Lisu Bathing Fair at Denggeng

China's biggest holiday. In the run-up, Kunming's Dounan Flower Market 斗南花市 sells armfuls of blooms for the home, families gather on New Year's Eve for a reunion dinner, and in the first days of the year temples such as Yuantong Temple 圆通寺 fill with people burning incense for luck. Warm Xishuangbanna and the old towns of Dali and Lijiang are favorite holiday escapes for families from across China.

How to join: Visit a temple on the first or second morning of the year, walk a flower market, or ask to share a family's reunion dinner. Book trains and rooms well ahead: this is the busiest travel period of the year and prices climb sharply.

Etiquette: Wish people 'xin nian kuai le' (Happy New Year) and avoid talk of death or illness. Many small restaurants and shops close for the first three days.

Tibetan families in Shangri-La and Deqin clean their homes, make offerings and hang new prayer flags, then spend the first days of the year visiting relatives, monasteries and sacred sites. Many Diqing households also keep the Chinese Spring Festival, so the holiday mood lasts for weeks.

How to join: Walk the pilgrim circuit around Songzanlin Monastery 松赞林寺, or join the evening circle dancing on the square in Dukezong Old Town 独克宗古城 when it's on. Some family guesthouses close, so book ahead.

Etiquette: Go clockwise around monasteries, stupas and prayer wheels. Don't touch offerings, and ask before photographing anyone at prayer.

Around Luoping in eastern Yunnan, canola fields fill the valleys between karst peaks with yellow, and people plan whole trips around the bloom. The classic views are the Golden Rooster Peaks 金鸡峰丛 and the spiraling Niujie Snail-Shell Terraces 牛街螺丝田; in the west, Jietou 界头 near Tengchong flowers at about the same time.

How to join: Check bloom reports before you go, since timing shifts with the weather. Stay in Luoping town, which has the most hotels (only regular trains stop there, so most visitors come by road, about 3 hours from Kunming), or at a farmstay in Jinji village 金鸡村 under the peaks, and visit Niujie in the afternoon, when the sun lights the terraces.

Etiquette: These are working farms: stay on paths and field edges, and don't trample the crop for photos.