What is the charm of traveling through Yunnan by train?
Longing for a small-town lifestyle, this time I chose the Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, embarking on a new journey by train🚂, away from the crowds, to the charming small towns of southeastern Yunnan. I started a unique and colorful journey of 4 days and 3 nights.
Day1 Kunming: Arriving directly in Kunming, I experienced the leisurely life of the locals at 📍Cuihu Park in the spring city. Then I went to 📍the Military Academy to watch the hourly guard-changing ceremony and to learn about half of Kunming's modern history, reminiscing about the once glorious years. There's also the 📍Lu Han Mansion, which witnessed the Yunnan Uprising, a Gothic-style bright yellow French building, great for taking photos outside and revisiting history inside.
Day2 Jianshui: This is a treasure of a small town, far from the hustle and bustle, with a long history and culture, still retaining more than 50 ancient buildings.
📍Ancient Town: The ancient town, full of life, is worth visiting for its Chaoyang Tower, Confucian Temple, and Zhu Family Garden.
📍Narrow Gauge Train: A tourist train, with vintage carriages, artistic retro stations, and beautiful scenery of countryside and ancient buildings along the way; it's recommended to book a seat early, find a window spot for photos, and the fruits at the station are also very cheap. It passes through Shuanglong Bridge Station - Xianghui Bridge Station - Tuanshan Station.
📍Purple Pottery Street: A bustling night market, very popular at night, where the small town's atmosphere is evident, and there are many pottery galleries along the street, with a variety of colorful ceramics to dazzle the eyes.
Food: Jianshui roasted tofu, barbecue, steam pot feast.
Day3 Mengzi: My impression of Mengzi is that it's a city with low prices, off the beaten path, rich history, a border town, and a small city with ethnic characteristics. It is the junction of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and the Gejiu Stone Railway, where multiple cultures blend, and the architectural features are also unique, making it super suitable for sightseeing and photography.
📍Bisezhai: An important stop on the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, with French architectural style, one of China's oldest train stations, and also home to Yunnan's first coffee shop and post office. Here you can find the same camera positions as in the movie 'Youth', and it really achieves a model of operation and sightseeing integration.
📍Pioneer Bookstore is located next to Nanhu and the former site of the Southwest Associated University, gathering representative works of the teachers and students of the university and local handicrafts of Mengzi;
The Dashuzhai Night Market and Nanhu Night Tour in Mengzi are also must-visit places for visitors.
🌟Mengzi is the birthplace of Crossing-the-Bridge Noodles.
Day4 Mile: This city, sharing its name with Buddha, inevitably has its own unique legends. Now Mile can be directly reached by high-speed rail, making travel convenient.
📍Dongfengyun Art Town: Red brick kilns of various sizes, blending wine culture and Yi ethnic fire culture, full of exotic charm. The design here is really for photography, any angle is a great shot, and if you come after May, there's also a large field of lavender.
📍Taiping Lake Park: A park created through ecological restoration on a karstified land. Nestled between mountains and waters, with dense forests and clear waters, it is a colorful land all year round.
Traveling through Yunnan by train, connecting several characteristic small towns with the simplest mode of transportation, to experience different small-town lives.