CHINA 2026 DE
The sacred peak Xiaruoduoji in the Yading reserve in western Sichuan, photographed in early November

Route 7 · Overland & a calmer pace

Kham Overland:
Chongqing to Kunming

This one joins the strong openings of Route 1 and Route 6 – but drops their hardest elements. Two nights in Chongqing and three in Chengdu, Halloween Saturday included, then one continuous overland arc across Tibetan Kham: Siguniangshan, Danba, Tagong, Litang, Yading. On to Shangri-La, Tiger Leaping Gorge and down to Kunming. No summit pressure, two genuine rest days, not a single flight.

  • 🥾 Difficulty 3 / 5
  • 📍 Highest point on foot 4,700 m
  • 🚗 Driver 11 days
  • ✈️ no domestic flight
  • 🛂 no border crossing
  • 🎶 Nightlife front-loaded
  • ⚠️ no Hong Kong finale
  • 💶 €2,300–2,700 pp
  • In: Chongqing · Out: Kunming

The character of this route

This route takes the first ten days of Route 1 and the first ten of Route 6 and joins them where they actually belong geographically: on the Kham plateau. Instead of driving back from western Sichuan to Chengdu, it keeps going west and then south – over Litang and Yading all the way to Shangri-La in Yunnan. One arc instead of two out-and-back legs.

And it is deliberately the slowest of the seven. Route 1 demands a 5,025 m summit, Route 6 a high camp at 4,100 m after four days of travel. Both are gone here. What remains is a daily high point of 4,700 m at Five Colour Lake – reached after eight days of continuous altitude adaptation, not four. Plus two days with nothing planned except being there.

The driving days are not transport here, they are the programme. The Balang Shan pass, the Litang plateau, Rabbit Mountain pass at 4,696 m – those are the places where this route happens. If driving days feel like lost time to you, Route 2 is the better fit.

📊 The route in numbers

Stops
12 (Chongqing, Chengdu, Rilong, Danba, Tagong, Litang, Yading, Xiangcheng, Shangri-La, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Lijiang, Kunming)
Road kilometres
approx. 1,550 km with a driver
Rail kilometres
approx. 800 km
Passes above 4,400 m
5 named ones, plus the Haizi Shan plateau
Total ascent
approx. 3,500 m – roughly half of Route 1
Genuine rest days
2 (day 9 in Zhonglu, day 12 in Litang)
Domestic flights
none

⚠️ This route does not end in Hong Kong

That is the one hard consequence of "start Chongqing, finish Kunming". Your onward flight would have to leave from Kunming – or you add a day: Kunming South → Hong Kong West Kowloon runs once daily direct as G410 at 09:13, around 7.5 hours for 1,471 km. The flight takes about 2 hours. It also means the Shi Fu Miz festival on 14 Nov is out – on that Saturday you are on the High Trail. Details in the onward check.

The specific question

Are Yading, Hailuogou and Danba on this route?

Short answer: Yading and Danba yes, and both make the route distinctly better. Hailuogou no – it sits on the other arm of the G318 and would not be an addition but a swap.

✅ Yading – on the route, and its centrepiece

The Yading reserve lies exactly between Litang and Xiangcheng, right on the corridor from Sichuan into Yunnan. It is not an add-on, it is the reason to take this way at all: three sacred peaks around 6,000 m, high valleys at 4,000 m and glacial lakes at 4,600 to 4,700 m.

Timing: The stated best season runs from late April to early November – you would be there on 9 and 10 November, at the very edge of that window. That is more advantage than problem: clear air, almost no visitors, autumn colour in the valleys. The price is cold and the chance of fresh snow on the upper trail.

✅ Danba – on the route, and the right altitude break

Danba sits directly on the western Sichuan small loop: Chengdu – Wolong – Siguniangshan – Xiaojin – Danba – Bamei – Tagong – Xinduqiao. Coming from Rilong it is not a detour but the logical next place.

Its real value is the elevation. The Dadu valley at Zhonglu sits at around 2,100 m, far lower than Rilong at 3,200. Two nights at 3,200 followed by a day at 2,100 is exactly the profile altitude adaptation asks for. On top of that: the Tibetan watchtowers, some more than 700 years old, and a homestay no booking platform knows about.

⚠️ Hailuogou – open again, but on the wrong arm

On its status: the area was closed for over a year after the Luding earthquake of September 2022 and reopened on 12 December 2023 with newly built infrastructure; the cable cars to the Mount Gongga glacier viewpoints are running. That is documented, not rumour.

Why it still does not fit here: Hailuogou lies near Moxi and Luding on the southern feeder road to Kangding. The Siguniangshan–Danba–Tagong corridor runs north of it. Doing both in one go means Chengdu → Moxi → Kangding → back north to Danba → south again to Xinduqiao. That costs two to three days of pure driving and destroys precisely what is good about this route.

So: a variant, not an addition. If you really want the glacier, swap out the Siguniangshan block. Day 6 Chengdu → Moxi via Ya'an and Luding, day 7 Hailuogou with cable car and glacier trail, day 8 on to Kangding and Xinduqiao, day 9 to Tagong. Danba and Rilong then drop out. The rest of the route is unchanged. It is not our recommendation – Danba and the Changping valley together are worth more than a glacier tongue with a cable car.

🔎 Three more places that were checked

  • Xinduqiao (3,300 m, the "photographers' corridor"): on the route and driven through, but it does not earn its own night – the landscape is exactly what you see from the car.
  • Kangding: only on the Hailuogou variant. The northern line via Danba and Tagong bypasses it at no loss.
  • Deqin and Meili Snow Mountain: 200 km north of Shangri-La, so the wrong direction. Two days there and back. That would be its own trip, not an appendix.

20 days

Day by day

27 October to 15 November 2026. Weekdays matter more here than on any other route: Halloween falls on day 5, and day 5 is in Chengdu on purpose.

Route 7 – day overview
Day Date Place Activity Overnight Transport
1Tue 27 Oct Chongqing Arrival. In the evening 📍 Hongyadong and the Jialing riverfront – the city makes jet lag bearable because there is nothing you can miss. Chongqing sits at 250 m. Chongqing Flight arrival
2Wed 28 Oct Chongqing 🧭 The vertical city on foot: Liziba, where the metro runs through a residential block, the Shibati stairways, Eling Park above the peninsula, then the Yangtze cable car across the river. Hotpot and bars around Jiaochangkou at night. Chongqing Metro, cable car, on foot
3Thu 29 Oct → Chengdu 🚄 A short hop west. Let Chengdu arrive slowly in the afternoon: Renmin teahouse in the People's Park, ear cleaning included. Yulin district in the evening. Chengdu 🚄 approx. 1.5 h
4Fri 30 Oct Chengdu Dujiangyan panda base – markedly emptier than the Chenghua site. In the evening 🎶 the Friday round: live houses and small clubs around Jiuyanqiao and Yulin. Chengdu has the densest scene in the country. Chengdu Bus, metro
5Sat 31 Oct Chengdu 🎶🎶 Halloween Saturday. Deliberately little during the day: Wenshu monastery, market, final gear check, an early dinner. At night the biggest night out of the Chinese autumn – and the last one for the next twelve days. Chengdu Metro, taxi
6Sun 1 Nov Chengdu → Rilong 🚗 Through Wolong National Park and over the Balang Shan pass. If the road is dry, take the old pass at 4,487 m instead of the tunnel – 📍 the best view of the entire Siguniangshan massif. Arrival in Rilong, 3,200 m. First night at altitude: sleep early, drink a lot, no alcohol. Rilong 🚗 driver, approx. 5 h
7Mon 2 Nov Changping valley 🥾 Boardwalk up the Changping valley to Muluozi and on into the bamboo zone, 14 to 20 km depending on appetite, up to around 3,700 m. Autumn colour, and on a Monday in November almost deserted. No summit, no time pressure – the trail is flat and you can turn around at any point. Rilong Shuttle + on foot
8Tue 3 Nov Rilong → Danba 🚗 Via Xiaojin down into the Dadu valley, to around 2,100 m. In the afternoon 📍 Jiaju: Tibetan houses stacked above terraced fields. On to Zhonglu and into a watchtower homestay. Zhonglu (homestay) 🚗 driver, approx. 4 h
9Wed 4 Nov Zhonglu 🧭 Rest day one. A loop between the stone towers, walnut harvest, lunch with the host family, nothing in the afternoon. 📍 Evening light on the towers above the valley. This day is not filler, it is the reason day 14 works. Zhonglu (homestay) On foot
10Thu 5 Nov Danba → Tagong 🚗 A short, beautiful leg via Bamei (3,350 m) up onto the grassland of Tagong, 3,700 m. In the afternoon Lhagang monastery and the golden Muya pagoda, then out into the grassland on foot. Yaks, prayer flags, riders – this is where Kham becomes visible. Tagong 🚗 driver, approx. 3.5 h
11Fri 6 Nov Tagong → Litang 🚗 The first long plateau day: via Xinduqiao, the Gaoersi pass (4,412 m) and the Jianziwan pass (4,659 m) to Litang, 4,014 m – one of the highest towns on earth. Arrive, walk slowly, do nothing else. Litang 🚗 driver, approx. 5.5 h
12Sat 7 Nov Litang 🧭 Rest day two, with substance. Ganden Thubchen Choekhorling monastery above town, the white chortens, the market. A flat walk out onto the plain in the afternoon. The purpose: a second night at 4,000 m, so that the Yading day is not a gamble. Litang On foot
13Sun 8 Nov Litang → Yading 🚗📍 Over Rabbit Mountain pass (Tuergu, 4,696 m) and the Haizi Shan plateau with its glacial lakes to Daocheng, then into the Yading valley. Overnight in Yading village at 3,900 m, inside the reserve – 100 m lower than Litang, so no new altitude stimulus. Yading village (3,900 m) 🚗 driver, approx. 4.5 h + park bus
14Mon 9 Nov Yading – the big day 🥾📍 The high point of the route. Park bus to Zhaguanbeng, on to Chonggu monastery, then up to Luorong pasture (4,150 m). From there on foot to Milk Lake (approx. 4,600 m) and further to Five Colour Lake (approx. 4,700 m) – around 3.5 hours for the upper section, steep but technically easy. All around: Xiannairi, Xiaruoduoji and Yangmaiyong, all three just under 6,000 m. Yading village Park bus, 🥾 7–9 h
15Tue 10 Nov Yading → Xiangcheng 🥾 An easy morning: Pearl Lake and Chonggu monastery, two hours, barely any ascent. Out to Riwa around midday and 🚗 on to Xiangcheng, 2,900 m – white Tibetan houses, a quiet valley, good beds. Xiangcheng 🥾 2 h + 🚗 approx. 4 h
16Wed 11 Nov 🏔️ → Shangri-La 🚗 The provincial border. Longest driving leg of the route, over several passes out of Sichuan into Yunnan. Arrival in Shangri-La (Zhongdian), 3,200 m, in the afternoon. Dukezong old town and the great prayer wheel in the evening. Shangri-La 🚗 driver, approx. 6 h
17Thu 12 Nov Shangri-La 📍 Songzanlin, the largest Tibetan monastery in Yunnan, in the morning before the groups. Then the Napahai wetland: black-necked cranes winter there from November – mid-November is the start of the season, nothing is guaranteed. In the evening 🎶 old-town bars, yak butter tea versus barley spirit. Shangri-La Bus, bicycle
18Fri 13 Nov High Trail, stage 1 🚗 to Qiaotou, then 🥾📍 up onto the High Trail above Tiger Leaping Gorge. The 28 bends are the hard part: around 900 m of ascent in one go, up to about 2,670 m. After that a balcony trail with a constant view of the north face of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Night at the Halfway Guesthouse. Halfway Guesthouse 🚗 3 h + 🥾 6 h
19Sat 14 Nov High Trail, stage 2 🥾📍 From Halfway across the open flank to Tina's, then the steep descent into the Middle Gorge down to Tiger Leaping Stone right at the Yangtze – ladders, chains, loud rapids. Back up, then 🚗 to Lijiang, 2,400 m. Old town in the evening. Lijiang 🥾 5–6 h + 🚗 2 h
20Sun 15 Nov Lijiang → Kunming 🚄 South by rail, optionally 📍 a four-hour stop in Dali (old town and the Erhai shore are right on the line). Kunming in the evening, 1,890 m: crossing-the-bridge rice noodles, Green Lake Park. Onward flight – see the onward check. Kunming / — 🚄 approx. 3.5 h

Table scrolls sideways · 20 days, 27 Oct – 15 Nov 2026, no gaps.

📈 The altitude profile is the actual plan

Chongqing 250 m → Chengdu 500 m → Rilong 3,200 m → Zhonglu 2,100 m → Tagong 3,700 m → Litang 4,014 m → Yading 3,900 m → Xiangcheng 2,900 m → Shangri-La 3,200 m → gorge 1,800–2,670 m → Lijiang 2,400 m → Kunming 1,890 m. Two climbs with a deliberate drop in between, and the highest place you sleep does not come until day 11. That is why this route needs no dedicated acclimatisation block the way Route 1 does – the profile itself is the acclimatisation.

Geography

Map

The arc from Chongqing west across Kham, then south over the provincial border down to Kunming. The Amap button below marks every stop and works inside China too.

📍 All stops in Amap (高德) – works in China 🗺️ Google Maps (VPN only) Larger on OpenStreetMap

In China: the Amap link works behind the firewall. Google Maps is blocked on the mainland and OpenStreetMap is unreliable – background, app tips and offline maps.

🚗 Driving legs individually in Amap – with a drawn route

The button above only places markers, no line: Amap's marker endpoint shows up to ten points but no track between them. A drawn route comes from the navigation endpoint – which however only takes a start, an end and one waypoint. So here are the driving legs one by one:

Driver legs only. Rail and flight sections are deliberately missing – Amap would compute them as a car journey and show wrong times.

Note: the embedded map is an overview without a route line – OpenStreetMap embeds do not support waypoints. Route lines come from the Amap leg links below. The Amap marker button shows 10 of the 12 stops – the endpoint allows no more; Tagong and Xiangcheng are missing there. Careful when searching: the gateway town for Yading is officially also called Shangri-La (formerly Riwa) and lies in Sichuan – not to be confused with Shangri-La City in Yunnan.

The core programme

🥾 Hiking and viewpoints

Four walking days, no summit pressure, no kit beyond good shoes and warm clothes. That is the defining decision of this route versus 1 and 6.

Yading: Milk Lake and Five Colour Lake

Difficulty: moderate to hard, but only because of the altitude. From Luorong pasture at 4,150 m the trail first follows a service road and then climbs steeply over steps and scree to Milk Lake at around 4,600 m; Five Colour Lake sits roughly 100 m above that. Around 3.5 hours is realistic for the upper section, closer to four with breaks and photos.

The lazy option is legitimate: electric carts run between the bus stop and Luorong pasture. Taking one saves a good hour and 200 m of ascent and leaves more in reserve for the top. At 4,500 m that is not cheating, it is planning.

Honestly: in early November there can be snow and ice on the upper trail. Microspikes weigh 300 grams and decide whether the day happens. Leave them at home and if it has snowed, Milk Lake is where it ends.

Tiger Leaping Gorge, High Trail

Difficulty: moderate to hard. The classic two-day trail on the western side above the deepest gorge in China. Stage 1 opens with the 28 bends: around 900 m of ascent in one push, the hardest single section of the whole route. After that it becomes a balcony trail with views rather than climbing.

Stage 2 is shorter, but with the descent to Tiger Leaping Stone and back you still end up with 600 to 700 m of ascent. 📍 The view from the open flank between Halfway and Tina's onto the north face of Jade Dragon is the best on the Yunnan half. The night at the Halfway Guesthouse is part of the deal – terrace, beer, gorge.

Changping valley at Siguniangshan

Difficulty: moderate, shorten at will. Boardwalks and forest paths from Rilong into the valley, past waterfalls and up into the bamboo zone at around 3,700 m. 14 to 20 km there and back depending on where you turn around – and exactly that freedom to bail makes it the right first altitude day.

📍 From the upper valley floor you see the north faces of all four sister peaks. Dafeng at 5,025 m, the goal in Route 1, deliberately stays where it is.

The passes – views without the effort

On this route the strongest images come from the car. 📍 Balang Shan, 4,487 m: the only spot with the entire Siguniangshan massif in one frame. 📍 Jianziwan, 4,659 m, and 📍 Rabbit Mountain, 4,696 m: fields of prayer flags above the open plateau.

📍 The Haizi Shan plateau between Litang and Daocheng is an ancient glacial field with hundreds of lakes above 4,000 m – flat, treeless, and on clear November days one of the strangest landscapes in China. Tell the driver that photo stops are planned, not requested.

Zhonglu: the loop that is not a hike

Difficulty: low. Two to three hours between the watchtowers, across walnut terraces, through three hamlets. Barely any ascent, a lot of contact – people are harvesting in November, and anyone who helps gets invited to eat. The best day on this route for everyone who does not want to count vertical metres.

Napahai and Shangri-La

Difficulty: low. The plain around the Napahai wetland can be walked flat or ridden by rental bike, pleasantly unspectacular at 3,200 m. 📍 The view across the plain with cranes in the foreground and Songzanlin on the slope is the image you take away from Shangri-La. If you want more: Pudacuo National Park east of town has boardwalks around two high lakes, but it costs half a day and an expensive ticket.

The glaciated peaks of the Siguniangshan massif in Sichuan above forested high valleys
Siguniangshan above the Changping valley – days 6 and 7
Tibetan stone houses and watchtowers in the Danba region of Sichuan
Watchtowers near Danba, 2,100 m – days 8 and 9
Mountains and open plateau behind Litang in western Sichuan
The plateau behind Litang, 4,014 m – days 11 and 12
The Tibetan monastery village of Songzanlin near Shangri-La in Yunnan on the slope above the plain
Songzanlin near Shangri-La – day 17
View into Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan with steep rock walls above the Yangtze
Tiger Leaping Gorge, High Trail – days 18 and 19
Green Lake Park in Kunming with pavilions and stretches of water
Green Lake Park, Kunming – day 20

Substance over sights

🧭 Off the beaten path

Watchtower homestay in Zhonglu

Some of the towers in the Dadu valley are more than 700 years old, and many families still live in the courtyards attached to them. Staying means a room upstairs, a stove in the kitchen, barley spirit with the host in the evening. Arranging it works essentially only through your driver or on the spot – online platforms do not know these houses.

Tagong instead of Xinduqiao

Xinduqiao is where everyone stops, because every guidebook calls it the "photographers' corridor". Tagong, 60 km further north, has the better grassland, a living monastery, a golden pagoda on the slope and guesthouses run by Tibetan families. One night there is worth more than three photo stops on the G318.

Litang with no programme

Litang is not a sight, it is a plateau town at 4,014 m where nomads shop, monks make phone calls and motorbikes matter more than cars. The rest day there is the day you see the most – precisely because there is nothing to tick off. One thing to respect: the sky burial site outside town is a place of religious practice, not an excursion. Do not go.

Sleep in Yading village, not in Riwa

Most visitors stay down in Riwa – the town officially called "Shangri-La" – and lose one to one and a half hours on the park bus every morning. The guesthouses in Yading village at 3,900 m sit inside the reserve instead: you get up and you are there, you see the first light on Xiannairi and you have the trails to yourself before the day visitors arrive. Basic, cold, absolutely the right call.

Xiangcheng, which nobody plans

Xiangcheng exists on this route because Yading → Shangri-La in one day does not work. Which is exactly why it is a good place: white cubic Tibetan houses with wooden balconies, a river valley at 2,900 m, no souvenir street. Dinner is whatever is available – and after two nights at 4,000 m you sleep like a stone.

Chongqing, vertically

Not Hongyadong from the viewing platform, but the city as terrain: the Shibati stairways, lifts that count as public transport, the Yangtze cable car as a commuter line, and the floor you are standing on is somewhere between the 1st and the 22nd. An afternoon with no destination gets you further here than any list.

Evenings

🎶 Nightlife on this route

This route front-loads the nightlife completely and almost skips it at the back – on purpose. Five city nights at the start, including a Friday and Halloween Saturday, then twelve days on the plateau where there are no clubs and should not be.

⚠️ No Shi Fu Miz – the price of finishing in Kunming

On all six other routes, day 19, Saturday 14 November, lands in Hong Kong at the Shi Fu Miz festival. Here that Saturday is on the High Trail above Tiger Leaping Gorge, some 2,000 kilometres away. That cannot be fixed without giving up the route. If you want the festival, take Route 4 or Route 6 – or treat Kunming as a stopover and extend by two days.

Chongqing 🎶 days 1–2

Not an underground capital, but a city that works better at night than by day. The big rooms are around Jiefangbei and Guanyinqiao, heavy on EDM and volume. Smaller techno spaces can be found around Jiaochangkou.

Realistically: day 1 is a beer-by-the-river evening, day 2 the first proper one. Tuesday and Wednesday are not club nights in Chongqing either – but the bars are full and the hotpot places stay open until three.

Chengdu 🎶 days 3–5

The centre of gravity of this route. Despite the closures of .TAG and AXIS in 2025, Chengdu remains the place with the densest scene in China; what has shifted is the format, towards live houses and smaller rooms. NU SPACE on Kuixinglou Street, roughly 450 capacity, is the best known of this new generation.

The arc: Friday (day 4) as a warm-up round in Jiuyanqiao and Yulin, Halloween Saturday (day 5) as the main event. Entry is usually RMB 60–120. Pull addresses two weeks out – in Chengdu venues appear faster than guidebooks can record them.

Shangri-La 🎶 days 16–17

No club, but old-town bars around Sifang Square in Dukezong: live music with guitar and Tibetan singing, barley spirit, open fire bowls. At 3,200 m alcohol hits considerably harder than at sea level – that is not a figure of speech, it is the reason day 18 starts with 900 metres of ascent.

Lijiang and Kunming 🎶 days 19–20

Lijiang's old town has a loud, very touristy bar street – fine for a beer after the gorge, not for more. Kunming is honestly the weakest night city of the trip, but it does have a small, real scene: Dada Kunming (opened in 2024 and covered by the scene press) and CLUB ICON, small, two floors, more hip-hop than techno. Plus Moondog Bar for craft beer.

For listings in Kunming, gokunming.com is the most usable source – a local community site with an events calendar that beats Resident Advisor for this city.

🔎 Last-minute check – two weeks before departure

Club programmes in China cannot be planned far ahead. Venues close and open quickly, events are often announced only via WeChat. So no name guarantees here, just the sources that actually help at short notice:

Assessment as of 30 Sep 2026.

Logistics

🚗🚄 Transport analysis

This route lives or dies by one decision: eleven days with a driver in one continuous stretch, once across the provincial border. It is the largest item in the budget and the reason the route works at all.

🚗 Driving yourself: no

China recognises neither German licences nor the international driving permit. For a rental car you would need a temporary Chinese driving permit plus a certified translation. On this route there is a second argument: five passes above 4,400 m, ice and fresh snow in November, truck traffic, roadworks, and stretches of 200 km without a garage.

🚗 Instead: one driver from Chengdu to Shangri-La

Days 6 to 16 use the same car and driver – 包车, car plus driver, not self-drive. On this stretch the usual rate is RMB 800–1,200 per day for the vehicle, roughly €100–150, split between two.

What justifies the price: the driver decides each morning between pass and tunnel, knows the snow situation, arranges the homestay in Zhonglu and the guesthouse in Xiangcheng, waits at valley exits and park gates, and knows where you had better not sleep at 4,000 m. On Route 7 he is not a comfort, he is a precondition.

⚠️ The return surcharge – settle this up front

The stretch is a one-way trip: the driver drops you in Shangri-La and has to get back to Sichuan without passengers. Agencies normally charge two to three extra daily rates for that. It is legitimate and it has to be in the budget, but it has to be in the quote, not appear on the last day. Ask specifically: total price including the return leg, tolls, fuel and the driver's accommodation – and whether the driver is licensed for the Yunnan section as far as Shangri-La.

Legs and travel times
Section Mode Duration Note
Chongqing → Chengdu🚄 HSRapprox. 1.5 h Frequent all day, straightforward.
Chengdu → Rilong🚗 driverapprox. 5 h Via Wolong and Balang Shan. Public alternative: bus from Chadianzi, 6–7 h, mornings only.
Rilong → Danba🚗 driverapprox. 4 h Via Xiaojin. No train, bus connections unreliable.
Danba → Tagong🚗 driverapprox. 3.5 h Via Bamei, 3,350 m. Shortest leg of the overland section.
Tagong → Litang🚗 driverapprox. 5.5 h Via Xinduqiao onto the G318, then the Gaoersi and Jianziwan passes.
Litang → Yading🚗 driver + park busapprox. 4.5 h + 1–1.5 h Over Rabbit Mountain pass and the Haizi Shan plateau to Daocheng and Riwa. Into the reserve only by park bus, private vehicles are not allowed.
Yading → Xiangcheng🚗 driverapprox. 4 h A mandatory leg: Yading → Shangri-La in one day would be 9–10 h.
Xiangcheng → Shangri-La🚗 driverapprox. 6 h Longest driving leg, provincial border Sichuan → Yunnan. Leave early.
Shangri-La → Qiaotou🚗 transferapprox. 3 h Shangri-La to Tiger Leaping Gorge is around 200 km. From here a local driver or bus is enough.
Tina's → Lijiang🚗 minibusapprox. 2 h Shared taxis and minibuses run regularly in the afternoon.
Lijiang → Kunming🚄 HSRapprox. 3.5 h A stop in Dali is possible, it sits right on the line.

🚄 Why no domestic flight – even though there is one

Daocheng Yading has an airport, at 4,411 m the highest civilian one in the world, and so does Shangri-La. A Chengdu → Daocheng flight would save four overland days. It would also destroy the route: you land at 4,400 m without a single day of adaptation. That is the worst option medically and means giving up half the trip visually. So: no flight.

💰 Budget variant: the same route by public bus

The axis Chengdu – Kangding – Litang – Daocheng – Xiangcheng – Shangri-La can be done by public bus at a fraction of the cost. The price you pay:

  • Departures are usually very early, often only once a day
  • No photo stops, no choice between pass and tunnel
  • Danba and Tagong effectively drop out – there are no usable connections
  • The Xiangcheng → Shangri-La leg is seasonal and can be cancelled

Saving around €600 per person, at the cost of roughly two travel days and the two best off-the-beaten-path places. Not recommended at this budget.

Mandatory check

🛂 Borders, permits and the onward leg from Kunming

🛂 No Tibet permit needed – this is the decisive point

The entire overland stretch runs through Garzê (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan and Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan. These are Tibetan areas, but not the Tibet Autonomous Region. For foreign nationals that means: no Tibet Travel Permit, no obligation to join a guided group, free movement. That is what makes this route possible in the first place.

But with a caveat: the authorities can restrict access to Tibetan prefectures outside the TAR at short notice and without warning. It is rare, but it happens. Having a local agency that knows three days in advance is worth more on this route than on any other.

On the permit situation in Sichuan's Tibetan areas: tibettravel.org. On short-notice restrictions: UK FCDO travel advice. Checked 30 Sep 2026.

🛂 Entering China

No visa required. German nationals enter visa-free for up to 30 days per entry; the unilateral visa exemption applies until 24:00 on 31 Dec 2026. Carry a valid ordinary passport, hotel bookings and the onward flight ticket as evidence of purpose of travel. For Yading additionally: the ticket desk asks for a passport copy, and the original document has to be with you.

Sources: Chinese Consulate General Hamburg (4 Nov 2025); FAQs on Visa-free Entry into China, as of 21 May 2026. Verify again before departure.

No border crossing on this route

Route 7 stays entirely within China. The nearest reachable neighbouring country would be Myanmar or Laos from southern Yunnan – both several days away and in the wrong direction. If you want a border crossing, it is in Route 4 or Route 6, where it is part of the plot from the start.

✈️ The onward leg: three clean options from Kunming

Because this route does not end in Hong Kong, the onward flight has to be adjusted. There are exactly three sensible ways, and all three work:

Onward options at the end of Route 7
Option How it runs Cost & time Verdict
A · Onward flight from Kunming Rebook to depart Kunming Changshui, evening of day 20 or morning of day 21 no extra day, rebooking fee Best solution if the airline allows it. Kunming has direct connections into Southeast Asia.
B · Train to Hong Kong Night in Kunming, day 21 on G410 from Kunming South at 09:13 direct to Hong Kong West Kowloon approx. 7.5 h · 1,471 km · 2nd class approx. RMB 897 · 1 extra day Elegant, but only one train a day – secure the ticket inside the 15-day window or the option collapses.
C · Flight to Hong Kong Night in Kunming, short flight to Hong Kong on day 21 approx. 2 h flying time · 1 extra day Pragmatic and flexible, but it is the only flight on the route – and therefore a break with the concept.

Recommendation: look at option A while the flight is still open. If Hong Kong has to stay fixed, B is the nicer solution – but then plan day 20 as a pure Kunming day and book the train for day 21 on the first possible sales day.

Train G410, journey time and fare: chinahighlights.com and travelchinaguide.com. Checked 30 Sep 2026, verify again before booking.

Execution

Practicalities, kit and cost

💶 Cost estimate per person

Accommodation, 19 nights
approx. €600 – no Hong Kong, which saves a lot
Driver, 11 days
approx. €850 incl. return surcharge
Rail and local transport
approx. €90
Entries, park buses, shuttles
approx. €130 (Yading alone RMB 270 ticket + RMB 120 eco bus)
Food and drink
approx. €400
Nightlife, days 1–5
approx. €100
Buffer
approx. €150
Total
€2,300–2,700
Excluding international flights. Mid-range with separate rooms. With public buses instead of a driver: roughly €1,700–1,900.

🎒 Kit you cannot leave out

  • Down jacket, fleece, hardshell – nights in Litang and Yading run −10 to −15 °C
  • Microspikes for the upper Yading trail, 300 g, they decide the most important day of the route
  • Category 4 sunglasses and factor 50+ sunscreen – November sun still burns at 4,700 m
  • Lip balm and nasal ointment, the altitude air is extremely dry
  • Sleeping bag liner for homestay, guesthouse and the Halfway Guesthouse
  • Trekking poles for the 28 bends and the descent to Tiger Leaping Stone
  • Power bank and a multi-socket – in Yading village electricity is not a given
  • Cash: mobile payment works in Tagong, Litang and Xiangcheng, but not reliably for foreign cards everywhere

⚠️ Altitude: lower risk than Route 1, but longer

No point on this route is as high as the Dafeng summit. In exchange you sleep six nights above 3,000 m, two of them at 4,014 m. That is a different load: not a spike, but sustained.

Agree abort criteria in advance: severe headache, vomiting, breathlessness at rest or unsteady walking mean descending to lower ground, not debating. The advantage of this route: descent is always available because you are in a car – from Litang it is four hours down to 2,900 m. Check your travel health insurance for altitude cover, many policies exclude stays above 4,000 m.

🌡️ Weather during the travel window

Chongqing
13–21 °C, river fog
Chengdu
12–20 °C, often hazy, dry
Rilong (3,200 m)
5–12 °C by day, around −5 °C at night
Danba (2,100 m)
12–20 °C by day, around 5 °C at night
Litang (4,014 m)
2–10 °C by day, −10 to −15 °C at night
Upper Yading (4,700 m)
around or below 0 °C, snow possible
Shangri-La (3,200 m)
8–15 °C by day, around −5 °C at night, very clear
Tiger Leaping Gorge
12–20 °C by day, around 5 °C at night – ideal
Lijiang / Kunming
10–21 °C, dry, "eternal spring"

🔑 What to actually book

One-way driver
Chengdu → Shangri-La as a 包车 through a Kham agency (Windhorse, Chinaadventure or similar); the 2–3 daily-rate return surcharge belongs in the fixed price, not tacked on at the end.
Yading ticket
270 RMB entry + 120 RMB compulsory park bus, passport copy at the desk; secure in advance via the official WeChat booking or Trip.com.
Yading village guesthouse
book in the village at 3,900 m inside the reserve, not down in Riwa – saves 1–1.5 h of park bus every morning.
Train Lijiang → Kunming
high speed, 10 pairs a day on the Shangri-La–Lijiang leg (D trains, 1–2 h); onward from Lijiang to Kunming inside the 15-day window.
Onward from Kunming
for the Hong Kong option: G410 Kunming South 09:13 → HK West Kowloon, once daily; otherwise an onward flight from Kunming Changshui.
Yading: Wikivoyage, tibetantrekking. Rail: travelchinaguide.com. Checked 4 Oct 2026, re-verify before departure.

📅 Booking order for Route 7

  1. Flights: in via Chongqing, onward from Kunming – or lock in option B/C from the onward check
  2. Enquire about the driver for days 6–16 immediately – not every operator runs the one-way Chengdu → Shangri-La trip, and fewer still in November
  3. Guesthouse in Yading village for nights 13 and 14 – few beds, barely online
  4. Halfway Guesthouse for night 18, enquire directly
  5. Hotels in Chongqing and Chengdu, Halloween weekend tightens up
  6. Pre-book the Yading ticket and eco bus online, have your passport ready
  7. From 12 Oct inside the 15-day window: Chongqing → Chengdu and Lijiang → Kunming; for option B also G410 for day 21

Further reading

Sources

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