China Day 5 - 双廊古镇, 文笔村 (大理)

21 May - Continuing where we left off yesterday, we will be covering the eastern route of 洱海, visiting 双廊古镇 and 文笔村 for today. Our first stop: 双廊古镇, known for its beautiful lakeside view mainly for 打卡.

Exotic food - Salamander and Turtle anyone?

The twelve types of mushroom we have been eating in Yunnan

Interesting wisdom: 别减肥了，猪八戒走了十万八千里也没有瘦下来。何况他还是吃素...

Fresh eatable roses used in 鲜花饼

After we are done with 双廊古镇, we moved off to 文笔村 to catch its sunset.

China Day 4 - 喜洲古镇, S湾， 大理古城 (大理)

20 May - 大理 is a town built around a beautiful lake called 洱海. To cover the whole of 大理, there are 2 routes, namely the western route covering the western side of the lake and the eastern route, covering the eastern side of the lake. For today, we will be covering the western route, dropping by 喜洲古镇, S湾 and 大理古城.

First stop: 喜洲古镇, where we explore the old towns, 扎染 (blue color dyed cloths) and 麦田, where the famous C drama 《去有风的地方》取景地.

扎染

喜洲转角楼

《去有风的地方》取景地

只需一杯好茶，温暖从心开始

After we have taken enough photos of the wheat field, we moved on to our next destination: S湾, which is another popular 打卡点, known for its beautiful seaside view and 白族村落 buildings.

Finally to end the day, we stopped by 大理古城 where we explored the old streets before having our dinner within the 古城.

大理古城南门

Spotted a "horse" galloping over a mountain

China Day 3 - 理想邦 (大理)

19 May - Today we bid farewell to Kunming and took a train to Dali situated at 2000m above sea level (100m higher than Kunming). When we reached our destination, we took a free transport arranged by the hotel to 理想邦, which is basically a replica of Greece's Santorini. 理想邦 by itself is an interesting concept where some 10+ hotels collectively grouped together and develop this holiday resort style township consisting of eateries, gardens and various photogenic spots purely for people to 打卡.

昆明 Station

Our room @ 海十八·烟云海景度假酒店

Welcome to 理想邦

China Day 2 - 石林 & 九乡 (昆明)

18 May - For the second day, we hit the iconic tourist spot of Kunming - 石林 & 九乡. The 石林风景区 is a renowned UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its spectacular natural limestone pillars and karst formations. Well, I am not really a rock person, so just here to 打卡 and move on. The weather under the sun is really hot, even with the temperature saying its only 25 degree Celsius.

The iconic 石林

The karst formations

The stone depicting a local folklore - “阿詩瑪” 傳說

For lunch, the driver took us to a local restaurant outside the scenic spot. We ordered 牛肝菌, 麻婆豆腐 and the traditional Yunnan iconic dish 汽锅鸡. Bad on us to not check the price before ordering and got kind of ripped off. Both the 牛肝菌 & 汽锅鸡 was priced at RMB $128, which is way too expensive.  We found out later that other places only cost around half the price!

Stir fried 牛肝菌

麻婆豆腐

汽锅鸡 (Signature dish from Yunnan Province, famous for its unique cooking method. Instead of boiling the chicken directly in water, the ingredients are placed in a special clay pot and cooked entirely by circulating steam. This method naturally condenses the steam into a clear, nutrient-rich broth that captures the chicken's original flavor)

After lunch, we moved to our next destination - 九乡, which is famous for its Karst cave formations. To start the trip, we took a nice cable car ride overlooking fields of tea leaves, which some are used by local to smoke as cigarette. 

Tea plantation

Next, we took a scenic boat ride through the spectacular karst gorge of 荫翠峡, also called the Valley of Love for it was the place for local young men and women to sing songs in order to find lovers. The valley stretches for about 600m, flanked with verdant trees.

Finally, we entered the main attraction, which is the 九乡溶洞. You entered the cave complex by first passing through 惊魂峡, a gorge about 700 meters long and nearly 100 meters deep. It was named in honor of those who attempted to create the trails without falling into the gorge.

惊魂峡

Cave formation which looked like an alien face

雄狮厅, which is also the movie《神话》取景地

神女宫

神田