of the old town how to get there - the taxi would only be able to drop us off at the old water wheel, and we'd have to walk 5 - 7 minutes from there. Of course we got plenty lost, but with the help of good maps within the old town, managed to find the restaurant. It is a cute place, decorated like a vegetarian cafe in California. Lots of cushions, books, comfortable sofas. Very cute. But empty. We ordered the yak momos, a yak cheese omelette, and some fried rice. The momos were disappointing. Oh well! I really enjoyed the yak cheese omelette. It was sweet, think of a sweetened ricotta cheese omelette. My husband thought the opposite - that it was not at all tasty and more like a dessert. We got a taxi back to our freezing room at the Crowne Plaza. Even after setting the temperature control to 28, the room still felt more like 19. Disappointing! We went to bed and in the morning, woke up to a freezing room and set out to have breakfast in the old town as the Crowne Plaza was nice enough to grant us a late checkout at 2pm.
The Crowne Plaza has it's own entrance directly into the southern most portion of the Old Town, which is less touristy and crowded than the northern part near the Water Wheel. We enjoyed walking around this area in the morning. In the sun, it was much warmer than our room! We walked a bit and when we came across the food stalls searched for rubing, the famous fried goat cheese that is a Yunnan specialty. Nobody served it! Very disappointing. Later at the Banyan Tree we asked and apparently rubing is more of a Dali specialty. We wanted western food but were unsuccessful in finding the recommended Prague Cafe, so stopped at an atmospheric Chinese restaurant with outdoor tables. I don't remember what we ate but it was good, my husband enjoyed some tofu and we ordered one of the local fried shredded potato cakes. Like a HUGE hashbrown. Good, but heavy!

A note about the weather - I recommend December in Lijiang. Yes, it is cold, but the cold is really only at night (25 - 35F). We saw ONE cloud the whole time we were there. During the days, in the sun, it was a comfortable 55F or so. The crystal clear blue skies and great view of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain from the Banyan Tree were worth the cold. Need to upload photos. Also this was low season in Lijiang. There were plenty of tourists, but for China, it was not at all too crowded.

Back to the report. We wandered the old town a bit more and set out to talk to the Black Dragon Pool, which looked close on the map. After we exited the Old Town, I asked a local who told me it would take 40 minutes to walk there, and as we were short of time turned back to grab a taxi to the Crowne Plaza, to check out and then switch to the Banyan Tree, where we would be staying for 3 nights over Christmas.

Happy 2013! Did you do a TR for Jiuzhaigou?

Happy New Year to you as well! No, I did not do a TR for Jiuzhaigou...but have a great memory and the trip was only about 15 months ago, so if you have questions about Jiuzhaigou let me know

Tansmets - just a suggestion - if you are afraid of losing your report, try writing it off line and then copy and paste it here. Nothing worse than losing your report after making the effort to write one.

I'm looking forward to reading more about your trip.

Sorry all for the delay in finishing this up - it's been a busy few days.
So I left off at arrival at the Banyan Tree...the hotel is about 15 minutes from the "main" old town of Lijiang, about a 15 minute walk from another old town, Shuhe (I think this was the name). As expected, the property is gorgeous - the views on the crisp winter days looked exactly as they did on their website. I actually thought the Crowne Plaza's grounds were almost as nice, a bit more landscaping and personality. Somehow the Banyan Tree felt a bit big and a bit too...sterile in a way. I booked my room through Kayak and the rate included breakfast. However, the hotel claimed that our rate did not include breakfast, though the confirmation from kayak clearly stated breakfast. Typical Chinese (lack of) customer service - the person checking us in asked me to call Kayak from the front desk, which I refused to do. My husband was pretty annoyed, since he was looking forward to breakfast, and I didn't want to spend an extra 120 RMB or whatever per person per day on it. I was then told that they'd call me after we checked in to let us know - I told them this was unacceptable of a hotel of this caliber. A manager was brought over and told the girl checking us in in Chinese something about not arguing with foreign guests (haha) and we were given the breakfast as stated on our reservation/confirm. I feel if I had encountered this situation in the US, or SE Asia where service is better - a customer has a printed out reservation stating breakfast is included for 2 - there would be no question.

Moving on....the majority of the hotel is large villas, I think about 100 in total, so the property was pretty spread out. We opted for a suite rather than a villa, as we were only two people, and in December wouldn't have any need for the outdoor hot tub! The suite was well decorated, a great bathroom, comfortable bed with electric blankets hidden under the sheets - great idea. A few things could have been better - the TV was in the living room area and pretty small. It would have been nice to have the option to watch in bed. There are two restaurants on the property, a Chinese one and a Western one. We wound up eating at the Chinese one all three nights, since it was quite cold at night and we didn't want to trek into the old town and then have to get a taxi back. The food at the Chinese restaurant was pretty good, at least what we ordered. It was more expensive than eating in town obviously but for the atmosphere, level of service not a bad deal at all. Additionally, in the old towns a lot of the restaurants have open fronts, or are not well heated, so in 25F weather not the most comfortable atmosphere.

On night one we walked to the "other" old town near the Banyan Tree, Shuhe. It was a bit later in the day (4:30 or so) and since it was low season in Lijiang, a lot of the town's shops were closed, and it was a bit deserted. It's a short walk from the Banyan Tree however there were a lot of stray dogs around, which made the walk not so pleasant. The hotel had a display of Lijiang embroidery and we met a local Naxi student from the embroidery school http://lijiangembroidery.com/ and who showed us how the embroideries are made - it was very interesting and some of the pieces were just amazing.

Day 2 at the Banyan Tree. Breakfast, after all that trouble, was a bit disappointing compared to our expectations. Definitely not up to standard of the Banyan Tree Phuket, and recently on a business trip to Beijing at the (old and a bit run down) Sheraton I received a much, much better breakfast. The hotel is geared to mainland Chinese, so there was plenty of congee, dim sum, steamed buns and noodles. The pastries were nothing special and fruit, which is my favorite breakfast food - was lacking. There were some local bread that was cooked fresh on a griddle that was tasty, but otherwise nothing special.
I liked the driver who transferred us to the Banyan Tree, so I got his number and negotiated him to take us to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The hotel charges about 700 RMB for the trip, 45 minutes away, our driver charged us 200 RMB for the entire day. We really enjoyed the trip to the mountain, I do need to upload photos! Unfortunately, Lijiang has had a bit of a drought for the past 3 years, so the snow peak of the mountain is more rocky rather than snowy. The Fodor's book definitely did not contain ample information on the mountain and various options...disappointing once again. Basically, there are various routes and cable cars that you can take to different points and elevations. We wanted to go as high up as possible, about 4600 M, to the glacier. You can go to other points of the mountain, an area with yaks, one with spruce trees, and I think one more. These might be a good option if you have issues breathing at high elevations. Our driver dropped us off at the ticket office, where you purchase tickets and then wait for a bus to take you part way up the mountain to the cable car station. Note - this is not cheap. There was a fee to enter the mountain area of about 180 RMB each or so - unless you have tickets to the old town to show (80RMB), you need to buy them at the mountain. Annoying. Then the cable car was at least 120 RMB per person if my memory serves me correctly. I've noticed national park admission in China can be more than a for profit amusement park, and often foreign credit cards aren't accepted, so expect to feel like you robbed a bank with stacks of 100 RMB bills. We arrived at the mountain at around 1pm, which was a great call. We were able to relax and enjoy breakfast, and then arrive at the mountain when tour groups were coming down and leaving. Plus, this was at one of the warmest points of the day. We bought one oxygen canister at the base of the mountain (60 RMB) and figured if we needed more we could purchase them up top. There was no line for the bus, and once we arrived at the cable car station we noticed a long wait...for buses going back down the mountain. Inside the cable car station there was practically zero wait to go up the mountain. What a pleasant surprise after our horrible memories fighting to get on buses in Jiuzhaigou! As those of you who have traveled in China know, waiting in line isn't a favorite pastime. The cable car ride was about 25 minutes. At the top there weren't too many tourists. From the 4505 m mark, there are steps and to go up about another 150m or so that go around the glacier. We walked up most of the way. If the wind was calm, the weather was bearable - if a gust blew - forget it. One oxygen tank seemed to be enough for us. Spending time in Lijiang (2200 m) before hand seemed to acclimate us to the elevation. When we were finished with the glacier, we returned to the cable car station - no line and even though the cable cars seat 6 people, we were able to go alone as a couple. Definitely recommend visiting this mountain after lunch as all the tour groups are gone by then. We found our driver and had him drive us to the old town of Bai Sha to check out the embroidery institute. This was interesting to see and my husband purchased a beautiful fall landscape embroidery. Upon return to Hong Kong I noticed a place by my office, that I pass every day, sells similar embroideries from Suzhou! Oh well. I did prefer the patterns that we saw in Lijiang, and we like to have trip momentos. The old town of Bai Sha is what the Lijiang old town was maybe 20 years ago - Naxi people going about their daily lives, very few tourists, very quite and picturesque. Worth a look if you go to Lijiang. We had dinner at the Banyan Tree's Chinese restaurant again.

We liked our driver. Unlike many in China, he drove cautiously and wasn't too aggressive, so we had him take us to Tiger Leaping Gorge the following day - 400 RMB. about 2.5 hours from the Banyan Tree. We were going just for the day and were a bit confused about where in the gorge to go. Our hotel concierge had good advice. For day trips, you can go to 2 sides - the Lijiang side, or Shangri La side. We wanted to know which was better and he pointed out the Lijiang side is 50RMB per ticket, and the Shangri La side is 65, so you can tell what the government thinks is better! We chose the Shangri La side. The view is more panoramic from this side and you walk down into the gorge, about 600 steps or so, while the Lijiang side looked to have a path that was parallel to the gorge. It was Christmas day, and we had the place to ourselves. We walked down into the gorge, and back up. The photos don't do it justice - it's hard to imagine the scale of such a deep gorge! On the way back our driver stopped at a view point...I can look up the Chinese name. To go up to the view, you have to walk through Tibetans selling various items, and then there's a viewing platform with a poor chained up yak to take photos with. We noticed there was another platform nobody went up to and the chinese description said you could view another mountain. You needed to pay 5 rmb each to go all the way up, but it was WELL worth it. From the top platform (where nobody else ventured), you could not only see the snow covered peak of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, but the mountain in Shangri La - I think it was Hapa mountain? Whatever it was called, it was beautiful. From there we drove another 1.5 hours or so back to the Banyan Tree, where we again, ate at the hotel. We really liked their mushroom rice cake dish....my husband and I are not adventurous eaters, but we did enjoy the food we had in Yunnan. I love mushrooms, so I certainly had my fill of them.

The next day we left after breakfast - the Banyan Tree forgot to book us a taxi, but managed to locate a hotel car to take us back in time. We flew back via Kunming. Our flight actually left about 20 minutes early - very strange! In summary, we had a great time. If the season had been different (anything but winter), we would have extended our trip to Shangrila, which we would have enjoyed. For those of you interested only in Lijiang, I do recommend a winter trip. The temperature in the sun was quite comfortable, and the lack of clouds and crowds made up for the evening chill.

Thank you for your excellent report. Will you be posting pictures? I'd love to see them.

I enjoyed reading your report. Thank you for writing it.

You didn't miss much in Shuhe, we liked Baisha better. Your driver's prices were a steal!

As requested here are a few photos. Just a few as they take forever to upload: http://www.flickr.com/photos/91921714@N02/

Our driver was cheap I suppose, probably because he spoke absolutely no English...

Thanks for your report. We have thought about doing a trip to Lijiang in a November timeframe. I was a bit surprised about your complaints about admission fees, lift fees, etc., as I remember admission fees in China as generally high. Did these fees seem out of line to you?

And can you say what the highlight was for you?

The fees were not out of line for China, the only one that seemed excessive were the multiple fees to enter the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Area. I think when we went to Jiuzhaigou, it was 350 RMB per day per person, so they were pretty standard.

These were our main cost actually - as you know everything else in China is fairly inexpensive. Maybe not compared to most of SE Asia, but compared to Hong Kong and the US.

The highlight of the trip for us was taking the cable car up to the top of the mountain and seeing the glacier. We both really enjoyed that day, despite the cold. Simply waking up to a view of the mountain on a crisp clear day at the Banyan Tree was another highlight. We are based in Hong Kong and did this trip as our Christmas long weekend, so our goal was to relax and unwind, rather than do too much sightseeing. For us, it was just nice to experience winter for a few days, be able to see stars at night, and breathe clean air.

The main Old Town of Lijiang surpassed my expectations. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much and figured it would be another Chinese tourist trap, with each store selling the exact same stuff as the next. Of course there are parts that were touristy and a few McDonalds/KFCs/Pizza Huts, but there were still were some interesting shops, and alleyways with locals going about their day.

I did like Tiger Leaping Gorge and I'm glad we went but found it a bit underwhelming, probably since we just went for the day and didn't do an overnight hike. If we returned, I'd do the hike and stay at a guesthouse and then head to Shangrila.

Thanks for your additional comments.

Your welcome. I'll try to upload some more photos, but I hope the ones there gave you a general idea. I think November would be a good time for Yunnan. Where else in Asia would you go?

The photos you uploaded are helpful, thanks.

We really haven't started our planning for our November trip yet. We were thinking about India, but if we do that we wouldn't go to Lijiang. We had looked at going there a few years back in conjunction with a Khmer ruins trip In Thailand.

You have some beautiful photos of the area. We skipped going up to the top due to the altitude, but I'm glad you enjoyed your trip.

Did you do any special shopping in Kunming? I want to find out about their clay sculptures and the woven material.
Thanks for such a nice report. I enjoyed reading it.