China Yunnan Itinerary: 11 Days from the Rice Terraces to Shangri-La A south-to-north route across Yunnan by train and bus, from the Hani rice terraces at 240 metres to the Tibetan plateau at 3,300 — with no hire car at any point.
China Lijiang and Shangri-La: Old Town Roofs and the Tibetan Plateau Lijiang gets written off as a tourist trap and Shangri-La gets written off as a marketing exercise. Both judgements are lazy, and half a day in the right places undoes them.
China Tiger Leaping Gorge with Kids: What Three Hours of Climbing Actually Looks Like The High Trail is the best-known trek in Yunnan and the question nobody answers honestly is whether children can do it. They can. Here is what it costs them, and what it gives back.
China Dali and Shaxi: Bai Country by Scooter Dali has the lake, the pagodas and the crowds. Shaxi, three hours north, has a market square that has barely changed since the caravans stopped coming. Do both.
China Jianshui: The Old Town Most Yunnan Itineraries Skip A Confucian temple, a merchant's garden of 42 courtyards, a seventeen-arch bridge and a street full of potters — Jianshui deserves two days, and almost nobody gives it one.
China Yuanyang Rice Terraces: Which Viewpoint, Which Hour, Which Season The Hani terraces reward precise timing more than any other sight in Yunnan. Here's where to stand, what hour to be there, and what the fields actually look like season by season.
