Yunnan tourist trail

This itinerary describes a popular north-bound route along national highway G214, known in Chinese as 滇藏线. This route covers some of lushest scenery and best preserved traditional cities in Yunnan. There are other popular destinations in Yunnan which are not covered here, notably the tropical paradise Xishuangbanna in the south at the Laotian border and the trip west toward Ruili at the border with Myanmar (Burma).

The northern end of this route is in a largely Tibetan-speaking area that was once part of the Tibetan province of Kham and today is right on the border of Tibet, so this route can be part of an Overland to Tibet journey.

The big attractions of this route are as follows:

• Kunming, provincial capital, transport hub, and starting point for this route.
• The lovely old cities of Dali and Lijiang, both former capitals of small kingdoms and both major tourist towns today
• Sensational trekking areas, notably Tiger Leaping Gorge near Lijiang or, going further afield, Three parallel rivers
• Mountainous areas and Tibetan peoples in Northern Yunnan, around Zhongdian and Deqin

The route is mostly uphill. The starting point, Kunming, is at 2000 meters (nearly 7,000 feet), already considerably higher than Britain's highest peak Ben Nevis or America's "mile high city" of Denver, Colorado. From there, each stop is higher, all the way to Deqin which is at 3500 m (roughly 11,500 feet), about the same as Lhasa or Cuzco. It is certainly necessary to be cautious about altitude sickness on this route, but most travellers will be just fine if they spend a few days in each major destination, giving their bodies time to acclimatise before going higher.

Most travellers will find it easy to schedule in a way that avoids altitude sickness, since the various places on the route are all interesting and they feel quite different to the traveller:

• Kunming is a major Chinese city and has been for hundreds of years; it has the strange mix of fascinating history and frantic modernity common to all such cities. As a large city and provincial capital, it also has a good range of museums, theaters, etc.
• Dali feels like a backpacker hangout, similar to Yangshuo or various destinations on the Banana Pancake Trail in Southeast Asia. There are Western restaurants and tourists everywhere.
• Lijiang is among the most beautiful cities in China and the Chinese have certainly noticed; there are Chinese tour groups everywhere.
• Zhongdian (now Shangrila) feels more like a Tibetan town than a city in central China.
• Deqin is pretty much purely Tibetan.

What they all have in common are mountainous scenery, interesting architecture, ethnic minorities and lovely handicrafts — wood, silver and especially fabric items.