Looking on my google map I have to go back from Puzhehei to the G323 or G80 and go up to Guangnan county! from there we drive to bama county to find out the secret of long live (according a article it was drinking rice wine and smoking hemp! lol)

is there not a more direct and maybe scenic road between the two?

I have been to Shaxi in october 2009, one part of it was modified to become a other Dali, but hardly any tourist to be seen, very empty, the other part was more the traditional working village.
Not sure if I would go out of my way to visit it.
Weishan, I believe a hour drive from Dali, was very interesting, every one seems to move around still with horse carriages (october 2009) the local market was fabulous doctors, dentist working in the open on the market, it felt like stepping back in time.

A other place what we liked was Weixi, further away between Chizong and Shaxi when I remember well, lots of minorities visiting the local market in there sunday best, not a town for sightseeing but a great atmosphere and for some reason no westerners to be seen (or chinese tourist) we stayed in the Asia Pacific hotel liked the place!

tiger, we are visiting Jianshui in june, do you have a name and/or address for this swiss hotel? was it the Guotai hotel (don't sound very swiss but can not find anything what fits the description)

what do you recommend 2 days? or more?

Hi Hugo,
On our previous travel in China I experienced the same, hotels every were, thanks for the tip re the wells We certainly will have a look at this, re jianshui, I was under the impression that there were only 2 small guesthouses, so your tip about going to any of the big hotels......! Was a surprise

On a other point we have put together our planned travel map on google maps, and our planning on route is based on having access to various files on the Internet, based on our previous trip we discovered that except for chizong and a small village in tiger leaping gorge we had every were access to Internet, it must be said that lugu lake was very slow but it worked, on this forum I have read somewhere that google maps, google mail are blocked in china, how is your experience with that, if any? There seems to be also ways around it, but have not figured out how.
We are leaving for Beijing may 7 and expect to be in kunming may 14 to start our 3 to 4 weeks trip in that area, your web site has helps us a lot, thanks for that one
Peter from spain

Yes we also find him on this website, after I placed this forum request, his price and type of car he offered were right for us, so we had booked the car with John for that period without looking further for alternatives