A hot, green corner of Yunnan near Laos, with Dai Buddhist temples, a large botanical garden and fast trains from Kunming.
A hot, green corner of Yunnan near Laos, with Dai Buddhist temples, a large botanical garden and fast trains from Kunming.
A former Dai royal garden in Jinghong with pagodas, ponds and Dai-style halls; entry is ¥40. The General Buddhist Temple, the head temple of Xishuangbanna's Theravada Buddhists, is reached from the park's back gate.
A Dai-style quarter about 5 km from central Jinghong, whose Starlight Night Market runs from about 6 pm until after midnight with food stalls, crafts and street performers. Free to enter; weekends are the busiest.
Five lived-in Dai villages in the Ganlanba basin, with stilt houses and a Buddhist temple in each village, among them Manchunman, one of the oldest temples in Xishuangbanna.
A research garden at Menglun, about 1.5 hours from Jinghong by road, founded in 1959 and holding more than 13,000 plant species across 1,125 hectares, including a stretch of rainforest. Tickets are ¥80; park carts cost ¥50 per zone or ¥100 for both. The West Gate is open 8:00–18:00.
The Dai New Year, April 13–15. In 2026 Jinghong held dragon boat races on the Lancang River on the 13th and the main water splashing on the 15th, from 11:00 to 16:00 at Water-Splashing Square and on the main streets.
Sticky rice steamed inside a hollowed-out pineapple, sweet and slightly tangy.
Glutinous rice cooked inside a length of bamboo over the fire, then split open to eat.
Sliced beef and rice noodles dipped into a sharp, herby sauce that is often made bitter with beef bile.
Fish, meat and vegetables grilled over charcoal and eaten with chili dips, the usual meal at the night markets.
Xishuangbanna is the far south of Yunnan, on the borders with Laos and Myanmar. Its capital, Jinghong, sits at about 550 meters on the Lancang River, as the Mekong is called in China, and it is warm all year and hot and humid in summer. The Dai people, whose Theravada Buddhist temples and stilt houses fill the villages around the city, give the region its character.
It suits travelers who want warmth in winter, tropical plants and a slower pace after the big cities. Most people arrive by high-speed train from Kunming on the China–Laos railway, and it adds a different climate to a Yunnan trip that takes in Dali and Lijiang.
Spend the first day in Jinghong. See Manting Park and the General Buddhist Temple in the morning, rest through the midday heat, and walk the Gaozhuang Xishuangjing night market after dark, with Dai barbecue for dinner. On the second day, take a shuttle bus or a driver to the Tropical Botanical Garden at Menglun. The west zone alone fills about two and a half hours; the whole garden takes four to five. A third day can go to the Dai villages at Ganlanba.
If you come in mid-April, plan around the Water-Splashing Festival: book trains early and expect to be soaked in town on the main day. Our high-speed train guide explains booking with a passport, and the paying in China guide covers setting up Alipay or WeChat Pay for DiDi and market stalls.
Checked on 29 October 2026. Opening times and ticket rules change; confirm on the official site before you go.
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