Jiuzhaigou Huanglong airport was crowded with tourists on their way back to many different destinations: Chendgu for us, Xi’an, Shanghai for others. The small terminal had very few (expensive) shops and restaurants. Unique particularity: we could find 2 oxygen bars!

Our flight was of course delayed due to the weather (which was ok from what we could see) and as we had a connection flight to take, stress was rising. We could not check in for it as the company was different and did register 2 bags so we had to pick them up at Chengdu airport before taking the next flight. Great! No need to add that airport’s staff was useless in our case.
At the end, when we landed we had less than 20min to check in. I went to the baggage pick up area while Kunie tried to do the check in without me. It’s usually forbidden for security reason but somehow she succeeded (maybe by showing the teeth!). We ran by the security checks and corridors to reach gate just on time. By around 30degrees. Our schedule was definitely tied and the airlines were not making it easy.

Kunming is a really big busy city. We had a bit less than 2 days to spend there, but i don’t think it worthed it. The main attraction is the Stones Forest at Shilin, 2h from the city by bus. As the weather wasn’t great at all, we decided to postpone the visit to the next day and relax a bit (under the rain).

I booked the Fairyland Hotel Express. Important to know (and we did not at that time) is that there are several branches of that hotel in the city. Our first taxi stopped at the wrong one. The hotel staff understood the misunderstanding and gave the right direction to a new driver (prices were really cheap, count 20RMB from the airport to the center of the city). Back on track, we were heading to the branch nearby the New Era Hotel.
I initially booked the suite at Fairyland Hotel Express (for 301RMB) but it appeared to be a really big apartment (2 bedrooms, 1 living room and a kitchen) with a broken air-conditioning. Later in the night, we managed (dealing with Chinese style service…) to move to a more conventional room for 260RMB.
We had a quick walk in the area to discover that we won’t find anything interesting there. There was a “old” Chinese area with few shops selling souvenirs and restaurants. We tried one cheap noodle one. The smell was
comparable to the smelly tofu, the taste ok. The local specialty was somehow serving noodles in 500ml of oily soup. We did not get sick. After that, we had a quick stop at Park’n Shop to buy some backup food for the next morning. There were a few Malls as well, but nothing incredible. Kunming city was a bit disappointing, especially after visiting Jiuzhaigou. Anyway, we were not there for shopping but for sightseeing.

The schedule of the next day was as following: visiting the Stones Forest outside the city and after catch back our bags at the hotel to move to the airport before 4pm (flight at 5).

We woke up early as usual and headed to the bus station. 1h30 to 2h and 30RMB later, we reached the Stones Forest.

We were surprised to see that the place was actually a park (entrance fee: 175RMB) which did not look very natural. Of course the stones were authentic, no doubt, but the way they are shown was not the best in my opinion. Anyway, we visited the park which took us about 2h. The number of huge stones is big and plants are poor. The Stones Forest deserves its name. I think that the best way to see it is from a hill and have a panoramic view. From the inside, just rocks with long shapes. To be honest, i wasn’t really impressed.

The few tourist shops were selling regional products which we also found in Guilin area. There was also a small market selling variety of fruits. We bargained a kind of blanked for half price before taking a bus back to Kunming.

From the bus terminal to the hotel, we decided to take a taxi (I think the only solution) and as the official cars were rare at the moment we arrived, we chose the unofficial way. Fare negotiated we started a chaotic journey in Kunming. At the moment we took the taxi, we had comfortable time. But as the driver did not anything about the hotel, we started to worry. We decided to abandon the stupid driver with half the money and take a new
more official one. This was the best solution and we arrived on time at hotel and airport.