Don't the 919 buses from the airport stop at the East Bus Station?

919E doesn't - and that's the bus that goes to the area the OP wants.

You might also consider the time you'll be arriving at the East Station.
906 starts at 7:00 and ends at 19:00 (every 20-40 mins)
K18 starts at 6:30 and ends at 20:30 (every 10-30mins)

If you're arriving outside of those times, take the subway back to the airport and get an airport bus there, though it might be cheaper if you get a taxi and go through the 3rd ring road (around 20kuais)

Interesting idea to take the subway back to airport, but does it still stop at 6pm?

Good point. Looks like it does.

Thanks for the info. We were able to take the K18 for RMB2 to near Beichen.
For your information, a 2 minute walk further down the hill from the main bus terminal is the local bus terminal where we took the K18. Very helpful people made sure we took the right bus.
There are buses there to many different parts of Kunming.
Happy Christmas!

Best way, I agree is to take the Metro to the East station, I THINK this line runs from 07:30-19:30.

Once you are at the station AVOID any taxi waiting outside it and flag one from the road.

If you get one outside it, I've been quoted 300rmb just to get downtown. You'll hear 'Kunming doesn't have taxis today so you're lucky you've found me' or 'that's the standard price' or 'Today we aren't allowed to use metres to help the environment' etc etc. This is because the people who park their cars, both taxis and 'black taxis' are the scum of the slum, they spend their days in the taxi rank with their other brain dead taxi friends and hotel hustlers, go home to their spasdiated brain dead wives and children and phone their stupid parents who shat them into the rice paddies and have stupid conversations with them about their daily stupid shenanigans in the stupid goings on of the East station taxi rank.
This environment breeds further stupidity and they think you may be as stupid as they are and your existence is as pointless are theirs is, should they be able to manage thought at all, that is.
Therefore these people are best avoided, if you have a stick to beat them off with that will be a further advantage to you. Walk left out of the station and you'll come to the outskirts of the 3rd ring road, waive a taxi down on this road and you'll have a hassle free journey to downtown for 20 odd RMB (Walking St 22RMB, Green Lake 25RMB)

If you wish to experience a Chinese bus, there are ones at the station 50, 237, K19 that will take you downtown for 1 or 2RMB, but surely times aren't that hard that you'll sit next to a whinging baby and a puking old lady with someones crotch next to your face, on a sweaty packed bus, for the sake of a few pence.

Metro - Taxi is the way to manage this journey.

Anyway, you made it and you got here in one piece, good stuff.

Napoleon is having a bad day - if you're new in town, don't take all that seriously. The average cabbie is an average guy, not scum of the slum or whatever; the buses work fine, although buses are sometimes crowded and bus service is slowed by the tremendous number of private automobiles. I've ridden a lot of buses and do so regularly; the passengers on the bus are ordinary people, and nobody cheats you on a bus. It's possible to be taken for a ride by a cabbie especially at or near the airport, but it's nothing to get wild about - obviously you want to insist on the use of the taxi meter - but life isn't that hard here.

Enjoy Kunming.