Hi all,

How are you? it's my first time here.

I am from US and planning to go to Chengdu - Chongqing - Yunnan.

In Yunnan, We are planning to go to Kunming-Dali-Lijiang-Shangri-La for 8 days. My questions are:
1. Is it possible to travel to Yunnan without tour?
2. Is it safe for 2 girls to travel?
3. are the terrain considered difficult?

My sister and I are not very athletic/strong enough to hike difficult terrain. We are looking for something easy to hike if any.

4. Public transportation are easily accessible? Is it far to walk from the bus /train station to sightseeing places?

5. How many days each place is recommended?
6. We are planning to go around Feb 1st - Feb 9th,2024. I know it is 1 week before Chinese New Year. Will places be open? In case we decided to take tour, will the tour be open?

7. Yunnan use cash more or Alipay?
8. Is it hard to find ATM in Yunnan?

Any ideas/recommendations are appreciated.

Thank you so much in advance for your time. :)

Best wishes,
Linda

Linda, that's a lot of questions. Let me answer a few for you.

You can travel Yunnan by yourself, which is very safe, also for 2 girls, but China does pose its challenges.

You want to connect your credit card to Alipay or WeChat pay. Cash is accepted, but it makes things much easier.

We also recommend to use apps like Trip.com for train and plane tickets and hotels. They're pretty foreigner friendly.

Specific locations of train stations vary. You can look some of them op on the website or in map apps.

Places will be open. Just expect that many people are traveling during the Spring Festival holiday, which will make your trip more expensive and hotels and trains a bit harder to book.

I hope this helps.

Best regards,
Yereth