Yunnan Itinerary: Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-La
The northwest Yunnan route done as an acclimatisation ladder rather than a checklist — 1,900 m to 3,200 m in stages, with the transport legs, the altitude rules and where the two-week version goes.
There is one thing to get right about northwest Yunnan and it is not which old town you sleep in.
The route climbs from roughly 1,900 m at Kunming to about 3,200 m at Shangri-La. Done in the right order over eight to ten days, that gain is gentle enough that most people barely notice it. Done in the wrong order — flying straight into Shangri-La from sea level, or taking the nine-hour direct bus from Kunming — it produces headaches, insomnia and nausea that will cost you two days of a trip you flew a long way for.
So this itinerary is arranged as a ladder. Everything else about it is negotiable.
| Stop | Altitude | Nights |
|---|---|---|
| Kunming | ~1,900 m | 2 |
| Dali | ~2,000 m | 3 |
| Lijiang | ~2,400 m | 3 |
| Shangri-La | ~3,200 m | 3 |
Eleven nights including travel. Ten days is workable if you cut one night from Kunming and one from Lijiang. Under eight days, stop at Lijiang and leave Shangri-La for another trip — a rushed ascent is worse than no ascent.
Getting there and back
In: Kunming Changshui International (KMG) has direct service from several Southeast Asian hubs and connects domestically to everywhere. It is the natural entry.
Out: Shangri-La Diqing (DIG) has domestic flights back to Kunming and a few other cities, which saves you retracing the whole route by road. If you are on a tight schedule this single decision saves a day and a half.
Visa note: Yunnan is inside the 240-hour visa-free transit permitted area, so this route is compatible with a transit permit if you qualify and if your onward ticket goes to a third country or region. The eleven-night version does not fit inside 240 hours with any margin — use the ten-day version, or get a visa. Check your position with the entry checker.
Kunming, 2 nights
Kunming is not the reason anyone comes to Yunnan and that is fine. It is where you land, sleep off the flight and start acclimatising.
At 1,900 m you may already notice mild breathlessness on stairs. That is normal and it is the point — two nights here is doing quiet work for the rest of the trip.
What is worth the time:
- Green Lake Park in the morning, particularly November to March when the black-headed gulls arrive from Siberia and the whole park turns into a bird-feeding scene.
- Yuantong Temple, the city's main Buddhist temple, ten minutes' walk from Green Lake.
- The Stone Forest (Shilin), about 90 minutes east by road or high-speed rail. A karst formation of limestone pillars, heavily developed and heavily visited, and still impressive. A full day.
What to skip: the Western Hills and Dragon Gate, unless you have a spare day. It is a long cable car for a view.
Kunming's food is where Yunnan starts making sense: crossing-the-bridge rice noodles, wild mushrooms in season (June to September), Dai-style grilled fish, and rose-petal pastries.
Kunming to Dali
About two hours by high-speed rail from Kunming South to Dali. Frequent departures.
Dali station is in Xiaguan, the modern city, which is about 15 km from Dali Old Town where you want to be. Take a bus or DiDi; do not book a hotel near the station by accident.
Dali, 3 nights
Dali sits between Erhai lake and the Cangshan range at around 2,000 m. It has been a backpacker town for thirty years and it has aged better than most.
Where to stay. The Old Town is convenient and busy. Xizhou, about 20 km north, is a Bai village with courtyard architecture, rice fields and a fraction of the noise — the better choice if you have a car or are happy on the bus. Shuanglang on the far shore is the boutique-hotel end of the lake.
Day 1: the old town and the Cangshan foothills. Walk the walled grid, then take the Cangshan cable car up to the Jade Belt Road, a level path that runs along the mountainside at about 2,600 m with the lake below. Good acclimatisation — you go up, walk, and come back down to sleep.
Day 2: Erhai lake. The lake circuit is about 120 km. An electric scooter, a bike on the eastern shore path, or a chartered car all work. The Three Pagodas at Chongsheng Temple are the postcard image and sit on the way north out of town.
Day 3: Bai villages. Xizhou for the Monday market and the courtyard houses, Zhoucheng for tie-dye workshops, Shaxi if you want to go further — a preserved caravan town on the old tea-horse road, about two and a half hours north, worth an overnight of its own if you can spare it.
Dali to Lijiang
1.5 to 2 hours by high-speed rail, around ¥80. Lijiang station is a few kilometres south of the old town.
Lijiang, 3 nights
Lijiang is the most touristed place in Yunnan and it is still worth going. The trick is choosing which old town.
- Dayan — the UNESCO-listed main old town. Beautiful, and by 20:00 it is a crowd moving through a corridor of souvenir shops and bars. Go early morning; it is a different place at 07:00.
- Shuhe — smaller, quieter, 20 minutes north. The better place to sleep.
- Baisha — a village rather than a town, at the foot of the mountain. Frescoes, farmland, minimal commerce.
Stay in Shuhe or Baisha and visit Dayan.
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is the main excursion. The upper cable car reaches about 4,500 m, which is a serious altitude jump from a 2,400 m base — you go from Lijiang to higher than most people have ever been in under an hour. Bottled oxygen is sold everywhere at the base and this is one of the rare cases where the tourist-tat item is genuinely useful. Move slowly at the top, do not exert yourself, and come straight back down if you feel unwell.
If the mountain is closed for weather or you would rather not, the Baisha frescoes and a slow day in the villages is a good substitute.
Tiger Leaping Gorge is the other reason to be here. The gorge sits between Lijiang and Shangri-La, and the classic high trail is a two-day hike with an overnight at a guesthouse partway. If you are walking it, you do not need to backtrack — the trail ends at a point where onward transport to Shangri-La is straightforward. If you are not walking it, the lower road viewpoint can be done as a stop on the drive north.
The gorge hike is the single best thing on this itinerary for anyone reasonably fit. Add two days for it.
Lijiang to Shangri-La
Three to three and a half hours by bus or chartered car. There is no fast rail on this leg and the road is mountainous.
This is also the leg where the altitude gain is steepest — roughly 800 m in a few hours. Drink water, skip the big lunch, and plan to do nothing on arrival.
Shangri-La, 3 nights
Shangri-La — Zhongdian until it was renamed in 2001 — is the edge of the Tibetan plateau. Prayer flags, yak butter tea, and thin air.
Day 1: nothing. Genuinely. Check in, walk slowly around the old town, go to bed early. Do not drink alcohol on the arrival night. Most altitude problems on this route happen because people treated the first Shangri-La day as a sightseeing day.
Day 2: Songzanlin Monastery. The largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan, about 5 km north of town, built in tiers up a hillside. Give it a slow half-day. The rest of the day for the old town and the enormous prayer wheel on Guishan hill.
Day 3: out of town. Pudacuo National Park for lakes and meadows at around 3,500 m, or the Napa Lake grasslands just outside town, which are seasonal — a lake in summer, a grazing plain in winter.
Altitude rules that actually matter:
- Ascend in stages, which this itinerary does for you.
- Drink more water than you want to.
- No alcohol for the first 24 hours.
- Mild headache and poor sleep are common. Persistent vomiting, confusion, or breathlessness at rest are not — descend and get medical help.
- If you have heart or lung conditions, or you are pregnant, talk to a doctor before booking this leg. Shangri-La at 3,200 m is not a trivial altitude.
Extending the trip
Add Shaxi between Dali and Lijiang — two nights in a preserved tea-horse road town with almost no development.
Add Tiger Leaping Gorge between Lijiang and Shangri-La — two days of walking, the best hiking on the route.
Add Xishuangbanna at the end — tropical Yunnan on the Laos border, Dai culture, rainforest and tea mountains. It is a flight from Kunming or Shangri-La and it is a completely different climate. Three to four days.
Do not add Yunnan's northwest corner beyond Shangri-La — Deqin and Meili Snow Mountain — unless you have four spare days and are comfortable at 3,500 m plus. It is spectacular and it is not a bolt-on.
When to go
March to May and September to November are the best windows: clear air, moderate temperatures, and Shangri-La before the deep cold.
June to August is the rainy season across most of the province. It is also mushroom season, which is a genuine reason to come if you care about food, but expect afternoon rain and occasional road closures on the Lijiang–Shangri-La leg.
December to February is dry and clear with excellent mountain visibility, but Shangri-La is properly cold — well below freezing at night — and some higher routes close.
Avoid the first week of October. Golden Week fills every old town in Yunnan.
Practical notes
English is limited outside Kunming and the main old-town hotels. Have translation and written address cards ready.
Small guesthouses and foreign-guest registration. Village guesthouses sometimes handle foreign passport registration less smoothly than city hotels. Confirm when booking. See the accommodation registration guide.
Cash is nearly gone but rural stalls and small guesthouses can be inconsistent about foreign-card mobile payment. Have Alipay or WeChat Pay working before you leave Kunming, and carry some cash as a backup.
Rail tickets release about 15 days ahead on 12306 and are real-name against your passport. The Kunming–Dali and Dali–Lijiang legs sell out during holidays.
The Lijiang–Shangri-La road has no rail alternative. Book the bus or car the day before, not on the morning — see the long-distance bus guide for what to expect on mountain routes.
Official sources
- China Railway 12306, English site: https://www.12306.cn/en/
- National Immigration Administration: https://en.nia.gov.cn/
Transport times, park access and seasonal closures change. Confirm for your dates.
Last reviewed: 30 July 2026.