Three River Adventures

Itinerary

Day 1, Kunming.

Arrival in Kunming and check into hotel.

Day 2, Kunming – Lijiang

Fly to Lijiang and visit the old town, Lijiang is the home of the matriarchal Naxi culture, which is protected as a UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site. Lijiang was at the end of the Tibetan tea caravan route that gave rise to the Naxi women’s strong commercial bent as successful shopkeepers and traders.

Day 3, Lijiang

In and around Lijiang; walk from the old town, follow up the river to Black Dragon Pool where the water of the old town comes from. You can have a good view of the Jade Dragon Mountain when the weather is fine, and watch the Dongba priests demonstrate writing their ancient pictographic language. Drive out to Yuhu village to visit the old home of the botanist Dr Joseph Rock and the village. Visit Baisha village.

Day 4, Lijiang – Tiger Leaping Gorge – Shangri-La

Drive to Shangri-La, with a visit to the Tiger Leaping Gorge with the drops of 3900m from hill top to the Yangtze River. The whole gorge is 19km long with three very narrow parts, only 30m between the banks. It’s said someone saw a tiger jumped over the River and so called Tiger Leaping Gorge, driving up through the spectacular Tiger Leaping Gorge to Baishuitai to visit the amazing limestone terraces which have been forming for the past 2-300,000 years. Visit Yi villages on the way and carry on to Shangri-La.

Day 5, Shangri-La

In and around Shangri-La visiting the Tibetan monastery, local villages and the old town. Although the town has undergone enormous and not particularly sensitive development in the past few years due to its new designation by the Chinese as the original Shangri-la, the surrounding countryside is very attractive with lakes and scattered villages of alpine-style houses which we will visit to sample yak butter tea and tsampa.

Day 6, Shangri-La – Feilaisi

Drive over a mountain pass into the upper Yangtze gorge, following the old caravan route to Lhasa. On the way we will stop at Nixi village where pottery is made traditionally from clay. We will visit some expert and see how it’s made. Continuing along the path of the Yangtze to Benzhilan on zagzigs, a small Tibetan town near Yangtze River. Drive uphill to Mt. Baima at 4290m with visits to Dongzhuling Monastery and Tibetan villages on the way. We drop down into the Mekong gorge below the great wall of snow, which forms the Meili mountain range on the border with Tibet.

Day 7, Drive to Cizhong

Get up early to see the sunrise of the Meili Snow Mountain just from your hotel room with a cup of coffee, many photos chances with good weather. Drive south along the Mekong gorge to the village of Cizhong with visits to Tibatan villages en route, here you can see the different hoses from Zhongdian. Visit the Tibetan Catholic Church built by French missionaries in 1867, the church is used by Tibetan, Naxi and Lisu people. They still have the grapes planted by missionaries and old the traditional way of making wine.

Day 8, Cizhong – Weideng

Drive further south along the Mekong gorge to Baijishun. Enjoy the landscape of the Mekong with mountains, terraces, villages on the both sides of the valley, and we will make stops to visit Naxi and Lisu villages and a church en route, people here live in the traditional houses built with wooden walls and tile roofs. As the road construction work is going on here, we may need to wait sometimes.

Day 9, Weideng - Biaochun

Drive further south along the Mekong to Biaocun with stops to visit Lisu, Bai and Yi villages. You will have a great view of the Mekong gorge. The villages here are faraway from the road for a long time, so they keep more traditions than the people of the same ethnic groups from the other places. Biaocun is a small town of Bai people.

Day 10, Biaochun – Liuku - Fugong

Drive south along the Mekong for a while and turn to the west direction. Drive over a mountain, heading for the Salween River to the Salween gorge at Liuku and then drive north along the Salween to Fugong, visiting Laohutiao where you can walk through the huge rocks in the Salween and feel the water of the Salween. We will enjoy the dramatic landscape of the gorges along the way with visits to villages as carrying on.

Day 11, Fogong – Gongshan – Bingzhongluo

Drive north along the Salween to see the changes of the Salween Gorge and visit villages, hopefully you will see the locals cross the Salween by a rope, that’s the way people crossing the Salween for hundreds of years and still do the same today. The further we drive the better of the landscape we see, we can walk cross a bridge and visit a Lisu village with wooden houses. Visit the First Bend of the Salween before arriving Bingzhongluo.

Day 12, Binghzhongluo

Today we take our time to the villages and the churches around Bingzhongluo. The villages here are nicely located near the Salween on a slope with terraces and high mountains around them. It’s only 30km to Tibet, before the road to Tibet was built, many Tibetans would come to the market here to shop with their horses. Today, Tibetans still come but use trucks instead of horses. We also drive a few kilometres further into the Gorge to visit Shimeng Guang, and walk up to visit a village of Nu people living in the wooden houses.

Day 13, Bingzhongluo - Liuku

Drive to Liuku along the Salween via Gongshan and Fugong. The same road as we came in along the Salween.

Day 14, Liuku - Baoshan

Drive south along the Salween. As it’s hot and humid in the gorge here, Dai people who live here use big banyan trees to surround the villages, Tropical plants are grown here such as papaya, pineapple, banana and coffee. The famous Yunnan Coffee is grown in this area near the Salween. See goodbye to the Salween and drive to Baoshan.

Day 15, Baoshan – Kunming

Visit Taibao Park with Buddhist and Taoist temples. As people here have the mixed religions, Buddhist and Taoist temples are next to each other just a wall between them. Taibao Park is a popular place for local to spend the leisure time, and there are nice gardens and a small zoo. Visit the Reclining Buddha Temple which was built out of a cave a thousand years ago, and it is also popular among the people from Burma and Thailand. Many people come here to worship during the Chinese New Year. Afternoon flight to Kunming, overnight in the hotel and tour ends.

Seasonality: April, May, September, October & November.

Departures:
Oct.31st – Nov.14th, 2010
Apr.4th – Apr.18th, 2011

Price:
US$ 1,660.00 Per person
US$ 340.00 Single Supplement

The price includes:
Flight: Kunming/Lijiang
Baoshan/Kunming
Hotels with breakfasts
Sightseeing Programs & entry fees
English Speaking Guides
Transfers and transportation by private vehicles

Group Size: 06 -12

You may prefer a different date and time frame for this tour, or wish to adjust the itinerary to suit your interests. We will do all we can to meet your preferences. Please note that tours of less than six persons may cost more per person, and other expenses may increase as a result of customization of your tour. In all cases, however, we are committed to providing the best value for your experience.