Activity Arrangement:

🚩The activity requires a minimum of two people, and the itinerary lasts 2 days. Departures are every Thursday, but can also be coordinated with the guide according to your own schedule, and are generally flexible.

Departure time:

At 12:00 noon on the first day, meet at Pushi Bakery. After about 4 hours of driving, arrive at the mountaintop accommodation, have dinner, and rest for the night.

At 9 a.m. on the second day, after breakfast, enter the mountains for a hike. The hike takes about 5 hours, the guide will prepare tea breaks, and there will be a picnic in the forest along the way.

After the hike ends, eat at a local restaurant in town, rest for a while after the meal, and then return. Expected arrival in Dali is around 21:00.

Notes:

1. The total hike is 8 km, with a cumulative ascent of 360 meters. Some mountain paths are relatively narrow and steep. It is recommended for adults and children over 8 years old who generally have hiking experience or enjoy hiking.

2. There is a possibility of encountering leeches in the mountains year-round. Leeches are not directly harmful to humans. The guide will prepare salt (which can make leeches quickly drop off and die when they bite), but advance notice is required.

3. Accommodation defaults to one person per room.

4. The fee includes: guide fee, round-trip transportation, travel insurance, one night's accommodation, and three meals, which means all costs except personal shopping.

5. The fee is per person, same price for adults and children, with no group discount.

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Our car drove into the thick fog of the Ailao Mountains, and we stayed at a standalone inn that we joked looked like something from The Kindaichi Case Files. Outside the window, passing car lights were like pairs of eyes brushing past each other within less than ten meters of visibility, greeting one another, and disappearing around the bend. At this moment, the fog was crashing against the glass like a tide.

It truly lived up to its reputation.

Fog is the mask of the Ailao Mountains and also a test for travelers who come here. It blocks excessive sunlight, locks in precious moisture, allows epiphytic mosses and ferns to flourish on high branches, and also blurs the mountain roads.

The next morning, after breakfast, the fog gradually dispersed, and we set off into the mountains.

Following the small paths in the mountains, we slowly entered the depths of the forest. Compared with the Cangshan we usually visit, the forest here is dark green. On both sides of the forest trails we walked, sturdy oak and camphor trees could be seen everywhere.

They grow in the flat areas, stream valleys, and cliff edges of the forest in postures like abstract sculptures.

They look like large hands reaching out from the soil, crab claws, clown hats

mud monsters (Hanhan said they look like Flash the sloth), squid, and the legs of tree giants.

This hidden path in the forest led by Hanhan passes through one small stream after another and over one small pass after another. There are no man-made trail markers or signs of carving. When we emerged from the gaps between rocks and large trees and saw our companions not far away turning behind a new rock, it was very much like travelers in a Chinese landscape painting, appearing and disappearing at different heights and distances within the scroll.

After passing through a beautiful forest meadow, let's take a rest here.

Climbing to the mountaintop, the green mountains around us are like a soft green carpet, gently spread out and extending into the distance. The path we walked is hidden within it, and in a while we will walk into this green carpet again.

Alpine yellow rhododendrons blooming at the summit

Frizzy and his younger brother Baimiao. At three months old, Miaomiao came to hike in the Ailao Mountains, which is more impressive than all of us.

Guide Hanhan and Dangeng, who is very cooperative for photos

Accommodation environment