This is the loop for a slower, deeper second trip to Yunnan. You get Jianshui, an old walled town that people still live and eat in, and the Hani rice terraces of Yuanyang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site the Hani have been shaping for more than 1,300 years. The finish is Mengzi's old French-built railway station and a fast train back to Kunming.
You reach Jianshui by train and leave from Mengzi by train. In between, hire a driver for three days, because the terraces are spread across a mountain with no useful public transport. Nothing on the route is high enough for altitude to matter.
Timing matters more here than on most routes. The terraces are flooded from about November to April, and January to March is best. In summer they're green and pretty, but without the mirror-like water of the photos.
Day by day
Prices as of 2026; check before you go.
Day 1 Arrive in Kunming
Keep it light. Our Kunming guide covers the city in more depth.
- Afternoon Walk around Green Lake 翠湖 and through the old streets nearby. From November to March, the black-headed gulls are back on the lake.
- Evening Small-pot rice noodles 小锅米线 and a flower cake around Nanping Street 南屏街. Our Kunming food guide has more to order.
Overnight: Kunming, Green Lake area or near your departure station
Day 2 Train to Jianshui and the west-to-east walk
The train takes a little under 2 hours. Walk Jianshui 建水 "in at the west gate, out at the east," so the sights, snacks and gates come in order.
- Morning Take a taxi from the station to the west gate. Before going in, cross to the lane opposite for Daban Well 大板井, the most famous of the town's old wells. The tofu workshops around it use its water, and a small shop by the well sells soy milk or tofu pudding for about ¥5.
- Lunch Just inside the west gate, the noodle shops serve grass-sprout rice noodles 草芽米线 and rolled rice noodles 卷粉. Grass sprout, the tender white shoot of a pond plant, is a Jianshui specialty: crunchy and mild.
- Afternoon Walk east along the main street. Jianshui Confucian Temple 建水文庙 (about ¥40) is one of China's largest, usually ranked just behind those in Qufu and Beijing. After it come the Lin'an Prefectural Office 临安府署 (about ¥32), the old Examination Hall 学政考棚 (about ¥20) and the Zhu Family Garden 朱家花园 (about ¥35), a late-Qing gentry mansion with courtyards and ponds. Ask for the combined ticket, which costs less than paying at each gate. Leave through Chaoyang Tower 朝阳楼, the east gate built in the late 14th century. Climbing it costs extra.
- Evening Barbecue, Jianshui style. You share a charcoal grill with strangers while one person turns the tofu, and for every piece you take you set aside a corn kernel. At the end, the kernels are counted for the bill. Order the soft-centered tofu 包浆豆腐, grass sprouts and lotus root. Skip the small, dry-grilled tofu squares. Famous grills such as Yongcheng 永成烧烤 have long queues, and the unhyped places next door are said to be just as good. For dessert, try mugua shui 木瓜水, a jelly rubbed by hand from wild seeds and served in brown-sugar syrup.
Overnight: Jianshui, a guesthouse in or just outside the old town (rent an e-bike to get around the lanes)
Day 3 Tuanshan, then up to the terraces
Your driver joins you this morning and stays until the Mengzi train on Day 5. After a slow morning outside town, it's about 2–2.5 hours' drive to Yuanyang 元阳. The last 40-odd km is a mountain road of hairpin bends that takes close to an hour.
- Morning Tuanshan 团山民居 is a village of Qing-era merchant houses west of town. On the way, stop at Double Dragon Bridge 双龙桥, a long stone bridge of 17 arches. Your driver can take you, or ride the small tourist train from Lin'an station 临安站, which stops at both; check that it's running and when it leaves.
- Afternoon Drive up to the terraces and check in.
- Evening Sunset at Bada 坝达, the largest viewpoint. Arrive early to claim a spot, and bring a warm layer. Dinner is Hani home cooking at your guesthouse.
Overnight: Yuanyang, a guesthouse near Duoyishu, in the Huangcaoling 黄草岭 area or Pugao Laozhai 普高老寨, where some rooms and rooftops look straight onto the terraces
Day 4 A full day on the terraces
Follow the light: east-facing terraces at dawn, blue reflections mid-morning, west-facing ones at sunset. The main ticket, about ¥70, covers Duoyishu, Bada and Laohuzui; other viewpoints are free or charge a few yuan.
- Early Sunrise at Duoyishu 多依树, about 7:50 am in January, 7:15 by mid-March and 6:50 by mid-April (be out 20–30 minutes before), often with a sea of cloud in the valley below.
- Morning On sunny mornings, around 9–10 am, the Aichun terraces 爱春蓝梯田 reflect a deep blue sky. Villagers charge about ¥5 and show you a path down onto the dikes; walk only where they do. They are narrow, slippery and drop straight to the next field, so hold children's hands and skip it when it's wet. Then visit Azheke 阿者科, a quiet Hani village of thatched "mushroom" houses. The terraces there are free, and entering the village costs about ¥30.
- Afternoon Hadanpu 哈单普 is free, and arguably the most beautiful of all. It has two levels of viewing platforms and looks down on the terraces as if from a drone. Villagers charge about ¥10–20 to park.
- Evening For sunset, try Dawazhe 大瓦遮, a free spot on a road too narrow for two cars to pass. Park at a villager's house (about ¥10) and walk the last 700 m. The alternative, Laohuzui 老虎嘴, is included in your ticket, but reviews are split and locals say part of the terraces there has collapsed.
Overnight: Yuanyang, same guesthouse
Day 5 Mengzi, Bisezhai and the fast train back
Allow roughly 2.5–3 hours to drive down to Mengzi 蒙自, then take the high-speed train to Kunming.
- Lunch Crossing-the-bridge rice noodles 过桥米线. Mengzi is one of the towns that claims to have invented them: a bowl of scalding broth, with raw meat, vegetables and noodles you add yourself.
- Afternoon Bisezhai 碧色寨, a short drive from town, was built in 1909 on the French Yunnan–Vietnam railway, where it met the local narrow-gauge line from the tin mines. Its yellow station buildings, warehouses and tracks are now a heritage park, and you may recognize them from Feng Xiaogang's 2017 film Youth.
- Evening Fast train from Honghe station 红河站, on the edge of Mengzi, to Kunming South, about 1–1.5 hours. Look for that station name when you book, and check the journey time: some late trains take over 3 hours.
Overnight: Kunming
Day 6 Kunming, or Luoping in canola season
Out of season, spend a relaxed morning in Kunming and fly home. From mid-February to mid-March, head to Luoping and add a night.
- Kunming From November to March, gulls crowd Haigeng Dam 海埂大坝 on Dianchi Lake. Otherwise, try Yunnan Provincial Museum 云南省博物馆 or Dounan Flower Market 斗南花市.
- Luoping Luoping 罗平 is about 3 hours from Kunming by road. There's no fast train, only three or four regular trains a day from Kunming Station, taking about 3.5–6 hours, and the sights are spread out, so the easiest way is a car and driver from Kunming for both days. Spend the afternoon at the Niujie spiral terraces 牛街螺丝田, which are free and best lit after midday. Sleep in town or at a farm stay among the flowers, and go to Jinji Peaks 金鸡峰丛 at sunrise, when karst peaks rise out of mist and yellow fields. The main viewpoints charge about ¥30, or climb a small hill nearby for free.
Overnight: homeward, or Luoping (back to Kunming by road on Day 7, about 3 hours)
Make it your own
Five days
Drop the final Kunming day and fly out the evening you get back from Mengzi.
Eight to nine days
- A second evening in Jianshui. Walk the lanes beyond Chaoyang Tower, past the Four-Eye Well 四眼井 and small temples such as Randeng Temple 燃灯寺. Try the old mugua shui jelly shops and Huang's Vietnamese-style rolled noodles 黄记越南卷粉.
- A third night at the terraces gives you two more chances at clear weather, making it the best-value extra night.
- Two days in Luoping. Add Jiulong Waterfalls 九龙瀑布群 (about ¥65; walk in at the west gate and ride the shuttle back from the east gate). Also worth it: the quieter terraces around Gegang Village 革岗村 and Pinde Village 品德村, where the fields are free and there are fewer people.
- Fuxian Lake on the way down. It's a clear, deep lake 1–1.5 hours south of Kunming, and it's the usual first stop for anyone driving this loop.
- More Kunming. Our Kunming like a local route has three unhurried days to borrow from.
- Keep going east into the karst lakes and valleys of Wenshan with our karst hidden valleys route.
Two weeks, low altitude
A school-holiday version: Kunming (two nights), then the train to Xishuangbanna for four nights based in Gaozhuang (see Xishuangbanna; in mid-April, the Water-Splashing Festival). Take the train back to Kunming, follow Days 2–5 of this route, then spend two nights at Fuxian Lake (Yuxi) before a last night in Kunming. Nothing on it is above about 2,000 m.
Good to know
When to go
Even in the January–March peak, some fields at Bada may not be flooded. Mornings at the terrace villages, about 1,500–2,000 m up, are cold in winter, so pack a fleece and a hat. Luoping's canola usually peaks from mid-February to mid-March; check flower reports before you go, since it shifts with the weather. More on seasons.
If you travel around the tenth lunar month (late October to November), some Hani villages celebrate their new year with a long-street banquet, where tables run the length of the village. Dates vary by village; see our festival calendar.
Drivers and roads
Hire one driver in Jianshui for Days 3 to 5, and agree on a fixed, written price. The terrace roads are narrow, and badly parked cars can cause jams at sunrise and sunset, so leave early. Ours make no shopping stops.
The last hour up to Yuanyang is hairpin bends. If anyone gets carsick, take a tablet beforehand, sit them in front and ask the driver for a stop halfway. With children, consider splitting Day 5 with a night in Mengzi and a morning train to Kunming.
In the fields
- The terraces and canola fields are someone's crop. Walk on the dikes only where villagers invite you or a path is marked, and never through the crop or the flowers.
- Paths get muddy, so wear shoes with grip.
- The sun is strong at these altitudes, even in winter.
- In Luoping, bees are everywhere in bloom season, so skip the perfume.
Bookings and payments
- Book Yuanyang guesthouses and Luoping rooms early for January to March, and confirm they can register foreign guests.
- Train tickets need your passport; book on the 12306 app or Trip.com. More on trains.
- Link Alipay or WeChat Pay to your card before you arrive (see payments), and carry small cash for village parking and entry fees.
The Honghe and Qujing region pages have more places to eat and see along the way.
