China Travel Forum

[Lisa Liang]

I'm heading to China for a couple weeks over Christmas and New Year, and I don't want to spend my whole vacation running places. So I need to make a decision - should I go to Kunming and Lijiang or Yuangshuo? And why? My coworker said, "because Kunming is nice" which totally does not tell me anything.

[Pamila]

I can't speak to Kunming or Lijang, but we spent several days in Yangshuo and enjoyed it. The town is definitely geared toward backpackers, which can get a bit annoying if you're looking for a more "authentic" experience, but we really enjoyed having a few recognizable conveniences after several weeks in China.

Things to do besides eat great food at the local cafes:I heard it was excellent and you can arrange to do some mountain hiking; take a boat or raft tour down and up the Li Jiang river--tons of great mountain views and lots of water buffalos; visit the infamous mud caves--an incredible and challenging hike through these vast caves ending with a dip in a mud pool, excellent!!; go cormorant fishing--we saw this done and, while it wasn't exactly animal-friendly, it was impressive.
Kunming and Lijiang are both cool, but much more manic. Lijiang is very touristy but beautiful just the same and Kunming is your average big Chinese city.