City: Yunnan
Top Things to do in Yunnan
Top Hotels in Yunnan
- 1. HUALUXE Hotels and Resorts Kunming, an IHG hotel
- 2. Sofitel Kunming
- 3. Crowne Plaza Kunming City Centre, an IHG hotel
- 4. Pullman Lijiang Resort & Spa
- 5. InterContinental Lijiang Ancient Town Resort
- 6. Banyan Tree Lijiang
- 7. The Bivou
- 8. Hilton Yuxi Fuxian Lake
- 9. Songtsam Tacheng Lodge
- 10. Holiday Inn Kunming City Centre, an IHG hotel
The 10 Best Sights & Landmarks in Yunnan, China
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country. It spans approximately 394,000 square kilometres (152,000 sq mi) and has a population of 45.7 million (as of 2009). The capital of the province is Kunming, formerly also known as Yunnan. The province borders the Chinese provinces Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, and the Tibet Autonomous Region, and the countries Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar.
Restaurants in Yunnan
1. Yunnan-Tibet Road
2. Lijiang Romance Park
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 88 reviews
Large-scale song and dance "lijiang eternal love" is the soul of lijiang culture, with IMAX3D large visual, recreate the naxi genesis, "LuGu girl country", "caravan legend", "mu's residence brilliant", "yulong third country" lijiang one thousand years of history and tradition, such as lead audiences across the snowy mountains, in the domain of KuangYuan original conceptions, the mosuo flowers at the bank of lugu lake floor, in relying on the wind rain tea ma gu, the resplendent and magnificent mu's residence, and melancholy in the romantic feeling of yulong third country, in the idyllic shambhala meet a sentimental encounter, a beautiful moment.
3. Yunnan Stone Forest Geological Park
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1,123 reviews
This forest of stone, formed by erosion over millions of years, is comprised of many stone peaks, pillars and stalagmites rising abruptly from the ground and extending as far as the eye can see.
Reviewed By OrderintheHouse
My wife and I enjoyed 8 days touring amazing Yunnan Province as part of a 24 day private Wendy Wu China Encounters tour in June and July 2018. Our Yunnan experience commenced with two nights in Shangri-La on the Tibetan border. We visited the ancient towns of Lijiang and Dali and concluded with two nights in Kunming. Along the way we felt so privileged to witness three absolutely incredible attractions – the Tiger Leaping Gorge, the majestic Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and the absolutely awesome Shiilin Stone Forest, 80 kilometres south-east of Kunming. The Shilin forest has existed in China’s Yunnan Province for over 270 million years. Instead of trees the “stone forest” is made up of towering, pillar-like rock formations. The forest offers magnificent vistas of thousands of huge limestone karst formations and there are plenty of caves, crevices and waterfalls to enjoy as you walk through this splendid landform. To be truthful we were so amazed at what we saw before our very eyes – the experience took our breath away. We had our own guide who gave us a superb walking tour in the National Park. The place is packed with local Chinese tourists on most days and our guide was skilful in finding the less populous areas to visit. Along the way we experienced a couple of interesting local cultural moments – an old couple playing traditional music with fascinating musical instruments amongst the rock formations and a small group of ladies from one of the ethnic minorities in their colourful traditional dress sewing an equally colourful quilt – also amongst the rock formations. At one of the entrance/exits to the National Park we witnessed even more colour with large groups of ethnic minorities proudly wearing beautiful colourful traditional dress. One group was resplendent in rich red and yellow. However, it was the magnificent rock formations we really came to see and admire. These colourful moments were a nice added bonus. Many travellers to China marvel at climbing the Great Wall outside of Beijing and witnessing the Terracotta Warriors archaeology find outside Xian. We believe travellers, in the same breath, should be extolling the virtues of visiting the Stone Forest also. So, “The Great Wall, the Terracotta Warriors and the Stone Forest “ – what a wonderful “must see” trilogy” for the discerning China traveller that would be.
4. Yuantong Temple
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 252 reviews
Reviewed By DereckDC - Guiyang, China
I went the weekend of the tomb sweeping festival. Not too many people. The entrance fee is ¥6. I was there for maybe 45 minutes. You may take more time if you are able to read Chinese or if you have more than one person in your party. Decent place to take pictures (not of the inside of temples of course).
5. Chongsheng Three Pagodas
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 516 reviews
Reviewed By Travdon - Philadelphia, United States
The grounds of this complex are sprawling, and you could easily spend half a day exploring. The three pagodas are great to see, as they've been standing for over 1000 years. But after you pass those, there are myriad temple buildings to explore. There are some buildings stuffed with numerous gold-coated statues of various individuals - not really sure what it was or who they were, but they were interesting to see. The path continuously hikes upwards, and you have to navigate several sets of steps, but it's worth it. Some buildings you can walk up to the top and have great views of the lake and city. The entrance fee to the complex is 75 RMB/person, plus an additional 35 RMB if you want a shuttle to take you from the three pagodas to the main temple (not worth it, as the leisurely stroll is part of the fun).
6. Yulong (Jade Dragon) Mountain
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 690 reviews
Also known as Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the snowcapped Yulong Mountain is a sanctuary for rare animals and plants.
Reviewed By CatherineO502 - Brisbane, Australia
We didn’t want to take a cable car up the mountain so went out from Lijiang in a taxi to the mountain - the entrance fee to the mountain park is 100Y per person. At the tourist centre the buses for Blue Moon Lake/White Water River are downstairs (the buses to the glacier cable car are on the level you enter at). The ticket for the bus to Blue Lake was 20Y - Blue Lake is the second stop on the bus. While it is a bit odd that Blue Lake is man-made the location does give spectacular views of the mountain. Getting a bus back to the tourist centre was very orderly. We had organised for our taxi driver to come back to pick us up which worked out well.
7. Lugu Lake
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 888 reviews
Reviewed By Sijia22 - Sydney, Australia
One of the last female dominant societies in China, nested away around a fully natural lake, outside the busy cities and approx. 3000m above sea level. We stayed here for one night during April 2019 and whilst everything looks old, the lake is a beautiful light blue-ish silk colour that we have never seen before. It is truly unique and we have been to many famous lakes around China and all around the Asia Pacific. No lake is as tranquil or natural as the Lugu lake. We came via car from Lijiang (4 hour drive) but it's also possible to enter from the eastern Chengdu side. We went around the lake, took the boat to a famous little island where they shot a popular entertainment show, crossed the wedding bridge, experienced the bonfire dance at night and stayed at a nice hotel at the edge of Da Luo Shui. The hotel was called 'San Se Yun' or 'three colour cloud' but I couldn't find it on TripAdvisor. If you don't mind the long drive (or you can fly here from Kunming or Chengdu) and want to experience going back in time to a nice hideaway tribal village, then spending a day (or a few days) at Lugu Lake would be a nice choice.
8. Sumtsaling Monastery
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 679 reviews
The biggest monastery in Shangri-La.
Reviewed By JoelK382 - Vancouver, Canada
Our hotel room had a perfect view of the Monastery to observe at sunrise, sunset and during the day. Our visit was thorough as we had a entrance fee as part of our hotel stay at the Songstam Hotel. Our guide provided in depth knowledge of the various building that make up the monastery.
9. Dali University
10. Old Town of Lijiang - China
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 5,093 reviews
Reviewed By GodBlessMali - Shanghai Region, China
I visited a few old towns in China, but this one has to be my favorite one to date. During my time in Lijiang, I didn't even bother going to the city because the old town was so much fun not to mention that the food was incredible. While morning are very quiet as shops open rather late, the evenings were far from boring. The bar street sure made for some nice evenings while the afternoons allowed me and my friend to visit more of Old Town while trying out different food (such as tofu ice cream (don't judge until you try it)), Chinese wraps and of course the flowers cake. As for dinner, the ribs hot pot is fantastic! I shouldn't forget to mention that the buildings are beautiful, and I strongly recommend you check the small alleys as you might be surprised by what you may see.
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