Kunming to Luoping tour with Hike

As one of the National Scenic Resorts in China, the best of the world famous Stone Forests (Shilin) of Kunming is a 350-square-km topographical turmoil wrought by a jungle of 100 or so groups of monoliths in shapes ranging from overhanging cliffs to grotesque boulders. "Number One Bizarre Spectacle Uner Heaven, "as the Stone Forest is nicknamed.

Due to a process of weathering and erosion, nature has created an art gallery of stone sculpture here. This typical karst physiognomy takes the form of a forest of stone pillars and boulders. It is as if the countless stone shapes have sprung from the ground, assuming different shapes as if vying to surpass each other in grandeur and sublime beauty. Some look like sheets or pillars, others resemble swords raised towards the sky while others, standing in pairs, suggest scenes of young lovers overjoyed in reunion or sad at parting or of a mother and child strolling side by side. The Stone Forest is composed of the greater stone Forest, the lesser Stone Forest, the Outer Stone Forest, and the Stone Forest Lake.

Stone Forest Lake: As soon as you enters the Stone Forest, a crystal-clear lake comes into focus. By the east lakeside, rise from the water a good array of fantastic stone pinnacles, pillars, shoots, and stalactites, resembling natural potted scenery. A few hundred steps beyond the lake, there is a pool with a huge boulder in the shape of a squatting lion. Hence, it has given the name of "Lion Pool". Move ahead, you will find a couple of tall lime stones block the way like a green screen.

Greater Stone Forest: Inside the sea of Stone Forest, one feels as if were in a bizarre fairyland. The stone formations standing still resemble a variety of things, such as ancient fortresses, birds, beasts, flowers, trees, human beings and anything you name it.

Lesser Stone Forest: It adjoins the Greater Stone Forest, and has large lawns, lush growth of bamboos and trees as well as mountain flowers in spring and autumn. Most fantastic are "The Cluster of Pinnacles Propping up the Sky" and "The Stone Singing Praises of Plums".

The Stone Forest is home to the Sani people, a branch of the industrious and brave Yi minority. As born singers and dancers, the Sani people are also skilled in embroidery. Their folklore and culture are colorful and multifarious, backed up by a long history. The natural spectacle is made all of them more alluring by the Sani people, whose peculiar habits and customs never fail to keep the visitors mesmerized. On the 24th of the sixth lunar month, the Stone Forest attracts large crowds of visitors from at home and abroad who come to join the Sani people in celebrating the Torch Festival.

Opening Hours: 8:00 -- 17:00

Ticket Price: 80 CNY

Location: Lunan County, Kunming City (100 km away from the city center)

Transportation: Shuttle bus from Kunming Railway Station (2 hours), special tour train (1.5 hours) and tour bus will bring you here.
　　
 

Having witness 1200 years of changes since the completion in Tang Dynasty (618-907), Yuantong Temple, the oldest and largest temple in Yunnan, enjoys the popularity among the Southeast Aisan area. It is also a Buddhism temple in Kunming where the Yunnan Provincial and the city’s Buddhism Commission are based.

Around the Yuantong Temple, picturesque landscapes are common scenes. Towering old trees are flourishing, running streams are clear, steep cliffs are mysterious and even the clouds over the skies are amazingly wonderful. Inside the temple, ancient architectures are magnificent, antique designs are exquisite and invaluable historic relics are marvelous. All of the scenes out and inside the temple make a peaceful and charming place for tourists and pilgrims.

The pavilion is furnished in an elegant manner and is invested with a tone of antiquity. Walking along a stone bridge from the Octagonal Pavilion the tourist will come to the "Daxon Temple". The roof-free of the temple is entwined with two big dragons, carved with surpassing workmanship and showing a great vividness that provides the tourists a rare artistic pleasure.

In the temple are numerous scenic spots, and a pool reserved for setting captive fish free. Yuantong Temple is one of the most important sites in the region for Buddhist ceremonies. On the first and 15th of each lunar month, people gather here to take part in all kinds of Buddhist services. The temple is particularly crowded during the Tomb Sweeping Festival. There is also a good vegetarian restaurant on the premises serving lunch and dinner.

Opening Hours: 8:00 -- 18:00

Ticket Price: 10 CNY

Location: No. 30, Yuantong Street, Kunming City

Transportation: Bus No. 101 from railway station and bus No. 4 and 59 from the city center will bring you here (1 CNY).
 

On the side of Dianchi Lake in the western suburbs of Kunming, locates the marvelous West Hills that is up to 2500 meters above sea level. Seen from a distance, West Hill looks like a lying beauty by the lake with the hair dipping into the lake, so the Western Hills wins the nickname of the "A Sleeping Beauty Hills". With vast area of forests, West Hill is a lovely forest park where you can have a pleasant walk.

West Hill is very beautiful with flourishing trees, blooming flowers, green grasses and serene surroundings. West Hill has enjoyed great popularity for its beautiful and unique natural scenery since ancient time and was renowned as the" the most beautiful place in Yunnan". Legend goes that at ancient time locals mistook a phoenix for Jade Chicken and called the hill Jade Chicken Hill. The hill also called Lying Buddhist Hill for its resemblance of a sculpture of a lying Buddha.

West Hill has become a popular attraction with many scenic spots, known for stone sculptures on the cliff that are represented by the Dragon Gate, which took 72 years to complete. Tourists can take a bird-eye view of the grand Dianchi Lake from the spot of the Dragon Gate. On the arrival of the spring, the locals will gather here to hold a Song Festival by singing the folk songs, playing dragon and lion show and enjoying the stunningly beautiful scenery around.

In addition, Sanqing Pavilion, a Daoist temple, with marvelous stone inscriptions, and Dragon Gate (Longmen), a collection of Daoist caves and sculptures, will provide you an amazingly visual experience on the longstanding Daoist culture and the rarely seen Daoist classics.

Opening Hours: 9:00 -- 18:00

Ticket Price:
20 CNY for the park entrance
30 CNY for the Dragon Gate

Location: in the western suburban of Kunming City

Transportation: Bus No. 6 and 51 from Kunming city center will bring you here.

A peaceful winding pathway among the flourishing forests will lead you to the mysterious Huating Temple that is one of the grander Buddhist Temples in the region with a history of over 900 years. The repairs and reconstruction make the Huating Temple more attractive and shinning.

An ancient bell tower towers in to the sky with most part hiding among the bamboo groves, which is the most outstanding symbol of the Huating Temple and the sound of which at every evening makes the temple more peaceful. In addition, the Great Hall, Heavenly Hall and Guanyin Tower, Yuhua Terrace and some other ancient buildings of characteristic antique styles bring more charms and attractiveness for your expedition.

Around the Huating Temple, picturesque landscapes are common scenes. Towering old trees are flourishing, running streams are clear, steep cliffs are mysterious and even the clouds over the skies are amazingly wonderful. Inside the temple, ancient architectures are magnificent, statuses of Buddha are shinning and invaluable historic relics are marvelous. All of the scenes out and inside the temple make a peaceful and charming place for tourists and pilgrims.

Opening Hours: 9:00 -- 18:00

Ticket Price: 40 CNY

Location: in the western suburban of Kunming City

Transportation: Bus No. 6 from Kunming city center will bring you here.

 

Around the magnificent Grand View Pavilion (Daguanlou), one of the top ten pavilions in China, picturesque sceneries will make you have no idea about with which part I should take photos. The flourishing trees provides a good resort to kill the heat in summer, next to which the well-designed fantastic rockeries, the gorgeous pavilions, the mini bridge over the rushing clear stream and the antique style corridors are so awesome that tourists may feel reluctant to leave.

For the entire view of the beautiful Tien Lake, Grand View Pavilion is a good choice. Built in the year of 1828, the wooden Grand View Pavilion shows a strong antique flavor of Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). For the people who have passion for the Chinese couplets, the longest couplet in the history of China with 180 Chinese characters must be a feast of eyes. Besides, there are three stone pavilions in the lake in front of the tower, which were built following the sight Three Pool Reflecting the Moon in the West Lake.

On the night of The Mid-Autumn Festival, it is customary for people in the town to flock here to enjoy the beauty of the moon and flowers. On that night one can see the lake shimmering like silver, the pavilion's flying cornices silhouetted against the star-lit sky, the trees and arbours looming in the shadows while the flowers are shedding their aroma in the moonlight. The pavilion itself is decorated with colorful illuminations. The whole place is indeed a most enchanting sight.

Opening Hours: 8:30 -- 19:30

Ticket Price:
10 CNY for the park
2 CNY for the Grand View Pavilion

Location: No. 72, Daguan Road, Kunming

Transportation: Bus No. 4, 22, 52, 95 and 100 and taxi (15 CNY) will bring you here.

Hailed as the pearl on the Highland of Yunnan, Tien Lake, together with mountains around makes a picture of landscapes, is the very center of the scenic spots in Kunming. The sceneries around Tien Lake are so amazingly fantastic that tourists may feel reluctant to leave.

Around the Tien Lake, the historic relics Stone Age and the ancient emperor tomb will tell you how the culture grew up in this cradle. On the shore of the Tien Lake, West Hill, ancient town, old temple and magnificent pagoda will be the good resorts for you expedition. In addition, the characteristic villages with pure and featured customs will attract your attention. For natural landscapes, the popular Lakeside Park and the flourishing Guanyin Mount are perfect choices.

Dian Lake (Dianchi), the sixth largest freshwater lake in China, also known as Kunming Lake or Kunming Pond (Kunmingchi), was formed by the subsidence of a fault zone. Formed by geological faults and subsidence, the lake occupies an area of about 340 square kilometers. The picturesque lake, dotted with sails, appears green, boundless and shining with ripples.

It would be a pretty cozy time to take a walk along the shore of the lake where the water is as peace as a mirror, while the willows are winging with the breeze and the beach is embracing soft sands and pleasant weather.

Opening Hours: the whole day

Ticket Price:
Free for Tien Lake
8 CNY for Haigeng Park

Location: in the southwest area of Kunming

Transportation: Bus No. 24 and 44 will bring you here.

 

Covering a vast area of 9,000,000 m2, the Yunnan Ethnic Village consists of 26 minorities of various amazing characteristics. Surrounded by the West Hills, Grand View Park and many other picturesque landscapes, Ethnic Village provides a good resort for your expedition.

Along each part of this big village, the well-arranged small villages are of different flavors, among which the cottages are designed lovely true to the real. Traveling along the villages, you will fall in love with the colorful and amazing culture, customs and religious principles in daily life. In addition, rushing streams and winding pathway linking the villages and the gorgeous corridors and pavilions decorating the peaceful villages are the hiding sceneries. By comparison, the trees along the steams and the flowers over the villages are adorably charming no matter when you travel here.

If your tour schedule falls on the folk festivals, it will be pretty funny and exciting. March Street Festival celebrated by Bai minority on 15th of lunar March, Water-sprinkling Festival celebrated by Dai minority on 13th of lunar April, Torch Festival celebrated by Yi minority on 24th of lunar June, Sword-ladder Climbing Festival celebrated by Lisu minority on 8th of the lunar February and many other local festivals in memory of various great people or events will bring you into a different experience of local customs.

Of course, the characteristic entertainments, such as the elephant performance, the cableways, the entertainments on water, the self-help pottery making and the flavorful local dishes and snacks from different minorities, which will make your tour among the harmonious villages more interesting and amazing.

Opening Hours: 8:30 -- 17:30

Ticket Price:
70 CNY from 8:00 -- 18:00
50 CNY after 19:00 at evening
Half fare for the individual student
Free for the kids below 1.1 m, the disable, the people older than 65 years

Location: No. 1310, Dianchi Road, Kunming

Transportation: Bus No. A1, 24 and 44 and taxi (15 CNY from the city center) will bring you here.
 

With waters embracing and green trees relaying, the miniature of Dai village covers an area of 18,000 m2. The typical architecture style, stilt-style buildings (Diaojiaolou), is the most outstanding part, the A-letter-like roof of which is a reflection of the local rainy climate. The winding cobble pathways will show you around the splendid white pagoda, the gorgeous wind-rain bridge, the ancient well and the clock tower, all of which are of rice and colorful customs of Dai minority.

Meanwhile, the Dai people have their own rich cultural heritages. The myths, ancient songs, the heroic epic and the narrative poems are indeed their cherished cultural heritages they can be proud of. One of the well-known characteristics is the pavane (peacock dance), that has been enjoying a long reputation at home and abroad. The Dai people treat the peacock as a symbol of the luck, happiness and kind-heart, so they can perform the pavane vividly.

When we talk about the Dai, people always think of the water-sprinkling festival, which is held in the middle of lunar April. It is said that the one who is sprinkled more water will be more lucky and happier. On that day, people will worship the Buddha as well. In addition, the firm religious belief in Buddhism of all the people and the special wedding are the attractive elements as well.

All the fascinating sceneries and customs above can be got here in the miniature village of Dai.

Opening Hours: 8:30 -- 17:30

Ticket Price:
70 CNY from 8:00 -- 18:00
50 CNY after 19:00 at evening
Half fare for the individual student
Free for the kids below 1.1 m, the disable, the people older than 65 years

Location: No. 1310, Dianchi Road, Kunming

Transportation: Bus No. A1, 24 and 44 and taxi (15 CNY from the city center) will bring you here.