Lijiang / Kunming Itinerary comments
 

Hi
We are off to Yunnan next week. Just wanted to see if the board had any recommendations, comments, anything....Here are my thoughts on our itinerary:

Night one - leave HK, arrive Kunming for one night - hotel is centrally located, I forgot the name . Any restaurant recommendations? Also any tips on the day trip to tiger leaping gorge? We are in our early 30s, relatively fit and like to hike, however didn't want to spend the night in a guesthouse in the gorge.

Day 2 - taxi to Stone Forest, back to KMG for evening flight to Lijiang (sleep in Lijiang, crowne plaza), dinner in Old Town of Lijiang (maybe the tibetan place?)

Day 3 - Morning, walk around old town, explore Lijiang (Banyan Tree)

Day 4- Tiger Leaping gorge day trip or Snow Jade Mountain (banyan tree)

Day 5 - Tiger leaping gorge or Snow jade mountain (banyan tree).

Day 6 - leave Lijiang :(

The Tiger Leaping ...is best visited from Lijiang IMO. I would try and avoid Kumming and the stone forest as we didn't really enjoy either place.

The Chinese restaurant at the BT is very good but expensive compared to the local places. For the BT we stayed in the pool villa which was a waste since the water was too cold to swim in, not heated enough. I suggest the cheapest room, the one with the outdoor jacuzzi will be better.

Don't forget the impression show

Thanks for the feedback. We have a 24 hour layover in Kunming. Why did you not like the stone forest? Any other ideas for what to do during our day there?

I figure in Lijiang we would try to eat very local if possible in the old village and cheaply! We are in the garden suite at the BT, which I think is the cheapest.

Kunming is a typical industrial town and the stone forest was not that exciting for us compared to the other attractions around Lijiang.

Shuhe old town is also very nice and we enjoyed our day there. However you will be going in the cold season so that might make hughe different then when we went in October.

My old pictures from a few years ago: http://khun-pook.smugmug.com/Travel/...3733848_rLtdRf

Hi,
Thanks for your photos! I am definitely looking forward to the impressions show after seeing these. We will have to do a day trip to TLG - how long did you have to hike and how far can you go without spending the night? My guess is we'll get to hike/walk for 2 hours and then need to turn back. is this worth it?

tansmets,

We went to the TLG by car (van) as a stop for our trip from Lijiang to Shangri La (Zhongdian). We had some problems with altitude, especially anything over 4,000 meters high, so we limited our hiking. We did the Swiss alps, the Eiger and Zermat, and did a lot of hiking and that was very easy compared to Yunnan!

Wishing you a great trip with great weather!

YES.

TLG is a wonderful choice i thought.you can go to TlG in Lijiang area.you will get to walk for 2 hours( 6 KM Round-way). And Baisha Old Town is also nice. Its different with Shuhe and is more peaceful. you also have another perfect chance to visit Wenhai Lake when you come to Lijiang.Wenhai is a undeveloped area, most close to Jade Draon snow mountain and peaceful area! You can hear nothing besides the cow, horse, pig, dog…Wenhai is one of most important grazing grassland for during the Tea Horse Road. it is not far away from Lijiang, just drive one hour to there. you can consider again.

Whising you a nice trip.

Hanuman, for some reason, the password doesn't work for your Lijiang pictures, which I am keen to see.. We are thinking of traveling to that area in January, and hoping it won't be too cold...Has anyone been there at that time of year?

numbat83 I have reset the password to "Fodors". Hope you like the pictures.

Hey!

From Lijiang you can do Tiger Leaping gorge in one day like below:
Lijiang drives about 1hour to up of Tiger Leaping gorge in Lijiang side, then walk around 2hours to visit the Tiger Leaping Rock Spot. and back to Lijiang. or another choose: From Lijiang drives about 2.5hours to middle gorge, then hiking about 3-4hours to visit Middle of Tiger Leaping gorge. in the afternoon drive another 3hours back to Lijiang.