Tips & Stories

August is the mid-summer time of Yunnan; many places are still in the rainy season. Though it is rare to experience scorching heat or humid heat in most of Yunnan areas, many people would still like to spend a relaxing summer holiday at lake districts and wetland parks.

In Yunnan, there are several famous and popular lake and wetland touring spots, such as Lugu Lake, Erhai Lake, Dianchi Lake, Fuxian Lake and Puzhehei Wetland. We have talked about the Lugu Lake in another post of Yunnan in May. In today’s post, we’re going to have a look at Fuxian Lake and Puzhehei Wetland touring spots together. These two touring destinations are very ideal for a cool summer holiday trip.

Fuxian Lake

Fuxian Lake located in Yuxi city, where only takes 1 hour of driving from Kunming city.

Fuxian Lake is the lake with the largest water storage capacity in China, the largest deep-water lake on the plateau in China, and the second deepest freshwater lake on the plateau in China. It is also one of the main water resources of the Zhujiang/Pearl River.

The storage capacity is equivalent to 15 times of Dianchi Lake storage capacity and 6 times of Erhai Lake storage capacity. The water quality of Fuxian Lake is clean and clear. People often praise Fuxian Lake is as transparent as the glass.

It is such a pleasant thing to enjoy a cool peaceful summer next to the blue Fuxian Lake.

Transportation

The most convenient transportation to get to Fuxian Lake is to drive from Kunming to the resort directly. If you don’t want to drive yourself, you can also choose to take the bullet train from Kunming to Yuxi, and then transfer to take the coach bus to the resort.

In the Fuxian Lake area, you can rent a car and drive around the Lake District. If you have enough time and prefer slow-pace touring, you can also choose to cycle along the lakeshore.

Accommodations

You can find luxury hotels, boutique hotels and economic hotels spreading surround the lake. Hotels that sitting across over the Moon Bay have the best view to enjoy, so you may find these hotels are with more delicate decoration, facilities and also more expensive compared with other hotels. Hotels located in the west band of the lake are also an ideal option. Hotels in Luchong areas are not very ideal so we do not recommend you book accommodation here.

Touring attractions

The main touring spots in Fuxian Lake includes Moon Bay wetland park, Fuxian Lake Park, Town of Sunshine hill, Cherry blossom valley, Fossil Museum, Luchong touring spot, Town of Starry sky, Gushan Island touring spot, etc.

Local Gourmet

There are many delicious and organic local gourmets to satisfy your taste buds. Local farmer’s restaurants are the most commonplace to enjoy a good meal. You must try the Stone pot fish 石锅鱼 shí guō yú and Potato rice 洋芋饭 yáng yù fàn. The local fish flesh tastes very tender and soft for the good water quality here.

There are many blueberry manors that you can pick fresh matured blueberry straight away from the trees.

Puzhehei Wetland

In the past 5 years, Puzhehei Wetland gradually getting famous and popular among visitors. It is famous for its typical karst landscape and pretty sightseeing of interweaving peaks and rivers.

Miao and Yi ethnic minority groups are the main inhabitant and consist of the most population here. The name Puzhehei comes from the Yi language, meaning a pond that rich in fish and shrimps.

Therefore, Puzhehei Wetland is not only a wonderful touring destination to enjoy the amazing natural views, but also an ideal place for you to experience the unique minority group culture, especially two different ethnic minority groups’ cultures at the same time.

Transportation

The most convenient way of getting to Puzhehei is to take the bullet train from Kunming to Qiubei County, where Puzhehei belongs to. After arriving, you will take a bus directly from the train station to the villages next to the park.

Accommodations

You can choose to stay at hotels in the county, which cheaper compared with the hotels in the scenic areas.

There is a 30 minutes driving distance from the county to the scenic spot. Staying in the county is more convenient. There are various shops and restaurants available.

While living in a scenic spot allows you to appreciate more pretty scenery at different time points.

Touring attractions

Most of the touring spots are located within the national wetland park. Xianren Cave, Swan Lake, West wetland, Bailong Lake, Puzhehei Village, Torch Cave, Moon Cave, Qinglong Mountain, etc. Aside from the touring attraction within the park, you may also try to enjoy hiking surround the park.

Qinglong Mountain is a very ideal spot for watching sunrise and sunset. You can enjoy the bird-view scenery of the whole park and the villages surrounding it.

Local Gourmet

Many lotus are grown in the ponds and summer is the best season to try the local dishes made of lotus petals, lotus leaves, lotus roots and lotus seeds.

Stewed Inula Nervosa wall and chicken soup is also a famous local dish. If you never try a healthy dish that cooks with herbs, you must try it. This soup smells really good due to the herb.

Colourful glutinous rice is also another typical dish you should try here. It is made of steamed glutinous rice. The rice should be dyed with natural plant solution first. This dish is very good looking and healthy. Different colours represent different auspiciousness.

Festivals and events

Most local inhabitants here are ethnic minority groups, so you would have chances to join different festive activities when visiting here. For example, you may join the Dragon Sacrificing Festival and Hualian Festival.

Sun protection

Because Yunnan province is located on the Yunnan-Guizhou Highland Plateau, the Ultraviolet rays here is very intensive here. It is very important to make sure that you have properly used sun protection precautions.

Always applying sun protection cream, wearing a hat when you are going outdoors, no matter if it is a sunny day or a cloudy day.

On the vast Yunnan plague, embedded a limpid pool of water and it’s sprinkling as sunshine spreading on. It’s named Fuxian Lake.
Fuxian Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China. It’s also the most important and best freshwater resource, which is considered as precious as the Panda among the freshwater resources.

Boating on this beautiful clear lake and through the green hills at a slow pace, you could relax yourself down and get rid of all the tiredness in the mundane life. Enjoying a moment of inner peace and joy, let this blue limpid water wash your mental dust away.