13 Days Yunnan Panorama Tour with Yuanyang Rice Terraces and Dongchuan Red Land
Tour Overview
Have you ever heard about Dongchuan Red Land? The fantastic soil which colored by red is an amazing scene for people who love to take photos about the marvelous...
Code of Tour: YET0000060647
Length of Travel: 13 Day
Destinations of Tour: Kunming-Dongchuan-Shilin-Jianshui-Yuanyang-Mile-Dali-Lijiang-Shangrila
Departure City:
Price of Tour: Request
Type of Tour:
Features of Tour: villages tours Winter tours
Have you ever heard about Dongchuan Red Land? The fantastic soil which colored by red is an amazing scene for people who love to take photos about the marvelous things in the world. Different like many other scenery in China, Dongchuan is more like a palette held by the hand of nature. This tour combines the 8 days Yunnan classic tour with Dongchuan red Land, which is an absolutely amazing itinerary.
The land in Dongchuan and the terraced rice paddies in Yuanyang are the masterpieces cultivated by the industrious ethic groups in the long river of time. The beauties are breathtaking, gorgeous and magnificent! During this superlative visual feast photography tour, you’ll lose yourselves in the peerless scenery and special folk customs.
Highlights:
- Enjoy the charm and beauty of Yuanyang.
- Lose yourself into the magnificence of Dongchuan Red Land.
- Step into ethnic village to meet ethnic people’s culture and life.
Brief Itinerary
- Day 1: Kunming Arrival
- Day 2: Kunming-Dongchuan
- Day 3: Dongchuan-Shilin
- Day 4: Shilin-Jianshui
- Day 5: Jianshui-Yuanyang
- Day 6: Yuanyang
- Day 7: Yuanyang-Mile-Dali
- Day 8: Dali
- Day 9: Dali-Lijiang
- Day 10: Lijiang
- Day 11: Lijiang-Tiger Leaping Gorge-Shangri La
- Day 12: Shangri La
- Day 13: Departure from Shangri La
Detailed Itinerary
Day 1 Kunming Arrival
Sightseeing and Activities:Flowers and Birds Market, the Green Lake
Accommodation: Kunming
Meals: None
You’ll begin your journey to the diverse and captivating province of Yunnan from the capital city, Kunming. Upon arrival at the Kunming International Airport, meet your local guide and transfer to the hotel.
If time permits, you will have a Kunming city tour to visit the Flowers and Birds Market in the downtown of Kunming. You will take a leisurely stroll along the Green Lake, a charming area of teahouses and small boutiques selling handicrafts and beautiful local paintings.
Day 2 Kunming-Dongchuan
Sightseeing and Activities:Dongchuan Photography Sites:Yueliang Tian,Luoxiagou,Jinxiu Yuan,Damakan,Qiannian Gushu
Accommodation: Dongchuan
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
After breakfast, drive from Kunming to Dongchuan (about 3.5 hours) to enjoy the beautiful red land, known as the “Color Palette of the Earth”. Drive along the sky way, you can take photos as you like on the way. Arrive at the Red Land, enjoy the sunset if the weather allows. Recommended photography sites: Yueliang Tian, Luoxiagou, Jinxiu Yuan, Damakan, Qiannian Gushu and so on.
Note: the weather will be comfortable, but please take care that it will be cold in the early morning and evening. When photographing the red land, wide-angle and long-lens are necessary! Please understand that, there is no high-level hotel in Dongchuan, we arrange you on local hotel clean with bath and air-conditioner.
Day 3 Dongchuan-Shilin
Sightseeing and Activities:Dongchuan Photography Sites: Qicai Po,Red Land Daguan,Luosi Wan,Yuepu Ao and Waliang Houses in Xintian Village
Accommodation: Shilin
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
In the morning, enjoy the sunrise (if weather allows) at Damakan; then the colorful Qicai Po, visit Red Land Daguan, Luosi Wan, Yuepu Ao and Waliang Houses and so on in Xintian Village; if the weather allows, you can overlook the Jiaozi Snow Mountain.
After lunch, transfer around 4.5 hours to Shilin County.
Day 4 Shilin-Jianshui
Sightseeing and Activities:Stone Forest, Jianshui Old Town, Chaoyang Gate Tower
Accommodation: Jianshui
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
Drive to visit the Stone Forest. There is a local saying: ‘It is a waste of time not to visit the Stone Forest while visiting Kunming’, which vividly expresses the deep love of the local people toward this world wonder. The quintessential karst landscape makes every tourist lost in the wonder.
Drive to Jianshui (4-5hrs ). You will visit theJianshui Old Townand the Chaoyang Gateway Tower, which was built in Ming Dynasty (1389). It is also known as ‘Miniature Tian’an men’ because the out shape of it is similar to Tian’anmen Square in Beijing.
Day 5 Jianshui-Yuanyang
Sightseeing and Activities:Shuanglong Birdge and Tuanshan Village, the Garden of Family Zhang
Accommodation: Jianshui
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
In the morning, visit Jianshui Confucius Temple, which has a history of 700 years. It is the second largest Confucius Temple in China. Then visit Zhu Family Garden.
After lunch, you will visit Shuanglong Birdge and Tuanshan Village as well as the Garden of Family Zhang in Tuanshan Village. Tuanshan Village is a rare surviving example of an intact-albeit neglected-traditional walled Yunnan village compound in southwestern China, and has been added to the 2005 list of internationally significant sites by the World Memorial Fund for Architecture (WMF), an international fund for the protection of world heritage sites.
In the afternoon, you will transfer to Yuanyang and enjoy the sight of terraced fields of Laohuzui (Tiger Mouth) at sunset.
–Yuanyang is about 300km south of Kunming, renowned for its rice terraces, which claimed as the world’s largest and most spectacular one, crafted out by bare hands by the Hani people one thousand years ago and is still in use today. The rice farmers have had to practice ecology and land preservation centuries before those concepts were widely accepted around the world. Without hard work maintaining the terrace walls and irrigation system, the precious top soil would wash down the hillsides into the rivers.
Day 6 Yuanyang
Sightseeing and Activities:the sunrise view of Duoyishu Rice Terraces, Shengcun Market, Bada Rice Terraces, Qingkou ethnic village, Qingkou Rice Terraces, the sunset of Longshuba Rice Terraces
Accommodation: Yuanyang
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
Today you have a full day to visit the terraces belonging to the Hani and Yi people. These rice terraces – carved out of the mountainsides by generations of Hani people – are said to be among the most magnificent in the world. Get up very early to see the sunrise over the terraces at Duoyi village and then visit the local Hani and Yi people. During the day you will visit different areas of the huge valley to see the amazing engineering and beautiful formations of the terraces. There are lots of rice terraces in Yuanyang, you will choose the most beautiful parts of them to visit.
In the late afternoon, drive back to Xinjie Town, enjoy the sunset view of Longshuba Rice Terraces and villages.
Day 7 Yuanyang-Mile-Dali
Sightseeing and Activities:Jianshui Swallow Cave, Jianshui Ancient Town, Zhu Family Garden, Confucius Temple
Accommodation: Dali
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
After breakfast in the hotel, drive about 4 hours to Mile City and take the speed train to Dali.
you will visit the Ancient Dali Town, walk around the Foreigner Street and enjoy the relax time with local people. After climbing up to the City Wall of Dali, you will have panoramic view of the Erhai Lake.
Day 8 Dali
Sightseeing and Activities:Three pagodas in Chongsheng temple, Erhai lake, Dali Old town
Accommodation: Dali
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
In the morning, you’ll cruise in Erhai Lake by the small boat to the Jinsuo Islet in the east Erhai Lake. There are 200 Bai ethnic families around 1000 people in Jinsuo Island. During Erhai Lake cruise, you will enjoy the green Cangshan Mountain and the Three Pagodas from a far as well as lots of birds and seagulls flying over the lake.
Then go to visit Three Pagodas in Chongshen Monastery which has a history of over 1,800 years located at the foot of Cangshan Mountain facing to the Erhai Lake. Three Pagodas are made of three ancient independent pagodas forming a symmetrical triangle.
At last, you will visit the Ancient Dali Town, walk around the Foreigner Street and enjoy the relax time with local people. After climbing up to the City Wall of Dali, you will have panoramic view of the Erhai Lake.
–Erhai Lake is the largest highland lake next to Dianchi and one of the seven biggest fresh water lakes in China. It means, ‘sea shaped like an ear’, in Chinese. Implying that the lake is ear shaped and as large as a sea,.
Day 9 Dali – Lijiang
Sightseeing and Activities:Xizhou Old Town, Zhoucheng Village, Black Dragon Pond, Dongbu Culture Museum, Lijiang Old Town
Accommodation: Lijiang
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
In the morning, visit the Xizhou Town to fully appreciate Bai-style traditional architectural courtyards, taste their fragrant Three-Course Tea and explore their distinctive culture. Visit Zhoucheng Village and the Tie-dying cloth workshop where you can take some special souvenir with the Bai ethnic style.
Then drive to Lijiang (180km), meeting with your guide and move to visit Black Dragon Pond (Located at the foot of the Xiangshan Mountain (Elephant Hill) north of the city of Lijiang. As the water here is a lucid green color, it gained another name Jade Spring Park (Yuquan Park). There are many distinctive and ravishing sites in the park. Hiding in the lush trees or standing along the liquid pool is the antique and exquisite architectural pieces, which are in the style of Naxi. Visit Dongbu Culture Museum nearby.
Finally explore Lijiang Old Town. Lijiang Ancient Town has a history more than 800 years; it was listed as the World Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO 1997. Here you will see the wonderful wooden architecture of Naxi ethnic people.
Day 10 Lijiang
Sightseeing and Activities:Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Baisha Murals, Baisha Old Town
Accommodation: Lijiang
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
This morning, you will drive about 30KM to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. upon arrival, you will take the sightseeing bus for a short visiting through the Baishuihe River, take the chairlift up to visit Spruce Meadow (3200m ) of 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 Yak Meadow(3700M).
And go to transfer to Baisha Old Town in the late afternoon. Pay a visit to Baisha Murals.
Day 11 Lijiang-Shangri-La
Sightseeing and Activities:The First Bend of Yangze River, Shigu Old Town, The Stone Drum,Tiger Leaping Gorge
Accommodation: Shangri-La
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
From Lijiang, you’ll drive about 60KM to the First Bend on the Yangtze River with imposing gorge scenery, 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.
Visit the Tiger Leaping Gorge(Shangri-La section), 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.
Afternoon, you’ll head for Shangri La, the former Zhongdian which is well known as the paradise destination for every tourist. Check in your hotel after arrival.
Day 12 Shangri-La
Sightseeing and Activities:Songzanlin monastery, Pudcuo national park, Dukezong Old Town
Accommodation: Shangri-La
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 which 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.
Visit Dukezong Tibetan Ancient Town in the late afternoon, climb up to the top of Guishan Hill or tortoise Hill, you will see the largest Prayer Wheel of the world and have a panoramic view of shangrila county and Dukezong Ancient Town.
Day 13 Departure from Shangri-La
Sightseeing and Activities:Departure from Shangri-La
Accommodation:
Meals: Breakfast
Free at leisure before be transferred to Shangri-La airport for the departure flight.
Recommended Hotels
| City | 5 Star | 4 Star | 3 Star | Hostel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kunming | Crown Plaza Kunming City Centre | Wenhui Hotel | Baiyun Hotel | T&T Story Hotel |
| Dongchuan | / | Shanju Hotel | Spring And Autumn Hotel | / |
| Dali | Hilton Dali Resort And Spa | Landscape Hotel | Gnosis Hotel | Dali Fengxue Gucheng |
| Lijiang | InterContinental Lijiang Ancient Town Resort | Wangfu Hotel | Louwailou Hotel | Baisha Holiday Resort |
| Shangrila | Hylandia Shangrila | Zhaxidele Hotel | Shenqu Hotel | Wu Fu South Yunnan Boutique Inn |
Service Included:
1.Admission fees for all of the sightseeing spots listed in the itinerary;
2.Meals as listed in the itinerary;
3.Hotels as listed in the itinerary;
4.Private English-speaking tour guide and vehicle for transfers & sightseeing;
5.Service charge & government taxes;
6. Luggage transfers between airports and hotels;
7. Two bottles of mineral water each day;
Service Excluded:
1.Any arrival and departure international airfares or train tickets;
2.Chinese visa fees;
3.Excess baggage charged by Airlines;
4.Single room supplement;
5.Tips to guides and drivers;
6.Personal expenses and gratuities to service staff.
7.Personal travel accident insurance;
8.All optional programs;
9.Domestic air tickets fares with airport tax and fuel extra fee based on economy class mentioned in the program.
