I am a former Kunming resident and will be visiting around the 26th Jan to Feb 1. I need to travel from Chuxiong to Dali on Jan 27th and from Dali to to Chuxiong on Jan 30th. Can anyone advise how difficult it is to buy tickets for those times now? I am asking some friends to buy these tickets but feedback is very slow.
Thanks
Your best bet is to use the taobao travel application, or something similar. You're trying to travel on chinese new year - which I suspect will be near impossible, if not prohibitively expensive.
gokm has some travel agents listed in the LISTINGS section - just look for the search tab AFTER you navigate to the LISTINGS section.
Finally - you MAY be able to hire a car and driver for that period - but it will also be expensive.
Traveling ON Day One of the Lunar New Year is easier than trying to do so either on the week before or the week after, as everyone wants to be home before the first day, and family/tourist pleasure trips will not begin until the day after.
getting bus tickets from chuxiong to dali should be no problem, but you can't book them too long in advance, about 1 week before maybe.
Thanks Philou. Yes, I'm finding that to be true. It's a bit disconcerting but I understand how things work as I lived in China for several years. My local Chinese friends are trying to buy bus tickets for me and just wrote me today that they won't sell one more than a week in advance. Crazy but that's China. Still, at the holiday I expect it is even more difficult. Fortunately I am traveling alone so a single ticket may be a bit easier, at the least. Thanks
Good luck laoshi19, hope you make it. Booking tickets with only a week in advance, well, I wouldn't do it. Just not worth it. You've got my respect mate. Yeah, it's total madness out there, but that's China for you isn't it. Crazy, I know. I'm sure the single ticket will make things a lot easier for your friends living here that will get the ticket for you. Take care and look after yourself.
