I'm planning at trip to greater Yunnan in November and I'm trying to get together at least a rough plan of what we're going to do. We're going to be spending about 5 days in Xishuangbanna, and we are all good hikers who don't like guided tours/having a guide in general. Ideally I would like to walk all along local's paths and then find a village to barter a place to sleep each night. Does anyone have any experience doing something like this and/or have any suggestions?

I'd like to avoid getting permanently lost in the jungle.

Also, we're also doing a similar thing in Yuanyang (xinjie) area and in Shaxi, although I've been to Yuanyang before and Shaxi seems very easy to navigate, so I've got a pretty good plan for these. But any tips are still appreciated.

There's not much jungle left in Banna, and the patches you find are government reserves for the elephants. If you want jungle village trekking, probably nearby Namtha in Laos is better. I'd take a van or bus somewhere else and then start your trek. I think walking a day out of banna will still leave you in rubber or pineapple plantations. But China's richest man built a big nice water park for you in Banna :)

Agree of AlexKMG, the best of Banna is the traditional villages.

Imagine if some of them ignorant backpackers actually DID choose a guide when they went hiking in the "jungle" of Xishuangbanna. Maybe it would be around 50¥/each prson a day, but meanwhile, and for this ripoff, they could learn about ethnic minorities, bamboo, local food and you fu—kin name it. Sure its "cool" without a local guide, when you have left brains in the locker room.

Note: Jungle not required. We are not going to see jungle, we are going to see villages, etc.

Sounds like I need not worry about getting lost in the jungle.