so my parents are going to visit me end june and since its best for our family peace that they are not staying with me Im looking for a nice hotel around the university/green lake area, walking distance to wenlinjie.
Since their standarts are, well higher, than mine (Hump or Cloudland will not work for them, even though I appreciated those places) Im left more or less clueless.
Can anyone recommend something nice in the 500-1000 Kuai pricerange (for two people)? In a quiet environment (I know how much this is to ask in a country like China).
The first Hotel that came to my mind was Green Lake Hotel, it seems to be a little expensive though. Does anyone know, whether bargaining is possible???

shida is in the 五华 district, on 建设路 and 一二一路, streets pretty nearby are for exmaple 虹山南 or虹山东路,文林街,xuefulu (sorry, not sure about the characters) is also not too far away...just to give you a small idea of where to look. the most popular way to find an apartment in kunming is still through agencies. there are hundreds of them everywhere, but they will charge you a 1 month rent (or less, if you bargain) for their help (when i looked for an apartment i checked several websites as well, but most of them were actually attatched to agencies as well). i screened some agency windows on my way to shida today, seems like there are some 1200kuai flats available, about 50sqm i think, dont know whether they are furnished or not. but considering the budget you are on you need to be aware, that a 1200-1400kuai apartment will probably be pretty old, might not come with a western toilet and you will spend at least one weekend of cleaning before moving in. on the other hand-not relly a big differnce to the shida dorms.

ah, for the price...a dorm room should be 25 in dali, 35 in kunming per night. additional money for food and drinks, depending on what you wanna eat and how much youre planning on spending on drinks (beer in a bar about 15 kuai, noodlesoup about 6 kuai, western food about 30kuai a meal). busticket to dali about 100-110, guess from dali to lijiang, lijiang to shangri-la about the same (?). actual sights like the stone forest, three pagodas..have pretty high entrance fees in china, heard the stone forest is more than 120 kuai nowadays.

if you wanna meet people i both for kunming and dali recommend the hump (there is a hump hostel in both cities). even though i think the dali one is even nicer, both places are really relaxed, you will meet a lot of interesting people and especially if your chinese is not that great the staff will be very helpful (buy tickets, recommend stuff to do...). with kunming i agree, you can easily spend 10 days at the hump, hanging out at the bar and relax, but as it comes to sights kunming really doesnt have that much to offer. you can take a trip to the green lake, dianchi or shilin (stone forest), but it will probably not have the wow effect youre looking for. for dali i recommend just renting a bike, going to the lake, take a walk on the town wall or hike into the mountains. as for sights the three pagodas have been recommended, i myself have never been, just seen them from far, since the ticket is supposed to be really expensive. coming to night activities you will probably find yourself going to the bad monkey in dali.

hey, busses from kunming generally go to *the new* dali, xiaguan. depending on when you are arriving take the number 8 Bus to the old town, which runs from a bus stop nearby the big one where you arrive (just leave that one and go right down the street, if i remember correctly). think the 8 is going till 8pm or so. i would try to avoid caps, since they really really overcharge you (think we paid 50 kuai, even though we tried to bargain with a couple of drivers-since it was later than 8 we didnt have a choice, but using the meter it shouldnt be more than 25 kuai).
think we paid about 100yuan for our tickets (bought at a local agency) and took us 4-5 hours. busses are more than ok for a 5 hours ride.

another advice-if you are planning on coming back to kunming-never ever take the night bus leaving from dali at 8.30 or so (you can by the tickets at the hump). 8.30 means you will start at 8.30 in dali, but go to xiaguan first, where you will wait another 2,5 hours somewhere in empty streets and the bus station. then going to kunming arriving somewhere in a parking lot in the middle of nowhere, not at xizhan.