Yunnan 8-Day Private Tour: Kunming-Dali-Lijiang-Shangri-La

Sightseeing and Activities: Kunming Arrival

You'll begin your journey to the diverse and captivating province of Yunnan from the capital city, Kunming. Upon arrival at the Kunming International Airport, meet your local guide and transfer to the hotel.

Sightseeing and Activities: The Stone Forest, Birds and Flowers Market, Green Lake

At 09:00 am, meet your tour guide & driver at Jinma Biji Archway and then drive about 85km to the visit the Stone Forest. There is a local saying says that “It will be a waste without visiting the Stone Forest when you visit Kunming”, you can see that Stone Forest is truly loved by local people.

In the afternoon, drive back to Kunming and visit Birds and Flowers Market. Then, stroll around the Green Lake to enjoy the leisure lives of local people.  

Sightseeing and Activities: Three Pagodas, cruise in Erhai Lake, Dali Old Town, Foreigner's Street, Ancient City Wall

Get up in the early morning. Transfer to train station. Take a high-speed train from Kunming to Dali.

Arrive at Dali train station. Meet your local guide in Dali. Then visit Three Pagodas in Chongshen Monastery which has a history of over 1,800 years located at the foot of Cangshan Mountain facing to the Erhai Lake. Three Pagodas are made of three ancient independent pagodas forming a symmetrical triangle.

Then you'll cruise in Erhai Lake by the small boat to the Jinsuo Islet in the east Erhai Lake. There are 200 Bai ethnic families around 1000 people in Jinsuo Island. In Erhai Lake cruise, you will enjoy the green Cangshan Mountain and the Three Pagodas from a far as well as lots of birds and seagulls flying over the lake. 

In the late afternoon, take a walk in Dali Old Town. Visit Foreigner's Street and ancient city wall.

Sightseeing and Activities: Xizhou Town, Zhoucheng Village, Lijiang Old Town

In the morning, head for Xizhou Town to fully appreciate Bai-style traditional architectural courtyards, taste their fragrant Three-Course Tea and explore their distinctive culture.

Transfer to visit Zhoucheng Village and the Bai people's Tie-dying cloth workshop where you can take some special souvenir with the Bai ethnic style. 

After lunch, drive to Lijiang. You will be relaxed around Lijiang Old Town, a well-preserved old city of ethnic minorities with brilliant culture, is a central town of the Lijiang Autonomous County of the Naxi Ethnic Minority in Yunnan Province. Located on the plateau which is 2,400 meters above the sea level and embraced by the tree-covered Lion Mountain in the west, Elephant and Golden Row Mountains in the north, vast fertile fields in the southeast and crystal clear water running through, the old town looks like a big jade ink slab, therefore got the alias the Town of Big Ink Slab (Dayanzhen).

Sightseeing and Activities: Ganhaizi Meadow, Baishuihe River, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Spruce Meadow, Blue Moon Valley, Impression Lijiang Ethnic Show, Baisha Old Town, Baisha Murals

Drive about 30KM to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Scenic Area. You will firstly reach Ganhaizi Meadow(3100M). Then you will take the sightseeing bus for a short visiting through the Baishuihe River. Take cable car to Spruce Meadow and hike around 30 minutes in the forest. Then take a battery cart to Blue Moon Valley.

After lunch, you will enjoy the Impression Lijiang Ethnic Show directed by Zhang Yimou. It is held in Ganhaizi Meadow about 3100M above the sea level.

And then, you can stroll through Baisha Old Town, which is an enchanting traditional Naxi style old town.  Visit the Baisha Murals about 600 years old, which is one part of the World Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO 1997.

Sightseeing and Activities: the First Bend of Yangtze River, Iron Chain Bridge, Red Army's Long March Memorial Monument, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Dukezong Ancient Town, Guishan Hill

From Lijiang, you'll drive about 60KM to the First Bend of the Yangtze River with imposing gorge scenery, visit the Iron Chain Bridge ,the Red Army's Long March Memorial Monument in the Shigu Old Town. The town of Stone Drum got its name from a large, cylindrical, marble tablet shaped like a drum. The scenery is magnificent as the road running through the Lijiang valley which is filled with wheat fields and drying haystacks. 

Visit the Tiger Leaping Gorge, the deepest gorge in the world. With 34 rapids of the Yangtze River, it is called the Jinsha in this area because you can find gold in the river.

Then you will enter the Tibetan cultural area and a landscape of barley fields and yaks scattered in the valleys. Walk around Dukezong Ancient Town, an important town of the Ancient Tea-horse Trade Caravan from Yunnan to Tibet and India. Walk up to the top of Guishan Hill or Tortoise Hill, you will see the largest Prayer Wheel of the world and have a panoramic view of Shangri-La county and Dukezong Ancient Town. 

Sightseeing and Activities: Ganden Sumtseling Monastery, Bita Lake & Shudu Lake in Pudacuo National Park, visit a Tibetan's family

In the morning, visit the Ganden Sumtseling Monastery, the largest Tibetan monastery in Yunnan. Songzanlin Monastery has another alias – ‘the little Potala Palace ‘, so named because the whole monastery is in the traditional style with mysterious atmosphere. 

At noon, visit a Tibetan family to experience the local life and try Tibetan home-made yak and cheese.

And afterwards you'll visit the tranquil Shudu Lake in Pudacuo National Park. Pudacuo National Park is located in one of the most biologically-diverse regions of the world. While the region comprises only 0.7 percent of China's land area, it contains more than 20 percent of the country's plant species, about one-third of its mammal and bird species and almost 100 endangered species.

Sightseeing and Activities: Departure from Shangri-La

Today the tour guide and driver will take you to Shangri-La airport and then departure.