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"South of the Clouds" is the literal meaning of Yunnan, and stretching from the high Tibetan Plateau down to the subtropical climes bordering Southeast Asia, it is an amazingly diverse place. Yunnan is the most biologically diverse area in the temperate world, and contains a host of rare and endangered wildlife that will delight any naturalist. Located at the crossroads of Tibet, China and Southeast Asia, it is home to a mix of ethnic groups - from Naxi and Tibetan to Dai, Ake, and Hani. The temperature is mild and pleasant throughout most of the year, but can get quite cold in the winter at higher elevations. Southern Yunnan also experiences a rainy season from May to October...
Kunming, also known as Spring City for its lovely weather year round, is a relaxed haven to get some rest, eat well and in case you are active a good basis for exploring Yunnan. It's not a place of great culture or old buildings. It's just a friendly city you'll enjoy. The best place to see life in Kunming passing by is taking a seat in the Dianchi Lake and watch the seagulls, praised as "the Pearl of the Plateau", the lake is the sixth largest fresh water lake in China. The Bamboo Temple is another place to go. The 500 arhat statues in the halls are the pride of the temple. An hour outside of Kunming you'll find Stone Forest with it's impressive Karst Peaks...
The Yangzi River and the Yellow River are well-known as the two longest rivers in China and are noted as " Giant Asian Rivers". Situated between 99o 30' E to 100o 50' E and 26o N to 27o 50' N, Lijiang can be easily located by every tourist from abroad when they trace along the Yangzi River from its mouth in Shanghai back toward its source. The ajncient town of Lijiang is a traveler's wonderland which has been classified as a World-class Cultural Legacy by UNESCO, "Nationallevel Scenic Zone" and a "National Town of History and Culture"...
Lijiang is a beautiful shining jewel on the Northwest Yunnan Plateau neighbouring the southeast side of the Tibentan Plateau which is considered to be the "Roof of the World" . It covers an area of 20,600 square kilometers with a population of 1,030 ,000. The whole district is comprised of four counties: Lijiang, Yongsheng, Huaping and Ninglang. LiJiang's weather is remark-ably pleasant. Spring there lasts as long as 241 days and there is no hots ummer. Lijiang is 603 kilometers away from Kunming and 280 kilometers from the JingJiang Railway Station on the Kunming - Chengdu line. The airport in LiJiang had been opened in 1994...
Yunnan-Tibet . The Ancient Tea Horse Caravan Road
... This route would appear to have been in use long before it became an avenue for the tea and horse trade during the Tang and the Song dynasties, for it was a very important corridor connecting the ancient cultures of the areas of present Tibet, Yunnan and Sichuan. In such places as Ganzi and Aba distrcts of Sichuan and the Hengduan Mountains of Northwest Yunnan archaeologists have discovered many cist tombs which date from the Shang (ca. 1600-ca.1100 BCE) and the Zhou (ca. 1100-256 BCE) dynasties. These cist tombs are scattered broadly in the canyons and valleys of the upper reaches of the Min River as well as the Yalong and Jinsha Rivers. Most of these tombs are located in western Sichuan and western Yunnan, although a few have also been found in Tibet. Although there are slight differences between the cist tombs of the various sites, their main features and cultural characteristics are generally similar. The archeologists have established that the cist tombs discovered in Tibet are closely related with those of Sichuan and Yunnan in terms of their form and the grave goods. Notably those cist tombs found in Changdu and Linzhi, Tibet, definitely belong to the same cultural system as those in western Sichuan and western Yunnan (Luo Kaiyu 1992). The cist tombs in Tibet are for the most part found close to the roads which led directly from Yunnan and Sichuan. Thus it is clear that about 4000-5000 years ago, well before the Tea and Horse Road was opened, migration and communication among the various ethnic groups operated along this road ...
... The Tibetan people had been in close communication with the Tang and the various ethnic groups of southwest China for a long time; so it is very likely that the tea of Sichuan and Yunnan had already reached Tibet. As early as the seventh century Tubo (Tibetan) military power had conquered the ethnic tribes scattered in the present areas of Lijiang and Dali, Yunnan, and had established a military administration in northwest Yunnan. The military route used by the Tibetans to reach Yunnan was closely related to the contemporary tea and horse route. Yunnan is the one of the places where tea plants are native. Since 1949 scientists have found many wild and cultivated tea trees that are more than a thousand years old in the Nannuo mountains and Bada Mountains of Menghai County as well as Yiwu Mountains and Xiangming Mountains of Mengla County, Xishuangbanna. The local people call these ancient tea trees the Tea Tree Kings.?In the Man shu (the book about the native tribes of southwest China, written by Fan Chuo during the Tang), there is a description of the tea trees grown in southern Yunnan. It also states that the local tribal people of Nanzhao Kingdom (7th-9th centuries CE) had the custom of drinking the local tea (Fan Chuo 1961, 1992). The Tibetan military government had a very close relationship with the Nanzhao kingdom, and it is possible that Yunnan tea was introduced into Tibet during that time...
Dali, a historically and culturally famous city of China, is renowned for her historical interest. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was the capital of Nanzhao and Dali Kingdoms, the political, economic and cultural centre of Yunnan, an important gateway of cultural exchange and trading with southeastern Asian countries, and an important pass of the ancient "Silk Route of the South". It has long enjoyed the reputation of "a land of letters"...
Jade Dragon Snow Mt. Trekking in Lijiang
the Jade dragon snow mountain's main peak is 5596m above sae level, and is a sanctuary for rare animals and wild plants. In fact, one fourth of all plant species in China can be found here and 20 primeval forest communities shelter a big family of 400 types of trees and 30 kinds of animals which are protected by the state...
Lijiang Old TownThe Yangzi River and the Yellow River are well-known as the two longest rivers in China and are noted as " Giant Asian Rivers". Situated between 99o 30' E to 100o 50' E and 26o N to 27o 50' N, Lijiang can be easily located by every tourist from abroad when they trace along the Yangzi River from its mouth in Shanghai back toward its source. The ajncient town of Lijiang is a traveler's wonderland which has been classified as a World-class Cultural Legacy by UNESCO, "Nationallevel Scenic Zone" and a "National Town of History and Culture".
Lijiang is a beautiful shining jewel on the Northwest Yunnan Plateau neighbouring the southeast side of the Tibentan Plateau which is considered to be the "Roof of the World" . It covers an area of 20,600 square kilometers with a population of 1,030 ,000. The whole district is comprised of four counties: Lijiang, Yongsheng, Huaping and Ninglang. LiJiang's weather is remark-ably pleasant. Spring there lasts as long as 241 days and there is no hots ummer. Lijiang is 603 kilometers away from Kunming and 280 kilometers from the JingJiang Railway Station on the Kunming - Chengdu line. The airport in LiJiang had been opened in 1994.
Haba Snow Mt. Trekking in LijiangThe Haba snow mountain's main peak of is 5396m above sea level and is capped with snow all year round. On the mountain side, crystal-clear glaciers hang and the valleys on the northern side of the mountain...
Weishan Yi autonomous county in DaliThe Yi minority market is running every 10 days. Usually the Yi live in the mountains and come down only for special occasions like markets or festivals. Some walk for hours. The market we visit is one of the biggest in Yunnan and sells everything from pigs, cows and waterbuffaloes to vegetables, corn, rice, tobacco etc. The Yi-women wear traditional clothes with beautiful, colourful embroidery. Besides the Yi you will meet the local people doing their shoppings and farmers walking their animals to the market...
Lugu lake The Matripotestal clanship peopleLugu Lake,2690 metres above sea level located at the borders between Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, covers an area of 50 square kilometers with the average water depth of 45 meters and the transparency 11 meters. In the lake there are five islands, three peninsulas and a sea- wall islet. Here everything looks as if it has not been disturbed by human beings at all and still remains in its primitive state. Boating in the lake, you can feel that the surface of the water is as smooth as a mirror and the water as blue as the sky. The slow – canoe in the blue lake, the beautiful Mosuo girls in their ethnic clothes and the Mosuo folk songs will show you something of primitive simplicity and peace. Lugu Lake has the fame of a fabled abode of immortals and “Plateau Pearl" for its pure and virgin land of natural landscapes.
Shangri-La County is located at the northwest of Yunnan Province, the southeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the hinterland of the extension parts of Himalaya. It occupies an area of 11,613km2, and it has a population of 140,000, including about 25 nationalities, they live harmoniously together to share their different cultures and life styles. Shangri-La County is the joint of the nationalities culture corridors of Gansu,Qinhai,Yunnan and Tibet. It has nine local nationalities, seven languages, five kinds of characters, and it has its own system of customs. Tibetan Buddhism, Dongbaism of Naxi people and other nationality religious cultures are booming together like flowers in the spring, and adding radiance and beauty to each other. There is Gedan Songzanlin Lamasery, one of the thirteen largest Tibetan monasteries in Kangba area. It has the Dongba pictograph, the only living one in the world, and its birthplace-Sanba White Land. Meanwhile, the strange and unique nationality folklore, and nationality festivals are fully bloomed flowers in the culture history of mankind. Shangri-La, with its colorful folklore, mysterious and time -weathered religious culture, wonderful and marvelous natural scenery, has become a crown of Yunnan's tourism...
Xishuangbanna Tropic Froest TrekkingThe region of Xishuangbanna is in the deep south of Yunnan, next to the Myanmar and Lao borders. There is home to many unique species of plant and animal life. The jungle areas that remain contain dwindling numbers of wild tigers, leopards, elephants and golden-haried monkeys. Here about one-third of the 800,000-strong population of this region are Dai ...
The Grand Nujiang Canyon(upper Salween) is a "longitu-dinal" valley, lying parallel with the run of mountain ranges that give rise to the natural wonder of the Three Parallel Rivers. This is because the northeast edge of the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate, creating a series of large north-south splits in what is today's northwestern Yunnan and eastern Tibet. The Great Nujiang Canyon starts from Cawarong at Zayul County in Tibet and stretches south for some 300 kilometers to reach Liuku, capital of Nuiiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province.
Flanked by the Biluo and Gaoligong snow mountains. this is
the most perilous section of the Nujiang River; it is over 2,000 meters
deep on average, the deepest point being between the 5,128-meter-high
Luchulaka Peak of the Gaoligong Mountain and the 4,784-meter-high Zhuzipo
Peak of the Biluo Snow Mountain. where the valley bottom is l,650 meters
above sea level, giving a height difference of 3,478 meters. The riverbed
in the
Lincang is the place of the Chinese culture, the Wa vibrant place, Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County is the most concentrated areas, magic and beauty of the Afghan mountains are famous at home and abroad Wa since 3500 years of history, one of China's eight ancient cliff picture of Cangyuan, and Myanmar roller linked by mountains and rivers of South River National Nature Reserve; build by Qing generation Daoguang years, set construction, sculpture, painting as one of the ethnic minority areas in Yunnan South-Shangzuo Buddhism, one of the representatives of the construction-Yun Buddhist temple; have reservations over Directly from the integrity of the slave society into the modern civilization of the original Qunju Wa village, Wa is rich in folklore and unique food culture, including wood encouraged by the rejection of the renowned Chinese and foreign dance, the focus has demonstrated China's Wa cultural connotations.
Get your Tibetan Travel Permit at Eco-tours
Dali / Lijiang-Lhasa Overland | Kunming Eco-tour
Dali / Lijiang-Lhasa-Bass Camp of Mt. EverestDali / Lijiang-Zhongdian-Lhasa by Air | Kunming
Beijing to Yunnan | Kunming-Dali | Kunming-Guilin
Guilin to Yunnan | Kunming-Lijiang | Kunming
Yunnan to Hainan Island | Kunming-Hainan
If you just want to travel with private vehicle in China, that is possible, please contace Eco-tours to get a car
Kunming Highlights | Kunming-Yuanyang
Kunming-Dali-Lijiang-Zhongdian
Lijiang-Dali-Kunming-Hainan Island-Sanya
Zhongdian-Shudu lake-Lugu lake trek-Lijiang 8days
Dali-Nujiang Canyon-Bingzhongluo(trek)-Dali
Kunming-Banna-Pu'er-Gengma-Weishan-Dali
Sourth-west China Crossing 25dayMeilii snow mountain trek to Nujiang canyon(BingZhongLuo)
Nujiang canyon(BingZhongLuo) trek to Deqen(Meilii)
Kunming-Zhongdian-Lijiang-Shaxi-Dali-Kunming
Cross Yunnan by 34 daysDali/Lijiang-Lhasa-Bass Camp of Mt. Everest
Zhongdian / Shangri La Eco-tours
Yuanyang Rice Terraces South-East Yunnan
Not only are the YuanYang rice terraces among the world's largest and most spectacular rice terraces, they are the least known among them, which keeps the tourist count low. You get an extra sense of adventure when you are there.
The landscape changes vividly through the year. The paddies are flooded in the winter and early spring -- this creates the reflecting pool effect, a photographer's dream. In the summer, the paddies are luxuriantly green with growing rice stalks. After the fall harvest, the paddies become naked bare earth.
The area of
the Great Nujiang canyon is famous for cultural diversity. The largest
community of the Lisu ethnic group lives here and it is the only place where Nu and Derung ethnic groups live; 20 0ther minorities are represented here, among them Primi, Bai,Yi,Naxi,Tibetan,Jingpo and Dai. The Ancient Tea Horse Road along the canyon is some 1,000 years old. Many ethnic groups and religions coexist, but Christianity and Catholicism are all very popular with those ethnic minorities-a cultural and geographical phenomenon worth pondering.
