Thanks a lot for all your answers, although many of those places weren't excactly in the west ;-) we just returned from nujiang valley and really loved that area- a bit like tiger leaping gorge, but much more remote. We spent two days in bingzhongluo and one day in laobudeng (quite close to zhiziluo, the deserted town gokunming published an article about a while ago). That said, we were a bit rushed in the end and would highly recommend spending at least a week in the area as it is quite a hassle to get there ( we took a nightbus from kunming to fugong which was supposed to take 11-12 hours but as the driver decided to take a nap in between it turned out to be a 15 hours ride in the end, from fugong we caught a mianbaoche for 40 kuai to gonghe and yet another bus from gonghe to bingzhongluo). Bingzhongluo is not very pretty itself but the scenery is awesome. Apparently it is possible to reach the drung valley from bingzhongluo, which, according to people we met, is breathtaking both in scenery and culture, but even more difficult to reach. Laobudeng was very nice, too. It is quite close to pihe, which lies in between fugong and liuke, and getting there included quite a few mianbaoches and busses, too. That said, the view was awesome! Speaking at least some chinese is pretty much mandatory as no one spoke any english. For more information-this blog helped us a lot: blog.holachina.net/?p=2832

Thanks a lot for your answer. Do you happen to have a name or adress (beijing lu was quite long if i remember correctly?)? Two weeks are probably juuuust a bit too long, but will check out the place anyways. If anyone has other suggestions I would still love to hear them ;-)

Hey guys,

After spending some time in kunming several years ago, we are now returning for a two weeks stop-over. We are planning on spending about a week in kunming and dali together to see how it changed and eat at all the awesome restaurants that we missed so badly the last years ;-) the last week we would love to spend visiting some less explored areas in yunnan, ideally somewhere in the west (as we will already be in dali and have already visited the south and the obvious tourist choices such as lijiang, yuanyang, tiger leaping gorge etc.). We've heard that nujiang valley (bingzhonglu) and the tengchong area are well worth a visit but were hoping that you guys might have some comments or even other recommendations on that topic. We speak chinese (although it's a bit rusty at the moment), so getting around shouldn't be a problem. Thanks for your help!

Hey guys,

We are invited to a wedding for which me and my bf will have to wear a traditional qipao/ tangzhuang. As we both exceed chinese dress sizes by far, we were wondering whether there is a reliable tailor in Kunming. Alternativly we are also heading to dali, so if someone can recommend a place around there, it would also be appreciated. Also: has anyone ever had a qipao tailor made and knows how much we can roughly expect to pay? (We are not in china yet and will only have a few days before the wedding, so taobao is not an option). Thanks in advance!

Not trying to side with anyone on the violence topic, but Dudesons's does in my opinion make one good point, no matter if you believe him about his lifestyle, choice of location or whatever else has been discussed before. Although I myself have never felt anyhow uncomfortable or unsafe in China I must admit, that the moment I've seen violence happening in China it has always been with a disturbing intensity. Not saying there is no violence back home in Europe, I've certainly seen quite a lot of drunk idiots not being able to control themselves and picking a fight, BUT in all those years I've never seen a guy kicking a girls head, while she was already lying on the floor bleeding. A bunch of guys kicking another already unconcious guy. Nor a man trying to solve what appeared to be a fight about a car accident with an axe. I'll have to admit that the first to incidents happend in Kundu and in front of the Hump, so the location definetly makes a difference. Only, avoiding a place just beause the risk of getting into a fight might be a bit higher doesn't sound like a satisfying solution to me, feels a bit like not going for a swim cause the risk of drowning is much higher than when sitting at home watching TV (I know, dozens of people will argue that there are several more reasons not to go to Kundu, relax guys, we've heard them all, but as a pretty good saying states: live and let live). Anyhow, we are still talking about Kundu and not some brazilian slums here. That said the last incident happened at 9 am. None involved foreigners though and I've never felt foreigners were more of an target of violent behaviour than locals. Only of pickpockets, thats for sure (to get back to the original topic).