yunnan private guides
 

We will be visiting Yunnan Province in mid sept and would like to hire private english speaking guides and drivers in Lijiang, Dali and Kunming who would pick us up at the airport and then take us around the area. Any recommendations would be most appreciated.

We just went to Lijiang in Yunnan for 4 nights/5 days last week.

Although we booked the trip, including airfare from Hong Kong, through China Odessey (spelling) in Guilin, the tour in Lijiang was provided by a local company there; and that includes having a private van, an English-speaking guide to whatever places you arrange with them.

I saw your post a couple of days ago, but since I am on vacaiton I had to wait till I get a chance to dig up the business card from the Guide.

Cindy was our guide in Lijiang - although she is young (just graduated from Tourism Study about a year ago and started this 6 months ago), we like her a lot and she is quite knowledgeable. Her dad is Han and her mom is Naxi (maybe I am revealing too much of her personal information) and her English is quite good.

She works for the Lijiang White Deer International Travel Service Yunnan Co. and her email address is "[email protected]". Although she is based in Lijiang, Dali and Kunming is not far away. Just talk to her and if she cannot accomodate your requests she will refer you to someone in Kunming.

Most of the places we went to around in Lijiang are about 1-2 hours away (Jade Snow Mountain, Tiger Leaping Gouge etc. etc.), and Dali is still within this 1-2 hour distance.

If you call her, tell her that John from Canada asked you to contact her. She will remember us: John and Dan and Carolynne and Donna from Edmonton, Canada.

John,

Thanks so much for the information. I will definitely contact her. I had been thinking of using China Odyssey also. Were you happy with them? Would it be advisable for us to just book the trip thru them rather than the independent route I was planning? May I also ask what hotel you stayed at in Lijiang and would you recommend it?

I was dealing with Agnes from China Odyssey. They are in Guilin. Paulchili from this site recommended Agnes to me. She is very good - and we booked through her because I just couldn't find information on the web about booking tickets from Hong Kong to Lijiang. But if you already have the tickets booked, then you can directly contact Cindy, because China Odyssey will subcontract the local guides for you anyways.

When I was planning for Lijiang I had 3 hotels in mind: Sanhe (recommended at this site), the Zen Hotel (looks really good at some hotel booking site, and also high on the Tripadvisor rating), and the one we picked, the Moon Inn, which got rave review in a Seattle (or is it New York newspaper). Moon Inn is actually right next door to the Zen Hotel.

Zen Hotel is the most expensive (about $75-95 per night), then Sanhe and Moon Inn (about $45-65 per night). Again I always liked the off-beat hotels so I picked the Moon Inn based on the US review. I was a little bit disappointed: the bathroom shower has no enclosure so when you shower everything gets wet. Also our room door doesn't lock from the inside. It was just a latch which doesn't latch. However the host is friendly, and China Odyssey was able to book the room which includes breakfast. The only hotel booking site on the web which books the Moon Inn is Wacts.com and their rate does not include breakfast. Breakfast was very simple: we asked for congee, egg (one per person), some Naxi baba (fried bread) and tea. No coffee. However there is a pizza place just 20 steps around the corner which serves decent coffee (open at 8:30am).

Also the room has no heat, but electric blankets are provided. Actually by the 3rd night I was used to it so I don't really mind the hotel at all, and looked at the "shortcomings" as little inconveniences - afterall we were only paying a price which you cannot even get a room at your local YMCA. Besides, I have not looked inside the Zen Hotel - it looks quite nice from the outside - maybe they have the same "problems".

BTW, the Moon Inn has a little dog called Dodo - which is really cute and doesn't bark - I cannot stand barking little dogs. Dodo will follow you everywhere especially if you give hom something to eat.

Next to the hotel (probably next to Zen Hotel too) lives an old rooster which starts crowing at 5am - I don't mind it because it becomes a background noise. It sounds like an old rooster because its voice is "broken" and coarse. MY travelling companions however said they definitely will not miss the rooster.

We had a really good guide (freelance) when we were there in early 2006 on an independent tour booked through the Sydney office of China Travel Service. Jack's his name, unfortunately I havene't been able to contact him since. He's the best we've had in China. We also had two very good drivers, one in Kunming and the other in Lijiang. Both were very safe and courteous but they do not speak English. That was the first time after 6 visits to China we were really happy with both the guide and drivers.

John! I'm a fan of your writing style already, it's great to hear 1st hand experience at the Moon Inn.

Thank you for taking the time to post on Lijiang and sharing the name of your guide. I have contacted Cindy about guiding us this November. Can you tell me if she took you to "tourist restaurants" -we prefer eating where the locals eat. Did you by any chance see the Treasure Harbour or Guangfang hotel? Distance to old town from either of these hotels?

Thank you once again.

Our arrangment through China Odyssey includes 3 days of activities: to the usual places like Snow Dragon Mountain (you cannot go to the top, you take a chair lift (like a 2-men ski chair lieft) to go to the meadow, where you walk around along a 1-2 km boardwalk; to First Bend of Yangtse River, Stone-Drum Town, Tiger Leaping Gorge etc.etc., and that includes 2 lunches. Those restaurants are along the way so I cannot tell if these are "tourist restaurants". I assume they are because as I said all these places we went to are tourist spots, so the restaurents close by must be visited by tourists as well. The day finishes around 5 pm so we are on our own for dinner.

If you want to go to specific restuarents for lunch, please be aware that they may be out of the way so that may present logistic problem. Most of the areas we went are 1-2 hours drive from Old Town Lijiang.

At the end of our 3rd day, Cindy did tell us that she had to take us to a "shop" because her company wants it that way, but we do not have to buy anything. So we basically walk through all the display in 1/2 hour and went back to our hotel.

If you want she can also take you to tea-tasting place. Lijiang is supposedly a tea-growing area so actually that is also the first time I went for Chinese tea tasting. Just remember that you don't have to buy anything even after tasting the tea. Although I did get some 11-year Pu-Er for my auntie.