Xishuangbanna (Jinghong)

Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve; UNESCO Man And The Biosphere Reserve · Jinghong, Yunnan

China's tropical south: a region of rainforest, tea mountains, rubber plantations and Dai villages along the Mekong River in the far south of Yunnan, bordering Laos and Myanmar. The Dai people, who share language and Theravada Buddhism with their neighbours in Thailand and Laos, live in stilt houses around golden-roofed temples, and every April the region celebrates the Dai New Year with the Water-Splashing Festival, when everyone in Jinghong is soaked. The nature reserves here are among the richest in China, holding wild Asian elephants - a herd famously wandered north toward Kunming in 2021 - as well as gibbons, hornbills and thousands of plant species. The Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden at Menglun is one of the largest in the world, and Wild Elephant Valley has canopy walkways and a cable car over the forest. Around Jinghong, travellers wander night markets, visit Dai villages at Menghan, drink tea on ancient Pu'er tea mountains and walk a canopy walkway high in the rainforest at Wangtianshu. The China-Laos Railway links Xishuangbanna with Kunming in a few hours and runs on into Laos.

Jinghong, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Jinghong, Yunnan, China

Region accessible year-round. Tropical Botanical Garden and Wild Elephant Valley roughly 8:00-18:00 daily; elephant shows at set times (about 11:00, 13:30 and 15:30 at Wild Elephant Valley). Water-Splashing Festival April 13-15, 2026.

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