having biked the area extensively and always on the lookout for traffic free areas, I can recommend the following:
Diqin (I assume you mean Shangri-la): head out east on the East Ring road, over Baishuitai, Haba and the east end of the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Go to the west end. Do the trek back to the east. Hop in a ferry or take the new bridge over to Daju. Get transport or hike or ride towards Lijiang on this old road. It has a couple inevitable touristy spots, though. From Lijiang, if you are walking, there's a beautiful hike over Shigu (at the first bend of the Yangtze) on an old horse trail towards Jianchuan. If you can't hike, you're stuck to a fairly tourist-laden road to Jianchuan.
At Jianchuan head out to Shaxi, do Shibaoshan etc. Continue down the valley over Yangbi, or head out to Yunlong if that's not too far out of your way, go into Dali. From Dali take the old road over Chuxiong to Kunming.
Of course, if you can meander more, I suggest you approach Kunming from the north.
Heavy rains wreak havoc around Yunnan
Posted bynot the nujiang nor the tiger leaping gorge or any other canyon are safe around this time. massive boulders coming down.
You do wonder how much people here actually learn from experience. I know the climate is usually dry, but the rains are annual. Yet, when it suddenly started raining during my bike trip coming down Changchongshan, we saw three accidents, including a minivan on its head.
Governor: Provincial highway bathrooms China's worst
Posted byMain problem is that people don't know they have to flush. They grew up in a place with only a septic pit so they forget about it. Then no one wants to clean up afterwards and the whole cycle (no pun intended) continues.
So yeah, education.
I think most public facilities in Kunming are actually alright, including the one on wenlin jie. It gets a lot worse on the highways. Although I may want to make an exception for the one nearby Nordica on a bad day.
Hani terraces garner UNESCO status
Posted byThere are just more of them in Yuanyang and further in Lüchun County. Hundreds of kilometres of endless rice terraces, from 200m in altitude to a whopping 2000m. Also the ones south of Shaxi may not be part of an over 1000-years old Hani agricultural tradition.
Granted, if you just want a nice picture, you can go elsewhere.
Hani terraces garner UNESCO status
Posted byDoes that mean that there will now follow some unbridled terrace building and exploiting, even to the furthest mountain tops where the Hani have so far kept their hands off (in keeping with their own legend and pure logic, which says that everything will die if they deforest the mountain tops).
Probably. Sad. Hopefully UNESCO shows a little more guts in this matter than in the case of Lijiang.
20 years in Yunnan with Jim Goodman
Posted byif you argue on the internet, you've already lost. get on topic.