It was just past midnight on 16th December 2015. We landed at Kunming Changshui International Airport by SriLankan Airlines flight 828, (the flight no longer available instead you can take China Eastern direct flight to Kunming) when the airport temperature was 5° C as the flight stewardess announced. The time was 01:20 am in China time. We arranged this tour in a hurry. It was SriLankan Airlines actually promoted us to purchase tickets at very reduced rates.

Preparation: Visa problem

But the most difficult problem was to get the visa from China Embassy in Colombo. They insisted us to get “Invitation Letter from Chinese Tourist Bureau”. By that time we have booked “Enjoying International Hotel” in Kunming for 3 nights via Agoda online hotel booking. At one moment I felt that we are going to loose ticket fares & hotel fares for not having an Invitation Letter from the Chinese Tourist Bureau. Until this moment all arrangements made very smoothly.

Finally, the visa counter lady in Colombo asked me to contact a travel agent and get down the letter by courier service as soon as possible. Now seats are confirmed hotel is booked but no visa approved.

When I contacted a travel agent, he sniffed me very well and charged me an exorbitant charge and delivered me the so-called letter. And we had to change our hotels also. We booked ‘Yunnan Kingworld Hotel’ for two nights and stay at Enjoying International Hotel was reduced to one night.

As time was running very fast I had to pay double the usual charges for the visa. After all these obstacles we managed to catch the correct flight.

Day 1: Landed

SriLankan flight 828 to Kunming has touched down at Kunming Changshui Airport around 01:15 am China time and we were managed to be at the Arrivals lobby hour later. As we noted we were lonely again in this giant airport in the very early hours of the day.

Taxi and the hotel

While we were looking outside to get acquainted with the environment, a Chinese person approached us. He spoke English very well and he had a private van. He was waiting to collect his wife after work at the airport. He took us to the hotel and charged a nominal fare and also escorted us to the hotel and helped so much with checking in. So we slept happily until the daybreaks.

Explore Kunming

After the first Chinese breakfast we had, all 4 members went out the main street called “Beijing road” which was the road our hotel situated on. We cashed some US dollars to Chinese Yuan at the Bank of China.

We went to see “Green Lake” and “Yuantong Temple” which was very beautiful. We took the Metro to get there. To visit Yuantong Temple they changed us 6 ¥ per person. We went to a shopping mall and bought some winter gloves (30 ¥ each) as it was very cold in the streets. A nearby street to our hotel became very busy in the evening as hundreds of mobile roadside eating places opened to the public. We had our dinner there, it was very delicious and cheap (7 ¥ for a fried rice packet).

Day 2: Western Hills

The following morning on 17th December, which was very cold, but we planned to go to “Western Hills” which is a mountainous region covered with an ancient temple complex. We boarded on to a Kunming metro bus which goes route 51 and charged us only 8 ¥ for 4 of us. From there we shared a small van with some locals to go to the park entrance for 40 ¥.

On the top of the hill, our family experienced for the first time in our lives, ground frost and frost on trees. What beautiful scenery. The temperature was very low as we got know later, it was just below 0°C. We all started to shiver with the wind chill. But little later we recovered and we enjoyed a much. For Western Hills entrance they charged us 40 ¥ per person. When returning we had to (no other options were there) get a bus service provided by park management called “Green Bus” which charged 12.5 ¥ per person. We returned to our hotel in the evening and had our delicious street food dinner on the roadside.

Day 3: Rainy day

It was raining in the next day, but we managed to see the famous Flower Market (Taxi 10 ¥) after changing hotels.  We had some snacks at McDonald’s in Chuncheng Road and bought some fresh fruits along the pavement. Fresh pomegranates were the best. As winter coming closer to Kunming, winter clothes were on sale everywhere (100 – 200 ¥). We bought new winter clothes for us and some gifts for our friends in Sri Lanka.

Day 4: Daguan Park

On the 19th, in the morning, after breakfast, we went to Daguan Park (entrance fee 20 ¥ per head) by Metrobus on route 52 (Bus fare 2 ¥ per head). A flock of birds on the banks of the lake were making a big noise while they were fed by visitors.

Preparing for the return

In the evening we came back to the hotel to get ready for the homeward journey.

We settled the final bills at the hotel. Bags were packed and ready to go. After the dinner, by 08:00 pm we left the hotel and could catch a bus leaving Kunming Railway Station at 08:20 pm. There is a shuttle bus service available from Kunming Main Railway Station to Kunming International Airport. The bus terminal was very nearby to our hotel. Route no. 919 C the airport bus charged us 52 ¥ for 4 persons.

We had to wait six hours until the SriLankan Airlines flight 829 ready to leave Kunming as we were very very early to the airport. We had a very pleasant flight with SriLankan Airlines.

Finally we said goodbye to Kunming while keeping good memories. We spent great four days in China.

Bit of info

We had NO tour guides nor travel agents in China. We were on our own. It was a great experience for our family members. Basic arrangements were done via the internet. Tourist attracting places to be visited were selected based on the information available on the internet. Hotel accommodations booked by using Agoda Hotel Booking, which was very trusty. The hotels we stayed in were very good. They have all facilities we needed especially in the winter, despite some malfunctioning of air conditioners in the second hotel. But they attended our complaint and changed rooms.

Final thoughts: Great people, great country

The most important thing is the people, Chinese people, they are very friendly and well disciplined. It was very difficult to communicate with them due to the language barrier. We had some Chinese essential words printed. We could manage to get help when we needed using that. One occasion a Chinese student came walking along with us about a kilometre to help us to catch the correct bus. Chinese people are very kind and so helpful. Great country, great people.

Finally, we had a very good journey, valuable memories and we felt it was worth the money we spent there. We wish to visit Tibet on some other day. We must pay our gratitude to the Chinese people.