Getting Around Yunnan Sheng

It's about 40 miles bus ride from Lijiang to Qiatou (near Tiger Leaping Gorge), at time of this posting cost RMB 30. Flights to Lijiang are usually via Kunming. From Hong Kong, the flight cost about HKD $3000 - 4000.

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When you are at Dali, try not to miss the cruise on the beautiful Erhai Lake where you have a very good view of the lake and its beautiful surroundings and mountains. These cruises are usually very crowded, so do be careful.

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If you want to go up to the famous Jade Dragon Snow Mountain near Lijiang but do not want to do hiking, you can take the cable car. However, be careful of altitude sickness as you will be ascending up very quickly. Most of the tourists will take this route up the mountain.

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In the unlikely event that you travel to the beautiful Shizong County and Nan Pan River in Yunnan Province, you might want to try a boat ride along the Nan Pan. The reason I say it is unlikely you will get here is because this is a very remote part of the province. Right now, the river is still undeveloped, but the town of A Nai Hei on the river promises to become a boom town in a few years once the dirt roads are paved and once the dams are completed. If you are able to get to A Nan Hei (by bus or private car south from the G324 highway), you can hire a boat to take you up or downstream. If you arrive in the Winter, the water level will be very low, and the boatmen will not want to take you very far unless you pay a hefty fee (i.e. RMB1000+). If it is the Summer, you can arrange to take a cruise all the way to the town of Gaoliang or further afield to the Guangxi border. This is a specactular journey that most foreign tourists don't get to do, but the scenary is stunning and the river beautiful.

If you are just in A Na Hei and want to continue moving toward the Guangxi border, you will need to take a boat about 30 minutes downstream just to pick up the dirt road to coninue going. You will have to negotiate fiercely, and it will be difficult if you cannot speak Chinese. I paid the boatman RMB50 to take 3 people and 3 bikes 30 minutes down the river. This was a nice pay day for him, but also represented intense negotiation over 2 rounds on my part. The local price for such a ride would be much cheaper, but you could easily be asked to pay much more than this.

Two men carry tourists in these wood little cabins along the steep slopes of the Tiger Leaping Gorge. I did not try one, but I bet there are cheap! Even if you do not want to tent one, be sure to be harrassed the whole way down and up the trail by the guys begging to give you a lift.

Ah! I think this type of transportation has been my favorite in Yunnan! I did not ride in any, but I found these "cars" very funny looking and sounding!! The engine is completely exposed with the most prominent features being the belt and the popping lid of the cooling fluid reservoir letting boiling water spitting out. Quite a sight, and quite a common one at that!

Given the huge number of bicycles in China, and the fact that these bicycles are generally old and beat-up, you see a lot of these small tire repair shops in towns and cities.
The picture is not great, sorry, but I took it from a moving bus, so...

Taking a night train might spare you a day ride of bus in the red dust of Yunnan. I took the one from Kunming to Dali. It left at 9:30 pm and arrived at 4:00 am. In other words the night was too short! The people liked to play cards and talk but I could start sleeping around 11 with ear plugs. It was really quiet after midnight.

There are 3 categories you can pick from, cheap to expensive and luxury. I was, I believe (I did not take the tickets myself!), in the medium category with 4 to 6 bunks per cabin with no door. It was very clean, with sheets, pillow and blanket provided, and all a non-smoking area. However, as people smoke at the ends of the car, the smell got in the air system anyway, without counting diesel smells when the train was in tunnels. There is no room for big suitcases.There was one toilet and 3 sinks (the bathroom) per car and not separated between men and woman. The sinks were basically along the corridor. Everything was reasonably clean for the amount of people using it all night.