Xī Shān Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Minibuses (one way/return Y10/20, one hour, 7.30am to 2pm) leave when full from opposite Yúnnán Fàndiàn. The only trouble is you could be waiting for ages for the bus to fill up.

It’s more reliable to use local buses: take bus 5 from the Kunming Hotel to the terminus at Liǎngjīahé, and then change to bus 6, which will take you to Gāoyāo bus station at the foot of the hills. Minibuses (Y5) also leave from Liǎngjīahé and drop passengers off at the Tomb of Nie Er.

To return to Kūnmíng take the bus or scramble down from the Dragon Gate area to the lakeside. Steps lead downhill a couple of hundred metres before Dragon Gate and the Sānqīng Gé area ticket office and end up in Longmen Village (Lóngmén Cūn), also known as Sānyì Cūn. When you reach the road, turn right and walk about 100m to a narrow spit of land leading across the lake. Continuing across the spit, you arrive at a narrow stretch of water and a small bridge. (You could also take the cable car across to Haigeng Park for Y30.)

Walk through Haigeng Park’s far entrance and catch bus 44 to Kūnmíng’s main train station. If you don’t want to pay Y6 to cut through Haigeng Park, you’ll have to walk 3km or so from the cable car to the entrance of the Yúnnán Nationalities Village or take a taxi (Y10).

Alternatively, bus 33 runs along the western lake shore through Longmen Village, or you can take a boat from Grand View Park.