13 Days Best Yunnan Flowers Trip to Snow Mountains between May and June

Sightseeing and Activities: Green Lake Park
Accommodation: Kunming
Meals: Lunch

Welcome to Kunming, the Spring City of China! Upon arrival at the Kunming airport/train station, the local tour guide and driver will meet you in the arrival hall and escort you to your hotel. You'll begin your journey to the diverse and captivating province of Yunnan from the capital city, Kunming.

After a short rest, stroll in the most picturesque park in Kunming urban area - the Green Lake Park, a charming area of tea houses and small boutiques selling handicrafts and beautiful local paintings. Here you can share the happiness of local people’s doing tai chi, performing local opera, and other vibrant activities. If you visit the park in November or December, you will see the grandeur of huge flocks of red-beaked seagulls that migrate there from Siberia.

Sightseeing and Activities: Kunming Botanic Garden, Dali Ancient Town
Accommodation: Dali
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

In the morning, visit Kunming Botanic Garden where you can see the plants and flowers of Yunnan. Four and half hours drive to Dali in the afternoon. Afterwards, visit Dali Ancient Town which is 13 kilometers away from Xiaguan in Dali City. It can be dated back to the year 1382 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and has been among the top listed historical cities of China since 1982. With Erhai Lake to the east, and Cangshan Mountain to the west, its grand city wall, traditional Bai ethnic minority folk houses and marvelous scenery have been attracting many visitors. The tour in Dali Ancient Town will include the Foreigners Street, the Gate Towers and the Ancient City Wall. 

Sightseeing and Activities: Cangshan Mountain
Accommodation: Dali
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

One-day trip in Dali to visit the Cangshan Mountain. We will drive up the hill with some stops to see the flowers of the area. The Cangshan Mountain, also known as Diancangshan, is named after its verdant forests. The Canshan Mountain is a chain of the Yunlin Mountain of the Hengduan Mountains. Starting at Eryuan in the north and ending at Xiaguan in the south, it measures 42 km in length and 25 km in width. Overlooking the Erhai Lake in the east, the Cangshan Mountain is of great splendors and the scenery is unique. The Cangshan Mountain comprises 19 peaks, the highest of which is Malong Peak at an elevation of 4122 meters above sea level. It is snow-capped all the year round with a moraine lake on the summit. There are 18 brooks running down the 19 peaks. The snow-melted water between every two peaks rushes down and converges into the Erhai Lake. Cangshan Mountain boasts of a rich vegetation of numerous rate flowers, trees, and other plants. It is called a national alpine botanical garden. You can find many alpine flowers, of which azaleas are the most famous in the Cangshan Mountain.

Sightseeing and Activities: Shaxi Old Town, Mt. Laojunshan
Accommodation: Lijiang
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

This morning, drive to visit Shaxi Old Town. Shaxi is the last remaining ancient market town of its kind on the Tea & Horse Caravan Trail. This trail is a trading route that connected Tibet, Sichuan, and Yunnan to countries in southeast Asia, also called the Southern Silk Road. The World Monuments Fund (WMF) has listed Shaxi as one of the 100 most endangered sites in the world in 2001.

Drive to Mt. Laojunshan.  It has virtually been untouched by any urban development. This place covers an area of 2,340 square km and is approximately 93 km west of Lijiang City. This mountain has become a well-known spot in Yunnan for many species of plants like peony, rhododendron and begonia.

Sightseeing and Activities: Shigu Town, Tiger Leaping Gorge
Accommodation: Tina's House
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

In the morning, spend more time in the mountain, and then drive to Shigu Town, 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.

Then go far to  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.

Tonight you will have overnight at Tina's House.

Sightseeing and Activities: Haba Village, trekking
Accommodation: Lijiang
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Today we will embark on a beautiful, but demanding hike from Haba Village (2600m) to base camp of Haba Snow Mountain(4100m). The trek is approx 15km and will take around 6-8 hours. We will pass by yak pastures and azalea forests and enjoy a picnic lunch on the way. We will reach the base camp in the afternoon.

--The Haba Mountain, with its main peak being 5,396 meters in height, stands 120 kilometers to the southeast of the seat of Shangri-La. And its domain of 21,908 hectares, covered with a vertical distribution of forests, is rich in wildlife and plant resources. The nature reserve extends 22 kilometers from south to north and 19 kilometers from east to west. About half of the 13,000 kinds of plants in Yunnan could be found in here. The primeval forest serves as the valuable scientific research base. In addition, there are more than 900 varieties of rare medicinal materials, more than 25 species of protect animals at the national grade and about 50 kinds of azalea.

Sightseeing and Activities: Trekking
Accommodation: Lijiang
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Set out in the early morning (4:00am) for the 4km (5 hour) hike to the top of Haba Snow Mountain (5396m), passing over two snowy slopes before reaching the top. It is not a technical trek but requires a lot of energy as the altitude is high and the slopes are long. From the top you will get spectacular views of the Tiger Leaping Gorge 3500 vertical meters below!!! Descend for 3 hours down to the Base Camp for overnight stay.

Note: If the weather does not permit us to climb Haba Mountain, we will give up the climbing. If you do not want to climb to the top of Haba Snow Mountain, we will cut this day Haba Mountain climbing tour, and trek down to Haba Village in this day.

Sightseeing and Activities: Black Sea Lake
Accommodation: Haba Snow Mountain Hostel
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Enjoy the sunrise over Haba Mountain. Spend the morning doing a circular route of approx. 3-4 hours treking to Black Sea Lake or Heihai (4170 m) in front of the Haba Mountain, through meadows, forests and rivers. In the late afternoon, arrive at Haba Village. Stay at Haba Snow Mountain Hostel.

Sightseeing and Activities: Baishuitai Terraces
Accommodation: Shangrila
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Drive to the Baishuitai Terraces and carry on to Shangri-La via some mountain passes at 4000m. We will make some stops to see different kinds of Azaleas and many other flowers on the way. Check in hotel in Shangrila.

Sightseeing and Activities: Songzanlin Monastery, the Bita Lake & Shudu Lake, Tibetan family visit
Accommodation: Shangrila
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

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.

And afterwards you'll visit the tranquil Bita Lake & 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. Have a visit of the local Tibetan family.

Sightseeing and Activities: Lijiang Old Town, Black Gragon Pool, Shuhe Old Town
Accommodation: Lijiang
Meals: Breakfast, 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).

Then visit the Black Dragon Pool(also Heilongtan), or Jade Spring(Yuquan) Park is the main headwater of the Yushui River which goes through the Old Town. People believe that the gods of the Naxi people are living in the chestnut woods, beside the mouth of springs, behind the carved doors and below the bridges. The springs come from the god-protected mountains and gather in this place and finally form the dragon pool. Then water goes down a waterfall and becomes the Yuhe River, pouring life to the Old Town.

Afterwards, visit Shuhe Old Town. It is not only a very important town in the Tea-horse Road that leads to Tibet, but also a famous cobbler town. The cobblers here are as skillful as those in Italy. The leather products that they make are the best seller in Tea-horse Road. Because of trading activities along this road, the Naxi people gradually gave up the nomadic life and settled for farming and later started to do business.

Sightseeing and Activities: Yulong Snow Mountain, Yuhu Village and the Former Residence, Baisha Village and Murals
Accommodation: Lijiang
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Enjoy the sunrise of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and Lijiang Ancient Town in the morning, drive about 30KM to Ganhaizi Meadow(3100M), you will take the sightseeing bus for a short visiting through the Baishuihe River, take the chairlift up to visit Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The cableway will be arranged according to the condition of the mountain. You will hike around 1 hour in the original forest in Spruce Meadow(3200M).

After lunch, you you'll visit Yuhu Village and the Former Residence of Joseph Rock who was an Austria-American botanist and explorer, lived in Yuhu village and other places in that region from 1922 to 1949. He was also a naturalist and Photographer, and the first foreign scholar to introduce Lijiang ethnic culture to the western world.

Stroll through Baisha Old Town, which is an enchanting traditional Naxi style old town. Visit the Baisha Mural about 600 years old, which is one part of the World Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO 1997.

Sightseeing and Activities: Departure from Lijiang
Accommodation:
Meals: Breakfast

Departure from Lijiang. Service ends.