Hey,
Has anyone experience Kunming and surrounding areas during Golden Week. I'm planning travels with a friend and we are looking for places that aren't affected by the massive crowds of Golden Week.

Are any of Kunming, Dali, ShanXi, LiJiang crowded at this time? Would hotels etc need to be booked in advance or is it okay to just turn up and find something?
Which would be least busy? Hoping to check out Dali.

Thanks for any infor

There is a reason why it is called golden week. Hotels should be booked in advance and expect to pay more than other times of year. You should also try to pre-book your transportation.

There were photos on Internet of the last golden week this May. Traffic was totally stuck between Lijiang, Dali and Kunming. The roads towards Sichuan too, totally jammed.

The golden week is not a good time to visit Yunnan.

Alternative route that might work out would be Kunming-Jianshui-Yuanyang-Vietnam (Sapa).

Yuanyang may be busy but probably not totally jammed.

And this is a nice route too.

Dali and Lijiang will be super crowded, sold out, or triple room prices during Golden week. Kunming city areas will actually be quiet as everyone is getting out of the city, but unless you've been in China a while, you will be itching to get out too. I think Peter99 route looks decent as there is train to jianshui to avoid roads and Vietnam Chinese tourism numbers have dropped a lot after those riots.

Since this one is about travel, Do Chinese nationals still need a visa to visit Thailand, like Chiang Mai, by bus, for short tour?

I believe so. Arriving by Air they can get the visa on arrival but I don't know about overland?