We (my wife & her kindergarten friend from Vancouver) signed up for the Wing On’s 6-day group tour of Kunming, the "Spring City”, Lijiang and Dali, and departed for Kunming on March 1. For the 8-day tour package the itinerary would include Shangri-La. On Day 1 besides the Green Lake Park (Cuihu Gongyuan) (nothing special and there’s the statue of Nie’er, the composer of the PRC national anthem), we also visited the Tea Science Dept of the Yunnan Agricultural University and sampled some good old puli tea (not my favorite since I prefer the “Great Red Robe”, “Ti Kuen Yin” etc .
We left for Lijiang the following day and return to Kunming on Day 5. Dianchi Park was the other park that we toured (on Day 6). Dianchi Lake is about 300 square kilometers, the largest freshwater lake in Yunnan Province and the sixth largest one in China. With picturesque scenery and its location on the Yungui Plateau, the lake has a reputation as 'A Pearl on the Plateau'. Unfortunately, the lake has been badly polluted. Although efforts have been made to save the lake, they have been largely unsuccessful. Nevertheless the Siberian red-beaked seagulls still migrated to Kunming (both the Green Lake & Dianchi) in the winter.