We took 7.10am morning AirAsia flight from Johor Bahru to Kuala Lumpur International Airport KLCC-LCCT. It took around 30 minutes to reach KLLC LCCT airport. While waiting for the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Kunming Changshui airport, we rest and ate our lunch noodle at Noodle stall. The bowl is very big and attracted my eyesight. Surprisingly the noodle inside the big bowl is pathetically small portion. It’s noodle portion is like the noodle we normally eat at street hawker, and the noodle taste is so so.
1.10pm is our anticipating timing. We onboard to AirAsia flight to start our journey for Kunming Dali Lijiang holiday trip. It took us 4 hours to arrive Kunming Changshui airport. We are approved by a local travel agent to offer transfer service from Changshui airport to Wuhua prefecture where our pre-book apartment located at RMB120. It took 40 minutes to reach there. She is nice and politely (recommended). She is Ms Li and reachable at (0)13908875542. Her travel agency does provide couch service and tour guide service. My apartment is located at higher education area where a lot of local universities located there. Due to lack communication, my apartment located at 6th floors and the fact that all apartments below 7 storey in China have no lift. The owner do have lower floor apartment too at the same building too bad were occupied.
The owner is kind enough and uses his own car to bring us to look for accommodation nearby. The owner Mr Wei Jie is very helpful and informatics (highly recommended). The place is good and suitable if you are looking for more quiet location than hustle bustle city to stay and for family. Mr Wei Jie is reachable at 15368113109 (can use WeiXin). His apartment did receive Westerner tourists. Those tourists always stay for 2 weeks to 1 month. The light system inside the apartment staircase is very energy friendly. It will sense the sound (sound sensitive)to light up the lamp bulb.
For the 3 days in Kunming, we visited Cui Hu (CuiHu Lake), Yunnan Nationalities Village and Daguanlou. Cui Hu and Yunnan Nationalities Village are worth to visit, but “Daguanlou” in my view are not worth to go in my view. We took taxi for RMB 30 from Daguanlou to Yunnan Nationalities Village with 20 minutes of journey.
Yunnan Nationalities Village entry fee is RMB 90. However you can buy it at RMB 70 through hotel staff at Kunming Yicheng hotel next to Yunnan Nationalities Village. Inside Yunnan Nationalities Village have 26 minority villages. There have performance events everyday as scheduled. Since its inception at year 1992 Feb, it has display to the tourists the vivid living style of these minorities in Yunnan, their building structure and architecture, their customs and cultures, their clothes, religious, and minorities characteristic’s dance and sing.
Taken area of 1270 acres, Yunnan Nationalities Village is well known locally and oversea for its cultural theme park. It is China tourism board designated golden period travel destination. It is also first batch of China first grade AAAA tourism scenic area.
It is recommended to visit here since morning. With the performance presented, it can takes up whole day inside Yunnan Nationalities Village. If not watch all performance and have more time, you can visit Yunnan Nationalities Museum which is located just opposite the Yunnan Nationalities Village.
Personal expense:
Johor-Kuala Lumpur by AirAsia: RM 50
Kuala Lumpur – Kunming by AirAsia: RM 400 (9 months book in advance)
Accommodation: 1 night Apartment: RMB 158 ; 2 nights hotels: RMB 337
Yunnan Nationalities Village ticket: RMB 70
Airport transfer: RMB 120 ; Internal transportation: RMB10
The fact of Kunming: Due to its location where all year round’s mild weather within 2 Celcius to 26 Celcius, Kunming is dubbed as Spring City. It becomes hot spot for local Chinese and Westerner to escape from tremendous weather from their own country or province during summer season and winter season. Kunming, Dali and Li Jiang off-peak season are March and April.
Al the apartments below 7 storey in China are within lift including hotels. However, some hotels which meet the government requirements are upgraded with lift after applied to government. So you must ask the receptionist if the hotel have lift unless you don’t mind to take staircase to go up to your room at 6th floor.
Due to strict restriction and rules enforced by Chine government to protect foreigner tourists, not all hotels or inn or accommodation are allowed to rent out to foreigner. So you must careful to check if the hotel is allowed for foreigner or not when you do the booking. A lot of complain hotline signboard also printed and display at obvious public location and inside shops.
The streets at Kunming, Dali, and Li Jiang are clean. Early 4am, the cleaner start to clean up the streets to maintain the street’s cleanliness for the whole day. The road traffic condition is still quite messy. Many drivers still not abide to traffic light laws and code of conduct. Since 2012, government starts to implement point penalty system like Singapore. Total 12 point are given and deducted based on the type of violation drivers have made. 12 point is deducted directly if you drive after drink. The point penalty system is introduced aimed to reduce the accidents that happen frequently in the China.
Kunming humidity is low and dry. It will let our lips and skin easily chapped. We should prepare the body lotion and lip balm in advance before travel there and apply it when we are there.
The internal transportation fee within the city are cheap, ranging from RMB 1 without air-con to RMB 2 with air-con. The fee is regardless of how many stops you are taking, as long as it is within its route.
2 April -> We set off to Lijiang from Kunming railway station at 9.50pm. It is a hard sleeping seat. It took 8 hours to reach Lijiang railway station at early morning. The weather at Lijiang is very cold at roughly 8-10 Celcius early morning. The bus station bench made by marble is so cool. We take public bus Road 4 (number 4) to Lijiang Ancient Town. Due to construction at the bus stops area, we stopped at 2 station in advance and walked into Lijiang ancient Town North Gate where the Waterwheel and YuHe Square located. The distance took around 20 minutes.
Lijiang main minority is Naxi tribal. We saw many local tourists came from China other province visited Lijiang batch by batch non-stop. I seldom saw Westerner tourists may be because it is off-peak season now. I can’t imagine how crowded it is if stand there at peak period season.
The central of Lijiang Ancient Town is Si Fang Square. Si Fang Square attracted many tourists throng to there to enjoyed local food at the food court there and rest at the public square. Si Fang Square are surrounding by many shops stretch out to different small lanes. If you like to taste local food, the varieties of local food will satisfy your taste bud. Inside the lane between Si Fang Square and Yuhe Square lies the Bar Street which attracted many youngsters to enjoy drink, dance and sing there. The most famous bar and disco here is One Meter Sunshine (一米阳光). Lijiang is renowned for its favourable opportunity for an encounter with a beautiful woman. It is paradise for single either guy or lady to find short term partner. So, brighten up your eye and seize the opportunity here in Lijiang Ancient Town.
The entry ticket to Lijiang Ancient Town is RMB 80. However, no authority is there collect the money and no enforcement (it might be different at peak season period). If you are going Yulong Snow Mountain, then you need to buy and show this ticket in order to access to Yulong Snow Mountain together with the ulong Snow Mountain ticket.
The next day we proceed to Shuhe Ancient Town. Shuhe Ancient Town located 6 km away from Lijiang Ancient Town. It takes 15 minutes to take mini van (RMB 3 at Fuhui Market) or taxi (RMB30) to go there. Shuhe Ancient Town is more tranquil and lesser tourists than Lijiang Ancient Town. It gain its popularity in recent years. The building in Shuhe Ancient Town has 800 years of history.
The entry ticket to Shuhe Ancient Town is RMB 50. However, no authority is there to collect the entry fee. You can just access into Shuhe Ancient Town through main door without paying the entry fee. It might be strict at peak season may be.
Shuhe Ancient Town is divided into Old Town and New Town. The main door where we access into Shuhe is new town. Old town only accessible by walk, bicycle or horse carriage from new town. It is more remote inside the Shuhe Ancient Town. The most famous stone bridge built during Ming Dynasty are located at Old Town. Due to horse carriage transport, Shuhe streets have horse excrement randomly, so it is advisable to be careful when going out at night.
The culture of Naxi minority is Dongba culture. Naxi language is based on pictogram / hieroglyph. The language has been used for over 1000 years. Recent years Lijiang government has add in this language into their education syllabus for local schools. Naxi minority religious are belief on polytheism.
Shuhe Ancient Town and Lijiang Ancient Town are important town of Old Tea-Horse Road / Southern Silk Road. According to the horse carriage owner information, Sichuan and Yunnan are the two important Old Tea-Horse Road / Southern Silk Road that linking northward to Tibet and southward to Myanmar and Southeast Asia.
Lijiang Acient Town and Shuhe Ancient Town are listed in World Cultural Heritage and China’s AAAA grade of tourism scenic destination.
Some accommodations in Shuhe Ancient Town are operated by external province Chinese instead of local Naxi minority. Many of Naxi people choose to rent out their courtyard at RMB 100,000 to RMB 200,000 yearly to these operators and move out from there to stay outside of Shuhe Ancient Town.
Personal expenses:
Kunming – Lijiang: RMB 152 by train
Shuhe horse carriage: RMB 80
Lijiang Hotel: RMB180 with air-con
Shuhe Hotel: RMB 140 with air-con
Internal transportation: RMB 10
5 April is the start of our last destination trip. We took 5pm train from Lijiang to Dali Ancient Town. The journey spends 2 hours 30 minutes with a sitting seat. We reach Dali railway station at 7.30pm and directly took public bus Road 8 (number 8) outside of Dali Railway station to Dali Ancient Town. The journey took us 45 minutes.
Dali is a maternal society. It means the owner in the home is woman. Woman become the breadwinner and house chores doer. Dali woman are the pillar of family to generate income and support whole family. Guy is marrying to and stay at wife house.
Dali is well known for its Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake. Both are renowned for the given name of “Silver Cangshan Mountain, Jade Erhai Lake”. The peak of Cangshan Mountain is all year round covered by snow at above sea level of 4122 meter. Erhai lake is crystal clear for the all year round like shining jade. Dali latitude is stands at 2000 meter above sea level. In this height, it is suitable for the plantation of tea. In Dali, sea level within 2000m to 2500m are used for tea plantation, 2500m to 3000m is full of valuable dioscorea opposite. Tea produced here in Dali are well known to all over the world especially tea Pu-er. Sea level above 3000m in Cangshan Mountain contains rich silver mining. Overall of Cangshan Mountain in Dali Anciend Town and Dali itself which stretch over 53km are blessed with natural resources and fertile soil for tea plantation, dioscorea opposite and silver mine.
Bai minority is the main tribal in the Dali. They get the name of Bai (means white) is because their daily activities and attire closely related to white color: Stay at building painted with white color and ink and wash painting, eat rice noodle(which is white color), wear white clothes, and wear silver bracelet and silver necklace.
Bai minority called their lady as Jin Hua (gold flower in translation) and guy as Ah Peng. For those Ah Peng who is more fat and white is more favourable by Jin Hua and enjoys better status. Those who are wear spectacles also gain popularity within Jin Hua because wearing spectacles are regarded as scholar and intellectual.
Bai minority still preserve their customs and cultures. Most of Ah Peng are skillful in inscription and engrave at jade, silver, marble, wood and plum. Ah Peng also good in dance and sing. The money that Ah Peng earned will give to their wife to keep and manage. Three taste tea (三道茶) are Bai minority sole characteristic in their tea culture. First cup of tea is in bitter taste, second cup of tea is in sweet taste, and the third cup of tea is mixed with bitter and sweet taste. It describe the Bai minority livelihood in their whole life, start with bitter taste when struggle outside during young to earn money and raise up family, then sweet taste when the children is growing up and the livelihood are stable without economy burden, and lastly mix taste to reflect back the past memory of bitter and sweet encounter.
Due to lack of Yunnan government investment to Dali, the sources of economy growth at Dali depend on tobacco, arts and crafts, and tourism. Based on tour guide, most of the tobacco tax are taken by government and not used for development in Dali. Local Dali minority depends on arts and crafts and tourism as the engine of growth and income generation. The income and tax generated by tourism and arts and crafts are used to support local society, family and sustain the growth and development of Dali.
Personal expense:
Lijiang – Dali: RMB36
Dali – Kunming: RMB105
Accommodation: RMB180 x 3 days
1 day tour to Erhai and Cangshan: RMB 100 (not recommended, actual scenic area tour only 2 hours out of 8 hours)
Internal transport: RMB 10
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| Budget Airline AirAsia |
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| Dali Ancient Town |
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| Shuhe Ancient Town |
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| Cangshan Snow Mountain |
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| Naxi minority and Dongba culture |
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| Accommodation |
