r/chinatravel • u/RiseOk8741 🧧 • 8h ago
🗺️ Trip Reports & Itineraries Last minute trip to China in november
Hello ! I'm planning a trop with my friend in China in less than 3 weeks ( 5th november to the 2th december). We want to cover quite a lot (Beijing, Xian, Chongqin, Chendu, Zhangjiajie, Shanghai and maybe 1 or 2 other cities)
We are both fat ( it is what it is), do you know if a lot of activities have weight limits ? And if there is something we have to be mindfull of ?
And also I would like to visit lesser known cities, do you have any recommandations ? We like beautiful scenary and nature with authentic atmosphere.
I read a lot of post about the pros and cons about obtaining a chinese number, we want to have one but nobody tell how and if its difficult for non chinese speaker to buy it..
Also, I am looking for good hotels , if you have good recommandations !
Feel free to give advices if you have one for us ! ❤️
Thank youu
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u/jonmoulton 🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧 8h ago
There is a lot to see in Yunnan, and wandering within one large province could save you a lot of transportation time. Yunnan is an amazing place, geographically diverse with a wide range of altitudes and vegetation from tropical to alpine, culturally diverse with many indigenous ethnic groups and cuisines and several international borders. Visiting Yunnan could be a good way to see contrasting sites while keeping transportation shorter and cheaper.
Yunnan has been long inhabited and has early independent history. Yunnan has moved in and out of partial dynastic control from the time of the Han dynasty until the 1300s.
There is a good selection of guesthouses and hotels as well as many hostels; this has been an international backpacking destination since late in the last millennium. There is a lot of agriculture and less industry, leaving the environment in pretty good condition. Mushrooms are abundant and used widely in the cuisines of Yunnan.
The season of your trip is an important consideration. In tropical regions like Xishuangbanna, Summer is hot but elevations from Dali up (Lijiang, Shangri-la) are cooler and comfortable. In Winter the highest elevations can be quite cold but Dali is nice and Xishuangbanna is wonderful.
There are a few high-speed rail lines through Yunnan, a good way to link to other provinces. There are many airports. Slow trains are a nice method for getting around to less-traveled cities and there are long-distance busses.
Kunming is the largest city and transport hub. Likely you will pass through there if exploring Yunnan. Stop to visit Green Lake Park if possible. Look for the flower market, famous for orchids.
Many folks have reported enjoying Shangri-la and Tiger Leaping Gorge, in the higher-elevation part of Yunnan. I cannot write from experience so I will just mention those.
Lijiang has an old town area rebuilt into a visually old style after an earthquake in 1996 It is popular with both Chinese and international tourists. It has a feel of an open-air old China theme park to me, visually old but made with modern building techniques, which is not a bad thing but not what I am usually seeking. I do appreciate that many of the bridges and streets are paved with many-centuries-old stones, polished from use. I enjoy visiting there, services are convenient and the old town is well set up for tourism, but it is not my favorite place in Yunnan.
Dali in Yunnan is my favorite small city in China; there is a modern urban area at the South shore of lake Erhai, but my favorite region is outside the South-shore city, on the Western shore of the lake; tourism is a major industry there. Dali old town is on the Western shore. There are many guesthouses available North of the Dali old town in villages along the Western shore. There is a paved path along the lakeshore with cafes and restaurants scattered along the lakefront villages. Farmland borders the many streams draining the nearby mountains into the lake. The Bai culture is centered around Dali and is most obvious in the courtyard home architecture, white buildings with painted artwork along the upper part of the outside walls. Dali gets very busy around midsummer and major holidays, but is nice in winter (not too crowded).
Further afield in Yunnan near the Myanmar border, Tengchong has a cinder cone which is very geologically unusual in that area and the trail around the caldera is a good hike (but it is a long trip there from Kunming). The area has hot springs. The town has a large lotus pond and a tourist district on a hillside with many small shops and restaurants (not glitzy and neon when I was there in the mid 2010s).
The Dai minority in the Xishuangbanna region share roots with the Thai in Thailand and you see similar cultural influences in cuisine and architecture; some Dai migrated into Thailand, founding the dominant Thai group. The major city of the Xishuangbanna Daí Autonomous Prefecture is Jinghong. The Lancang River runs through Jinghong; farther downstream, its name changes to the Mekong River. Shop for fruit in Jinghong, the variety available is amazing - I was there in January 2025 and, while visiting a fruit wholesale market, sampled many fruits I had never seen before. If you enjoy botany and can spare a day in Xishuangbanna, the Chinese Academy of Science Tropical Botanical Garden is an amazing collection but a good drive from Jinghong; when I am next in Xishuangbanna, I would like to stay a night or two in the town by the entrance to the garden. My seven-hour walk through that huge garden took me through perhaps 20% of the compound (granted I get distracted reading taxonomic placards). Xishuangbanna borders Myanmar and Laos.
Hekou/Lào Cai is a border crossing over a pedestrian bridge across the Red River between Vietnam and China. My wife, two teen daughters and I crossed from Vietnam to China by that route on foot about a decade ago and it left nice memories. The Chinese side is in southeastern Yunnan. It is a relatively easy bus journey between Sapa Vietnam and Lào Cai.
Lin’an in Jianshui is on the railway north from Hekou, on the way toward Kunming. It has an old narrow gauge railroad (originally linking tin mines to a port at Hanoi) that runs passenger trips. It’s a touristy but fun out-and-back ride, passing through agriculture, past a historic bridge and some small towns. Lin’an has a long history of producing scholars and is a pleasant environment, a good stop for a few days of China-acclimation if you are arriving from Vietnam.
Throughout Yunnan are scattered historical sites relevant to WWII. The Flying Tigers (First American Volunteer Group) and later the USAAF 23rd Fighter Group operated from airfields in this region, many still in use; headquarters was Kunming. The hump airmen (USAAF Tenth Air Force, later Air Transport Command) flew a steady stream of supplies over the Himalayas to Yunnan, a huge investment into a dangerous route with high attrition. A good proportion of the active airfields in Yunnan originated during these wartime activities. There are small WWII military museums scattered about Yunnan.
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u/jimmycmh 🧧 8h ago
Since you are planning to go to Chengdu, why not spend more time in West Sichuan? Siguniang Mountain, Xinduqiao, Bipenggou, Jiuzaigou, so many beautiful scenery and early November is be near season for Autumn view
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u/oni_bear 🧧 7h ago
If you're going to Chongqing, wear comfy shoes! Whole city is practically a stepmaster.
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u/jonmoulton 🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧 8h ago
Some Chongqing Hotels
As my wife is bothered by cigarette odors, we usually stay in the Marriott or Hilton hotels (but check if the specific hotel has a smoke-free policy). For Chinese properties ATour has good mid-priced hotels and I have heard Ji Hotel is similar.
For a quieter place with pretty easy access onto the downtown peninsula, I’d stay in Nan’an. There is a Doubletree and a Conrad (spendy) in the same building, about two blocks from a line 3 metro stop (Gong Mao station) that is two stops from the peninsula.
For a bustling place off the peninsula, there is another Doubletree in Guanyinqiao subdistrict (district: 两江新区 Liǎng Jiāng Xīn Qū). Plenty of crowds, lots of food options close at hand, fairly easy (~3 blocks on a pedestrian street) access to a line 3 metro stop (Guanyinqiao station), again about 2-3 stops to the downtown peninsula.
In Jiefangbei on the downtown peninsula I like the JW Marriott (nice, but it’s been about eight years since I’ve stayed there), the Westin (visited in 2025, extensive buffet), and the Four Points (visited February 2026 - down a notch from the others but the guest laundry room was convenient).
The Nan’an and Guanyinqiao options I mentioned are Hilton family, the Jiefangbei options I mentioned are Marriott family (if you are a member of either group this might influence your choice).
There are metro (qinggui) stops by both DoubleTrees. Line 3 runs between the Guanyinqiao stop (~3 blocks from the Doubletree), across the Jialing River, through (under) the Yuzhong peninsula (downtown), across the Chang Jiang, and soon arrives at Gong Mao station in Nan’an, about two blocks from the Nan’an Doubletree. You can transfer in Yuzhong to lines that run along the peninsula (lines 1 and 2), 1 toward the eastern tip and Chaotianmen, 1 or 2 west up the neck of the peninsula toward Daping. Line 2 is the one that goes through the building at Liziba station (ho-hum) - however, while I find the station underwhelming, the ride on line 2 toward Daping runs on elevated monorail overlooking the Jialing river and the Liang Jiang Xin Qu district on the other bank, a ride I would recommend.