To Do in Kunming

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Hugues Herrmann
December 29, 2020

Capital of Yunnan, Kunming is the perfect gateway to the region’s famous touristic sites. But the city itself has enough interests to justify a few days of visit.

Compared to the Yu Garden in Shanghai, Guandu Old Town feels rather authentic and not just like a Chinese-style Disneyland. You will notice a mix of different influences, with some of the buildings evocating Tibetan architecture. As usual in this type of place, there are plenty of inexpensive restaurants with traditional food. Be sure to see the Tuzhu Temple and the Miaozhan Temple.

Nanping Pedestrian Street is Kunming’s own equivalent to Nanjing Road in Shanghai. It is the place in the city where people go shopping, You have a few Western chains like Starbucks, but most of the stores are local brands. You may find great price opportunities depending of the country you are from (if you live in Western Europe or America it might be a good value to buy clothes and other stuffs).

Very close to Nanping Road, there is an other old town, put “Silver Chest Kunming Hotel” on Google Maps, it will lead you to it. Over there you have a lot of teahouses and traditional Chinese backstreets and courtyards, some well-renovated and some in a slightly decayed state.

Yunnan Ethnic Village is a large complex just outside of the city center. This region of China adjacent to Vietnam and Myanmar has an impressive number of different ethnics. Each part is dedicated to one minority, with replicas of their housing, people dressed in traditional clothes and some animations if you are at the right time. Unless you are visiting during China’s national holidays, it should not be too crowded.

You can go to the Western mountains, 12 kilometers outside of the city, by an aerial tramway crossing the Dianchi lake. You should not miss the Dragon Gate, a pagoda almost hung on the cliff. From there you will have an impressive panorama of the lake and the landscapes around.

Even though I am not a museum fanatic, I really enjoyed the Railway Museum, impressive to see the challenges of building rail lines in Yunnan considering the mountain ranges.

Article Tags: Asia, China, Kunming

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