China Travel Forum

[Chiris]

Being in Chendu and going to Yunnan for 7 days aprox., which way does it worth doing? After that I´d like to go to Yangshuo.

Thanks a lot.

[Alan]

I did this trip in Reverse. I went from Laos to Boten (bus)- Jinghong (bus)- Kunming(Train)- Dali (bus)-Lijiang- Tiger leaping Gorge- Lijiang (bus)- Panzhihua (Train)-Chengdu.

Doing it in reverse, as you are, it really depends where you want to go to. Lijiang, Tiger leaping Gorge and Dali are so lovely, you cannot miss them! But to do them from Chengdu involves some bus travel. Train from Chengdu to Panzhihua, this city is really nasty, I just got in a taxi and went from the bus to the train station as fast as possible. The taxi will cost around 40/45RMB - it is about 20 km. The Lonely planet ommitted to tell me this and I was quite surprised. Plan to get to Panzhihua as early as possible so you can get the next bus to Lijiang. It is an 8 hour journey to Lijiang but the scenery is interesting and you travel from a beautiful valley through an amazing mountain range. Its not really a pleasant journey but geographically it is more direct that going to Kunming and then North. Once you are in Yunnan, everything gets really easy. I loved it. In Dali, stay at the Bird Bar - really nice GH if you want a relaxing friendly atmosphere. I've heard there is a monastry that teaches Kung Fu and Tai Che in the mountains above Dali, but you probably won't have time, lovely if you did though. Kunming is nice too, I stayed at The Hump, they have great parties every Friday or Saturday night and it is a friendly place.

In retrospect, I think If I could have skiped Panzhihua, I would have but the way I went really didn't let me unless I was to back track all the way to Kunming. It's up to you and depends on where you want to go and where you want to end up. Good luck and enjoy Yunnan!