Thank you Ishmael!

I have 2 weeks in Yunnan (Mid Dec until 31th). Ideally wanted to travel up to Shangri la from Kunming and go further to Yading but realised that it might not

be possible due to weather condition. So I will have to wait and see once I arrive Kunming if we should do just Shangri la or not at all. Also wanted to check out TLG but someone said it's flooding right now so we might have to skip that too. But if it's okay we might trek there before we spend a couple of days in Lijiang and Dali before flying back.

So now we could do Lijiang and Dali for sure.
Any recs will be really appreciated. :)

thank you! We've just found bus schedule from Dali to Shangri la, it's leaving from Dali north bus station.

FYI, Lijiang if forecast to drop to -2 tonight. most of the night will be around 0 and it usually dips a degree or two around sunrise.
Shangrila is further north and up to 500m higher on average. I would expect it to be a bit colder than Lijiang. TLG was closed after the flooding as was (part of) the old road from Lijiang. I'm not sure if everything has reopened yet.

For those heading northwest next month, you're in luck!

The new high speed rail section from Dali to Lijiang is scheduled to run in December. The 161 km public maiden voyage will only take 50 minutes. Hence, approximately 3 hours from Kunming to Lijiang (vice versa) via the high speed rail.

Bon voyage!

That is a good news!

Where is the terminal station of this line though?

The high speed rail terminal stop will be Lijiang although they already say it'll go up to Shangrila by 2020. Unfortunately, the opening date has already been pushed back to the very end of December, or so I hear.

Thank you debaser!

Any idea about flooding situation near TLG?

no idea of the curent situation but it was a 'flash flood' caused by human activity up near the Sichuan-Tibet-Yunnan border so it may be OK up there by now.

the GoKunming article: www.gokunming.com/[...]

The flood flooded the low laying parts of the Jinsha valley including the “First bend of the Yangtze”. The water has now receded but the area is still coverd in mud. Drowned farm animals had to be cleared and some people have been provided with emergency tents because of structural damage to their homes. Normal traffic has resumed.

Thanks for the update. Hope we can go there in Dec.