Hello friends Readme.me. This time is a review of the trip to China of the owner.

Please excuse any errors.
Note: This trip was documented using a Fuji XA2 camera and an iPhone 6s.
The budget for 10 days was 12,000 baht (excluding airfare, which was approximately 12,000 baht roundtrip).
Without further ado, let's begin our journey!

This is a sudden decision for me. I haven't been back to Beijing for a week, and I feel like I need to find some inspiration before I start writing my research paper seriously. So I asked my junior who studied with me to go backpacking together. We planned to go wherever we wanted and come back when we were tired. This time, there were two of us, both tough women who could endure anything. Even if a ten-wheeler truck hit us, we would die!

Here is a rough estimate of the travel expenses as shown in the picture below.
P.S. The picture may not be very clear because the author doesn't know how to insert the table, so they took a picture from their mobile phone and inserted it. I apologize for that.


** The exchange rate that the OP is using is 1 RMB = 5.7 Baht. **

The OP purchased a one-way flight ticket from Beijing to Kunming. The return date is not yet determined.
The ticket was purchased from China Eastern Airline for 679 yuan (679 x 5.7 = 3870 baht), which is considered a good price.

**Day 1:** Departing from Beijing Airport at 22:00 - Arriving in Kunming at 01:30, with a flight duration of 3:35 hours.

The original poster booked their accommodation on the website www.ctrip.com. Upon arriving at Kunming Airport, they called the accommodation and a car was sent to pick them up. The pick-up service was free (but they had to wait a long time for the car to arrive, around 2:30 am). They stayed at the Chuandu Hotel, which is located near the airport. The cost was 89 yuan per night (for two people, so it was 45 yuan per person, which is equivalent to 256 baht). There wasn't much to do that day, so they just rested at the hotel and planned for the next day's activities.

**Expenses on Day 1: Roundtrip airfare 679 + Accommodation 45 = 724 RMB (4126 THB)
**



**Day 2:** Today we will go for a walk at the pedestrian street in downtown Kunming (called Shizhongxin Pedestrian Street 市中心步行街). We left our accommodation with our backpacks and continued on... Since the accommodation was quite far from the city center, the owner of the accommodation told us to hail a shared taxi nearby to get to the city center. We paid 10 yuan each (called pinche 拼车). It was similar to a van, with three or four passengers on board, squeezed together because the car was very small... When we arrived in the city center, the driver let us off and told us where the bus stop was... Luckily, the author of this post knows Chinese, so he read the bus stop signs to find out which bus to take to get to the pedestrian street... We decided to go to the train station first because we had to buy train tickets to Lijiang tonight (to save on accommodation costs, we would sleep on the train).

We took bus number 25 to Kunming Station (Kunmingzhan 昆明站). There is a luggage storage at the train station so we don't have to carry heavy bags. The storage fee is 5 yuan (about 30 baht). After storing our luggage, we bought a sleeper train ticket for 157 yuan (157x5.7=895 baht). We then went out and took bus number 2 from the train station to Wenmiao (文庙) bus stop, which is the walking street. You may ask how I know the bus routes. Well, I searched online at www.baidu.com. It really tells you everything. .. I forgot to mention that the bus fare here is 1-2 yuan for the whole journey (about 5-10 baht). When we arrived, we took a leisurely walk and didn't rush... We also had coffee to fight off drowsiness... Today was a relaxing day, just visiting one place. Hehe.

I strolled through the three adjacent pedestrian streets, found dinner, and then took the same bus back to Kunming Railway Station (getting off at Kunming Station). I waited for the train to depart. I slept on the train for 11 hours and arrived in Lijiang...


**Expenses on Day 2: Taxi to city 10 + Bus 2 + Train ticket 157 + Luggage storage 5 + Bus 1 + Food 83 + Bus 1 = 259 RMB (1476 THB)**




**Day 3:** Arrive in Lijiang at 7:30 am. When you exit the station, you will see a bus stop right in front of it. (P.S. If you want to save money like me, I recommend taking the bus. Don't listen to anyone who calls you over or tells you it's 5 or 10 yuan to get to your destination. Stay firm, the bus is only 1 yuan and it will take you to the same place, hehe.)

The OP took bus route 4 from Li Jiang Railway Station to Gu Cheng Kou (古城口).

Upon arrival, you can walk in and find your own accommodation. It's not difficult to find, there are many places to stay. You can go in and have a look first, and if you don't like it, you can leave... The author stayed at a place called Dongbei Renjia (东北人家), which costs 80 yuan per night per room.

Inside the room

The room is lovely, but there are no heaters in this city. If you come during the winter (from the end of October to the end of April), I recommend bringing a lot of warm clothes. It's very cold. I went in March and it was freezing. Back to the accommodation... The owner is a friendly woman who talks a lot. She talked all night, haha. She asked us to call her Da Jie (大姐). If you're interested in following in my footsteps, here's her business card.


But...but...but... He said that if you come during the high season (July-August), the price will immediately jump from 80 to 280 yuan!!!

After settling into our accommodation, we took a much-needed shower after a long, tiring day. We then went downstairs to chat with the owner, who recommended a tour to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain for 480 yuan per person. After calculating the costs, we decided that going with the tour was more cost-effective. (Note: Lijiang City has a regulation that all tourists must pay a maintenance fee of 80 yuan per person upon arrival. This fee is required for entry to various tourist attractions and is only payable once.)

After booking the tour, we went for a walk. Lijiang is a very livable city, clean and not chaotic. I was very impressed with this city... As someone who can't live without coffee, I noticed a green shop on the way from the train station, near Zhongyi Market (中义市场). So we took bus number 4 from Guchengkou (古城口) to Zhongyi Market (中义市场) (there's a Starbucks there, hehe) to get some caffeine before continuing our search for attractions...

Got coffee and took a walk around Jong Eoi, Siu Cheung (Zhongyi Market)

To avoid wasting time, we took bus No. 19 from Zhongyi Market (中义市场) to the bus station (客运站) to buy tickets for the bus to Shangri-La. The bus ticket to Shangri-La costs 58 yuan per person. We bought it in advance in case the tickets were sold out. After buying the tickets, we took a bus in front of the bus station back to Guchengkou (古城口). There are many buses that pass by. When we arrived at Guchengkou (古城口), we went for a walk in Gucheng (Lijiang Old Town). Many tour groups came here.


After a leisurely stroll until the evening, we grabbed some food and headed back to our accommodation. That's it for today's itinerary, just a little bit at a time, otherwise we'll get too tired. 555





**Day 3 Expenses: Bus 1 + Accommodation 40 + Snow Mountain Tour 480 + Bus 1 + Bus 1 + Bus to Shangri-La 58 + Bus 1 + Food 117 = 699 RMB (3984 THB)**



Day 4: I received news from the accommodation owner last night that the road to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is closed for repairs, so we can't go there. We have to change the program to tomorrow instead... I was shocked... What should I do? The case has changed... What are we going to do today? It's okay. So I woke up late today, relaxed and took it easy. At around 10:00 am, I went out to find something to eat. The first step is to have coffee, which is indispensable. I took the bus back to the familiar place like yesterday. I secretly saw that Lijiang still has some nearby attractions that don't require additional entrance fees. Today, we took the bus to Hey Long Tan Park (黑龙潭), a park with a beautiful and shady view of the snow-capped mountains in the distance. (I don't remember which bus line I took, but it's not far from Gucheng. Just find the name on the bus stop sign.)

The park is quite spacious and the weather is clear. We walked around and took photos until it started to get a bit chilly. Then we took a car back to Gucheng (Old Town) as usual. My friend said she wanted to walk around Gucheng again because she didn't get to see everything yesterday. Well, whatever makes her happy. She really likes Gucheng!

As the sun sets, they go out to hunt and then fly back to their nests as usual. The highest hope is that tomorrow they will be able to climb the legendary Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Pray before going to bed... Please let me go... Amen!!

**Day 4 expenses: Accommodation for 1 night 40 + Roundtrip bus fare to Heyuan 2 + Food 71 = 113 RMB (644 THB)**

A little late, but thank you all for following. If you are interested, you can follow the thread in Part 2.

You can find it at https://th.readme.me/p/2886


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