China Travel Forum

[lorra]

I'm heading to Kunming in a few days for a leisurely look around and I was wondering, out of these 3 towns, which would you pay a visit to?

1 Lijiang
2 Ruili
3 Xishuangbannanarama

I have time to visit them all, but I'm a lazy git and tend to linger in places rather than hop from town to town.

Also if there is anyone in Kunming who wants to hook up that would be great.

P.S my phone has been on the brink for a while and is finally out of commision at the moment, so if anyone from here has been trying to contact me...sorry

[aynor]

Of the three I like Lijiang the best. Ruili can be fun, but I always get bored there after a few days and end up just chilling out and doing nothing but sitting around trying to stay cool. Xishuangbanna is nice too, but Lijiang is really beautiful. It is definitly touristy, but don't write it off because of that -- it is still one of the prettiest cities I have visited in China. The surrounding area has a lot of stuff to see and do, some smaller places to poke around in, and Tiger Leaping Gorge is not far -- you can see the gorge without actually doing the whole hike if you are pressed for time, and Dali is not far away either, although I prefer Lijiang over Dali as well. Xishuangbanna will be really hot, and Jinghong (the main city in Banna) isn't really anything that special. Banna has rain forests (which are pretty cool), minority theme parks (which aren't), and temples which look different from the bazillion other temples you've seen in China. I've enjoyed my time in all three places, but if I had to choose between those three, I'd go back to Lijiang.