First Spring Festival In China- What to do?

[liuzhou]

Wuhan?

Hardly tourist heaven. It's a huge soulless city.

[Guest realmayo]

Not true. It has a soul. But not the kind of soul you really want to run into for a quick little holiday.

[scoopneals]

Hey guys,

I'm back from Yunnan! I gotta say, I had an awesome time. So glad I asked everyone here for suggestions.

I'd like to share a little about my experience, for future adventurer's and for you who might be interested in what I thought of some of the places you've visited. Keep in mind I'm cheap, and I prefer to save as much money as possible. Here's where I ended up going, in this order:

1-Flew into Lijiang. Spent the first night locked in the airport, where I slept... don't ask why. I hated Lijiang. Ancient Town... HA! I went to the outskirts of the Ancient Town and there were "Ancient Buildings" that were being constructed. Everything was ridiculously expensive. They hide their menus for foreigners. I spent most of my time there practicing Chinese, eating far from the Ancient city where the locals weren't as concerned about stripping every penny from tourist pockets.

2-Took a Bus to Leaping Tiger Gorge in QiaoTou. LOVED IT! Leaping Tiger Gorge was absolutely beautiful. I would go there again. I did the Trek in about 2 days, as I arrived a little bit late in the afternoon. I met Chinese friends on the trek (1 College student & some recent graduates) and we stuck together for like 10 days.

3-Hitchhiked to Shangri-La. One of the most ridiculous things I've ever done. A China Postal man was more than happy to take us up to Shangri-La. Cows, pigs, Yaks were all over the roads. The road to Shangri-La is absolutely littered with Buddhist sacrificial things (I'm not sure what to call them).

4-Took a small bus to watch the sunrise on some mountain. I think it was called Mei Li, but I wasn't really sure where we were. I was actually quite happy not knowing where I was... I kind of took a break from thinking and let the Chinese friends guide. I didn't let them speak in English to me, either

5-Small bus back to Shangri-La, which I explored for a day. One of the Chinese guys I had met on the mountain invited us to his home to attend his sisters wedding. I thought, "why not?"

6-Bus to Eryuan (Little town north of Dali). City had a pool that was filled with hot spring water. Super awesome! Like a giant hot tub. The wedding was... well, very Chinese. But I got a free meal out of it. Actually 3 free meals, and they were all EXACTLY THE SAME... While I was in Eryuan, we also went trekking around a small lake called Cibi. There was no path, however, and it was the worst trekking I've ever done. Thorns everywhere... after about 5 hours we knew we weren't going to make it to where we needed to, so we turned back. Kinda funny. The guys wife was throwing a fit the whole time.

7-Bus to Dali - Dali was OK. I didn't spend much time there, because at this point I was ready to head more south. I originally had planned to go west, as far as Ruili, but I booked a flight a little earlier than expected so I could get the cheapest deal possible.

8-Sleep Bus to Xishuangbanna - I loved this place! Great 烤肉, everywhere. I had BBQ 'ery day. I spent too long of a time there, so the last couple days I went by the river & studied vocab. There was an awesome Garden there, really pretty to go & visit.

9-Bus to Kunming - Didn't stay in Kunming for more than a day. I didn't feel like navigating a city as big as Kunming.

10-Flew out of Kunming back to Xian

Some of my favorite parts of the trip were spent finding the cheapest places to stay possible... and I found that most of the time it wasn't at hostels! The cheapest places were actually the old run down hotels... Usually they have this character somewhere on there sign: 所. I would always ask where I could find the cheapest 招待所... Never paid more than 35 Yuan. The minimum I paid was 10 Yuan (when I shared a room in Eryuan), but I'd say the average I paid all trip was about 25 Yuan per night.

Thanks again for the suggestions. It was an AWESOME trip. The best part was not having any idea what I was doing, and just figuring it all out as I went. Definitely a challenge for my Chinese, but I improved quite a bit!

[roddy]

Excellent post, I had almost as good a time reading it.

[ChTTay]

Man, i wasted my winter break hibinating. Wish i'd seen this thread earlier and done the same!! Sounds great though, thanks for the feedback too.

How many days was the trip in total?

[scoopneals]

I spent about 25 days total... Left the 17th of January, flew back on the 11th of February. Perfect amount of time, in my opinion. Eventually, I got sick of moving around so much.

[gougou]

Yes, awesome write-up. I miss China now!