Day 9: Kunming to Shangri-la, Monday 29th September 2025
Gushan Park Temples, Shangri-la
24°, cloudy in Kunming, 15°, cloudy, rain, clearing in Shangri-la
NZ$1 = Y4
Y1=NZ$0.25
Up at 8am, up for breakfast ( a meatless noodle broth this morning, with corn etc ), back down to pack. Left at 9am, walked back to Dongfeng Sq, then Metro Line 2 to Kunming Station ( only a couple of stops ). Our high speed train into Kunming had arrived at Kunming South Station ( where most of the high speed trains arrive ) but our train today left from the Main Station in the middle of town ( even though we were on a high speed line today as well ). This station is also used for the new high speed trains that cross into Laos and then down to Vientiane.
We headed up and out of the metro station ( through a carpark and crowds of people just hanging around ) and into the South side of the Railway Station. Through security / ticket check and up to the concourse level at 9:40am. We bought some snacks and then waited at gate 4B.
The photo above shows the gate information board; this board alternated between Chinese and English, and the info shown says ( from l to r ); 4B, Check in, 4B, Train Number / C86, Final Destination / Shangri-la , Departure time / 10:16, Platform 5, Start Queuing / 9:51, Status / Waiting for the train. This photo was taken at 9:43am and the queue had started.
Today’s train was the C86 starting in Kunming and Finishing in Shangri-la. This high speed line was finished in 2023 and we only had 1 stop on the way in Lijiang.
We joined the scrum and through the manual passport check at 9:50, down to platform 5 and onto our train. Today we had 1st class seats in coach 9. We sat down and got organised, left on time at 10:16am and headed west out of Kunming into the rolling hills/mountains of Yunnan Province.
We were right at the front of the cabin and only had half a window to look out so when we got going I asked the carriage attendant ( through the translation app on my phone ) if we could move to a different seat as the cabin was 2/3 empty. We were only making 1 stop on the way to Shangri-la so I thought it was unlikely that the carriage would get busy. She said we could move so we relocated our gear to a better seat. No one got on at our stop at Lijiang so we didn't have to move for the rest of the trip.
Lots of views of the open countryside and winding quite slowly past the large lakes at Dali and Lijiang, up little valleys and past lots of small villages, then after leaving Lijiang we sped up and spent a lot of time in tunnels ( with a notable tunnel/bridge/tunnel combo over the Tiger Leaping Gorge area ) through to just south of Shangri-la, where we followed a wide valley up to Shangri-la.
A brief note about Shangri-la; the town was ( and is on a lot of maps ) called Zhongdian, with the name changed in 2001 to try to be the location talked about in a 1933 book called “Lost Horizon”. The Chinese name for Shangri-la is Xiānggélǐlā, which appears in some train timetables and signs etc. It is a town very much tying into it’s location on the edge of the Tibetan plateau but is much easier to get to than the true Tibetan cities.
We messaged hotel to arrange a pickup ( we used the Trip.com app on our phones which had a messaging function, and we then switched over to a What’s App chat between us and the hotel staff ), which they agreed they could do. The train arrived at 2:55pm, got off and through the gate line then out into the front of the stations. We found our driver ( for some reason he stayed in the carpark and waited for us to come to him; we assume he wasn’t allowed in the station area itself. We found him after a couple of messages and a live video stream of his location and he took us to his car. We never found out his name, or any of the hotel staff names; this is the first place we found where English was not well spoken so commication was a little more chalenging but not impossible. It also sounded to our ears that the language being spoken was not Mandarin Chinese but it was a local language of the Naxi ethnic group. So given that the people spoke both Naxi and Mandarin ( for the Chinese tourists ) it was understandable if English was a low priority of them. In our 3 days in Shangri-la we only saw 10 or so other ‘non-chinese’ tourists.
After getting into the hotel car with our driver, and his Chinchilla, we drove into the old town of Shangri-la, arriving at the hotel at 3:20pm. The scenery is very different to Kunming with a lot more of a mountain feel. And we are now at just over 3000m above sea level.
We checked into the hotel ( “Jinwushe Friendly Ballad Oxygen and Atmosphere B&B”, NZD$210 for 2 nights incl breakfast ) and up to our room, 8306 ( no lift so 2 flights of stairs were a bit tough at this altitude ). The room was pretty basic but had a view and was plenty large enough.
We dropped our bags etc then out at 3:40pm. We walked north to main part of ancient town ( known as Dukezong Ancient Town ), looking for a coffee and a snack. We dodged the showers that were passing through, tried to get coffee at K Cafe ( KFC ) but couldn’t get the ordering app to work so went to Lunkin Coffee instead down an alleyway at 4:10pm. Had our drinks and cheesecake then walked to the main square of the Ancient Town area had a walk around the narrow streets of the ancient town, dodged the costume wearing/ photographing crews ( same concept as we saw early, but very different costumes ), looked at the Guishan Temple complex on the hill overlooking the ancient town, and wandered back to the hotel at 5:15pm. The ancient town feels nice and quiet but also feels like in summer it would be very busy as a lot of restaurants and shops appeared to not be open at this time of year.
Rested for a bit. It was about now that we both started to feel the effects of the altitude ( we had been warned about them ) with mild headaches and extreme tiredness. It got better over the next 2 days but never really went away. Dotted around the town ( and inner hotel lobby ) were oxygen bottles that could be used/hired for anyone struggling with the altitude and our room had an oxygenator in it to increase the oxygen content of the room.
We headed out again at 6:15pm, walked back to the main square of the Ancient town and took some photos of the square wth the temples on the hill behind ( the square had hosted a concert and was in the process of being packed up/cleared out at the time ) until about 7:30pm then we went looking for food.
We struggled to find what we wanted ( there a lots of Hotpot restaurants but we were looking for just a noodle restaurant so we didn’t have to cook our own dinner ) and eventually settled on a hotpot on one of the main streets at 8pm. Dinner was nice ( again language was an issue so a random person came out of the kitchen to speak English to us and explain the menu etc. We ordered a basic Yak beef hotpot with potatoes, vegetables, bread etc for Y188, which was very expensive based on what we had paid previously for dinner. The meal was nice and the restaurant had a good atmosphere, with lots of families and tourists.
We walked back to hotel at 9pm to rest and try to sleep ( neither of us slept well; another high altitude issue )
Zoomable Map ( pin is located roughly on our hotel location )