Welcome to Yunnan

You'll be met at Kunming airport (KMG) and transferred to your hotel. Tonight sets the tone for everything ahead: dinner at a local restaurant specializing in wild mushroom hotpot — probably Yunnan's most iconic dish.

The rainy season transforms Yunnan's forests into a forager's paradise, and the markets burst with mushrooms in dozens of shapes and flavors. Your hotpot will be made with seasonal fungi sourced directly from the surrounding hills — no artificial seasoning, just the pure, earthy depth that makes this dish so extraordinary. It's a warming, convivial way to arrive.

Overnight at Shujian Boutique Design Guesthouse or similar for 2 nights

Kunming Market → Weishan

Morning — Kunming's Great Wet Market

Zhuanxin Wet Market is the beating heart of Kunming's food culture, and there's nowhere better to understand Yunnan's extraordinary culinary diversity. You'll wander through stalls overflowing with wild foraged vegetables, exotic fruits, regional grains, and produce from across the province, with your guide sharing the stories behind the ingredients along the way.

Along the route, you'll taste some of Yunnan's best plant-based street food: douhua mixian (Kunming's signature rice noodles with silken tofu), buckwheat and purple rice cakes, and crispy lotus fritters fresh from the pan. It's part food tour, part living history lesson.

Afternoon & Evening — Drive to Weishan Old Town

After the market, you'll set off on the five-hour drive southwest toward Dali, stopping for the night in Weishan — one of Yunnan's oldest and least-visited historic towns. With over 1,300 years of history as the political heart of the ancient Nanzhao Kingdom, Weishan still looks and feels much as it did during the Ming Dynasty: stone-paved streets, ancient city gates, and beautiful wooden courtyard homes. Unlike the busier Dali Old Town, Weishan is genuinely lived-in and unhurried. Dinner at a local restaurant featuring classic Yunnan home cooking.

Overnight at Weishan Lanting Homestay or similar (for 2 nights)

Morning — Ethnic Minority Market Day

Thursday mornings bring one of the region's most vibrant ethnic minority market gatherings — a weekly event where farmers, artisans, and villagers from different communities come together to trade, share food, and catch up. Many women arrive in their finest traditional dress, and the atmosphere is festive and genuinely alive. You'll wander the stalls, sample freshly cooked Yunnan snacks prepared on the spot by vendors, and experience the kind of cultural mixing that makes this province so special.

Afternoon — Ancient Pear Village on the Lake

Tucked along the shores of Cibi Lake, this ancient Bai village feels like it exists slightly outside of time. For centuries it could only be reached by boat. Its old pear trees — some hundreds of years old — are the heart of local life, and the village's slow, seasonal pace has been preserved beautifully.

You'll visit a local artisan to learn about the traditional craft of making pear paste and pear Jiaosu (a naturally fermented pear juice), tasting as you go. It's a quiet, absorbing experience — the kind that reminds you how much knowledge and care goes into the simplest things.

Evening — Fine Dining Vegan Dinner & Hot Spring Overnight

The day ends at the pear village's fine dining restaurant before you settle in for the night at a nearby hot spring village — the perfect way to decompress after a full, rich day.

Overnight at Eryuan Whispering Lodge or similar

Shaxi to Lijiang: Forest, Lentils & Ancient Script

Morning — Forest Hike to Nanzhao Grottoes

The day begins with a hike through quiet pine forest into the sacred highlands above Shaxi, where a series of ancient cliffside temples and stone grottoes from the Nanzhao Kingdom (8th–9th century) are carved directly into the rock. The imagery here is unlike Buddhist art found elsewhere in China — a fascinating cultural blend of Tibetan, Southeast Asian, and local animist influences. Your guide will bring the history to life as you walk.

Afternoon — Lijiang: Lentil Workshop with a Naxi Family

Arriving in Lijiang, you'll visit the home of a Naxi family for a hands-on workshop in one of the city's most beloved everyday ingredients: the lentil. Starting from whole beans, you'll grind, cook, and shape them into an impressive variety of foods — silky lentil jelly, delicate lentil skin, lentil soup — before sitting down together for a full vegan lentil feast made largely by your own hands.

Evening — Dongba Cultural Experience

To close the day, you'll be introduced to the Dongba tradition — the ancient spiritual practice at the heart of Naxi culture. Dongba priests are the living keepers of one of the world's only remaining hieroglyphic writing systems, and their rituals draw on centuries of animist and shamanistic belief. This is a rare and meaningful glimpse into a living tradition that is genuinely unique to this part of the world.

再见 - Good bye

Today, it is time to say 谢谢，祝您接下来的旅途平安！。-Xièxiè, zhù nín jiē xiàlái de lǚtú píng'ān! - Tthank you and have a safe onward journey.

Transfer to the Kunming Airport is included.

Meals: Breakfast