Yunnan and Lijiang — A Return to China Through Naxi Country

Originally shared on Facebook · December 2014 · Yunnan Province, China — Kunming, Dali, and Lijiang

I lived and taught English in China between 2002 and 2004. When I left, I told myself I would come back. It took me ten years.

In December 2014, I flew into Kunming with a five-day plan and a small camera. I took 749 photos in five days, which gives you an idea of how the trip went. Yunnan is a province most travellers underestimate — they fly to Beijing or Shanghai, see the Great Wall, post one picture, and leave thinking they have seen China. They have seen one version of it. Yunnan is a different country.

Why Yunnan, and Why Now

Yunnan sits in the southwest, between Tibet, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam. The province has 25 of China’s 56 officially recognised ethnic minorities. The food is its own thing. The architecture is older. The pace is slower. December is one of the best windows to visit — clear, cold, dry, and the off-season prices are good.

I had spent two years in Beijing and Yunnan was already on the list back then but somehow we never made it. By 2014, settled in Thailand, I wanted to see the China I had never properly seen.

Kunming: The Gateway You Should Not Skip

Most travellers treat Kunming as a connection — a one-night layover before the train to Lijiang or the bus to Dali. That is a small mistake. Kunming is a city of permanent spring, the elevation makes the climate almost European in feel, and the food culture is unique. Crossing-the-bridge noodles (guoqiao mixian) — a Yunnanese specialty — is the meal you eat once and remember.

I spent three nights in Kunming, walked the lake, ate noodles in restaurants where the menu was a wall of pictures, and watched people in the parks doing the things people in Chinese parks do at any altitude — tai chi, ballroom dancing, calligraphy on the pavement with water and a long brush. None of it for tourists. None of it apologising for itself.

Dali: An Ancient City That Still Feels Like a City

Dali is what people imagine when they say “ancient Chinese city.” Stone walls, gates, narrow lanes, lake views, and the Cangshan mountains as a backdrop. It can feel touristic — it is — but the layers of history under the souvenir shops are real. The Bai people built this city. The Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple have been here for over a thousand years.

What I liked about Dali is that it has not been entirely flattened by mass tourism the way some Chinese old towns have. People live in the old town. Children walk to school inside the walls. Cafés have appeared, but the bones of the place are still there.

Erhai Lake is the obvious second-day excursion. Bicycle, electric scooter, or a boat — the water is enormous and the villages around it are quiet. You can spend a day doing very little and feel like you have done a lot.

Lijiang: The Heart of the Trip

Lijiang is the reason most people come to Yunnan, and I understand why. The Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site — Naxi culture, wooden architecture, canals, sloping rooftops, narrow lanes that all somehow lead back to the central square. It is also genuinely crowded. There is no point pretending otherwise.

The trick is to go early or late. At 6:30 a.m., the canals reflect the sky and the only people on the streets are sweeping or opening shops. The same lanes that look like a theme park at noon look like a working town at dawn. By 9 p.m., the bus tours are gone and the bars on Bar Street become themselves again.

Naxi culture is what makes Lijiang particular. The Dongba script is one of the only living pictographic writing systems in the world. The local music — Naxi orchestras playing pieces that go back to the Ming dynasty — is something you should listen to once even if you don’t usually like that kind of thing. Black Dragon Pool with Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in the background is the photograph you take whether you want to or not.

The Food That Surprised Me

Yunnan food is not Sichuan food and it is not Cantonese food. It is herbal, mushroom-heavy, often soup-based, and it uses ingredients I had never seen before — wild matsutake, ham from Xuanwei, mountain vegetables I could not name. The flavours are cleaner than central Chinese food. The chilies are present but not aggressive.

I ate well in places that did not have an English menu. The pictures on the wall were enough. In Lijiang, a small Naxi family restaurant served me a baba (Naxi flatbread), grilled fish from the river, and a vegetable I still cannot identify, all for about 60 yuan. That meal is one of the strongest food memories of the whole trip.

A Return to China, Twelve Years Later

What struck me, going back to China after a decade, was how much had changed and how much had not. Kunming and the cities were faster, glassier, more Chinese-internet-everywhere than I remembered. The villages were not. The old people sitting in front of doorways looked exactly as they did in 2003. The kids touching foreigners for luck were less common because foreigners were less rare. Some things tourism flattens. Some things it does not.

I left Yunnan with 749 photos, a sore back from the cold, and the certainty that one trip was not enough. The Tiger Leaping Gorge, Shangri-La, the Yuanyang rice terraces — I have not seen any of them yet. That is a list I still owe myself.

Practical Information: Visiting Yunnan in Winter

• Best time: November to April — dry, clear, cold but manageable. December was excellent for photography.
• Route: Fly into Kunming. Train or bus to Dali (about 5 hours). Continue to Lijiang (3 more hours). Fly back from Lijiang to save a day.
• Stay: Old town in Dali and Lijiang for atmosphere. Both have small guesthouses inside the walls.
• What to eat: Crossing-the-bridge noodles (Kunming), goat cheese (Dali), Naxi baba and grilled river fish (Lijiang), wild mushrooms anywhere
• Budget: One of the best-value provinces in China. Mid-range hotels 200–400 RMB; meals 30–80 RMB
• Note: Lijiang Old Town has an entrance fee. Bring cash. Wi-Fi exists but Western platforms (Google, WhatsApp, Instagram) are blocked — bring a VPN if it matters to you.

Yunnan is the China you go to when you have already seen the version everyone else has seen. It is also, quietly, the China I would visit again before any of the others.

Sebastien H. Brousseau is a Canadian lawyer, permanent resident of Thailand since 2014, and founder of ThaiLawOnline.com. He taught English in Beijing from 2002 to 2004 and writes about travel, culture, and life in Southeast Asia.