Airports in Yunnan

Yunnan has fifteen commercial airports, more than any other province in China, and most visitors only ever use one or two. The decision that matters is whether to fly into Kunming and out of Lijiang — an open-jaw ticket that saves a day of backtracking — or to stay on the ground and use the trains.

The five you will actually use

Kunming Changshui, in practice

Changshui opened in June 2012, replacing the old Wujiaba airport that used to sit inside the city, and it is now one of the busiest airports in China. It is 25 km north-east of the centre and connected by metro line 6, which takes about 25 minutes to the eastern bus station area and rather longer to the centre with a change.

For a domestic connection to Lijiang, Dali or Shangri-La, allow two hours between flights. The terminal is long, the walking is real, and domestic security in China is thorough.

The small fields

Six more airports serve places that are otherwise a long drive: Tengchong (TCZ) for the volcano country and the Burma border, Baoshan (BSD), Lincang (LNJ), Pu’er (SYM), Wenshan (WNH), Zhaotong (ZAT) and Ninglang Luguhu (NLH), which opened in 2015 about 50 km from Lugu Lake and cut a seven-hour drive to an hour in the air.

These fields have few routes, mostly to Kunming, and they are the reason a two-week Yunnan trip can cover ground that used to take three weeks.

Open-jaw, and why it matters

The classic Yunnan route runs north-west: Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, Shangri-La. If you fly into Kunming and back out of Kunming, the last day is four to six hours of return travel that buys nothing. Flying into Kunming and home from Lijiang, or from Shangri-La in summer, removes it.

Open-jaw tickets usually cost little more than a return, and on some routes they cost less. It is worth pricing both before fixing the itinerary — the flight plan often decides the route rather than the other way round.

Weather, and the flights that do not land

Lijiang and Shangri-La are mountain airports. In the rainy season, June to September, afternoon flights are regularly delayed or diverted to Kunming, and a diverted flight can cost a day. Book morning departures where there is a choice, and do not put an internal flight on the same day as an international connection without a long buffer.

Winter fog at Changshui is less of a problem than it used to be, but December and January mornings can still be slow.

What trips people up

• Booking Dali (DLU) expecting the range of routes Lijiang has. Dali is thin; most people fly to Lijiang and drive.
• Allowing 90 minutes for a connection at Changshui. Two hours is realistic.
• Taking an afternoon flight out of Lijiang in July. Take the morning one.
• Flying Kunming to Shangri-La on day one. That is 1,890 m to 3,200 m in an hour, and the altitude will find you.
• Forgetting that Ninglang airport exists. It halves the journey to Lugu Lake.

Arriving from outside China

Nearly all international arrivals in Yunnan land at Changshui, with a smaller number at Xishuangbanna from Laos and Thailand. If your onward flight to Lijiang or Shangri-La is on the same ticket, the bag is normally checked through. On separate tickets you collect it, clear customs and re-check at the domestic counters on the departures level, which is why three hours is the safe connection and ninety minutes is not. The metro is one floor below arrivals; taxis and ride-hailing are on the arrivals level itself.

We price the flights as part of the route, including open-jaw options, and we build the days around morning departures where weather makes it matter. Send us your dates and the cities you want to reach.