6-Day Kunming Winter Wellness Tour: Hot Springs & TCM

Afternoon — Arrival in Kunming
Arrive at Kunming Changshui Airport (preferably on an afternoon flight for easier transfer) and check into a hotel near Cuihu Lake, a central, walkable spot convenient for daily travel. Take time to rest and enjoy the city's mild 'Spring City' air.

Dinner — Kunming Cuisine
Indulge in Qian Zhang Rou (Kunming-style roasted pork) and Guo Qiao Mi Xian (Crossing-the-Bridge rice noodles), iconic dishes that blend Yunnan's ethnic flavors.

Evening — at your leisure
The evening is yours to relax at your hotel.

Morning — west along the Tanglang river
About forty kilometres west of Kunming, at the foot of Longshan hill, warm water comes out of the ground at Anning and has done so for a very long time; it was written about in the Ming dynasty by the scholar Yang Shen, who was exiled to Yunnan in 1524 and lived nearby, and it has been known locally for centuries as the finest hot spring in the province. The water is clear and close to body temperature, with a faint mineral smell, and the river valley around it is warm enough in winter that flowers keep coming. The drive takes about an hour on the expressway, and the pools open in the morning, which is the best time to be in them.

Late morning — soaking, and the temple above the river
You have two hours at the springs, which is ample: the outdoor pools run along the riverbank, some cooler and some warm, with shaded benches between them. Drink water, keep each soak to about ten minutes, and take the same care you would at any thermal spa - if you are pregnant, or have heart or blood-pressure conditions, follow your own physician's advice and stay with the cooler pools or skip them entirely. After soaking, walk a hundred metres up to the Caoxi Temple, whose main hall was rebuilt in the Ming but preserves a much older structural style, and look at the cliff inscriptions on the rock face beside the road, some of them several hundred years old.

Lunch
Lunch at a riverside restaurant in Anning, a few minutes from the pools: free-range chicken soup, steamed fish from the Tanglang river, Yunnan greens - several of which you will not have met before - and rice, with a pot of local green tea to finish. The kitchen cooks lightly if you ask, and there is fruit from the valley in season. The land around Anning grows rice, peaches and vegetables for the Kunming market, and most of what is on the table was cut the same morning; if the weather is fine, ask for a table outside on the river side rather than in the dining room.

Afternoon — a TCM consultation in Kunming
Back in the city, you have an appointment at a licensed traditional Chinese medicine clinic. Expect the same classical structure as elsewhere - pulse at three positions on each wrist, the tongue, and questions about sleep, digestion, appetite and temperature - ending in a body-constitution assessment explained as a description rather than a diagnosis. Yunnan's particular contribution to the tradition is its plant material: the province supplies an extraordinary share of China's medicinal herbs, and the clinic will show you not only the usual dried roots and barks but local specialities such as sanqi flower, dendrobium, rose bud and Pu'er tea, with an explanation of how each is used in ordinary daily drinking. A short tuina session can be added on request.

Evening — Yunnan food
Dinner in Kunming on the dishes the city is known for: chicken steamed in a clay pot without a drop of added water, rice noodles in a clear broth with a dozen small plates of garnish, cured Yunnan ham, and wild mushrooms if the season allows. Mild, fragrant and unlike anything else in China. Back to the hotel for an early night. Both of the first two dishes are served all year, while the wild mushrooms are a summer and autumn affair: if they are on the menu, order them, because Yunnan's are the best in the country and the restaurant will know exactly how to cook them.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
In Kunming.

Morning — Dianchi Lake & Haigeng Park
Visit Dianchi, Kunming's largest freshwater lake, and cycle the lakeside trails of Haigeng Park with views of the Western Hills. From November to March, flocks of red-billed gulls migrate here from Siberia. Rent a paddleboat or relax in the lakeside meadows.

Afternoon — Dragon Gate (Longmen)
Ride a cable car up the Western Hills to Dragon Gate, a Taoist and Buddhist cliffside complex carved into the rock. Walk narrow paths and grottoes adorned with statues, and admire panoramic views over Dianchi Lake from the summit phrase “Touch the Southern Sky.”

Evening — Wild Mushroom Hotpot
In summer, savor Yunnan's seasonal delicacy—wild mushroom hotpot—at Lost Garden Restaurant, with porcini, matsutake, and morel mushrooms simmered in a herbal broth, a must for adventurous foodies.

Morning — Green Lake Park
Begin at Green Lake Park (Cuihu), Kunming's urban oasis of willow-lined water where locals dance, play instruments, and feed black-headed gulls in winter. Its teahouses and summer lotus blooms offer a gentle introduction to the city's laid-back charm.

Afternoon — Yunnan Ethnic Village
Explore this cultural park showcasing 25 of Yunnan's ethnic groups, including the Dai, Bai, and Naxi. Watch traditional dances, tour replica villages, and experience rituals like the Dai water-splashing festival that highlight the province's diversity.

Evening — Crossing Bridge Rice Noodles
Dive into Kunming's signature dish, Guoqiao Mixian, at a local spot such as Shangri-La Cafe. Assemble raw ingredients—meat, vegetables, herbs—into a piping-hot broth, and pair it with Yunnan Pu'er tea for an authentic ritual.

Morning — baduanjin in the park
Early in the morning, before the traffic, a local instructor takes you through baduanjin, the eight-section brocade: eight slow, simple movements - raising the hands, drawing the bow, separating heaven and earth, and so on - performed standing, in a set that takes about twelve minutes and is repeated three times. It is the most widely practised of the Chinese health exercises after tai chi, and it is deliberately easy: nothing in it requires flexibility, balance or strength, and every movement can be done seated if standing for half an hour is uncomfortable. The park along the lake is full of people doing exactly this at that hour, which is half the pleasure of it. Treat it as exercise and as a piece of local life; it is not a treatment for anything.

Late morning — east to the hot springs
After breakfast you drive east of Kunming, roughly an hour, into the lake country around Tangchi and Yangzonghai, where the geothermal water comes up warm along the fault lines. The resort has outdoor mineral pools at a range of temperatures, herbal soaking baths, a warm swimming pool and quiet indoor rooms, with the lake and the hills behind it. Two hours is the right amount of time: a full circuit of the pools, a foot massage, and a long sit in the sun with a book. Yunnan's winter sun is strong at this altitude, so use the shade and drink more water than you think you need.

Lunch
Lunch at the resort: steamed fish from the lake, chicken soup with Chinese yam, stir-fried greens, fried tofu with spring onion, and rice. Light and fresh, which is what you want before getting back into a warm pool. The kitchen will keep the oil and salt low on request, and there is fruit and yoghurt if you would rather eat lightly. The lake fish is steamed whole with ginger and spring onion, which is how it is done all over Yunnan, and it will be brought to the table on a stand with a small flame under it if you would rather it stayed hot.

Afternoon — slow time
The rest of the afternoon is unstructured and that is the point of it. The lake shore and the wetland boardwalk at Dianchi, on the way back into the city, are level and easy, and the black-headed gulls that winter here from November to March - they arrive from Siberia each year and were first recorded on the lake in the middle of the 1980s - are one of the sights of a Kunming winter. Distances are short, benches are frequent, and the vehicle waits. The altitude here is nearly 1,900 metres, so the sun is strong even in December; a hat, sunglasses and water are worth carrying, and thirty minutes outdoors feels like an hour at sea level.

Evening — the flower market
Finish the day at Dounan, in Chenggong on the eastern side of the city, which is the largest cut-flower market in Asia and trades mainly at night: auction floors, wholesale halls and armfuls of roses, lilies, hydrangeas, eucalyptus and orchids at prices that embarrass a European florist. It is a market rather than an attraction, which is why it is worth going. Dinner afterwards, and back to the hotel. Go without expectations of polish: it is loud, fast and commercial, the auction is run by clock at a speed that takes some getting used to, and the flowers are being packed for planes rather than arranged for photographs.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
In Kunming.

Morning — Dounan Flower Market
Explore Dounan Flower Market, Asia's largest fresh-cut flower market, a kaleidoscope of roses, orchids, and exotic blooms. Join a guided look at the flower auctions, bargain for dried herbs, or sip rose-infused coffee—ideal for pressed-flower souvenirs.

Optional — Yunnan Tea Plantation
If time allows, drive about an hour to a Pu'er tea plantation in the hills. Join a tea-picking and tasting session while learning about fermentation and Yunnan's celebrated “dark gold” tea.

Afternoon — Departure
In the afternoon, transfer to Kunming Changshui International Airport for your next destination.

Evening — Flexible Evening
The evening is yours to enjoy at your leisure as your Kunming visit concludes.