Travel to Lijiang, ShangriLa and Deqin

hi!

i%26#39;m planning to travel in yunnan between 28.4. and 4.5. and need your help / info!

a) are there any ';bus schedules'; available for the Kunming-Dali express travel?

b)around 2.5. i planned to travel from Lijiang to Dequin. what is the current situation there for foreign tourists? are things ok now?

i plan to fly back from shangri-la to kunming and finally found a ticket on the net (there seem to be very few available), but i%26#39;ve seen some reports on this forum from March that foreigners were not allowed to board the planes in that region.

does anyone have any update on that?

c)

how much time do i need to drive in the bus from lijiang to dequin? is there a night bus to shangri-la so i could take the next bus to dequin in the morning? are there any approximate ';bus schedules'; on the net?

i appreciate your response,

Travel to Lijiang, ShangriLa and Deqin

The best buses for Kunming -- Dali are the YNTAC buses. These leave from the YNTAC long-distance bus station (云旅高快客运站) which%26#39;s somewhere in between Kunming airport and Kunming downtown. Departure times are 0830, 0930, 1030, 1300, 1630 and 1930. Fare is 122 RMB.

Relatively good buses for the same route leave from the Nanyao long-distance bus station (南窑客运站) which%26#39;s one of the long-distance bus stations in front of Kunming train station. Departure times are 0740, 0840, 0940, 1040, 1140, 1220, 1300, 1330, 1400, 1440, 1540, 1640, 1720, 1820, 1900 and 1940. All cost 122 RMB except for the 1640 departure which costs 132 RMB.

Lijiang -- Zhongdian/Shangri-La is about 5 hours by bus. The last departure in the opposite direction is at 1700 and schedules should be similar. We took that bus for Zhongdian -- Lijiang and reached Lijiang almost at midnight. The departure times for Zhongdian -- Deqin (not Dequin, please!) are 0720, 0820, 0920 and 1200; this leg takes about 7 hours on winding mountain roads.