Super Deluxe 8 Days Yunnan Classic Tour with Aman Resort Lijiang and Banyan Tree Shangrila Experience

The tour for Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-La is very classical in Yunnan Province. 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. That is what people is looking for Shangri-la. Also you’ll stay in Aman hotel in Lijiang and Banyan tree hotel in Shangrila to experience the super deluxe tour .

Highlights:

  • Visit the highlights of Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-La..
  • Discover the different ethnic culture of Yunnan.
  • Experience the super stay at Aman Resort Lijiang and Banyan Tree Shangrila.

Brief Itinerary

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

Google Map

Detailed Itinerary

Day 1 Arrive in Kunming

Sightseeing and Activities: Arrive in Kunming
Accommodation: Kunming
Meals:

The Green Lake Park(Cuihu Park) in Kunming

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.

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

Sightseeing and Activities: Stone Forest, Flowers and Birds Market
Accommodation: Kunming
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

You will drive 86 km to the Stone Forest. An old local saying says that ‘If you have visited Kunming without seeing the Stone Forest, you have wasted your time.’ Truly, the Stone Forest is one of the most important attractions of Yunnan. After lunch drive back Kunming to visit the Flowers and Birds Market in the downtown.

Day 3 Kunming-Dali(air)

Sightseeing and Activities:the Three-pagoda in Chongshen Temple, Erhai Lake Cruise, Xizhou Town, Zhoucheng Village, Ancient Dali Town
Accommodation: Dali
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

The Three Pagodas and Chongsheng Monastery in Dali

Take the morning flight to Dali, a historically and culturally famous city of China, which is renowned for her historical interest and Bai ethnic culture. After landing, you visit the 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.

After lunch, you’ll cruise in Erhai Lake by the small boat to the Jinsuo Islet in the east Erhai Lake. There are around 200 Bai ethnic families in Jinsuo Island. During Erhai Lake cruise, enjoy the green Cangshan Mountain and the Three Pagodas from afar as well as lots of birds and seagulls flying over the lake in winter times.

After landing, head for 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 Bai people’s Tie-dying cloth workshop where you can take some special souvenir with the Bai ethnic style. At last, 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 4 Dali-Lijiang

Sightseeing and Activities:Shibanshan mountain, Shaxi old town
Accommodation: Aman Resort Lijiang
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

In the morning ,drive from Dali to Shibaoshan mountain.The most prominent sight at ShibaoShan is the Stone Bell Temple with its 139, well preserved stone carvings. These magnificent stone carvings date as far back as 1300 years to the once powerful Nanzhao Kingdom during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The carvings are testimony for a time when Mahayana Buddhism from Tibet started to spread in the Yunnan area. Another interesting sight is the ‘Suspending Temple’, also called the Baoxiang Temple. The Baoxiang temple was built on a ledge of a nearly vertical cliff and can only be reached by a long flight of stairs. On a clear day the views from the Baoxiang Temple over the Shaxi valley are simply magnificent.

After lunch drive to visit Shaxi Old Town, then drive back to Lijiang.

Day 5 Lijiang-Jade Dragon Snow Mountain-Lijiang

Sightseeing and Activities:Yulong Snow Mountain, Yuhu Village and the Former Residence of Joseph Rock
Accommodation: Aman Resort Lijiang
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

The Glacier Park of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Lijiang

Enjoy the sunrise of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain at 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’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.

Day 6 Lijiang-Tiger Leaping Gorge-Shangri La

Sightseeing and Activities:the First Bend of the Yangtze River, Shigu Ancient Town, the Iron Chain Bridge, Stone Drum,Tiger Leaping Gorge, Dukezong Old Town,the largest Prayer Wheel
Accommodation: Banyan Tree Shangrila
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

The-First-Bend-of-Yangtze-River-Lijiang-01

From Lijiang, you’ll drive about 60 km 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. Afternoon, you’ll head for Shangri La, the former Zhongdian which is wellknown as the paradise destination for every tourist. 

Upon arrival in Shangri La, you will have entered 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 Shangrila

Sightseeing and Activities:Sogzanlin Monastery, Pudacuo National Park, Dabao Monastery, Napahai Lake and Tibetan Villages
Accommodation: Banyan Tree 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 ParkPudacuo 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.

Visit Dabao Monastery on the way back from Pudacuo National Park. Drive around Napahai Lake and visit some Tibetan villages and families. 

Day 8 Departure from Shangrila

Sightseeing and Activities: Departure from Shangrila
Accommodation:
Meals:

Departure from Shangrila. Service ends.

Recommended Hotels

City 5 Star 4 Star 3 Star Hostel
Kunming Crown Plaza Kunming City Centre Wenhui Hotel Baiyun Hotel T&T Story Hotel
Dali Hilton Dali Resort And Spa Landscape Hotel Fairyland Hotel Dali Fengxue Gucheng
Lijiang Aman Resort Lijiang / / /
Shangrila Banyan Tree Shangrila / / /

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;
  • Private English-speaking tour guide;
  • Private vehicle for transfers & sightseeing with skilled driver;
  • Service charge & government taxes;
  • Luggage transfers between airports and hotels;
  • Domestic train tickets of soft sleeper.

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.