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!
Cui Jian to headline 500KM music festival
发布者The festival's organizers have provided us with an official schedule:
Saturday, September 10:
5:30-6:00 — Shepherd (牧羊人)
6:10-6:40 — Ink Wind (墨风)
6:50-7:20 — Yellow Barcode (黄色条码)
7:30-8:00 — The Great Apes (类人猿)
8:10-8:40 — Mayuan Poets (麻园诗人)
8:50-9:20 — Sigangli (司岗里)
9:30-10:30 — Tan Weiwei (谭维维)
10:30-11:30 — Xie Tianxiao and Cold-blooded Animals
Sunday, September 11
5:30-6:00 — Li Siwei (李四伟)
6:10-6:40 — Chengdu Tree (成都树子)
6:50-7:20 — Kaixuan (凯旋)
7:30-8:00 — Summer Solstice (夏至日)
8:10-8:40 — polymath
8:50-9:20 — Kouxian (扣弦)
9:30-10:30 — Shanren Band (山人乐队)
10:30-11:30 — Cui Jian (崔健)
Retrial announcement follows public outcry
发布者Retrial over, death sentence reinstated:
en.kunming.cn/index/content/2011-08/23/content_2637454.htm
Cycling from Kunming to Dali Old Town
发布者@tahoe: The celebration looked a little like photo number two of this post:
www.gokunming.com/[...]
Singapore preparing for high-altitude challenge
发布者@roberto: China will certainly spend the days leading up to the match training here, most likely at the Hongta facility, more info here: www.gokunming.com/[...]
As for tickets to the match, they are notoriously difficult to obtain here. If you have any friends playing in Kunming's local football league, I would ask them first. That's how we got our tickets to the Socceroos match in 2008. There's always a chance that there will be a clear and straightforward way to purchase tickets, but it would be a first.
Kunming's Red alley: Jiexiao Xiang
发布者@HFCAMPO: Thanks for pointing out that I had failed to link to the museum. The oversight was mine. Link has been added.
@Geezer: It's actually off of 华山东路