Yunnan tour details
A roundup of some of the Yunnan tour details pertaining to our new China itineraries. The tour actually kicks off in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi before taking you overland by road and rail, via Bac Ha and Sapa, through southern China’s Yunnan Province to finish in Shangri La in eastern Tibet so the tour title will be Hanoi to Shangri La Overland with the more poetic subtitle and Chinese translation, Yunnan – South of the Clouds.
We used to run similar tours back before COVID but unfortunately our local, Chinese partner and ground handler didn’t survive 3 years of zero business. They were so good to work with, and indeed had become great personal friends, that after they put operations on the back-burner, we had neither the time nor inclination to find a replacement and so called a halt to our Yunnan and Vietnam/Yunnan tours. Happily our friends in Kunming contacted us earlier this year to inform us that they were back up and running so a recce ensued and we’re very much looking forward to scheduling our small group tours to Yunnan from early 2027 onwards.
Old and the new in Kunming We’re currently adding a China destination, plus respective tour pages, to our site as we speak, so full itinerary and tour pics to follow, but in the meantime here’s a round up of some of the Yunnan tour details, info and nitty gritty involved.
Visas
A major and much appreciated difference is that free Chinese visas are now available for passport holders of most European countries, including the UK, as well as Canada. (You can check the list here.) Not only a financial saving but considerable time and effort as well since the formerly, compulsory visas were complicated and time consuming to obtain.
Our recce, of course, included a survey of local beers. (With Tony, our friend and colleague in Kunming) As of 2026 you simply have to complete an e-arrival form within 72 hours of arrival and show proof of departure. In fact our entry and departure from China was actually simpler and faster than it is in Thailand plus immigration officials were polite and friendly. (Take note Suvarnabhumi Airport!)
However, even for those visitors experienced in Southeast Asian travel, China does present its own quirks and anomalies so here’s a brief rundown and suggestions to smooth your Yunnan visit.
Telephones, internet etc
Local SIM cards are readily and cheaply available on presentation of passports at airports, service provider shops and minimarts and offer, in our experience, very good 5G coverage. However, using a Chinese provider means you won’t be able to use the various services which the Chinese government has seen fit to block, such as; Google (and Google Maps); Facebook (plus Messenger), Whats App, Instagram etc. Of course, you’d have to weigh up comparative costs but obtaining a travel SIM roaming package through your regular, home provider means you can continue to use the aforementioned apps during a tour of Yunnan. Note that local SIMs rely on a single local provider while foreign, travel SIMs should connect to which ever local provider offers the best connection at that particular location and despite visiting some fairly remote destinations on our recce we were never once lacking a decent signal.
A useful Chinese social media app that we’d recommend uploading is WeChat which will allow you to contact your local guide or tour-leader, (as well as 1 billion other Chinese citizens.). It took us 2 minutes to upload the English language version, which works in a very similar manner to Whats App for texts, photos, audio and video calls and can also be used to make payments. (See below.)
Lijiang ancient town with Snow Dragon Mountain Payments and purchases
China is more or less cash-free with the vast majority of payments made through phone apps. Card payments however are rare and while you can still use cash, you’ll receive strange looks alongside a frequent shortage of change. By far the most common payment app is Alipay. Having uploaded the English language version of the app, as far as we could see, you can then link it to any account of your choice. (This may vary from bank to bank but we used a UK credit card and a Thai debit card without problem. It was simple and efficient to use and universally accepted and indeed is increasingly used for payments in neighbouring countries such as Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.) Apparently the aforementioned WeChat can also be used for online payments although with Alipay being so efficient, we didn’t try it.) Otherwise, certain, but not all hotels took Visa and MasterCard while those logos can be seen on most larger bank ATM machines if you do prefer to have some cash back-up.
Language
Now for the tricky part…Compared to Southeast Asian destinations very little English is spoken, even in popular tourist destinations or upmarket hotels. Having travelled extensively we’d always considered certain basic words more or less international – hotel, taxi, beer for example – but in China this is not the case. This can be frustrating as locals are generally very friendly albeit often somewhat shy due to the language barrier. Of course your local guides speak English and Mandarin but if you’re wandering around on your own, and/or ordering in restaurants and bars, a translation app may come in very handy.
Sun-dried milk with passion fruit sauce. (Def not our favourite!) Food
Yunnanese food bares little resemblance to the Chinese restaurant offerings found in most Western countries which are almost universally Cantonese or at best from Sichuan. The cuisine is naturally influenced by the province’s myriad ethnic minorities so the northwest sees Tibetan offerings such as dumplings (momos), with barley and potatoes often replacing rice while the southeastern part of the province displays strong Muslim influences. Dairy products – goat’s milk in the latter case and cow or yak’s milk in the former – are common. Also, perhaps surprisingly, cured pork products such as bacon, ham and salami are frequently consumed.
You’ll sample Hani food in Yuanyang, Bai specialities in Dali, Naxi dishes in Lijiang and Tibetan in Shangri La. Some you’ll like and some you won’t but we reckon by the end of the tour your phone will likely contain an inordinate amount of food photos.
Jianshui is known for tofu and while we aren’t usually big fans we found ourselves almost addicted to the deep-fried, crispy cubes dipped in spicy sauce ubiquitous in local cafes and market stalls. Patrons sit communally on stools around a grill helping themselves to chunks of tofu, crispy potatoes or grilled pork. A lot of fun and a great way to meet the locals.
Great way to meet the locals – Yi vendor grilling tofu in a Yuanyang street market. Noodles are of course a staple and come in various shapes and sizes with both rice and wheat flour versions generally available. Curiously, we went the entirety of our recent 10-day recce without being served rice a single time. (The only time we ate it was fried rice at a hotel buffet breakfast as, living in Thailand, we were actually missing rice.)
Chinese do famously eat pretty much anything and we did come across some weird and wonderful offerings. (Don’t fear, these days dog meat is very rare in Yunnan.) We’ll do a separate post on cuisine but sun dried milk with a passion fruit sauce was one of the oddest along with something described as ‘stir fried tree’. (It turned out to be the bark of something called a frog-skin tree and was surprisingly good.)
In addition to stir fried frog skin tree, there’s a huge range of vegetarian and vegan offerings, while bread is rare outside of hotel breakfasts and the availability of rice flour noodles make it easy if you’re gluten intolerant.
Drinks
Bottled beer is famously cheaper than water in China which explains why beer consumption is so high although local beer is low in alcohol content, weighing in usually between 2.5 and 3.5% proof. Morning beer sessions are therefore not as hardcore as one may imagine although be careful if the locals get the rice or corn whisky out. There are numerous local brews such as Dali or Snow Mountain Beer although in our opinion the best were the flagship Tsingtao and the locally produced under license Tuborg. Wine – both imported and the not bad at all locally produced – plus imported spirits are only available in larger hotels and more upmarket bars. Kunming has a surfeit of the latter while various spots in Dali, Lijiang and Shuhe do cater to foreign visitors. (Try the Tibetan Cabernet Sauvingon.)
Imported sodas are easy to find along with plenty of very good, not to sweet, bottled fruit drinks which are great for keeping hydrated in warmer weather.
Business dinner in Lijiang. (Incidentally, Neal, the local agent on the left, used to play midfield for Loughborough Utd.) Tea and coffee
While taking tea to China is very much a coals to Newcastle situation, if tea is your morning go-to then we’d recommend packing a box of tea bags. Both green and black tea is widely consumed but it won’t taste like it does at home.
Good news however is that coffee culture is fast growing in China and good quality brews are now widely available. (Indeed breakfast buffet coffees were the best we’ve come across for a while on any tour tour.)
Overall, despite the waffle, our Yunnan tour details post boils down to; take your own tea bags, (which may guests do anyway), upload WeChat and AliPay, make sure your phone includes a translation app and be prepared for some weird and wonderful food offerings. (Oh, and get practicing with those chopsticks.)
