Upon completing the stunning trek of Tiger Leaping Gorge, many travelers simply turn around and return to Lijiang by roughly the same route along which they came—going back southwest to Qiaotou and then arranging transportation to Lijiang.

This approach has a few pitfalls. First, it requires that one see the same scenery twice, which is bad for people on short vacations who want to fit in as much sightseeing as possible.

Additionally, the paved road through the gorge has been impassable during much of the last year due to rockslides and dynamiting, which can make it a challenge to get back to Qiaotou at all.

The alternate route back to Lijiang through the town of Daju (大具) is a great way for travelers to get back without retracing their routes or getting snarled in blockages on the Tiger Leaping Gorge public road.

Daju is situated past Walnut Grove at the northeast end of Tiger Leaping Gorge, on a large flat shelf of land on the opposite side of the Jinsha River from the Tiger Leaping Gorge trails.

To get to Daju from Tiger Leaping Gorge you will have to hike for a few hours or hire a minivan to get to one of two ferries (new and old) across the Jinsha that, for tourists, range from 20 to 30 yuan per passenger. The final ferry of the day typically runs around 5pm. Your guesthouse in Tiger Leaping Gorge can help you organize the passage.

Daju is composed of a large central town with several satellite villages. These settlements are in turn surrounded by lush fields of grain and vegetables, which are fed by springs and rivers gushing out of the surrounding ring of mountains.

The locals are very friendly, and there are plenty of opportunities for wandering around the fields and seeing village life in action. Also, there are some small, steep paths leading into the mountains to the north of the town, which make for good hiking and offer great vistas of Daju and the entrance to Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Once travelers are ready to move on, they can hop one of the daily public buses back to Lijiang at 7:30am or 1:00pm, for about 20 yuan. It is recommended that you reserve a seat as far in advance as possible through your guesthouse.

This road back to Lijiang goes around the east side of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain range and on clear days will offer passengers views of the glaciers creeping down the faces of those mountains. Going to Lijiang via Daju also avoids the 160 yuan entrance fee to the Jade Dragon tourist area, although be advised that if you try to get to Daju coming from Lijiang you will likely be charged the fee.

Guesthouses in Daju are concentrated in the satellite village of Xiaomidi, near the edge of the river. Two good options are the Daju Inn and the Xiaomidi Inn.

Construction work has begun on a new airport near Lugu Lake, according to a Xinhua report citing local officials.

The 837 million yuan (US$122.6 million) airport will be located 35 kilometers from Lugu Lake (泸沽湖), which is located in the northeast of Lijiang prefecture, approximately 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the city of Lijiang. It is generally reached by bus or car from Lijiang, but mudslides and flooding often block roads.

The 60 square kilometer lake straddles the border between Yunnan and Sichuan provinces at an altitude of 2,685 meters and features eight islands and several beaches and bays.

Lugu Lake is popular with domestic tourists for its mountain and lake scenery as well as for the local Mosuo (摩梭) people – population 40,000 – who are designated as a subgroup of the Naxi (纳西族) people and are best known for their matriarchal society, a label which is not fully accurate.

Mosuo women make business decisions and property is passed down along the female line, but men hold political power in Mosuo society, which prevents the Mosuo from being a pure matriarchal society.

The Mosuo are also known for their 'walking marriages' (走婚), in which women choose male partners to visit their bedroom after dark. The man typically returns to his own home early the next morning.

Once completed, Lijiang Lugu Lake Airport is expected to offer flight services to Kunming and Guangzhou. The airport is projected to handle between 1.5 million and two million passengers annually.

Lugu Lake image: rexythegreat via Flickr

In the last fifteen years, Yunnan has gone from being a best-kept secret to a must-visit travel destination. The old towns of Lijiang, Dali and Shangri-La have changed from rustic backwaters into highly commercialized versions of their former selves.

In wake of these tourism-driven changes, the search for new towns that preserve the cultural and architectural traditions of Yunnan's ethnic minorities is well under way, with Yunnan's 'second tier' destinations such as Shaxi, Tengchong and Lugu Lake all receiving more domestic and foreign travelers.

The small town of Xizhou (喜州) is another example of an increasingly popular 'off-the-beaten-path' stop for visitors to Yunnan. About 30 kilometers north of Dali, Xizhou has developed a reputation for its protected sites highlighting Bai architecture.

With full support from the local government, American couple Brian and Jeanee Linden, who have been splitting time between China and the US over the last two decades, have established the Linden Centre – a boutique hotel and cultural retreat – in one of Xizhou's protected sites. GoKunming spoke with Brian Linden to find out more about what's happening in one of Yunnan's up-and-coming travel destinations:

GoKunming: Why did you choose Xizhou as the location for your cultural retreat?

Brian Linden: Xizhou has historic prominence as one of the few villages with a population of less than 2,500 people and a cluster of over 100 protected buildings. We are proud to be among the first foreigner couples to take over a Type A Cultural Relic. This means our building is one of the most pristine examples of Bai traditional architecture and is protected at the same level as the Great Wall and Forbidden City.

We contacted various levels of government and felt that Yunnan was the ideal choice given its ethnic diversity, scenery, weather and architectural heritage. The local government and villagers in the Dali region were extremely supportive and welcoming.

Xizhou has a history of bringing in people of different cultures and ideas. It was a site for Yale in China during the 1940's and many writers and artists were living in Xizhou. The writer Lao She called Xizhou "The Cambridge of the East." We would like to renew this spirit of bringing together people of different cultures to learn from each other.

GK: What is the philosophy behind the Linden Centre in Xizhou?

BL: The inspiration for our Centre comes from both the miraculous results of China's recent economic achievements and our melancholic longing for the 'old' China that we experienced in the 1980s. China's changes have made the urban experience less than exotic to the experienced traveler. During our 25 years of traveling and doing business, we have had to go further afield to touch the older, more traditional China.

By 2004, we decided that we should try to establish a cultural retreat and sanctuary in a functioning old village to share the China that still survives under the cement and neon veneers of the major cities. Our goal was to source a historic complex and nurse it back into its dynastic glory. We were able to do this in the village of Xizhou.

GK: What are the challenges in running a boutique hotel in rural Yunnan?

BL: Personally, we feel very few challenges. This is a lifestyle decision, a project of passion. Once the basic necessities like water and electricity were addressed, we found the daily challenges to be surprisingly manageable.

GK: What makes Bai architecture distinct from that of the Yi or other minorities in Yunnan?

BL: Bai architecture, especially in Xizhou, displays a level of sophistication and grandeur seldom seen in a rural setting such as our small village. The traditional Bai style of building reached its zenith among the wealthy group of merchants who decided to settle in Xizhou.

Most Bai courtyards have gone beyond the mud brick and wood architecture of the other ethnic groups. Xizhou's location near the Dali marble quarries ensured that the complexes had ample stone for the structures and decorative marble for the unique architectural highlights.

GK: What kind of role does the Linden Centre play in Xizhou?

BL: In our own way, we want to set a precedent for sustainable cultural preservation. We have consistently been the staple of new ideas and fresh perspective in terms of our approach to the Centre's renovation with the additions of priceless antiques and artifacts from Yunnan.

More simply, we want to extend the idea of the Centre into the village itself, allowing the experience here to flow easily. This starts by showing great respect for the villagers and treating them like family. We have hired mostly local workers who often bring their family and young children into the Centre for our atmosphere and occasional fun. We teach weekly English corners to the villagers for nothing in return and help plan games and activities.

GK: Do you have a plan for more retreats in Yunnan or elsewhere in China?

BL: Yes. We aim to create environments in the region that honor the traditions of the past, helping develop sustainable models for restored historical complexes. We want to celebrate the artistic traditions of China and facilitate the sharing of these in a structured manner. Current concrete examples of this include our efforts to procure and restore the former Flying Tigers Radar Station and Village Library, which served as the educational center of Xizhou during Yale/Huazhong University's stay in the village.

In each case, we will develop museums that will trace the stories of the wartime efforts in the Dali valley. The Flying Tigers have left an incredible legacy for all American visitors in the region and, yet, there is no museum highlighting the efforts of the Chinese and Western military in the region. We will soon be looking for organizational support to pursue the two aforementioned projects.

We also own a second complex, one of the only Bai complexes to have Shanghai Deco elements - it was built by a Xizhou man who made his money in Shanghai and returned to build this complex. We are developing a refined Atelier for the study of the arts: specifically painting, writing, music and photography. This second complex is large enough to regularly host 4 artists-in-residence as well as a group of adult students. Younger students will use the Atelier for studio space and will be housed in a restored third courtyard.

GK: Xizhou is becoming an increasingly popular stop for tourists - what are the positives and negatives with regard to this trend?

BL: Xizhou, given its smaller size and later stage of development in the tourism marketplace, will always be different from the first wave of commercially developed destinations such as Dali and Lijiang.

Another increasingly known element of Xizhou that differs from normal tourism in Yunnan is the concentration of culturally significant estates built during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Yet, just like most of developing China, many concrete buildings were introduced in the last 30 years. The more derelict ones are being replaced with fairly refined Bai-style structures to accommodate and cater to a more affluent tourist audience.

We certainly appreciate the greater levels of elegance and beauty the project of 'Ancient Xizhou' brings to the area. The roads are being restored to the times before mass concrete was poured. Waterways will be reopened. Cars will be prevented from driving in the inner town. Power lines will be buried. Many of the reasons we have fallen in love in Xizhou will be amplified with the greater attention to detail and quality, while all the more bringing consideration to the culturally immersive environment.

Unfortunately, larger amounts of people will inevitably inject a level of commercialization affecting the local customs and traditions. This is perhaps unavoidable, given the lucrative market size of domestic Chinese tourism. Our experience, however, with the Culture Bureau and government officials leads us to remain optimistic that Xizhou may be able to balance the ancient with some modernity to create a new and positive paradigm.

Kunming's Second Ring Road open to traffic
After one year of demolition and reconstruction, Kunming's second ring road (二环) is now open to test traffic and will officially open to the public on Wednesday.

Local media is gushing about the completion of the ring road, which will serve as the linchpin in the city's "four rings, 17 spokes" traffic plan, in which expansion of the city's traffic system from two ring roads centered around Green Lake Park to four ring roads – the fourth encircling Dianchi Lake – will shift the center of the city's traffic structure southward, coinciding with the development of "New Kunming" in Chenggong.

According to government traffic officials, once on the second ring road, it will be possible for cars to reach destinations including Chenggong, Anning, Jinning, Kunyang, Haikou, and Songming. Travel time from to Yiliang, Luquan, Shilin and Xundian will be reduced to one hour.

Dali – Lijiang rail line open to public tomorrow
Beginning tomorrow, the new Dali-Lijiang rail line (大丽铁路) will officially open to the public, linking the two popular tourist destinations by rail for the first time.

The Dali-Lijiang passenger line will operate daily, with hard seats on the L9016/7 (Dali to Lijiang) and the L9018/5 (Lijiang to Dali) costing 34 yuan. Total time for the journey is approximately three hours and 45 minutes.

The L9016/7 Leaves Dali at 9:26 am, stops for two minutes at Shangguan at 10:51 and arrives at Lijiang at 1:12 pm. The L9018/5 leaves Lijiang East Station at 1:45 pm, stops in Shangguan for two minutes at 3:59 pm and arrives in Dali at 5:26 pm.

Southwest China's first IMAX theater to open in Kunming
At the end of this month Kunming will become the first city in Southwest China with an IMAX Theater, according to government-run BBS clzg.cn.

The theater, which features a 12 meters high by 21 meters wide screen, is located in the new Shuncheng Shopping Center on Dongfeng Xi Lu. The shopping center, which will also be home to retail outlets including Zara and Papa John's, is built on the old Shuncheng Muslim quarter, which prior to its demolition in 2004 was a dilapidated but vibrant neighborhood filled with Hui and Uighur restaurants.

Image: news.kunming.cn

Construction on the rail line connecting Dali with Lijiang has been completed and will be running in time for the National Day holiday during the first week of October, according to a YunnanNet report. Construction on the rail line began in 2004.

The 164 kilometer rail line passes through some serious mountain country, with more than half of the trip made up of bridges or tunnels. Bridges account for 22 kilometers of the journey, with 78 kilometers passing through tunnels.

The Dali-Lijiang (大丽) line will begin at Dali East Station, traveling along the eastern shore of Erhai Lake with stops at Shangguan (上关), Xiyi (西邑) and Heqing (鹤庆) before arriving in Lijiang. At present, information about departure times and trip duration is unavailable.

Lijiang is one of China's most popular tourist destinations – in the first half of this year it was visited by 3.44 million tourists. The opening of a new rail connection with Dali and Kunming should translate to even more travelers visiting the city, which features attractions including its old town (a UNESCO World Heritage site), Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and the nearby Tiger Leaping Gorge.

The extension of the Kunming-Dali rail line to Lijiang brings a proposed Kunming-Lhasa rail line one step closer to reality. The line will next be extended to Shangri-la and then to Lhasa.

The Kunming-Lhasa rail link would make Yunnan's capital the third provincial capital in western China with a direct rail link to Tibet after Xining in Qinghai and Chengdu in Sichuan, which will begin construction on a Chengdu-Lhasa rail line this month.

The glaciers of Yulong Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山), one of Lijiang's top tourist attractions and a major source of water for the region, are disappearing quickly due to global warming, according to information released by the Frigid and Arid Zone Environment and Engineering Institute of the China Academy of Sciences.

Between 1982 and 2002, Yulong Snow Mountain's largest glacier, Baishui Number One Glacier, receded 250 meters. The glacier and other glaciers on the mountain also became thinner and have been accumulating less snow, the institute said. The above photos compare the mountain several years ago (top) with how it appeared this past Sunday.

Yulong Snow Mountain is a mountain massif, or small mountain range, which is seated 25 kilometers north of Lijiang's old town and forms the southern side of Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of the world's deepest gorges. It spans 13 kilometers from east to west and is home to 19 glaciers covering a total area of 11.6 square kilometers.

Yulong's glaciers are crucial to the surrounding area's ecology and they are also a major tourist draw for Lijiang, one of China's most popular travel destinations. The photos below compare how one of Yulong's peaks looked in November 2004 (top) and last Saturday.

Since the nineties Yunnan has been an increasingly popular destination for Chinese and foreign backpackers, during which time cities such as Lijiang, Dali and Zhongdian (now Shangri-la) have changed from rustic old towns into increasingly commercialized areas of dubious authenticity and diminishing charm.

It appears likely that this trend is only going to accelerate – this week it was announced that Lijiang will start to strictly enforce its 80 yuan (US$11.70) entry fee for its old town area, while Dali's government announced that the third-largest amusement park in mainland China will be built in the Erhai Lake valley.

"Welcome to Lijiang… pay up!"
Lijiang's Old Town Management Bureau recently announced to media that it will create a virtual wall of checkpoints around the old town to enforce the 80 yuan entry fee – an unpopular fee whose enforcement has become increasingly lax in recent years.

According to government statistics, poor enforcement of the old town entry fee has led to a loss of nearly 100 million yuan in revenue. Last year Lijiang took a total of 180.6 million yuan in old town entry fees, with 140 million yuan of those fees coming from tour groups and 20 million yuan from hotels.

Rigorous enforcement of the relatively high entry fee for the old town is unlikely to hurt agencies managing tour groups but could prove damaging to guesthouses and restaurants that rely more on independent travelers.

Dali to build southwest China's largest amusement park
On Saturday, the Dali Tourism Holiday District Management Committee signed an agreement with Shenzhen-based Jianianhua Investment Company Limited in which the latter will invest 600 to 800 million yuan in a 15 hectare amusement park that will be the largest in southwest China and the third-biggest in China after parks in Beijing and Shanghai.

The amusement park, which is expected to launch operations in two years, will have all the rides and features of Jianianhua's Shijing Shan amusement park in Beijing. Dali is one of three possible candidates in Yunnan for selection as a World Heritage Site later this year.

From June 22 to 30 in Seville, Spain, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee will review a list of hundreds of candidate sites proposed by countries around the world as part of the World Heritage Site selection process. In the end, only 20 or so sites will make the cut and be named World Heritage Sites, putting them firmly on global tourism's radar.

Each country submitting candidate sites must maintain a 'tentative' list of sites from which it can submit two candidates to the selection committee. This year, China's tentative list features 52 different sites, including three in Yunnan. China currently has 37 World Heritage Sites.

The Yunnan sites on China's tentative list include Dali Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake Scenic Spot, the Hani Terraces of Yuanyang and the lesser-known Chengjiang fossil lagerstätte at Maotian Mountain. While Dali, Yuanyang and Chengjiang are by no means unknown to travelers, being selected a World Heritage Site would bring new tourist revenue – and new developmental issues.

Yunnan is currently home to three World Heritage Sites: Old Town of Lijiang, Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas and South China Karst. Here's a quick look at the sites that could be selected in June:

Dali
Set between the towering Cangshan Mountains and the expansive waters of Erhai Lake, Dali has been a mainstay on the China backpacker circuit for more than a decade.

The agricultural know-how of the ethnic Bai people native to the area made Dali an important rice production base in dynastic times. This wealth fuelled the rise of the Nanzhao Kingdom, which was centered in Dali and at its height stretched from northern Laos, Thailand and Myanmar up into Chengdu and the Sichuan Basin before incurring the wrath of the Tang Dynasty.

Today Dali's old town is the most popular destination for travelers, but small guesthouses have also been popping up around Erhai Lake at Xizhou and Shuanglang. At the end of this year a new train line will link Dali and Lijiang.

Should Dali become a World Heritage Site, it would likely face many of the same development-versus-preservation problems that Lijiang has dealt with.

Yuanyang
Yuanyang and its rice terraces have long been an 'off the beaten track' option for travelers to Yunnan wishing for something different from the Dali-Lijiang-Tiger Leaping Gorge route. With just a fraction of Dali's tourism, Yuanyang offers a much more "local" experience for travelers – there is very little tourism infrastructure, roads around the terraces are often quite rough, and dining options are rather limited.

In terms of scenery, the more than 13,000 hectares of rice terraces around Yuanyang offer some of the most stunning natural images to be found in China, especially at the beginning of the year when the terraces are filled with water creating a striking mirror effect.

For relatively poor Yuanyang, World Heritage Site status would be tantamount to winning the lottery. The main question would be how much of the incoming tourist revenue would make its way into the pockets of locals.

Chengjiang fossil lagerstätte
The least-known of the three Yunnan sites on the tentative list, Chengjiang's Lagerstätte – a sedimentary deposit rich in fossils – is centered around Maotian Shan, located just north of the city of Chengjiang and picturesque Fuxian Lake, one of China's deepest and cleanest lakes.

While it is ignored by travel guidebooks, Chengjiang and its Lagerstätte is quite famous among paleontologists for the fossilized sea life it contains, collectively referred to as 'Chengjiang Fauna'. Chengjiang Fauna is considered one of the 'Three faunas of the evolution of early life forms' along with Burgess Shale Fauna in western Canada and the Ediacaran Fauna of South Australia.

The Chengjiang Lagerstätte recently made news around the world when Yunnan and UK scientists announced that they had found the earliest example of collective behavior there in the form of 525 million-year-old crustacean fossils linked together.

Already a popular weekend getaway for wealthy Kunmingers, Chengjiang would likely experience a rapid increase in international travelers as well as Chinese from other parts of the country were it to be named a heritage site.

Chengjiang fossil image: Nature.com