9-Day Yunnan Folk Music Field Study Camp

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 — a province of many musics
Yunnan has twenty-five recognised minority nationalities and a musical map to match. The Yi, Bai, Dai, Hani, Naxi, Lisu, Wa and others each have their own instruments, scales and singing styles, and the province's position on the tea and horse road between Yunnan, Tibet and Southeast Asia means its music has been in contact with several traditions at once. The morning session surveys the families: free-reed instruments such as the hulusi, a gourd-bodied pipe with three pipes of which one carries the melody and two drone; the bawu, a transverse pipe with a metal reed; plucked instruments such as the yueqin and the sanxian; and percussion, including the bronze drums that are among the oldest objects of the region's material culture.

Late morning — hands on the hulusi
The practical session starts with the hulusi, which is the most forgiving instrument a beginner can pick up: the fingering is simple, the range is limited, and the two drone pipes mean that almost anything played sounds intentional. Participants learn a short Yi or Dai melody by ear and then add a second part underneath. The bawu is harder - it needs a very light airstream and the reed is easy to overblow - and is demonstrated rather than mastered. Nobody leaves able to play. Several leave intending to buy an instrument, and your guide will say where to find an honest shop.

Lunch
A Yunnan lunch: rice noodles, mushrooms, a sour fish dish and a plate of mountain vegetables. Yunnan cooking is regional rather than unified, and the guide explains which dishes are Han, which are Dai and which are Tibetan in origin.

Afternoon — ensemble practice and the ethnic village
In the afternoon the group forms an ensemble with what it has: hulusi on the melody, recorders or any instrument participants have brought, percussion, and voices. The piece is worked up in two parts with a simple harmony, and the session ends with a recording made on a phone so that everyone can hear how far the group has come in a day. The rest of the afternoon is spent at the Yunnan Ethnic Village on the shore of Dianchi lake, opened in 1992, where reconstructed village compounds of several nationalities present music, dance and craft daily. It is a staged version of the province - your guide will say so plainly - but as a preparation for the next four days, hearing the real instruments in a scheduled setting first is not a waste of an afternoon.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
In Kunming.

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 — High-Speed Rail to Dali
Take the high-speed train from Kunming to Dali, arriving ready to explore this historic Bai-ethnic region in northwest Yunnan.

Lunch — on the train or upon arrival
Lunch is at your own arrangement during the journey.

Afternoon — Dali Ancient Town, Three Pagodas & Erhai Lake
Wander the ancient Bai town and visit the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple, a 9th-century architectural marvel dating to the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms. Continue to Erhai Lake, walking the lakeside S-bend near Xizhou Village and through golden rice fields for a peaceful taste of rural Bai life.

Evening — at your leisure
The evening is free to relax in Dali.

Morning — the Bai and their songs
The Bai have farmed the plain between the Cangshan range and Erhai lake for well over a thousand years, and their songs divide by occasion rather than by genre: work songs for transplanting rice, wedding songs, mourning songs, and the antiphonal exchanges between young men and women that were once the main way of meeting. The best-known Bai form is dabenqu, a narrative ballad sung by a single voice with a three-string accompaniment, but most of what a visitor hears is the everyday singing of village women, in Bai rather than Mandarin, in a five-tone scale that sounds close to pentatonic but lands differently at the cadence. The workshop is held in a village hall with singers invited through the local cultural station; the specific village is confirmed before the group departs.

Late morning — the three-course tea
Before learning any singing, there is tea. The Bai three-course ceremony serves three small cups in sequence: the first bitter, brewed strong from a roasted leaf with a little sugar; the second sweet, with walnut, sesame and honey; the third with a returning aftertaste, made with milk or with prickly ash and cinnamon. The sequence has a moral attached to it, and the singers explain it while pouring. Participants are then taught a short Bai melody line by line, in Bai syllables, with the meaning of each phrase given in English. The vowels are the hard part, not the tune.

Lunch
A village lunch: Erhai fish, cured ham, fried cheese, and a bowl of the lake's water celery. Cooking around Erhai is closer to the Yunnan-Tibetan border than most visitors expect - the ham is air-dried on the mountain side and used like prosciutto.

Afternoon — singing together, and the Three Pagodas
The afternoon puts the morning's melody into two parts with an antiphonal structure: one group sings the first phrase, the other answers, and the melody only resolves when both sing together. This is the form of the Bai love songs, and it is easier to sing than it sounds because the answering phrase is a fixed shape. The singers record the group and play it back, which is usually an uncomfortable and useful ten minutes. Afterwards the group visits the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple on the plain below Cangshan: the central tower dates from the ninth or tenth century and the two smaller ones from the twelfth, which makes them among the oldest surviving buildings in Yunnan.

Evening — free, with an option
Dinner in the old town, then the evening is free. Bai villages to the north of the lake hold evening singings on some nights, and where one is happening the group can attend; your guide will confirm on the day and will not promise what the villages have not agreed to.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
In Dali.

Morning — Drive to Lijiang
Travel by car from Dali to Lijiang, a scenic journey through Yunnan's highlands, arriving midday to begin exploring.

Lunch — en route
Lunch is at your own arrangement during the drive.

Afternoon — Lijiang Ancient Town
Stroll through Fangsi Street and Oil Paper Umbrella Alley in Lijiang Ancient Town, a UNESCO-listed old town whose cobblestone lanes and canals reflect Naxi culture and centuries of trade along the Tea Horse Road. Your guide shares the town's living heritage as you wander.

Evening — at your leisure
The evening is free to enjoy Lijiang at your own pace.

Morning — what Naxi ancient music is
What is usually called Naxi ancient music is a set of ritual and courtly pieces that came to Lijiang with Han migrants and Ming garrisons between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries and was preserved by Naxi musicians long after it had changed elsewhere. It belongs to the Dongjing tradition, a lay repertoire associated with Taoist ceremony, played by amateur societies rather than by professionals. It survived the twentieth century partly by accident - remote location, and musicians who kept playing in small rooms - and since the 1980s it has been revived by ensembles that include elderly players who learned it as children and younger musicians who learned it from them. The morning is spent with one such group, arranged through our local cultural partner.

Late morning — the instruments
The ensemble is built from a particular set of instruments: the suguna, a conical oboe with a raucous sound that carries the melody; the dizi flute; bowed and plucked strings including the erhu, pipa and the sanxian; and a percussion section of drums, clappers, gongs and small bells that marks the structural points of each piece. Participants are shown how the suguna is tuned and how the percussion conducts the ensemble - the drummer, not a conductor, leads. Those who play an instrument are invited to sit in on the easier pieces; those who do not are given a percussion part, which is the historically correct way in.

Lunch
A Naxi lunch: cured pork with peppers, fried potatoes, a vegetable soup and the local flatbread. The old town's cuisine is a hybrid of Naxi farming food and Han influences brought by merchants.

Afternoon — Dayan old town and a session
Dayan, the old town of Lijiang, was inscribed by UNESCO in 1997 for its surviving Naxi townscape: cobbled streets, a canal system that runs through every quarter and was historically used for washing as well as supply, wooden courtyard houses, and the great water wheels at the north entrance. The afternoon combines a walk with a working session in a courtyard house, where the group works on the percussion parts and one simple melody line with the village musicians. The piece chosen is short and repetitive, which is the nature of much of this repertoire.

Evening — a listening session
The day ends with a short concert in a courtyard: four or five pieces, a spoken introduction to each, and the opportunity to sit close enough to watch the drummer's hands. The group is asked to listen for the point at which the melody instruments stop playing together and start alternating, which is the structural logic of the form. Dinner follows; the evening is free, and the old town is at its best after nine, when the day's tour groups have gone and the canal is lit.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
In Lijiang.

Morning — Yulong Snow Mountain & Blue Moon Valley
Book the Glacier Park cable car in advance to ascend Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and witness turquoise glacial lakes reflecting snow-capped peaks at around 4,500 meters. Descend to Blue Moon Valley, where milky-blue pools and meadows at the mountain's foot make for unforgettable photographs.

Lunch — at your leisure
Lunch is at your own arrangement near the mountain.

Afternoon — Tea Horse Road Cultural Museum
Learn about the ancient Tea Horse Road, the historic trade route that linked Yunnan, Tibet, and Sichuan, through artifacts, exhibits, and tea ceremonies that evoke the caravans of centuries past.

Evening — Lijiang Impression Show
Watch the 'Impression Lijiang' show, a large-scale outdoor performance directed by Zhang Yimou that blends Naxi music, dance, and the natural theater of the snow mountain behind the stage.

Morning — Lashi Lake Wetlands
Paddle a wooden canoe through reed marshes that teem with migratory black-necked cranes and egrets. Visit a Yi minority village to taste Torch Festival barley wine and, in season, watch traditional fire-jumping rituals. The lake is a protected wetland and a well-known stopover for migratory birds.

Afternoon — Departure
Your guide assists with checkout and transfers you to Lijiang Airport, about 45 minutes away, for your onward journey. If time allows, you can make a last-minute stop at the Old Town Market for Dongba script scrolls or handmade silver jewelry.