Hi all. A long-time lurker on the goKunming forums and recent transplant to Kunming, I thought it was finally time to ask for some advice.

I'm doing one to one Mandarin study and therefore free to travel for at least part of the Spring Festival so I'm planning to take a month off in January or February. I want to visit a couple nature reserves and spend some quality time in the backcountry, ie. away from roads and heavily touristed areas.

Ideally, I would also like to get a little wildlife photography practice in and meet some conservationists or researchers working in the area, but maybe that's for a separate topic and/or trip.

It seems my two biggest limiting factors are: lack of Mandarin skills and lack of personal transport. Reason being, I'd love to head northwest to Baimaxueshan or Northern Gaoligongshan, but I can't find any solid information about access and conditions in January or February. Will those places be accessible via public transport then? How much snow might there be at base elevations?

Should I just head south instead? Maybe the southern end of the Nujiang Gorge and Gaoligongshan, Wuliangshan, Ailaoshan or Xishuangbanna, etc, etc?

And maybe most important, how problematic could it be to do this with very limited Mandarin ability, knowing that I might need to get information from and explain my itinerary to nature reserve staff?

Sorry for the epic post. Just hoping someone can offer a little advice and maybe point me in the right direction or even suggest someone who can. I prefer independent travel but would be more than happy to hire local guides for a few days, considering my handicaps.

Thanks.

I cannot help you much on where to go, but I can share with you some of my experience traveling in Yunnan and Sichuan.

While student in 2006, I went traveling by myself from kunming to Chengdu. I went through Lijiang, tiger liping gorge,litang by local transportation...

I ended up in villages being the only foreigner, did not speak any mandarin and it was totally fine. if you have a map to show the name of where you want to go, and a phrasebook with chinese characters, you will be able to do what you want. It might just take a bit more patience and time.

Thanks, jeremi. That's encouraging.