Spring Festival (Lunar New Year)

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.

For more than two centuries Lisu families from up and down the canyon have gathered at the Denggeng hot springs 登埂澡塘 north of Liuku in the first days of the lunar year, bathing to wash away the old year's ills and camping by the river between soaks, with singing contests and food stalls.

How to join: Come by day from Liuku, where rooms are easier to find, and bring swimwear and a towel. The hidden Nujiang Canyon route passes the springs on Day 1.

Etiquette: Wear swimwear, keep to the public pools, and ask before photographing anyone in the water.

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.