8 Days Yunnan Small Group Tour to Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, Shangri-La

Are you planing a cheap Yunnan Tour? Choose this Yunnan group tour including the cities: Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-La. In these cities, you will visit Kunming Stone Forest, Dali Old Town, Lijiang Old Town, Lijiang Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Tiger Leaping Gorge, and Shangri-La Songzanlin Monastery. All of them are famous attractions in Yunnan. You can also experience the culture of Yis, Naxis, Bais, and Tibetan minorities. If you want to visit highlights of Yunnan, and you are a budget traveller, why not join other tourists? 8 Days Best Yunnan Small Group Tour is suitable for you.

Highlights:

  • Visit the famous attractions of Yunnan: Stone Forest, Dali Old Town, Lijiang Old Town, Lijiang Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Tiger Leaping Gorge, and Shangri-La Songzanlin Monastery. 
  • Discover the ethnic culture of Yis, Bais, Naxis and Tibetan.
  • Be shocked by the ruggedness and magnificence view of Yunnan.

Brief Itinerary

  • Day 1: Kunming Arrival
  • Day 2: Kunming – Dali
  • Day 3: Dali
  • Day 4: Dali – Lijiang
  • Day 5: Lijiang
  • Day 6: Lijiang – Shangri-La
  • Day 7: Shangri-La
  • Day 8: Shangri-La Departure

Google Map

Detailed Itinerary

Day 1 Arrive in Kunming

Sightseeing and Activities: Arrive in Kunming
Accommodation: Kunming
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Arrive in Kunming, transfer to your hotel in Kunming on your own arrangement. Check in hotel via your name.  (Remark : the airport pick-up is excluded in the tour, no guide and driver service be offered today)

Day 2 Kunming

Sightseeing and Activities: the Stone Forest, Birds and Flowers Market, Green Lake
Accommodation: Kunming
Meals: Lunch

At 09:00 am, meet your tour guide & driver at Jinma Biji Archway and then drive about 85km to the visit the Stone Forest. There is a local saying says that “It will be a waste without visiting the Stone Forest when you visit Kunming”, you can see that Stone Forest is trully loved by local people.

In the afternoon, drive back to Kunming and visit Birds and Flowers Market. Then, stroll around the Green Lake to enjoy the leisure lives of local people.

Day 3 Kunming-Dali

Sightseeing and Activities: Xizhou Morning Market, Zhoucheng Village, Erhai Lake, Three Pagodas
Accommodation:Taiheju Hotel or similar
Meals: Breakfast,Lunch

Erhaiyue Wetland Park in Dali City

In the morning, take the high speed train to Dali (2 hours) to visit Xizhou Town Xizhou Town to fully appreciate Bai-style traditional architectural courtyards, taste their fragrant Three-Course Tea and explore their distinctive culture.Transfer to visit Zhoucheng Village Zhoucheng Village and the Bai people’s Tie-dying cloth workshop where you can take some special souvenir with the Bai ethnic style.

In the afternoon, take a cruise to Jinsuo Islet in Erhai Lake. There are 200 Bai ethnic families around 1000 people in Jinsuo Island.In 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 continue the tour to Three Pagodas of Chongsheng 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.Drive back to your hotel. Service ends.

Day 4 Dali – Lijiang

Sightseeing and Activities: Dali Old Town, Black Dragon Pool, Lijiang Old Town, Baisha Old Town
Accommodation: Baisha Holiday Resort or similar
Meals: Breakfast,Lunch

A recreational town themed love and roses in Lijiang

In the morning, explore Dali Old Town, you can stroll around Dali Old Town to visit Foreigner’s Street, the Ancient City Wall and the Gate Tower.

Then, drive 2 hours to Lijiang to visit Lijiang Old Town which is being reported as one of China Historical Cultural Cities in the whole world’s cultural heritages. Also pay a visit to Black Dragon Pool, the main headwater of the Yushui River which goes through the Old Town. In the late afternoon, transfer to visit Baisha Old Town,  which is an enchanting traditional Naxi style old town.

Day 5 Lijiang

Sightseeing and Activities: Baisha Murals, Yuhu Village, Former Residence of Joseph Rock, Mufu Palace, Wangu Tower
Accommodation:Baisha Holiday Resort or similar
Meals: Breakfast,Lunch

This morning, walk to visit the Baisha Mural about 600 years old, which is a part of the World Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO 1997. Then, drive to Yuhu Village which is located at the foot of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. When walking into this authentic Naxi Village, you’ll see unique stone houses, Naxi ladies dressing in traditional clothes, kids playing, a tranquil Yuhu Lake…Explore leisurely around the village and then get to the Former Residence of Joseph Rock, who was an Austrian-American Botanist came to Lijiang and stayed in Yuhu Village for 27 years and made huge research work on Naxi minority.

Lijiang Ancient Town

In the afternoon, take a leisure walk up the Lion Hill and climb up the 33-meter-tall Wanggu Tower – the landmark building of Lijiang to enjoy a panoramic view of the whole old town and countryside scenery, as well as overlook the magnificent Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in the distance. Later, follow a trip to Ming-dynasty style Mufu Palace, the “Forbidden City” of Lijiang to know Tusi’s ruling history and appreciate Naxi people’s brilliant culture and fine arts.

Option: If you don’t want to choose our Lijiang city tour, you also can take our option of 1 Day Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Group Tour (Price: USD 150/Person extra).

Day 6 Lijiang-100KM-Tiger Leaping Gorge-100KM-Shangri-La

Sightseeing and Activities: the First Bend of Yangtze River, Iron Chain Bridge, Red Army’s Long March Memorial Monument, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Dukezong Ancient Town, Guishan Hill
Accommodation: Shangri-La
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch

From Lijiang, you’ll drive about 60KM to the First Bend of 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, 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.

Then you will enter the Tibetan cultural area and a landscape of barley fields and yaks scattered in the valleys. Walk around Dukezong Ancient Town, an important town of the Ancient Tea-horse Trade Caravan from Yunnan to Tibet and India. Walk 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 7 Shangri-La

Sightseeing and Activities:Songzanlin Monastery,Tibetan Family, Shudu Lake in Pudacuo National Park
Accommodation: Shangri-La
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch

Today, visit the Songzanlin 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.

After that, pay a visit to a Tibetan Family and have Yak Butter lunch in the family.

And afterwards you’ll visit the tranquil 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.

Day 8 Shangri-La Departure

Sightseeing and Activities:
Accommodation: None
Meals: Breakfast

Departure from Shangrila. Service ends.

Recommended Hotels

Destination 5 Star 4 Star 3 Star Hostel
Kunming Softel Hotel Wenhui Hotel Jinhua Hotel T&T Story Hotel
Dali Hilton Dali Resort & Spa Shouyi Boutique Hotel Dali Taihe Boutique Inn Dali Fengxue Gucheng
Lijiang Pullman Hotel Wangfu Hotel Liwang Hotel Baisha Holiday Resort
Shangri-La Shangri-La Hotel Shangri-La Old Town Hotel Moon City Hotel Wu Fu South Yunnan Boutique Inn

Service Included:

  • Admission fees for all of the sightseeing spots listed in the itinerary;
  • Meals as listed in the itinerary;
  • Hotels as listed in the itinerary;
  • Sharing English-speaking tour guide;
  • Sharing vehicle for transfers & sightseeing with skilled driver;
  • Service charge & government taxes;
  • Luggage transfers between airports and hotels;
  • High speed trian tickets from Kunming to Dali (2nd class seats).

Service Excluded:

  • Any arrival and departure international airfares or train tickets;
  • Chinese visa fees;
  • Excess baggage charged by Airlines;
  • Single room supplement;
  • Tips to guides and drivers;
  • Personal expenses and gratuities to service staff;
  • Personal travel accident insurance;
  • All optional programs.