If you have already seen Beijing's walls and Shanghai's skyline, China has a second act — and it runs through Yunnan's highlands and Guangdong's food country. Two weeks is enough to do it properly: start in Kunming, drift north through Dali and Lijiang by Erhai Lake and Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, then fly south to Guangzhou for Cantonese dim sum, tea houses and the Pearl River Delta's gentler rhythm.
This is a slower route by design. Less monumental scale, more daily life — mountain light in the morning, a long shared dinner at night. Here is how to pace it.
Why Yunnan and Guangdong work together
The pairing sounds odd until you see the logic. Yunnan gives you China's most dramatic natural scenery and its most diverse cultures: Bai towns around Dali, Naxi heritage in Lijiang, Tibetan-influenced food further north. Guangdong gives you the cuisine that conquered the world and a cluster of relaxed, walkable cities. After a week of altitude and mountain roads, ending with seafood, congee and city comforts feels like a reward rather than a letdown.
It also solves the altitude question cleanly — you acclimatize gradually as you move north through Kunming (already high), Dali and Lijiang, rather than flying straight to 3,000-plus meters.
Week one: the Yunnan highlands
Kunming (2 days)
Yunnan's capital sits at roughly 1,900 meters, which makes the air dry, the light sharp and the climate famously mild. Use it to land, sleep well and adjust. Green Lake Park with its teahouses and locals dancing by the water is the right first evening. Kunming also works as the transport hub — high-speed trains and short flights connect everywhere in the province.
Dali (3 days)
Three hours north by train, Dali sits between the Cangshan range and Erhai Lake. The old town is compact, and the lake road is one of China's best places to rent an e-bike or hire a car for a slow circuit. Days here are unhurried: a morning at the Three Pagodas, an afternoon cycling the lakeshore villages, an evening in the old town's craft shops and courtyard cafes.
Lijiang (3–4 days)
Further north at around 2,400 meters, Lijiang's UNESCO-listed old town is a maze of canals, cobblestones and timber houses. Two notes from experience: the busiest streets near the center get crowded by mid-morning, so explore early or stay in a quieter quarter; and day trips are the real draw. Jade Dragon Snow Mountain looms over the plain — cable cars take you partway up, and the Blue Moon Valley below it is worth the queue. Go with a guide or a booked service for the mountain day; tickets and cable-car slots sell out in peak season.
Our guide to Guilin and Yangshuo covers another of China's gentler landscapes if you are weighing which southern scenery to prioritize.
Week two: Cantonese food country
Fly Kunming to Guangzhou (around 2.5 hours) and drop the altitude and the layers at once. Guangzhou is China's culinary capital — the birthplace of dim sum — and week two should be organized around meals, not monuments.
- Dim sum mornings: yum cha is a ritual here. Arrive before noon, order by the trolley, and let the tea refill. Our dim sum beginner's guide tells you what to order first.
- Old Canton: Shamian Island's riverside arcades, the Chen Clan Academy's Lingnan woodcarving, and the dried-seafood and herb streets of the old districts.
- The Delta: with two spare days, add Shenzhen for its design districts and skyline, or keep it food-only — cooking-focused travelers are better served staying in Guangzhou. See Guangzhou and Shenzhen for the pair.
- Evenings: the Pearl River waterfront and Canton Tower are an easy, beautiful way to end each day.
Practical notes for two weeks
- Visa: as of 2026, citizens of 50 countries can enter China visa-free for tourist stays of up to 30 days — a 14-day itinerary fits, but with almost no margin, so confirm current rules through official channels before booking. The 240-hour transit visa-free policy (57 nationalities, onward ticket to a third country) does not fit a two-week route. Our visa guide explains the options.
- Altitude: Kunming, Dali and Lijiang all sit high. Drink more water than feels necessary, go easy on alcohol in the first two days, and let the gradual climb do the work.
- Packing: Yunnan sun is strong at altitude and evenings are cool even in summer; Guangzhou is humid and warm much of the year. Layers solve both — see what to pack for China.
- Money: Alipay and WeChat Pay linked to a foreign card cover nearly everything, including small vendors in Yunnan. Details in paying in China.
- Trains: the Kunming–Dali–Lijiang legs are comfortable high-speed and regional services; book ahead in holiday periods. More on trains versus flights.
How HXXC Travel helps
HXXC Travel builds private, customized itineraries, and this two-week route is one we love planning because it needs real local knowledge: which mountain day to pre-book, which lakeshore villages to stop in, where the honest dim sum houses are once you leave the tourist streets. Our Yunnan Dream — Kunming, Dali, Lijiang & Shangri-La route covers the highlands, and the Guangzhou Heritage & Wildlife tour anchors the Guangdong week — we can splice the two into one seamless 14-day trip.
Our Guangdong-based team replies within 1 working day, and because we run the ground plan ourselves, we can slow a day down or swap a leg on short notice — weather on the mountain, a market you want to revisit, a restaurant worth lingering over. Plan my China trip and tell us what the last trip missed; we will build the second act around that.
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