Kunming guide
Kunming rewards slow travel. These are the sights a local would actually send you to, ordered so you can walk them in one day and spread the rest across a longer stay.
Green Lake Park (Cuihu) is the centre of the old city and the reason Kunming feels calm rather than hurried. Locals walk the lake at dawn, do tai chi in the morning and sit with tea until dusk. It is free, it is central, and it sets the pace for everything else.
Ten minutes walk away is the Dounan Flower Market, which sells orchids, bonsai and cut flowers in volumes you will not see anywhere else. Buy in the morning, when the best stock is still on the ground. Kunming Old Street and Nanping Street fill the evening with grilled skewers and soup noodles.
The Western Hills (Xishan) rise behind the city, with a cableway up to Dragon Gate grotto, carved into the cliff face and framed by two carved stone dragons. The walk up through the cypress forest is the point; the cableway saves your legs if you are short on time.
The Yunnan Ethnic Village is a large reconstructed village of 24 minority villages with daily folk performances. It is touristy and families enjoy it, but it is a good orientation stop before heading further west. The Yunnan Provincial Museum next door is the serious introduction to the province, and it is free.
Jinma Biji Square marks the old walled city and its twin pagodas, one dating to the Tang era. Walk the wall line to find the old city gates, which are still recognisable between modern blocks.
Qiongzhu Temple (the Bamboo Temple) is 20 minutes north of the centre and worth the taxi ride for its 500-year-old roof of woven bamboo and its memorial pagoda for the musician Yu Sheng, whose story is told in the local opera. Zhuanxin farmers market, south of the centre, is where Kunming eats.
Dianchi Lake is 40 km long and, in winter, the Haigeng wetland fills with black-headed gulls that have flown in from Siberia. Between November and March the lake edge is the best thing to do in Kunming. Haigeng Park is the main viewing area, and the wetland boardwalk at Caoyun is quieter.
Leave room for the city itself: the old French concession streets around Wenmiao Street, the bird-and-flower market at Zhuanxin, and a final bowl of crossing-the-bridge noodles near Kunming railway station, where the city has always eaten before catching a train.