Walk and See: Yunnan, South of the Clouds

I used to think of Yunnan as a province of diverse ethnic cultures and stunning scenery, but also as one that was underdeveloped and plagued by negative stories about tour guides. The well-known cities were nothing more than spring-like Kunming, the artsy Dali and Erhai Lake, the bar-filled city of Lijiang for a fling, and the mysterious Xishuangbanna. But I wasn’t about to miss out on great food and beautiful sights just because of a few not-so-positive things. So when planning our trip at the beginning of the year, we picked between Yunnan, Xinjiang, or the grasslands. At the time I thought, if joining a group tour wasn't great, we could just go free and easy. By chance, I saw a recommended Yunnan trip on a famous public WeChat account: a group-buying price of 699 yuan (for ground services) covering Kunming–Dali–Lijiang–Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Over 10,000 people had already joined, with a satisfaction rate above 95%. I discussed it with my family: should we go, is it reliable? After a series of analysis, we all agreed on this trip and immediately paid to secure the deal. The group-buying voucher was valid for a year. Once we decided on the travel date, we’d contact the butler to sort out the follow-up.

When July came, the little rascals were on summer vacation—prime time for families to travel with kids. But this year we had many courses, and the latest end date was early August. So I scheduled the trip for mid-to-late August. After contacting the butler and checking flight availability, we finally set off on August 21.

Day 1: Flying into Kunming

After confirming the travel date, the butler sent me a lot of confirmation info, things to note, and what to bring. Here, a big thumbs-up to butler Keke.

Ding ding ding! On August 21, we had to be at Shuofang Airport by 6 a.m. to catch the 7:30 flight. I actually got up at 4:30 a.m. — so sleepy! I also had to prepare breakfast, and the kid’s dad kept rushing me. In the end, we dragged our suitcases and rushed out. The drive from Suzhou to Shuofang on the highway took another 40 minutes.

When boarding, they actually announced a flight delay. Trains are often late, but why couldn't the plane fly on such a clear day? Turns out there are many factors affecting takeoff. Probably because of heavy rain in Kunming, they had to wait until the weather improved.

The flight was under three hours. We got off, collected our luggage, called the local guide, and then received a flower welcome. Just one flower each, but it was a very sincere gesture.

The Kunming driver took us to the hotel, an Ibis at the Kunling Road intersection. Check-in was fine; the room was decent. The lobby had pretty girls and distinctive decor. Dad quickly sat down to rest. Since Yunnan requires real-name tourism, adults need to bring their ID cards, and kids their household registration booklets. Hotel check-in involves facial recognition, even for the little rascal.

The room looked pretty clean.

After resting for a bit, we went out to find lunch. There were many restaurants near the hotel, so we asked the front desk girl for recommendations and picked the Aicai Restaurant next door. We ordered five dishes and a soup. The fried erkuai (rice cake) was very similar to niangao (sticky rice cake), the salted meat was very salty, but the rice soup and vegetable soup were a hit — the kid drank two or three bowls. The local cuisine is sour and spicy, so I specially asked the chef to skip the chili.

After lunch, we visited Cuihu (Green Lake) Park, and also swung by Yunnan University and the snack street on Yuanxi Road. From the hotel to the park, we took bus 118 and transferred to bus 2 — it took an hour and a half. In the park, there were people doing guozhuang dancing (a Tibetan circle dance). Mom joined in; the rhythm was strong and it was suitable for all ages. Just follow the lead dancer and let loose — very easy to learn.

Cuihu Park had a nice environment. The kid spotted the paddle boats and begged to go. Alright then, the four of us went boating, while Grandpa and Grandma kept dancing.

Day 2: Naigu Stone Forest ~ Dianchi Lake ~ Chuxiong

The night before, we received the next day’s itinerary from the butler and local guide. We had to leave at 7 a.m., so we got up at 6.

The next morning, we were up at 5:30, packed up, woke the little rascal, and went next door for breakfast. The breakfast was a buffet, with drinks like juice, milk, soy milk, and coffee. There were small buns, porridge, toast, croissants, youtiao (fried dough sticks), specialty rice noodles, side dishes, vegetable fried rice, small apples, corn, and sweet potatoes. Basically a mix of Chinese and Western, with a good balance of meat and vegetables. The kid had two bowls of rice noodles and several glasses of juice right away.

After gathering, we headed to Naigu Stone Forest.

On the bus, after introducing herself, the guide started talking about Yunnan and Kunming. Later in my travelogue, I’ll call her Guide Du, our beautiful and gracious guide. The map of Yunnan is interesting — if you make the standard gesture of Li Yong from ‘Lucky 52’, the index finger points to Tengchong, which borders northern Myanmar, and the thumb points to Xishuangbanna, bordering southern Myanmar. This is the longest national border. Raw jade stones collected in Myanmar are processed in Tengchong and Ruili before being sold worldwide.

Kunming lies southeast of the palm, and right in the center of the palm is Chuxiong. Kunming has three nicknames — does anyone know them? The first, as everyone knows, is the ‘Spring City’ because it’s like spring all year round, with an average annual temperature of 15°C. No scorching summer, no severe winter. Compared to the 37°C we just left in Suzhou, we felt not a bit of heat. The second is the ‘Flower City’. It’s one of China’s largest flower production bases, largest flower distribution centers, and largest flower markets. In Kunming, flowers are sold by weight, not by bunch or bouquet. There are no flower shops; you can only buy fresh flowers at farmers’ markets or flower markets. Here, electronic flower auctions start around 1 or 2 a.m. and end at 5 a.m. The same day’s flowers are shipped to cities across the country. The third, which many might not know, is the ‘Turtle City’. This has a mythological touch. It’s said that the mountains here roll continuously all the way to Sichuan, hence called the Longworm Mountain, also known as Snake Mountain. But this snake eats from Yunnan and excretes in Sichuan, creating Sichuan’s ‘Land of Abundance’ while leaving Yunnan impoverished. In some dynasty, a feng shui master came, surveyed the situation, and built six city gates in Kunming. Besides the usual north, south, east, and west gates, he added a Small South Gate and a Small West Gate, which formed a turtle-snake intersection with Snake Mountain, thus neutralizing the unfavorable feng shui.

In this part of Yunnan, the language is also very distinctive. Eating is not called 'chi fan' but 'gan fan' (using the fourth tone). Asking if you’re full is 'has your belly got big?' The terms for men and women vary by place: around Kunming, they’re Ahei Ge (brother) and Ashima (a girl shining like gold); around Dali, Apeng Ge and Jinhua (golden flower); Lijiang, Pangjin Ge and Pangjin Mei (chubby brother and sister); Xishuangbanna, Maoduoli and Saoduoli.

Our first stop in the morning was Naigu Stone Forest. ‘Naigu’ means black and ancient. The stone forest is a sword-shaped karst landscape. The vast black stone forest felt like a goblin’s lair. The 1986 TV series Journey to the West filmed scenes here — you know that familiar song, ‘The King called me to patrol the mountain’.

After passing through this Ruyi (wish-fulfilling) Gate, you officially enter the scenic area.

There’s a classic odd rock here that resembles the meeting of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. It’s 30% seeing and 70% imagination, but Granny’s photo skills were, well, beyond words.

Climbing to the top, you can see the whole stone forest — a true black forest, a bit eerie.

After leaving the stone forest, we finished lunch and headed to Dianchi Lake, which took less than two hours. They say there are only two factories in Yunnan (Kunming Steel and a cement plant), so everywhere enjoys national-grade air quality, green mountains and clear waters. You can’t take the air with you, so we breathed in as much as we could — no such benefit back in Suzhou!

After a rest, we continued driving for nearly three hours until we reached Erhai Lake in Dali. Dinner was the legendary wild mushroom hotpot. Personally, I found it just okay. There was also a dish featuring three grasshoppers, one of Yunnan’s Eighteen Oddities.

After dinner, we headed to the hotel to rest — another hour-plus drive.

Day 3: Dali and Erhai Lake

On the way from Chuxiong to Dali, we saw many villages with white buildings, some with just five or six households, others with over a hundred. Each house was distinctive, painted on the outside with totems, calendars, and other patterns. Guide Du told us that the Bai people’s year has 10 months, each with 36 days. The remaining 5 days are their Torch Festival, which falls on June 25th each year. Like our Spring Festival, they slaughter sheep and cattle and party through the night for five days. We came too late this time, otherwise we could have caught their wild festival.

Long ago, Dali was an independent kingdom called Nanzhao. Characters like Prince Duan from the novel Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils were real people; he seemed to be the 10th king. The Dali Kingdom lasted over 400 years. The local architecture features three rooms and a screen wall, or a courtyard house with four buildings and five skylights. The screen wall looks similar to Huizhou-style, but different. The main gate has a ‘three-drip’ structure, and from the pattern on the first tier, you can tell whether the household is headed by a man or a woman. Remember not to step on their door thresholds, because the protective mythical beast Pixiu resides beneath them.

The household we visited had ‘Nanzhao Chancellor’ written on the screen wall, indicating the family name Dong. If it says ‘Qingbai Chuanjia’ (Pure and Honest Heritage), it’s the Yang family. If ‘Purple Qi comes from the east’, that’s a merchant family. The Bai people’s screen walls feature many inscriptions; if you come across them, you can look up which surname on Baidu.

After visiting the Bai building, we tried Bai tie-dyeing. An old granny taught us to sew a few stitches, then we handed it to a young guide, who passed it to an old man to do the tying and dyeing. It was boiled to remove the gum, dehydrated, then thrown into a dye vat made from indigo root juice. The whole process took less than half an hour, and we each got to take our dyed cloth home.

After that, we strolled through the ancient town of Dali for just over an hour. It seemed to have nine lanes and eighteen streets — too short a time, just a quick glimpse. We snapped photos of fun and tasty things we saw. I came across one of Yunnan’s Eighteen Oddities: milk sold in slices. The taste varies by person; I wasn’t too fond of it.

After lunch, we headed to Erhai Lake. They said we’d circle it in a Jeep — but I misunderstood. The full loop is over 150 km, and with all the bays, speed is under 60 km/h, so a full circle would take five or six hours. Actually, we just drove to some internet-famous photo spots to snap pictures.

Next time, I’ll come back to Erhai and cycle for a while by the lakeside.

After the Erhai tour, we gathered and returned to the hotel — another hour’s drive.

Today we stayed in a villa-style hotel. The difference was that the toilet and shower were separate, and the sink area was also separate; plus there was a small balcony. It was a bit nicer than the hotel in Chuxiong. That one was the Century Star Hotel, rated four-star, but about the same as a three-star in Suzhou.

But after all, we’re here to have fun. You can’t be too fussy about food and lodging, or you might as well stay home and enjoy good food and drink, right?

Day 4: Yunnan Green ~ Lijiang ~ Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

Since we joined a high-quality tour, today’s itinerary included a shopping stop. As for shopping, there had been news reports about guides scolding tourists or withholding ID cards. So after hearing Guide Du’s introduction, I wondered: should I buy? If I do, what price range? If I don’t, will the guide yell at me? I was quite anxious.

Through Guide Du’s explanation, I learned that after the ‘revolution’ led by Ruan Chengfa on April 15, 2017, many travel agencies were shut down, even the largest supermarket. After the crackdown, things greatly improved. And I could feel it during this trip: everything from sights to food, lodging, and transportation was well arranged. Guide Du especially had rich knowledge and a professional, dedicated spirit. So, for today’s jade shopping stop, I went with an attitude of learning and understanding. After all, jade accounts for a big share of Yunnan’s pillar industries. My concerns were just two: one, would I buy fakes? Two, would the jade price be artificially high?

With these two questions in mind, after breakfast we took the bus to Yunnan’s largest jade mall. Once inside, I realized the price range was huge, from a few hundred to several hundred thousand yuan. But thinking about Suzhou, jade there starts at several thousand. I followed a shopping assistant to distinguish and compare. Originally I wanted a Guanyin pendant, but the kid didn’t like it, so we switched to a peace buckle. It took nearly half an hour to find one that met our expectations.

Here, I declare I’m not advertising anything. It’s a matter of personal taste — different strokes for different folks. It’s great to find something you like. My son liked it too, because it has both purple and the green his dad likes. Everyone’s happy. Hope it blesses the little rascal with peace and safety.

After happy shopping, we continued by bus to Lijiang. Due to Lijiang government regulations, we had to switch to a local guide from the Lijiang branch of the travel agency. So it was time to say goodbye to Guide Du, who had been with us for four days.

Then a big guy came aboard and said just call him ‘Pangjin Ge’. In Lijiang, men are called Pangjin Ge and women Pangjin Mei. The local aesthetic is different from ours: they prize dark skin and plumpness. A Pangjin Ge with a big belly is especially valued — that kind of build could be worth 200 yaks. This guide joked a lot, said he was too popular, and called himself the Naxi Little Prince. So our group name became the ‘Prince Group’. Many burst out laughing. Our Little Prince was a hilarious guide, speaking very honestly. Under his lead, our group shouted the loudest; whenever we raised our hands we yelled ‘Tashi Delek’. Lucky for us, he managed to snag the glacier cable car for Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. In peak season, there are 150,000 visitors a day, but the mountain’s daily capacity is 14,000. There are large, medium, and small cable cars. The glacier cable car takes you closest to the snow mountain; that’s the famous 4506-height sightseeing spot you can reach. The Little Prince really did great.

The bus wound up the mountain road. We bought oxygen canisters, picked up the warm lunch packs prepared by the travel agency, and got or rented down jackets. Sacred mountain of the Naxi, here we come!

At Parking Lot 3, we transferred to an electric cart to go to White Water River and Blue Moon Valley. The water here comes from melted glacier snow and is rich in minerals; it changes color with the weather.

At the White Water River, we washed our hands and paid homage and made wishes toward the snow mountain.

Day 5: Lijiang Ancient Town – Yellow Dragon Jade – Kunming

We visited Lijiang Ancient Town yesterday after coming down from Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and checking into the hotel. After putting our things away, we went to eat. Finally, I got to try the many-times-heard-of Mengzi Crossing-the-Bridge Rice Noodles. The broth was kept simmering, chicken soup. We added the ingredients in order, then took a sip of soup and slurped the noodles — incredibly fresh.

After dinner, the little rascal played stone-throwing with other kids. After the kid’s dad withdrew money from the bank, we decided to walk around Lijiang Ancient Town. The hotel was only about 300 meters from the town, very close. Lijiang Ancient Town is a bit different from other old towns: there’s no obvious gate tower, but it has 27 entrances. Without a local to guide us, directionally-challenged people like us would get lost as if in a Bagua maze. The alleys all look similar and you’d get dizzy circling around. We followed the Little Prince’s instructions: enter from the north gate, landmark is the Mother-and-Son Waterwheels. Follow the water south — that’s ‘going with the flow’. If tired, then follow the water back north — ‘going against the flow’. The town was full of all kinds of goods: the usual silverware shops, jade shops, tea shops, plus the snack bars, milk tea shops, scarf and shawl stores common in old towns. There were so many people strolling around.

Day 5, we slept till 7 a.m., washed up, and went to the first-floor restaurant — the variety was quite rich. Then we took a bus to Heqing, the origin of Yellow Dragon Jade. Yellow Dragon Jade is what Yunnan’s Eighteen Oddities says: ‘a house not lived in, bought just to tear down’ — that’s it.

It has the color of Tianhuang stone and the hardness of jadeite. Good hardness, high transparency, bright and rich colors. As it’s produced in Longling and predominantly yellow, it was eventually named Yellow Dragon Jade. Its price is a bit lower than jadeite, ranging from tens to tens of thousands. Some large ornamental pieces with good color and complex carving can cost hundreds of thousands.

After the jade gallery, we visited a silverware shop. Its purity is 999, much softer than the common 925. Many stores had exquisite silver water cups, priced over a thousand yuan. Of course, the Nine-Dragon Cups, pure silver inside and out, are sold by weight, from 13-14 yuan per gram to over 20.

We shopped until about 10, then bid farewell to our Naxi Little Prince guide and headed back to Kunming. The guide changed to a new one from Stone Forest, Guide Amu.

We reached Kunming around 7 p.m. The last meal was a Peacock Feast — a farewell dinner with the Fujian family we’d shared a table and meals with for five days.

Day 6: Finale

This trip was very rushed. We rose early and slept late every day, getting only six or seven hours of sleep. The little rascal would fall asleep instantly. But we gained so much. It was precisely because the main guide and local guides shared so much information that I was motivated to write this travel diary. Of course, receiving so much at once means there are likely inaccuracies and many omissions in my account — like the Yi people’s preference for sons over daughters, the Bai people’s valuing daughters over sons, the different customs and marriage practices of these two ethnic groups, the Bai Three-Course Tea, the Tea Horse Road of Dali and Lijiang, Yunnan’s three leaves, the Yi women’s three happy bracelets, the crops they grow, and so on. What I saw, heard, and felt — too much to tell in a few words.

Since this was my first time in Yunnan, I joined a group tour to scout things out. Next time, with more time, I’ll go back to Erhai Lake, Lugu Lake, Shangri-La, Daocheng Yading, and more. Over six days and five nights, the one who accompanied us the longest was Guide Du, the most passionate was the Little Prince, and the best at telling funny stories was Guide Amu. And thanks to Master Ye, the four-star tour bus driver who took us up mountains and down slopes. Thank you all; you worked hard. Thank you to ‘Walk and See’ for giving us this opportunity.