Yunnan Travel Guide: Kunming, Dali, Lijiang Route 2026

Yunnan is China's south-western province, and the classic first route links three places: Kunming, the capital and the usual arrival point; Dali, an old town on the shore of Erhai Lake; and Lijiang, an old town and the base for Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Many visitors then add Shangri-La or Lugu Lake. Three things shape the trip. Lijiang is high, at about 2,400 m, so altitude needs a plan. Rain is heavy from June to September. And the snow-mountain cable-car tickets and the Stone Forest tickets are sold under rules that reward booking ahead. We checked what we could against official pages on 16 and 17 October 2026 and say where we could not.

This is a route overview, not a day-by-day itinerary. For visa-free entry, Alipay and WeChat Pay, blocked apps and train booking across the country, see the China hub. Hotels by area are on where to stay in Yunnan. Fees and rules for single sights are on the pages for Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the Stone Forest and Lijiang Old Town and its maintenance fee.

Who Yunnan suits

• Old-town walkers and photographers. Dali and Lijiang both have walkable old towns, but Wikivoyage warns that both have been heavily restored and rebuilt, and that Lijiang is crowded around Sifang Street.
• Snow-mountain seekers. Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is visible from Lijiang. Going up needs advance tickets and an altitude plan.
• Easy nature. Erhai Lake at Dali and the Stone Forest near Kunming both work as relaxed outings.
• Think twice if you can only travel in the rainy months (Lijiang rain peaks from June to September), if you have a heart or lung condition (ask a doctor first), or if you are nervous about language. Download a translation app and keep hotel names in Chinese characters on your phone (our advice).

The route at a glance

This table is our suggestion, not an official itinerary. Transfer times are in the next sections.

China Highlights, a tour company, proposes a 7-day Kunming, Dali, Lijiang plan and notes that most international flights land in Kunming. Our version is 7 days if you skip Lugu Lake and Shangri-La, and 9 days if you want buffer days for weather and altitude.

Kunming, the provincial capital

Wikivoyage describes Kunming as the main transport hub of south-west China, linked by road, rail and air, and the city almost every Yunnan trip passes through. In town you will find Cuihu Park, museums and old quarters. The Sofitel's own site says Green Lake, the Yunnan Museum and Nanping Street are close to the central business district, and that the Stone Forest and Dianchi Lake are easy to reach.

The Stone Forest is the day trip most visitors choose. Wikivoyage gives about 70 km and roughly 2 hours by bus; the Stone Forest's official site says 78 km (the figures differ because they are measured from different points). Our Stone Forest page has the ticket rules, including one that affects foreign passport holders.

One warning from Wikivoyage: traffic in Kunming is heavy and not only at rush hour, so always allow extra time.

Dali, an old town beside Erhai Lake

Dali is the heartland of the Bai people, and the old town is a good way from the railway station. Wikivoyage says the train station is in the new town (Xiaguan), and that you reach the old town by bus 8 (CNY 3 in 2019, about 1 hour) or the Dali shuttle (CNY 5, about 45 minutes). Those are old figures, so ask your hotel how to get to the old town.

• Dali Old Town is an easy grid to walk, with north and south gates joined by Fuxing Road. Wikivoyage notes that the old town has been restored and that parts of the wall are new.
• Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple. Wikivoyage gives an entry fee of CNY 75 and hours of 07:10 to 19:00 in summer and 07:30 to 18:30 in winter. This is an unofficial figure with no check date, and we did not verify it with the temple.
• Erhai Lake. Hire a bicycle or electric scooter and ride between the lakeside villages. Wikivoyage lists 17 villages along the west shore between Xiaguan and Xizhou.

Lijiang, old town and snow mountain

Lijiang is the centre of Naxi culture in north-west Yunnan. The old town has cobbled streets, canals and timber houses. Wikivoyage says it is crowded, especially around Sifang Street and the main shopping streets, and suggests Shuhe or Baisha for a quieter feel. Taxis cannot enter the old town: you get out at a gate and walk, or ask your hotel to send someone for your bags.

Two things to know before you go. First, the old town maintenance fee: a Guangming Daily report says CNY 50 per person per entry, valid for 365 days, under rules in force from 1 August 2025. Wikivoyage still says the fee was abolished in 2017, which is out of date. Second, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, where cable-car tickets are real-name, timed and need booking ahead, and where sources disagree on prices.

• Lijiang Old Town (Dayan) is open 24 hours, per Wikivoyage, which also lists a bonfire and dancing in Sifang Square at about 19:00.
• Shuhe lies about 8 km north of the old town. Wikivoyage says buses 5a and 5b take no more than 30 minutes.
• Baisha is a quieter ancient town and a half-day trip, per Wikivoyage.

Getting to Yunnan

By air. Wikivoyage's Kunming page (updated November 2025) says Changshui International Airport (KMG) receives flights from South-East Asian cities such as Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, and many Chinese cities. We tried to confirm direct flights on airline and airport sites and could not read the schedules (the airport site shows flights through a daily flight search, not a route table). So treat the Wikivoyage list as a pointer and check the airline for your dates and your departure city. Aggregators such as Skyscanner list direct Bangkok to Kunming flights of a little over 2 hours, but that is intermediary data and changes by season.

By train from Laos. Seat61 (page updated 6 June 2026, not an official site) says international trains have linked Vientiane and Luang Prabang with Kunming since 13 April 2023. The timetable it shows:

Seat61 adds: times are local, Laos is one hour behind China, you leave the train for passport checks twice (Laos side and China side), tickets go on sale 7 days ahead (extended from 4 days in July 2025), and you can buy through the LCR app, station counters (cash, Lao kip), hotels, and agents such as 12go.asia, which confirms a booking 2 to 3 days before departure and needs a passport scan. Seat61 lists first class at LAK 2,592,000 and second class at LAK 1,626,000 (Seat61's figures, so check real prices before you buy), and says trains C97 and C98 have been suspended since July 2025.

We did not check the timetable against 12306 or the LCR app ourselves. Chinese-side document rules are the ones summarised on the China hub.

From Kunming airport into town

The official Kunming Changshui airport site lists the pick-up point for each mode, but its timetables and fares are published as images that we could not read as text, so we do not quote times and fares from the official site.

Older unofficial figures from Wikivoyage: Metro Line 6 into the centre was CNY 6 (2018), the Airport Express bus CNY 25, and a taxi into town 30 to 40 minutes. Treat these as a guide only. Wikivoyage also warns you to get off at Airport Center station, not Airport Front.

Between Kunming, Dali and Lijiang

We could not read the 12306 timetable ourselves. The most recent usable data comes from Wikivoyage, which is unofficial and in part old.

Check current routes and prices on 12306 or a booking app before you buy. Wikivoyage's Lijiang page says Lijiang railway station is about 7 km from the old town, that taxi drivers often refuse the meter and ask for CNY 30 to 40 (2019), and that the airport is 40 minutes away with a fixed taxi fare of CNY 100 (2019). These are old figures, so ask your hotel.

Altitude and altitude sickness

Northern Yunnan is higher than many visitors expect. Wikivoyage puts Lijiang at about 2,400 m and Kunming at about 2,000 m (Banyan Tree Lijiang gives its own location as 2,000 m, so call it roughly 2,000 to 2,400 m). The big cable car at Jade Dragon Snow Mountain reaches about 4,500 m, per unofficial guides; see the snow mountain page.

The NHS (last reviewed 31 July 2023; general advice, not medical advice for you) says:

• Altitude sickness can occur above about 2,500 m. Symptoms usually begin 6 to 10 hours after arriving high up: headache, nausea, tiredness, dizziness, loss of appetite and poor sleep. They often improve within 1 to 3 days of resting.
• If you feel unwell, stay at the same level and do not go higher. If you are no better after a day, descend by about 300 to 1,000 m.
• Get urgent medical help for confusion, loss of balance, breathlessness at rest, a frothy or bloody cough, blue-grey lips or nails, or unusual drowsiness.
• If you fly straight to altitude, rest a day before going higher, ascend slowly, avoid alcohol and drink enough water.
• If you have had altitude sickness before or will ascend quickly, ask a doctor or travel clinic about preventive medication.

Our suggestion, which is not medical advice: if you fly into Kunming and go straight on to Lijiang, keep the first day light and put the snow-mountain day after at least one night in Lijiang. If you have heart, lung or blood-pressure problems, ask a doctor before you buy tickets.

Seasons and weather

The figures below are monthly averages from the climate charts on Wikivoyage (which cites Wikipedia). They are not a forecast. Lows and highs are in degrees Celsius and rain is in millimetres.

Wikivoyage's Lijiang page sums up the pattern: winters are dry and often sunny, rain builds from late spring, July and August are the wettest months, autumn gets drier from October, and nights cool quickly even outside winter, so pack a light layer. From the same chart we read January nights in Lijiang falling to almost 0 degrees, so bring a warm coat for winter.

China Highlights, whose Jade Dragon Snow Mountain page we read, says the best time to see snow on the mountain is November to April, while June to August is rainy with big summer crowds, and May, September and October have fewer tourists and good weather. Some other English guides point to March to May and September to November as the best windows, which fits the rain chart above. Those are unofficial views.

Before you go

• What to buy first. Roaming or a local SIM or eSIM, travel insurance, and a way to pay with Chinese mobile payment. Setup is covered on the China hub.
• Language. Street signs are mostly Chinese. Save hotel and attraction names in Chinese characters on your phone. The hotels on our Yunnan stay page all have English names on their official websites.
• Tickets to book ahead. The snow-mountain cable cars and the Stone Forest, which has real-name ticketing under its official notice. See the page for each.

How many days

• 7 days: Kunming 1 to 2 days (including the Stone Forest), Dali 2 days, Lijiang 3 days (including the snow-mountain day).
• 9 days: add buffer days for rain and altitude, and Baisha or Lugu Lake.
• More than 9 days: if you continue to Shangri-La, which is higher, allow more time for altitude.

These are our suggestions, not official figures. If you want to carry on to limestone peaks and rivers afterwards, see our Guilin and Yangshuo guide. For big-city stops on the way in or out, the English guides to Chengdu and Chongqing cover two of the usual neighbours.

Hand-picked places to stay

Examples of established Yunnan hotels, spread across areas and budget bands. Every fact below was checked against the hotel's own website or a reputable source on 2026-10-16 and links to that source. We have not stayed at these places and give no ratings; we show no prices because rates change daily. The band is the property class (hostel or guesthouse, mid-range, upscale), not a live price.

Frequently asked questions

How this guide compares

We read China Highlights' Yunnan overview and its Jade Dragon Snow Mountain page, Travel China Guide's Kunming and Lijiang pages, and Wikivoyage's Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Yunnan pages. China Highlights' pages are strong on routes and seasons and carry useful dated closure notes, but they are written by a tour company, give almost no fees and cite no sources. Travel China Guide's Kunming and Lijiang pages are short (about 650 to 700 words each) and lean on tour packages. Wikivoyage is detailed but partly old. This page gives sourced figures with check dates, separates official facts from unofficial ones, covers the Laos train and altitude in detail, and says plainly where we could not open an official page.

Links on this page and our earnings

The hotel search buttons on this page open the providers' own destination search pages as of 17 October 2026. We have no registered affiliate link for Yunnan and have earned no commission. Our disclosure page explains how affiliate links work and what we never do.

Prices, schedules and entry rules change. Figures here are approximate as of 2026; always confirm on the official or operator page before you book. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.