Xishuangbanna travel guide (attractions + transportation + food + precautions)

Xishuangbanna is a very well-known natural scenic spot with a tropical rainforest climate. It retains a large amount of the most primitive forest state, and the perfect and rich natural ecosystem is well protected. It is a good place. It is an excellent tourist destination, and I will share with you a super detailed guide below. Hotel accommodation

For tourists, staying in Gaozhuang is still a good choice. The accommodation conditions and environment are relatively good, and the price/performance ratio is relatively high. There is a night market in the evening. If you live in Gaozhuang, no matter where you are, you will not be too far from the night market and the Shwedagon Pagoda, and can be reached on foot. Although it is separated from Jinghong City by a river, there is a bridge connecting it, so there is no inconvenience problem.

Although Wanda has better accommodation conditions, it is indeed too far away and there is no public transportation, making travel inconvenient.

Gaozhuang

We stayed at Shuixianshan Hotel in Gaozhuang. Its location is quite good. It is the first hotel you will see when you arrive in Gaozhuang. It is a 5-minute walk. Minutes and about 300 meters away you can reach the night market area. But just because of the distance of a few hundred meters, it is very quiet and there will be no noise at night. It takes about seven or eight minutes to walk to the Jiangbei ticket office of Jinghong Bus Terminal. The hotel room is large and well equipped with complete dry and wet separation. When we checked in, we were upgraded to a room on the top floor with direct access to the terrace for free, which felt a bit cool! Haha

Botanical Garden-Wanglian Hotel

We also booked a night at Wanglian Hotel in the Botanical Garden For the hotel, call the hotel directly at the entrance of the botanical garden and they will send a battery car to pick you up, which is very convenient.

The hotel is located between the Pagoda Garden and the Shade Botanical Garden. We had lunch and dinner at the hotel. They provided a buffet for lunch and dinner, which cost 60 yuan per person. Basically, there were 8 hot dishes, 4 cold dishes, 1 soup, Sprite and Coke, 4 kinds of fruits, and the only staple food was rice. a scale. The taste is okay, it feels a bit like a big canteen. Breakfast is included in the room rate, so it is provided free of charge. Relatively speaking, there are more types of breakfast.

Buffet dinner at Wanglian Hotel

Buffet breakfast at Wanglian Hotel

The advantage of staying in the botanical garden is that after dinner in the evening, you can take a walk in the botanical garden. Very interesting. You can go play as soon as you get up early in the morning, before the large number of tourists have arrived. We arrived at noon on the first day and walked around the entire West District in the afternoon. Went out for a walk again in the evening. Early the next morning, I bought a battery car from the East District at the canteen opposite the hotel. It took about 20 minutes to drive 5 kilometers to the Green Stone Forest Scenic Area in the East District. There was no one at all, it was a reserved venue, which felt a bit cool, haha.

Traffic Guide to the Swimming Pool of Wanglian Hotel

First of all, let’s talk about the distance from the airport. Jinghong city is the closest to the airport, and it takes more than 10 minutes to get there.

Gaozhuang is slightly farther than the city, and can be reached in about 20 minutes. However, most accommodation in Gaozhuang includes free airport pick-up and drop-off, as long as you agree on the flight time with the hotel in advance.

Let’s talk about the traffic problems in various scenic spots.

Manting Park

It is recommended that you don’t rent a car if you go here. Many chefs will tell you that you can rent a car for 100 yuan if you go to Manting. But in fact, if you go from Gaozhuang If you take Didi Express, it will cost you only 10 yuan. There is no need to charter a taxi~

Here is a clear suggestion for everyone. Regular taxi drivers here don’t like to use meters. Even if they use Didi, they will change the price. It’s annoying! We After getting on the bus, he even told us that Manting was boring and I would take you somewhere else if you want to think about it again. Seeing that we insisted on going to Manting, he asked us if we had bought tickets. He could buy them for us and let us refund the tickets we had booked online. Special! Don’t! Dislike! Disgusting! After all these tricks failed, he asked us for a taxi fare of 20 yuan. He said it was 20 yuan for crossing the river! I really wanted to beat him to death with a stick! In order to avoid For this kind of problem, it is recommended that everyone try to use Didi Express when going to the city or the airport, so that the price cannot be changed~

Wangtianshu

In fact, originally I wanted to go to the Sky Tree on the third day, because the driver of the chartered car told me that it was too expensive and uneconomical for two people to charter a car to the Sky Tree, so I listened to him and changed it to what it is now. Overall, I feel very sorry. I was not able to go to Chengwangtianshu, so when planning your itinerary, if possible, try not to charter a car to avoid being deceived, and at the same time, you can save a lot of money and money.

This year, Jinghong City has opened a scenic express train specifically for people traveling there. This is really good news for tourists who go there in groups of two or three. Because most tourists who want to go to scenic spots farther away can only charter a car, but with this through train, many problems are solved.

Jinuo Mountain Village

We went by chartered car. We arranged for Jinuo Mountain Village and the Primeval Forest Park that day. The price was 200 yuan per day, which was actually not bad. However, the scenic spot can still be reached by direct train, it depends on your own time arrangement. Jinuo Village is about a 40-minute drive from Gaozhuang.

Primitive Forest Park

This is actually very close. It is only about a 10-minute drive from Gaozhuang. The scenic area can be reached by express trains and buses. In fact, it doesn’t even take a taxi. Expensive.

Menglun Botanical Garden

You can also reach the scenic area by train.

At the same time, you can also choose a bus. There is a Jinghong Bus Station Jiangbei Ticket Office in Gaozhuang, and you can buy tickets on the spot. If you take the bus on the spot, you don’t need to go to Jinghong City. Everyone can ask Gaode, Gaode knows the ticket sales point. And even if you can't find it, you will see many minibuses and minibuses parked there by the roadside, and you will be able to find him.

The ticket price for the train to Menglun is 23 yuan/person, which is very cost-effective. It takes about 1 hour to arrive. When you get on the bus, tell the driver that you want to get off at the Botanical Garden. The driver will call you when you arrive. Park directly at the west entrance of the Botanical Garden. I only parked at one place in the middle, which lasted about three to five minutes, so it didn't waste much time.

On the return trip, you can still take the bus at Ximen. There will be a bus in about half an hour. However, there are several types of buses. Before getting on the bus, ask the driver where it goes to Jinghong. The bus we caught on the return trip was the bus to Banna Passenger Terminal. In fact, it is not too far from Jinghong Passenger Terminal, but it is closer to the airport. , we happened to be going to the airport, so we sat directly at the terminal. If you want to sit in Gaozhuang or somewhere else, you can tell the chef when you are almost there and ask him to stop for you. It's easy to negotiate.

Tips: Please pay attention to the bus to Banna Passenger Terminal. This bus stops for about three or four stops in the middle. Each stop lasts about 5-10 minutes, so if you are like me, If you have to catch a flight, it's best to come out a little earlier. However, one advantage of this car is that it is in much better condition than the car we took when we went there. The car we took when we went there was a minibus type and was relatively shabby. The car we took back was a minibus, I guess, with a relatively large seat pitch and spaciousness. Children's shoes with luggage don't have to worry, these cars can store luggage, some at the back, some at the bottom, it's not a problem at all. Dining and Food

For people living in Gaozhuang, eating is actually not difficult. In the evening, there is basically everything to eat and drink at the night market. You can experience Dai-style barbecue (grilled pork belly, grilled fish, grilled chicken, grilled fish, etc.), Dai-style cold dishes (pounded chicken feet, pounded papaya, etc.), as well as various fruits and freshly squeezed juices.

Dai flavor specialties

I think the vegetable-wrapped fish in Dai flavor barbecue is okay. A portion is 30 yuan, which includes a grilled fish, a small bowl of rice noodles, lettuce and dipping sauce. , and peanuts. It’s interesting to wrap these things with lettuce. I’ve never eaten them like this before. The braised pork bones are also delicious, you can try them. We don't like Dai-style cold dishes very much. We don't know if the restaurant we ate at is not very authentic. Anyway, it feels like all kinds of spices are mixed together in our mouths. We don't like it very much.

Starlight Night Market Fish Wrapped in Vegetables

Starlight Night Market Wrapped Pork Crispy Bones

Starlight Night Market Small Stall

Starlight Night Market

We bought freshly squeezed juice from the same stall for 10-15 yuan a cup during the days we lived there. If we go there every day, the price can be negotiated the next day. I tried star fruit + pear juice, the taste was amazing and delicious! There was also pineapple + pomegranate juice, sour and sweet, very special. The coconut juice is specially made from Thai fragrant coconut. It tastes very sweet. After drinking it, you can ask the stall owner to dig out the coconut meat and eat it. Don’t be too happy, hahaha.

For fruits, we went to two fruit shops on the roadside just outside the Gaozhuang accommodation area (not far from the Jiangbei ticket office), and bought jackfruit, egg fruits and so on. I was very impressed with jackfruit. At the night market, it costs 10 yuan for a small bowl. It’s only a few yuan. The man in that small shop peeled it for me on the spot. It cost 10 yuan for half a bag. It’s quite big. Haha

, both of us It's a bit fun to eat. Egg fruit is also delicious. You can buy it and try it. It tastes like cake. Pick the soft ones and buy them. They are amazing

Various freshly squeezed juices at Starlight Night Market

Jackfruit< /p>

Regular stores

We went to two, one was the internet celebrity store Manfeilong Roasted Chicken. It was around 11 a.m. when I went there, and there was no one in the store. I ordered grilled chicken, pineapple rice, and hand-peeled bamboo shoots. It should be mentioned here that there is no cooking in this store. All vegetables are eaten raw, such as cucumber strips and lettuce. The roast chicken tastes pretty good, and the best thing is the chicken wings, which have an oily and burnt skin. The pineapple rice is very fragrant, and the hand-peeled bamboo shoots are just ordinary, without any special treatment.

The other one is Dai Louyuan. We wanted to try hand-picked rice, so we went there after seeing that they had group purchases. A big portion, enough for two people. The outer circle is a variety of meats, grilled fish, grilled chicken, grilled pork belly, grilled ribs, grilled pork skin, as well as cucumber strips and lettuce. The grilled pork belly is especially delicious and charred. The bottom is vegetable rice and the middle is pineapple rice. The rice is not too hot, it feels like it has been slightly heated in a microwave, but the meat on the outside tastes pretty good, and if you buy it in a group, it only costs 88, which is really a good deal. Except for rice, the two of us basically eliminated everything.

Recommended attractions for hand-picked rice in Dailou Garden

For many people, the most confusing thing is that the various attractions in Xishuangbanna are all advertised in a flashy way, and there are many attractions. If I don’t understand, I’ll give you a picture first so that you can see the general distribution of scenic spots: (This picture was saved from a Q&A by a bee friend. I think the picture is very clear, so I borrowed it for use, hehe)

Okay, after having this basic concept, let’s talk about the details.

First of all, when choosing a scenic spot, first consider what type of place you like. Then, avoid duplication of types. Finally, consider the distance and cost. Then when planning the route, refer to As shown in the pictures above, if they are arranged in the same direction, there is no big problem. You can also refer to the routes provided by the scenic spot express trains for convenient transportation. In the urban area, I personally think Manting Park is really good. Manting Park The entrance ticket to Manting Park is 54 yuan per person. The play time is 2-3 hours. The opening time is 8-17 o'clock. The ticket is 54 yuan. If you buy online, it is 49 yuan. You don't need to buy any battery car. It's not big. Necessary. It's quite beautiful inside, and there are some performances you can watch. This is the performance schedule. You can refer to it and arrange your time reasonably. Parrot performance: 9:50, 12:00, 15:40, Parrot performance venue Royal Elephant performance: 10:30, 14:50, 16:30, Royal Elephant performance venue Dai King has an appointment and rushes every day: 9: 00, rush to show the story of Zanha's "Spring Joy": 11:00, Zanha Pavilion

We watched the royal elephant performance at 14:50 in the afternoon. Personally, I think there is no need to go to the Wild Elephant Valley. , it’s far away and the tickets are expensive, and there are really no wild elephants. Around two o'clock, many people began to occupy seats in the venue. It was also around two o'clock when the staff came out with four or five elephants. After giving them a bath and dressing up, they opened the door. , started soliciting business to take photos, and it cost 80 yuan per person. Many people who took their children went to take photos, and I visually estimated that twenty or thirty people took photos in half an hour. It was a bit fast to earn money.

The performance started on time at 2:50, and there were some interactive projects during the period. One of them was two staff pushing two supermarket shopping carts, filled with cucumbers and bananas, 10 yuan. Feeding three pieces of money to the elephant also triggered a burst of madness, eh! It’s a bit hard to explain in one word. In short, except for these crazy money-making projects, everything else is pretty good. Manting Park Elephant Show

Manting Park and the Zongfo Temple are connected. You just need to show your ticket when you come back to Manting. Zongfo Temple Wangtianshu package ticket is 198 yuan/person (including scenic spot tickets + one-way Nanla River sightseeing cruise + canopy corridor/rainforest covered bridge), opening hours 8:30-19:00, play time 2-3 hours

Route: Take a boat from Nanla River to the pier. After getting off the boat, take Philip Trail to the sky corridor. After getting off, exit the scenic area from the other side and take the scenic minibus to the parking lot.

I'm sorry, I can only provide you with this information about Wangtianshu, because I didn't make it, and I always feel very sorry. In fact, I originally wanted to go to Wangtianshu on the third day because I chartered a bus. The driver told me that chartering a car for two people to go to Wangtianshu was too expensive and not cost-effective, so I changed it to what it is now. Overall, I feel very sorry that I couldn’t go to Wangtianshu, so everyone is planning the itinerary. If possible, try not to charter a car to avoid being deceived and save a lot of money and hassle.

The map below is also borrowed from Bee Friends’ travel notes to give you a reference. Tickets for the Keno Village are 160 yuan per person, opening hours are 9:00-18:00, and the play time is 2 hours

The Keno Village is actually not big, but the overall management and planning are still good, if you have time You can go and have a look. At the entrance of the scenic spot, people who bought tickets within these 10 minutes will be formed into a small group every 10 minutes, and the number of people will be counted as many people. Because we went there early in the morning, it was about 9 o'clock when we arrived, and there were very few people. A group of 4 people formed a small group, and a young resident of the village would act as a tour guide to take us around the entire village. This is a service included in the ticket, not a tour guide you can find alone. At the gate, people wearing various Keno national costumes will first welcome you and then toast you. I was so happy that I drank a small glass and drank it all. After drinking it, I felt feverish for a long time. For a non-drinker like me, this temperature is really not low. Girls, don’t be like me when you take the wine glass. Just as excited.

Precautions for the welcome ceremony at the entrance of Jino Village. It will be a little cold when you go to Jino Village early in the morning. Please remember to bring a light jacket.

The tour guide explained to us the origin of the Jinuo people along the way. The culture of the Jino people is quite interesting. I watched many small performances and gained some basic understanding of the Jino people. Finally, he took us to a place to watch a performance. The little tour guide brought us some food, including local wax gourd pig roasted pork slices, corn and white potatoes. It felt like the four of us had eaten a little clean.

As we approached the door, there were fruits to eat, including a bowl of watermelon, a bowl of pineapple, and a bowl of banana. You can eat watermelon and pineapple as you like, but only one banana per person. It seemed that everyone who came later had a taste and then left. Only the four of us ate there for a long time. I begged the little tour guide to take away the shadow in his heart, hahaha. Everyone must try pineapple. It is a local specialty eyeless pineapple. It is sweet and sour and delicious. The entire tour only takes about two hours. Primitive Forest Park

The opening hours are 7:30-18:00, the ticket is 65 yuan, the battery car is 70 yuan/person, and the play time is 2-3 hours.

Overall, I think this scenic spot is a bit embarrassing and not highly recommended. In the whole scenic spot, Aini Village is probably the most crowded place, and the most beautiful one is the bridge at the door.

There is not much inside, but there are people who will lead everyone to dance ethnic dances, and you can also experience the bamboo pole dance. Be careful not to pinch your feet~haha

We also caught up with the folk instrumental music performance. The time was just right, so I watched it, and it was actually nothing. However, it was quite fun when the host interacted with the audience. Just watch it for fun. The entire scenic spot is basically like this. I just feel that my 115 yuan is for the peacock. There is nothing special about the rest. It will take 2-3 hours to enjoy it all and watch the show. It will be faster if there is a battery car.

Peacock Flying Performance Site

Daqiao Tropical Botanical Garden at the entrance of Aini Village

Scenic battery car: 50 yuan/person/time, round trip 100 yuan/person/time . The tour time is half a day in the West District and half a day in the East District.

My favorite place in Xishuangbanna. The botanical garden is divided into two areas: east and west. Most tourists only visit the West End due to time constraints. The West District is a carefully planned area. It is relatively clearly planned and divided into many different areas. You can buy your own tour tickets or choose to just walk like us. The tour bus stops at different stops. Those with the elderly and children can choose the tour bus. You can refer to the map below to plan the route in advance.

The East District has a completely different style, more natural and closer to the original state. There are only two stops in the East District, but I feel that we need a tour bus more than the West District, because it takes about five kilometers from the West District to the first stop, the Green Stone Forest Area, and then about two or three kilometers to the Tropical Rainforest Area. Therefore, although there are few stops, the distance is long, so tour buses are necessary.

It is recommended that the elderly and people with weak legs and feet should not go to the Green Stone Forest Area, because it is basically mountain climbing. And the scenery is not very beautiful. If young people have enough time, they can just exercise. In fact, it is not very high. The tropical rain forest area is more interesting and primitive. The large roots of the green stone forest area can also be seen here. The inside is like a tropical rainforest in a movie, which is quite interesting. If you have time, I recommend you to go and have a look. It doesn’t matter if you are older. It is relatively gentler than the green stone forest area, and a small amount of walking up and down should not be a problem. Shopping Guide

In fact, if you really want to buy some specialties in Xishuangbanna, I think fruits are the best. If possible, you can buy boxes of pineapples, mangoes, etc. to take back. The taste is still very good.

In addition, we accidentally discovered a tamarind cake called Mao Duoli that tastes very good, and I thought it would be a good choice to bring it back to share with everyone. It just so happened that it was still early when I left Manting Park that day, so I went to the nearby Carrefour, which cost 29.9 yuan a pack, which felt pretty good. If you will stay in Kunming after Xishuangbanna, you can also buy it in the supermarket in Kunming, but don't go to the airport to buy it. I saw some at the airport selling them for 65 and some for 80. They are really expensive.