Kunming Tours

Kunming is a hub, and the honest advice is to treat it as one. It has a mild climate, a big airport and the rail lines to the rest of the province, but it has no single sight that justifies three days. One full day — the Stone Forest in the morning, West Hill or the city in the afternoon — is the right amount for most trips, and it is the day that makes the rest of Yunnan possible.

Why everyone passes through

At 1,890 m on a plateau with mountains on three sides, Kunming has an average annual temperature near 15C and no real winter, which is where the “Spring City” name comes from. It is also the provincial capital, the terminus of the high-speed lines to Dali and Lijiang, the start of the China–Laos railway south, and the airport that receives almost every international arrival in Yunnan.

That combination means the city’s job is connection, not sightseeing. Plan around the connections and it works; plan a three-day city break and you will run out of things to do by lunchtime on day two.

The Stone Forest, done properly

Shilin is 78 km south-east of the city, a karst field of limestone pinnacles that began forming around 270 million years ago when this was a shallow sea. The ticketed core is a fraction of the whole field, and the difference between a good visit and a bad one is entirely about timing: the coach groups arrive between 10:00 and 15:00, and the paths through the main section become a queue.

Two ways to beat them. Take a high-speed train from Kunming South to Shilin West — about 20 minutes — and be at the gate for opening. Or go in the late afternoon and accept a shorter visit with better light. The Sani Yi villages inside the park, and the Naigu section 10 km north, are where the crowds thin out.

West Hill and Dragon Gate

West Hill rises immediately west of the city above Dianchi Lake, a ridge of forest and temples between 1,900 and 2,350 m. The Dragon Gate at the top is a set of grottoes and passages cut by hand into a cliff face during the Qing dynasty, over decades, by a Taoist monk and the craftsmen who followed him. The reward is a view straight down over the lake, and the engineering is more interesting than the view.

Take the cable car up and walk down, or the chairlift from Haigeng Park across the water. Either way it is a half day, and it pairs well with an afternoon on the lake shore.

If you have a second day

Green Lake Park in the city centre, Yuantong Temple, and the provincial museum are all inside a morning. The museum is the one I would not skip: the Dian kingdom bronzes excavated at Shizhaishan are unlike anything elsewhere in China, and the collection explains who was living here before the Han arrived.

From November to March, the black-headed gulls that winter on Dianchi and Green Lake are the city’s other attraction — tens of thousands of them, fed by hand from the waterfront, and loud enough to hear from a block away.

Getting in and out

Note which station: the Dali and Lijiang trains mostly use Kunming Station in the city, while the high-speed lines south and east use Kunming South, 20 km further out. Turning up at the wrong one is the most common way to miss a train in Yunnan.

When to come

Any month works, which is the point of the place. March to May is dry and warm; June to August is the rainy season, with afternoon showers and 22 to 26C; September to November is clear and settled; December to February is dry and sunny by day, cold at night, and the season for the gulls.

What trips people up

• Booking three nights in Kunming “to see the city”. Two is generous, one is enough if the Stone Forest is the only goal.
• Doing the Stone Forest as a coach tour. It costs a whole day and delivers the site at its worst hour.
• Arriving at Kunming South for a Dali train. Check the station code on the ticket.
• Expecting altitude sickness at 1,890 m. You will not get it here; you may feel it in Shangri-La four days later.
• Skipping the museum because it is “indoor time”. It is the only place that explains the province you are about to cross.

We use Kunming as the first and last night of most Yunnan routes: land, sleep, Stone Forest in the morning, train to Dali in the afternoon. Send us your dates and we will tell you whether that order works for the day of the week you arrive.