The tropical botanical garden at Menglun (勐仑) is quite nice, I went there for the first time in November and was very impressed. One can easily spend a day or two there and still not see everything there is to see.
I really enjoyed the afternoon I spent there and only saw a fraction of what there was to see. My favorite part was a less-visited section of pristine rainforest in the back.
There's a hotel located within the garden compound where you can stay overnight, allowing you to essentially have the entire facility to yourselves.
If you choose to stay a day or so, you may want to stock up on food. There's plenty of tasty tropical fruit to be picked up in Jinghong or Menglun. If you want to have a picnic there it may be worth stopping by Wangtianshu Deli (www.gokunming.com/en/listings/item/wan_31347/) in Jinghong before heading out:
It takes about 60-90 minutes to get to Menglun from Jinghong by car. I'd recommend showing up around one or two pm, as during mornings the park has a lot of tour groups passing through. That gives you an afternoon with the gardens basically to yourselves.
If you don't mind taking a little extra time to get to Menglun, I'd suggest rafting from Jinghong downstream to Ganlanba (橄榄坝) and taking a car east from there. It is possible in Jinghong to arrange a driver to meet you at Ganlanba.
Enjoy your trip!
Cycling along Yunnan's old narrow gauge line
发布者@bosnianXCII: You can throw your bike on a bus to Hekou from the south bus station, or riding there is an option.
www.gokunming.com/[...]
www.gokunming.com/[...]
Ticket Giveaway: Red Light Revolution
发布者Congratulations to Francesco LaMacchia, who knew that Red Light Revolution's Chinese name was a riff on Hongloumeng (红楼梦), aka Dream of the Red Chamber, A Dream of Red Mansions or The Story of the Stone.
Best of Kunming 2011 reader nominations
发布者Thank you to all the readers who sent in additional nominations - the nominating period is now closed. Voting will begin on December 5.
Interview: Xiang Rong
发布者There's a map point for A Ling Crafts here:
www.gokunming.com/en/listings/item/ali_31600/a_ling_crafts
Xiang Rong, Tingting and the others at Heart to Heart are some of the more inspiring and community-minded people I've met in Kunming. 连心加油!
Video: The Dangsters
发布者Regarding the 'offensive' portion of the soundtrack, it may make more sense or even be amusing to some if viewed in its original context, which happens to be the video for the song 'Windowlicker' by Aphex Twin:
www.tudou.com/programs/view/Y80eYzrxNMU/
I find it reassuring to see young people in Kunming actually following their dreams instead of doing what society is telling them to do. 加油!