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!
Open mic night and live hiphop at Halfway House
Posted byI went to open mic night last night to see what was going on and was pleasantly surprised. Acoustic indie rock, a South Silk Road freestyle session with Kris Ariel drumming, Xinjiang folk music by Zhu Xiaolong and then a funky band with an MC, also freestyling. Host Marc Hollingsworth did an excellent job of enlisting performers and keeping the music going. A great first night.
Hike Xishan with Jin Feibao
Posted byAlmost... Feb 4.
Kunming International Academy to get new campus in 2008
Posted byThanks Jeff. Mistake corrected.
Interesting Teaching Job
Posted byMy apologies, absolutely did not mean it in a pejorative way... we're working on limiting our coffee intake in the future.
Kunming to build China's 4th-largest Airport
Posted byYou are correct: 21 km to the airport and 160 square km Airport Economic Zone. Sorry, my last post was unclear.