North-West Yunnan Lodge to Lodge: Songtsam, Dali, Lijiang and Kunming

Where the plateau breaks into gorges

UNESCO lists the Three Parallel Rivers region, which covers about 1.7 million hectares, for its scenery, geology and biodiversity. The gorges record the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates, and a single slope can hold forest, farmland and snow at different heights. Tibetan, Naxi, Lisu, Bai and Yi communities live at different altitudes on the same mountains, which is why the culture changes almost as quickly as the weather.

Travelling lodge to lodge

Songtsam’s small lodges are the practical way in: ten to seventeen rooms in the older ones, set in separate valleys and best taken as a circuit. The common thread is warmth, Tibetan-inflected interiors and a position that lets the landscape, not the building, take the lead.

The group’s city retreat above Dianchi Lake, Songtsam Linka Kunming, is the usual gateway. Songtsam Lodge Cizhong is a wine lodge in a village on the upper Mekong where French Catholic missionaries introduced winemaking in 1898, with river-facing balconies and its own Chardonnay.

Songtsam Lodge Nujiang Canyon takes the circuit to the Salween gorge, among Lisu villages.

On foot

The walking is best at gorge level. Trekking Tiger Leaping Gorge is the classic route, a two-day walk with the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain above it. Come in a settled season and ask your lodge about trail conditions.

Dali, Lijiang and Kunming

The cities on either side of the mountains make a gentler start and finish. The Dali EDITION sits on the Cangshan slopes above Erhai Lake, and Amandayan arranges suites in Naxi-style courtyards above Lijiang’s Old Town.

In Kunming, Shangri-La Kunming has interiors themed on Yunnan tea, a good first night before the climb.

Sources: UNESCO: Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan; Lightfoot Travel: Songtsam lodges; Hospitality Net: Songtsam Lodge Cizhong. Check the official websites for current information.