Xishuangbanna Travel Guide & Tours
Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, located in the deep southeast of Yunnan, is famous for its typical tropical rainforests, various wild animals and plants, unique Dai-style architectures and attractive minority customs and traditions.
Covering an area of 20,000 square kilometers, Xishuangbanna is near the Laos and the Burma and neighbors on Vietnam and Thailand. In the ancient Dai Language, Xishuangbanna means ‘an ideal and fantastic paradise’ and the capital city is Jinghong, a small city straddling the Lancang River (Mekong River).
Xishuangbanna is regarded as an ideal tourist destination for travelers from home and abroad. The main scenic areas consist of Jinghong Scenic Area, Menghai Scenic Area and Mengla Scenic Area. There are over 800 scenic spots among these three scenic areas with an area of 1,203 square kilometers.
Reputed as ‘the kingdom of tropical animals and plants’, Shangri-la has many kinds of animals plants, including some precious, ancient, unique and endangered species. To the Dai people, the elephant is the symbol of good luck, might and longevity. You can have close contact with wild elephants in the Wild Elephant Valley. Mengla Aerial Walkway is also a good place to appreciate many endangered animals and plants, such as golden monkeys, wild peacocks and fantastic rain forest. As an important research center of tropical plants, Menglun Botanical Garden has over 3,000 kinds of plants with an area of 900 hectares. Other main attractions are Xishuangbanna Virgin Forest Park, Xishuangbanna Tropical Flowers Garden and Xishuangbanna Daluo Forest Park.
As an ethnic autonomous prefecture and a frontier town, Xishuangbanna enjoys unique customs, attractive architectures and magnificent landscape. Jingzhen Octagonal Pavilion, Mange Temple and Langcang River are the most popular attractions for visitors to appreciate charming Xishuangbanna. Besides, Jinuo Folk Village and Dai Village are also worthy of visiting.
