Yunnan province in China is a very popular travel destination. However, most of the travelers visit only the loop Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-La (Zhongdian). Considering that the province is roughly the size of France, it may looks strange only the north west of Yunnan is frequently visited.
With that knowledge I started to explore some other areas and found that the second most popular area was Xishuangbanna, which borders with Laos and Mynamar. It's a bit more difficult to reach but if you cycle Kunming to Laos (or vice versa) you will pass this beautiful piece of subtropical China.
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| Shangri-La - Zhongdian |
Another spectacular areas even less visited is the Baoshan region. This is a little weird as Baoshan can easily be reached from Dali and with Tengchong and Ruili at the Burmese border this part of Yunnan deserves more tourists.
Two other areas are hardly visited. The Tonghai - Jianshui sees virtually no foreign tourists although Chinese tourists come here for praying. Going north usually means continuing traveling from Shangri-La to Litang, but there are two more options. One goes from Kunming to Panzhizhua and is not recommended (busy road) while the other goes from Kunming to Sonming and Zhaotong and further into south Sichuan. This is a very nice and seldom visited area,.
South West China: Yunnan
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| Lijiang |