The frequently asked - and answered - questions focus on the times before, during and after your tour with Wonders Of Yunnan Travel. We give an overview of what we think one should know but are of course aware that also other topics not listed below can be of interest. In this case, please contact us directly, we are happy helping you out!
Passport and visa issues have to be clarified prior to your China visit. Every Chinese embassy and consulate in different countries has different application rules for respective nationalities. Therefore, it is essential that the traveler first contacts the nearest Chinese embassy or consulate to get the latest up to date information. Most of the Chinese visa offices require applicants to appear in person or let the application get organized by a registered agency. Application processes usually take 3 days to several weeks. Please make yourself familiar with all requirements as soon as or even better, before you booked a tour with us. Your personal travel consultant will be happy to provide according information.
A Chinese visa and a valid passport are required documents for most foreign visitors entering China's mainland. If you arrive without these documents you will not be allowed to enter, may be fined and will be immediately sent out of the country again at your own expenses. In fact, without a proper visa for China, the airline will most likely not allow you to board. Please note that it can be more difficult to obtain a visa outside your country of residence.
In general, please note following recommendations when applying for a Chinese visa
Wonders of Yunnan Travel is always happy to provide support in visa questions. We know that it takes a lot of time and effort to gather all necessary documents and it’s definitely not the most exciting part of your trip. Don’t worry, we will help you! We provide invitation letters, tour itineraries, flight & hotel booking vouchers and all other documents that might be required, please let us know how we can support.
If you book a tour with us, our visa support for you is free of charge. We will help you to prepare all the documents that you need to apply for your Chinese visa in your home country.
If you need Wonders of Yunnan Travel to arrange visa supporting documents for you only, we need to check every single case individually. If it should be possible for us to support you we are charging a service fee of 350 RMB per person.
When entering Tibet from other parts of China, a Tibet Entry Permit is required beforehand. In order to receive such a travel permit for Tibet, you should have your Chinese Visa already. Wonders of Yunnan Travel can then arrange the Tibet Entry Permit for you, based on the respective Tibet itinerary.
When applying for your Chinese visa before your tour, please do NOT mention the Tibet travel plans, otherwise you’ll be asked to get the Tibet Entry Permit before you get the Chinese visa, which in turn is not possible. We supply you with an extra visa supporting itinerary you can use for your China trip excluding Tibet (including Tibet on your visa application without booking a government arranged tour will lead to your visa rejection).
Please note that non-Chinese citizens are not allowed to travel alone in Tibet, you can either join in group tours or book a private tour guide. If you plan to leave Tibet’s capital Lhasa, you would additionally to the private tour guide would need to book private transportation for overland travels.
Documents needed for Tiber Entry Permit are a copy of your passport’s main page and of the Chinese visa.
Note that the application for the Tibet Entry Permit takes two to three weeks, please consider this factor when Tibet shall be included in your China travel itinerary.
When entering Tibet by plane, the original Tibet Entry Permit is required. Thus, we would need an address to send the document to you accordingly. Usually, this would be a hotel in China, where you’re staying prior to your Tibet tour. if you’re entering Tibet by train, only a copy of the original Tibet Entry Permit is required.
Due to regularly changing Tibet visiting rules, we need to check every case individually and above mentioned processes and rules are subject to change.
China is a safe travel destination. The crime rate is relatively low and the authorities tend to impose harsher punishment against crimes committed to foreigners. So it is generally unlikely to suffer serious harassment when traveling. By taking certain precautions you can make your traveling expedition safe and enjoyable.
Many governments provide a regularly advice service on safety issues involved with international travel. We recommend that you check your government’s advice for their latest travel information before departure and ensure that your travel insurance covers you for all areas your itinerary will take you to.
We recommend you to bring a neck wallet or money belt while travelling, for the safe-keeping of your passport, air tickets, cash and other valuable items. While you’re enjoying the beautiful scenery around you, please make sure that you stand on the solid ground and pay attention to the stairs.
Please note that any optional activities you undertake and which are not part of your Wonders Of Yunnan Travel itinerary, we cannot take responsibility for. Please use your own judgement when selecting an activity outside of the provided and arranged itinerary.
Depending on where you come from, please note that drivers in this part of the world may drive on the opposite side of the road what you are used to. In China (except Hong Kong), vehicles drive on the right-hand side but looking both ways when crossing a road is always recommended.
The most fake bank notes in China, are usually the 50 Yuan and the 100 Yuan bills. Not surprisingly, these are also the highest denominations. Please especially check these notes when you receive them. Notes from ATMs are fine though.
Yunnan has a generally mild climate with pleasant and fair weather because of the province's location on south-facing mountain slopes, receiving the influence of both, the Pacific and Indian oceans. Although the growing period is long, there is little arable land. January average temperatures range from 8°C to 17°C; July averages vary from 21°C to 27°C. Average annual rainfall ranges from 600 mm to 2,300 mm, with over half the rain occurring between June and August. The plateau region has moderate temperatures. The western canyon region is hot and humid at the valley bottoms, but there are freezing winds at the mountain tops. It's not easy to summarize an average value for Yunnan's climate due to its vast diversity (from subtropical jungle lowlands in the south up to glacier caped mountains in the north). Please find a climate overview of some of Yunnan's cities further below.
If you had to pick a single province in all China that would expose you to the greatest variations in topography and climate, it would have to be Yunnan Province. There is an old and accurate saying here that "You can enjoy all four seasons on the same mountain, where each of these four season is only a few miles distant from the others.
So, the best time to visit Yunnan Province depends clearly on the region you like to visit. Yunnan is a very diverse province with the Himalayas in the north and subtropics in the south. Thus, there are also specific times of the year when it’s best to visit certain destinations. If you’d like to visit Yunnan in January for example, you should prevent to go north to Shangri-La or Deqin. During this time, the Yuanyang Rice Terraces or Xishuangbanna（Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Menglun）would be recommended to visit though.
The dry season usually starts in September / October and lasts until May / June. During this time, sunshine is plentiful, rain infrequent and the humidity is not yet a factor to be reckoned with. The rainy season usually lasts from June to September. Most temperate parts of the province can be enjoyed all year round though. So actually, the best time to visit Yunnan Province is when you're free!
For further information on climate in Yunnan and elsewhere this website is highly recommended!
When traveling with Wonders of Yunnan Travel, you will have the great chance to experience the vast variety of special Yunnan food. Your tour guide will be happy to suggest good restaurants to eat at and appropriate dishes to order. You can of course choose including all or only some meals into your tour itinerary or – if you want to keep it completely flexible – decide and pay on site. In any case, please specify your food requests (e.g. Muslim or Vegetarian meals) beforehand so that we are aware of any special requirements and can arrange them accordingly if necessary.
We carefully select local restaurants that will give you original insight of China's diversity. Especially Yunnan as a multi-ethnic province offers you a broad range of tastes and food. While travelling around Yunnan, you will discover the local cuisine’s savours as a part of the colourful ethnic minority culture. Be seduced by the splendid and fancy dishes served by the Dai, Bai, Tai, Miao, Hani or Naxi!
Furthermore, each city has its own specialty, for example the so called Over The Bridge Noodles (Guo Qiao Mi Xian). erved only in Kunming, this rice noodle soup includes a variety of vegetables and different kinds of meat and spices. During your stay in Dali however, you can enjoy the freshly spiced barbecued fish, coming directly from Er’hai Lake. In Xishuangbanna you can discover a delicious pineapple filled with cooked sticky rice - an amazing mixture! Your trip to Southwest China will definitely awaken the gourmet in you!
Meals are in- or excluded as specified in the itineraries. Meal codes are: B=Breakfast, L=Lunch, D=Dinner.
With small exceptions, each breakfast will be served by your hotel (usually included in the room rate). Breakfast selections include both, Chinese and Western dishes to meet your taste.
Please check with your doctor for up-to-date medical travel information (e.g. altitude sickness) before departure. We highly recommend you to bring a first aid kit together with your personal medical requirements and purchase your personal travel accident insurance. Please note that our tour guides are not allowed to provide our guests any type of medicine. In case of emergency as accidents and severe illnesses, we’re of course always there to assist you whenever, wherever and howsoever we can. Of course, also your personal travel consultant will be at your service accordingly.
Air pollution is recognized as a big issue in China, especially in the big cities as Beijing. In Yunnan and even in the capital Kunming though, air pollution is usually not an issue at all. Please check the air quality index levels for major cities on the following website: http://aqicn.org/city/kunming/.
If you like us to book your accommodation during your tour, this will be arranged based on your chosen category. Booked accommodations usually include breakfasts. On rare occasions, alternative arrangements might be made due to lack of availability of rooms in hotels and guesthouses we usually let our guests stay at. Instead, a similar or even higher standard category hotel shall be booked.
Usually, the earliest check-in time for accommodation listed in our Hotel Choice , is at 14:00h. On early arrivals, it is of course possible to already store luggage at the hotel. If an early room check-ins is requested, please inform us accordingly in advance and we will check the case individually for availability and potential surcharges.
Usually, the latest check-out time for accommodation listed in our Hotel Choice, is between 12:00 and 13:00h. If you need to check-out the hotel later than that, please inform us accordingly in advance and we will check the case individually for availability and potential surcharges.
Smoking is still quite prevalent in China and Yunnan. Especially smaller and remote hotels generally do not offer specific non-smoking rooms. Well-equipped and larger hotels though have at least central air conditioning systems, cleaning the air constantly. While we always ask our partnering hotels to ensure that rooms booked with us are well cleaned and ventilated before, in some cases smoking rooms will be the only option. Please also consider speaking to your tour guide or the hotel staff on site if in the worst case a change of rooms is possible.
WiFi is usually always available in the hotels, in the reception area as well as in all rooms.
As traffic in Yunnan's cities and beyond can get quite busy and messy you might want to take the service of being driven to your desired destination.
Wonders of Yunnan Travel has received wide recognition for its registered Transfer and Transportation Service. We provide skilled drivers and a variety of modern and air-conditioned vehicles according to the number of clients. You can rely on our secure on-time services while traveling through Yunnan and Southwest China!
Our tour arrangements include flexible transportation services with own driver and - depending on your booking - a tour guide to your disposal at every destination. All our drivers are experienced, skilled and familiar with the local infrastructure. Wonders of Yunnan Travel only uses registered vehicles with tourist licenses as it is requested by law. All vehicles undergo regular compulsory checks to ensure safety regulations.
Safety and comfort is of utmost importance for Wonders of Yunnan Travel. Therefore we only use modern vehicles for our customers on all tours. We ensure that all our vehicles are well-maintained and of course always clean.
For your convenience, we recommend to always book a vehicle big enough to handle your group inclusive all of your luggage, your driver and tour guide. Please let us know if you have any extra size suitcases or bring bulky goods as baby buggies.
According to our experience we suggest to book various vehicle categories for respective group sizes:
Train tickets are personalized. When booking train tickets from Wonders of Yunnan Travel, you will need to provide us with following information:
New regulation from 1. April 2017: every passenger needs to provide an original ID card or passport when buying or booking a bus ticket. For more information please read this article from our blog.
Train tickets are personalized. When booking train tickets from Wonders of Yunnan Travel, you will need to provide us with following information:
• Surname(s) as mentioned in passport
• Given name(s) as mentioned in passport
• Passport number
Renminbi (Chinese: 人民币) literally means people's currency. It is China's official currency and is abbreviated with RMB. The Yuan (Chinese: 元), also used as the name for the country's currency, is the basic unit. The Yuan's sign is ¥ which is also used for the Japanese Yen. One Yuan or RMB equals 10 Jiao (Chinese: 角) or Mao (Chinese: 毛) which in turn is subdivided into 10 Fen (Chinese: 分). While you might receive a Jiao or 5 as change, Fen is not used anymore in everyday life. The International Standardization Organization uses CNY as their abbreviation for Chinese Yuan. The word Kuai (Chinese: 块) actually means piece and is often used in spoken Chinese. It's the colloquial designation of the Yuan but is also used sometimes for the Hong Kong and US Dollar.
Renminbi bank notes are available in denominations of 100, 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1 Yuan as well as 5 (0.5 ¥) and 1 (0.1 ¥) Jiao. Coins
are available in denominations from 1 Jiao to 1 Yuan (0.1¥, 0.5¥, 1¥).
While ATMs and banks like Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China or the Bank of Communications are very present in every bigger and midsized city it might be hard to get cash in rural areas. The easiest way to access cash on your trip is to bring a credit / debit card. For banking related fees, please check with your bank accordingly prior to your departure. Make sure that you look for the ATMs with your card logo.
Currency exchange is available at major banks and some hotels. We would recommend you to bring either USD or EUR since they’re mostly accepted at Chinese banks. Commission sometimes is charged for currency exchanges. Check the rate before you exchange the money and remember to ask for a receipt. In any case, some money should be taken in cash in case of emergencies – we recommend a value of about US$ 300 per person.
Kind reminder: it might not be possible to change leftover CNY back into foreign currency due to restriction on currency conversion for foreigners in China. Please plan your budget accordingly.
Of course, everyone’s spending habit is a little different. You know your spending habits better than we do. Plan your budget for products and activities not included in the itinerary. It’s recommended to bring a bit more, just in case (see above). Make sure to go through the details of your final tour itinerary in depth so that you know what’s in-and excluded. You can find this information under the tab “Departure Dates and Prices” on the respective tour page and “Price Including” and “Price Excluding” section in each of our tour itineraries.
Remember that tipping is highly recommended in China – though not compulsory but has become expected in the travel industry and is a way of showing appreciation. It’s of great significance to the people who will take care of you during your travels. We suggest you to carry small notes of local currency to make tipping easier.
The following tipping amount suggestions are based on local considerations and experiences of our past travelers:
If you decide to tip, please don’t tip with coins, very small denomination notes, or dirty and ripped notes. Thank you.
What you need to bring will vary from the tours you have chosen and your travel time. Generally speaking, you should pack as lightly as possible. Your driver and tour guide are of course always happy to assist with carrying luggage if necessary.
We recommend taking smaller bags with carry strap, backpacks or suitcases with wheels. You will also need a day pack / bag to carry water, camera etc. for your daily trips.
Please also have a look at our Travel Check List
It’s important that your bags are lockable, as on public buses it may be necessary that your luggage gets stowed in the luggage compartment. The smaller your bag is, the better for you and other passengers, for when it comes to travelling on local buses and trains it’s often only the smaller bags that will fit into the storage areas inside the bus or your cabin.
In China, clean and safe drinking water is widely available for free in water dispensers of hotels, restaurant, bus and train stations. Usually you can choose between cold and warm drinking water.
