Honghe 红河 is southeast Yunnan's big draw. It holds the Hani rice terraces of Yuanyang 元阳, carved into the mountains over some 1,300 years and listed by UNESCO in 2013, and Jianshui 建水, a walled Ming-era town with one of China's largest Confucian temples. Mengzi 蒙自, the prefecture seat, adds Bisezhai 碧色寨, an old station on the French-built Yunnan–Vietnam railway. It also claims Yunnan's most famous noodle dish.
Honghe offers two very different moods. Jianshui is for eating and wandering. Yuanyang means getting up in the dark and waiting for the light. Most people combine the two in three or four days from Kunming.
How locals do it
Prices as of 2026; check before you go.
Start slow in Jianshui. Take the train from Kunming, then spend two nights in a guesthouse in or just outside the old town. The standard walk goes "in at the west, out at the east." Take a taxi to the West Gate, have grass-sprout noodles for breakfast, then follow the main street past the Confucian Temple 建水文庙, the old prefecture office, the exam hall and Zhu Family Garden 朱家花园, a late-Qing merchant's mansion. You come out under Chaoyang Tower 朝阳楼, the East Gate. A combined ticket covers the four main sights for less than buying them separately. Evenings are for grilled tofu.
On a second day, rent an electric scooter for the back lanes and old wells, or ride the little tourist train on the 1928 narrow-gauge line to the Double Dragon Bridge 双龙桥, a 17-arch Qing bridge, and Tuanshan 团山, a village of carved family compounds.
Then go up to the terraces. Yuanyang is about 2–3 hours from Jianshui by road, and the last stretch is about an hour of winding mountain road. Don't stay in town. Book two nights in a village guesthouse facing the Duoyishu 多依树 terraces, in Pugao Laozhai 普高老寨 or around Huangcaoling 黄草岭, and eat Hani home cooking there in the evening.
A good terrace day: sunrise at Duoyishu, a quiet late morning in Azheke village, then sunset at Bada 坝达 or a free spot like Dawazhe. The viewpoints are spread across many villages, so a car and driver is the practical way to do it. Weather decides everything, so keep a spare morning.
The terraces are flooded from about November to April, and January to March is best. Hani villages also hold long-table street banquets at their festivals; see our festival calendar. Our free southeast terraces and old towns route strings all of this together.
Where locals eat
Grilled tofu street, Qingyuan Road 清远路 烧豆腐
Small squares of tofu go on a shared charcoal grill that one person keeps turning, and strangers share tables. Each piece you take earns a corn kernel in your dish, and the kernels are counted for the bill. Order the soft, puffy 包浆豆腐, plus grilled grass sprouts and lotus root.
Soy shops by Daban Well 大板井
The old public well outside the West Gate, whose water locals credit for the town's tofu. Fresh soy milk or tofu pudding at the shops beside it costs about ¥5.
Grass-sprout rice noodles 草芽米线
Grass sprouts are the crisp white shoots of a local water plant. They're served in a light pork broth with rice noodles or rolled rice sheets 卷粉. The shops just inside the West Gate are where the old-town walk usually begins.
Ice jelly and snacks on the pedestrian street 老店木瓜水
Despite the name, 木瓜水 has no papaya in it. It's a jelly rubbed by hand from the seeds of a wild fig and served cold in brown-sugar syrup. The old shop on the pedestrian street just inside Chaoyang Tower is the one regulars name most. Nearby, try Vietnamese-style rice rolls at 黄记越南卷粉 and a cup of local Zhadian milk 乍甸鲜奶.
Steam-pot chicken 汽锅鸡
Yunnan's classic chicken soup is cooked in a chimneyed pot made from Jianshui's purple clay, so this is the town to order it.
Hani home cooking 哈尼菜
At the terraces, the best meals are at your guesthouse: simple stir-fries, local greens and red rice grown on the terraces themselves.
Crossing-the-bridge noodles in Mengzi 蒙自过桥米线
Mengzi claims this dish, with its legend set on an island in the town's South Lake 南湖. You get a bowl of scalding broth under a layer of oil and slide the raw meat, egg, vegetables and noodles in yourself.
Hidden corners and free viewpoints
Hadanpu 哈单普
Hadanpu isn't on the paid pass, yet photographers often call it the best view in Yuanyang. From its two viewing levels the slope drops so steeply that it looks like drone footage.
Dawazhe 大瓦遮
A free sunset spot with few people. The road in is too narrow for cars to pass, so park at a villager's house for about ¥10 and walk the last 700 m or so.
Aichun's blue terraces 爱春蓝梯田
On sunny mornings around 9–10 am, the flooded fields here reflect the sky a deep blue. Unlike the platforms, this is a place where you can walk down among the terraces.
Azheke 阿者科
A Hani village that keeps its thatched "mushroom houses." Entry is about ¥30 and the income is shared with residents. The terraces around it are free to look at.
Jianshui's old wells 四眼井
The town has more than a hundred old wells, and some are still in daily use. The Four-Eye Well, with four openings in one stone slab, is the one to find on a scooter loop of the back lanes.
Honest verdicts
- Jianshui's grilled tofu is worth an evening, because the shared grill and corn-kernel tally are as much fun as the food.
- Hadanpu is worth the detour, because it's free and many rate it above the paid platforms.
- The most famous tofu shops, at Daban Well and on the barbecue street, are overrated: the queues are long and the stall next door is just as good.
- Laohuzui 老虎嘴, the third paid viewpoint, depends on conditions: it reopened in 2023 after a 2018 landslide, reviews are split, and you should check it's open before driving there.
- Yuanyang from May to October depends on what you want: the terraces are green in summer and golden at harvest, but the mirror-water views only come in the flooded months.
Getting there and around
- To Jianshui: About 2 hours by train from Kunming (the fastest take under 1 hour 50). Trains leave from both Kunming and Kunming South stations, so check your ticket. Jianshui station is a short taxi ride from the old town. See trains.
- To Mengzi: About 1–1.5 hours by bullet train from Kunming South. Fast trains arrive at Honghe station 红河站 on the edge of Mengzi, so look for that name when you book.
- To Yuanyang: About 2–3 hours by road from Jianshui. Buses run to Xinjie 新街镇, but the viewpoints are far apart, so a hired car is much easier. We can arrange a driver for the whole loop.
- Terrace tickets: A pass of about ¥70, valid for three days, covers the Duoyishu, Bada and Laohuzui platforms. Seniors get discounts, so ask at the ticket office.
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