8 Days Shangri-la Group Tour (Summer Program)

Day 1

Place & Transport: Arrive in Kunming
Detailed Itinerary: Arrival in Kunming. the capital of Yunnan Province. Our guide will meet you at airport and transfer you to the hotel. Rest of the day at your leisure.

Day 2

Place & Transport: Kunming
Today's Activities: The Stone Forest, Market of birds and flowers
Meals: Breakfast, Chinese Lunch
Detailed Itinerary: After buffet breakfast at hotel, we drive along the new express way to Stone Forest which is a fantastic natural phenomena located 90 km southeast of Kunming. The Stone Forest area is the home of the Sani people, their folk customs has become one spectacular scene, the colorful embroidery and minority dances combine with the natural sceneries, which will surely leave you a deep impression. When back to the city, visit the Flower & Bird Market. This market is a miniature of local people's life, also the gathering place of entertainment.

Day 3

Place & Transport: Kunming to Dali, Flight No. TBA
Today's Activities: Hotel to airport Transfer (Kunming), Airport to Hotel Transfer (Dali), Zhoucheng elaborate batik crafts, Houses of Bai People in Xizhou, The Ancient City of Dali, Three Pagodas
Meals: Breakfast, Chinese Lunch
Detailed Itinerary: Take morning flight from Kunming to Dali (about 45 minutes). On arrival, visit the Bai village Xizhou, which has a more mixed population and cosmopolitan background. It grew and flourished in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) along with the fortunes of Dali’s renowned tea merchants that traded to Tibet. Family Yan’s courtyard is a good example of traditional Bai houses. And each morning, villagers in Bai dresses gather in a small market to buy and sell their products and daily wares. The next stop is Zhoucheng. Here you can see traditional way of making the elaborate batik crafts. The Three Pagodas tower between the Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake. Valued Buddhist scripts and scriptures are stored. The rest of the day is for you to discover the Ancient Dali Town.

Day 4

Place & Transport: Dali to Lijiang
Today's Activities: Shaping Market, Lijiang Ancient City
Meals: Breakfast, Chinese Lunch
Detailed Itinerary: After breakfast, we will head out for a 3 hours drive along the new high way to Lijiang, covering a distance of 180km. On the way to Lijiang, visit a local market, named Shaping. People from surrounding villages come for exchanging their daily wares, farming products, traditional clothes, or simply foods and vegetables. On arrival in Lijiang, check in the hotel. Afternoon is free for your first visit of the old town.

Day 5

Place & Transport: Lijiang
Today's Activities: The Black Dragon Pool, Dongba Museum, The Mural in Baisha Village, The Former Residence of Rock in Yuhu Village
Meals: Breakfast, Chinese Lunch
Detailed Itinerary: In the morning visit the Black Dragon Pond with Dongba Research Institute. The Pond provides you the opportunity of taking great pictures of the crystal clear pond with backdrop of snow mountains in a distance. Then, drive out to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains. After lunch, we also pay a visit to the Yuhu Village, a simple village of Naxi minority with the former residence of Dr. Joseph Rock. Dr. Rock, an Austro-American botanist and explorer who lived here off and on from 1922-1949, is best remembered for the introduction of innumerable plant species to the West and his rigorous works on Naxi ethnology. The last stop in the day will be the Baisha village with its frescos dating back to Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Day 6

Place & Transport: Lijiang to Zhongdian/Shangri-La
Today's Activities: Overlook for The First Bend of the Yangtze, Tiger Leaping Gorge
Meals: Breakfast, Chinese Lunch
Detailed Itinerary: Today, we drive some 200km to Zhongdian, also named Shangri-La with stops and visits to the First Bend of the Yangzi River at the village of Stone Drum and the Tiger Leaping Gorge on the way. Arrive in Zhongdian in the late afternoon.
--The village of Stone Drum stands at the First Bend of the Yangzi River, some 70 kilometers west of Lijiang. Approaching to Stone Drum offers a dramatic view of the Yangtze near-180-degree turn, where the wide, swift waters perform a miraculous about-face. For nearly 20 kilometers the river, first flowing south, then north, runs parallel to itself.
--The Tiger Leaping Gorge, or Hutiaoxia in Chinese, is the Yangzi's best-known gorge after the Three Gorges in Sichuan and Hubei. Wedged tightly between titanic cliffs, the river is so narrow here, as legend tells us, that a hunted tiger made his escape to the other side in a single bound. Here, the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains and the Haba Snow Mountains lean close to each other and a large volume of torrent moving between them cutting deeper and deeper into the bottom of the gorge. In some places there is a drop of 3,000 meters to the water.

Day 7

Place & Transport: Zhongdian/Shangri-La
Today's Activities: Songzanlin Lamasery, Lake Bita& Lake Shudu, Dabaosi Temple
Meals: Breakfast, Chinese Lunch
Detailed Itinerary: Take a morning visit to Songzanlin Monastery, the biggest monastery in Zhongdian. It is built on a hill imitating the Potala Palace in Lhasa. More than 500 lamas live and study here. Then make an excursion to the alpine lake Shudu. In May and June you will see the colorful blossoms of azalea and primrose. There is also a quick visit to Ringa Monastery near a Tibetan village. After lunch in the local restaurants, we will visit a Tibetan family. The Tibetan builds their houses by wood with big sitting room and Buddhism hall. You can taste Tibetan specialties of yak butter tea, local yogurt and Tibetan barley.

Day 8

Place & Transport: Zhongdian/Shangri-La to Kunming, Flight No. TBA
Today's Activities: Hotel to airport Transfer (Zhongdian/Shangri-La )
Meals: Breakfast
Detailed Itinerary: Transfer to airport for morning flight to Kunming (50 minutes).