Discovery the “Spring City” in the Best Season and Admire the Best Nature Wonders in Kunming
Kunming well-known as the “Spring City” is beautiful and comfortable as spring all year round. And this 5-day tour takes you to discovery this “Spring City” in the best season of spring to admire the best nature wonders of this idyllic destination with the fabulous visits to the famous Stone Forest and Dongchuan Red Land and also the featured pure Jiaozi Snow Mountain. In the 5 days, you will not only closely admire the wonderous large kingdom of grey Karst stone pinnacles in various shapes, a world-class combo of fluently lined fields in bright red, green, white, etc. under beautiful beams of light, but also catch the right time to marvel at the grand spread of colorful azalea flowers dressing the towering snow mountain into a dreamy wonderland, and also discover the city’s bests for soaking in its “spring” beauty and leisure comfort at the best relaxing pace! Take this spring tour with all wonderful Kunming landscapes for an ultimate visual feast!
Highlights of this tour
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 and help you check in. The rest of the day is on your own to explore the comfortable cityscape and leisure atmosphere there! Have a good rest!
Arrival Ideas: You can take a direct flight from more than 110 domestic cities and some international destinations including Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, San Francisco, Tokyo, London, and Los Angeles. Also, you can take a bullet train from Chengdu (5.5 hours), Chongqing (4 hours), Guilin (8 hours), Guiyang (2 hours), Guangzhou (7 hours), Beijing (11 hours), Shanghai (11 hours), Hong Kong (7.5 hours), etc. with convenience!
Good morning! After breakfast, your guide and driver will meet you at your hotel and then escorted you to Jiaozi Snow Mountain for 3.5 hours’ riding (180km north from Kunming downtown).
Jiaozi Snow Mountain (Sedan Chair Snow Mountain) reaching 4,227 meters with the highest peak like a bridal sedan chair enjoys the typical mountain glacier landscape in central Yunnan and is a top popular snow resort for locals and visitors to enjoy its famous snow mountain and icefall, sea of azalea flowers, alpine lakes, sea of clouds, sunrise and light of Buddha. You will enjoy a classic discovery of Jiaozi Snow Mountain for around 4 hours.
You will first take a sightseeing bus at Sifangjing (3,210 meters) for about 1 hour to Xiapingzi (3,500 meters) where to immerse into the fascinating view of fragrant azaleas, emerald alpine bamboo forest, murmuring stream and silk like waterfall. From here, take the cableway up to see the grand group of waterfalls along the way to Daheiqing (3,850 meters). Continue up to Shenxiantian (3,950 meters) to embrace the nutritious alpine meadow grown from 1,000 years ago. After that, meet the mysterious sea of cloud at the high peak and have a little break at Foguangya (4,200 meters). Then, catch the awesome sightseeing of emerald deep valley and powerful mountains surrounded by at Qixing Viewing Deck. Later, walk down to visit Mubanghai Lake and Tianchi Lake (4150 meters) for a nice glimpse of the “pearl of the snow mountain”. You shall not miss to admire the abundant trunks of thousand-year old azalea trees at Aogu Forest. Then, pass the Fir Forest to appreciate the rich scenery of ocean of azalea blossoms in various shapes and colors. After that, walk along the plank road at Yixiatian Lower Cliff (3987 meters) to admire the towering peak at a different angle, pass the pleasant Yezhu Pool, and hear the stream chanting with the rocks at Flower Stream.
After that, take the cable car down to exit and be escorted to Dongchuan Red Land for about 2 hours’ driving (90km). Have a nice sleep!
Good morning, today you will have a full nature exploration of Dongchuan Red Land at 1,800-2,600 meters above sea that is the most typical, featured and grand red land in the whole world. Favored by azure sky, white clouds and unpredictable light beams, it is also loved by world nature lovers and photographers to capture its unique spectacular beauty of lines, patches and colors!
You will get up early to take awesome pictures of the sunrise at Damakan at 2,600 meters high that is the best place to admire sunrise there. Enjoy the terrific idyllic scenery of kitchen smoke curling up from the rural houses, poplar trees sparkling under the slanting shining morning glows, and the village half showing in the morning fog. All those will make you feel standing in a dreamland! Continue your trip to visit Jinxiu Garden, the master work there and famous for its abundant colors and graceful layers. Prettier red and green land pieces connecting are quite suitable for local shooting. Appreciate the sightseeing at different angles along the plank road. Next, go to Qicai Slope (Colorful Slope) to admire the famous scenery of colorful land in iridescent hue, and the distinct patched colors look really like painted by the deity fond of painting. When the wind blows, layers of green, white, red, golden and more colors roll particularly like waves running to the ends of the earth.
Then, pay a visit to Yuepuao. You will not miss the lovely sightseeing of layers of paralleled curving fields like a giant colorful musical notation composing the beautiful song of nature and agriculture with the cultivating villagers and rural houses being the dynamic notes together. You can shoot sunset glow with good lights at dusk. Continue to visit Shuipingzi that is also called Yueliangtian (Moon Farmland) and featured with canyon scenery and terraced fields. Fill your eyes with the endlessly reaching red land hills rolling gently. The layers of fields will be irrigated into various geometric mirrors in spring and dress by golden carpets in autumn for your visual capture.
Then, go to have a close look at the thousand-year-old Ancient Tree which is a giant ancient fir tree over 1,000 years old like a god protecting the vast red land. Later, visit Luoxiagou (Sunset Valley) to see the picturesque landscape of various bright and dark red colors with several white rural houses dotted on in the middle, which is one of the most beautiful sceneries of Dongchuan Red Land. You will catch the resplendent sunset with soft light shining down on the pieces of red and green land like a fairyland on earth or a luxury attire of corduroy. With villagers riding their little vehicle back home after cultivation, the scene in front is a real idyllic painting of nature and people.
After that, be escorted back to your hotel. Have a good sleep!
Photography Tips:
1). Damakan: 06:00-07:00 is best to shoot sunrise with rural kitchen smoke, morning glow and fog. 2). Jinxiu Garden and Qicai Slope are cultivated with colorful crops, and April to May is best to shoot red land pictures with beautiful flowers including potato flowers, buckwheat flowers, etc. 3). Yuepuao: The short time after sunrise is best to shoot the fluent line of the field ridges with front light, and sunset hour is also great with backlight. 4). Shuipingzi: April to May is best to see fields irrigated with water, when blue sky and white clouds are well mirrored in the water; Autumn is the best season to enjoy the sea of golden crops. 5). Luoxiagou sunset is best to shoot during 16:30-17:30 with best light.
After breakfast, your local guide and driver will meet you at your hotel and then escort you to Stone Forest for about 3.5 hours’ riding (250km)!
Kunming Stone Forest as the “Essence of World Karst Landform” has been listed as the UNESCO World Natural Heritage with the incomparable coverage of 12 square kilometers’ stone pinnacle groups. Take the sightseeing bus to visit the Greater Stone Forest Scenic Area to admire the typical concentrating cinerous stone pinnacles by walking through the maze of stone peaks and jumping high for the panorama of the forest of protruding stone peaks. Also, you will see the famous peak on many photos and even stones towering over 40 meters.
Then, continue to ride the bus to explore the Lesser Stone Forest to closely look at the iconic stone “Ashima” like a young lady, listen to the touching love story of Ashima, and fill your eyes with the emerald garden-like park of wilder stone peaks surrounded by lush green plants and blossoms. Take the sightseeing bus to exit the scenic park.
After today’s visiting, be escorted back to your hotel in Kunming downtown. Have a good sleep!
Today, your guide and driver will escort you from your hotel to visit the famous Western Hills which is called “Sleeping Beauty Hills”, looking like a beautiful young lady lying beside Dian Lake (the largest freshwater in Yunnan and famed as the “Pearl on the Plateau”). It is a particularly pleasant experience to walk in such verdant forest mountain park with elegant sightseeing and a series of cultural relics and sites, including some old temples. You will not miss the symbolic visit to the magic Dragon Gate as it says “If you do not visit Western Hill, you haven't visited Kunming; if you do not come to Dragon Gate, you haven't been to Western Hills”, where to admire the colorful old grottoes on the wall and catch the panoramic view of the large peaceful Dianchi Lake and Kunming City. (You can visit the temples if interested. Huating Temple and Taihua Temple are included in the ticket.)
After that, drive back to Yunnan Nationalities Museum for a wonderful understanding of the 25 ethnic minority groups in vast Yunnan. This largest minority museum in whole Asia boasts a collection of over 20 thousand pieces (units) of precious cultural relics to show you the beautiful costumes, diverse ethnic festivals, daily life scenes, exquisite musical instruments, brilliant cultural texts, and so on to know the essence of Yunnan culture!
Next, go to enjoy a cultural visit to Yuantong Temple that is one of the top oldest Buddhist temples in Kunming with more than 1,200 years’ history. Take your stroll there to feel the rich Buddhist atmosphere of three Buddhist sects filling the antique halls and houses specially designed into a traditional Chinese garden layout for a quite different appreciation of temple in China.
Then, walk to Kunming Green Lake nearby. This pretty park with a lovely lake, old-styled pavilions, corridors, flowers, etc. is the most popular place for an authentic feeling of local Kunming people’s leisure life with citizens singing, dancing, talking, exercising, etc. During November to the next March, Black-headed Gulls from Siberian will never be late to fly there for their expecting comfortable warm winter holiday. Do not miss playing with those adorable and vigorous elfin during your relaxing roam!
After the visiting, you’ll be escorted to the airport or train station to catch your flight/train (after 17:00) to next destination or home! (Note: If the departure time will not match your trip schedule, our travel consultant will help you adjust the itinerary to well suit your time. Please feel free to contact us.)
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Kunming / Stone Forest / Kunming
Kunming / Stone Forest / Jiuxiang / Kunming
Kunming / Dongchuan / Kunming
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“Very good experience”
“WONDERFUL 25 DAYS IN CHINA - PRIVATE TOUR”
“Awesome China tour from northeast to southwest”
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