Pu'er
Pu'er is beside the famous "Thailand" of china, xishuangbanna 西双版纳 but has a lot longer historical fame and reputation for Tea and has been a main producer of tea for centuries. Now it is much more convenient to get to that it was the first time I was in this region (2017) as you can get a high speed train from Kunming that only takes a couple of hours.
I visited at the end of Summer (August 2022) so it was intensely hot with an intense humid climate (its close to the border of Myanmar and Laos, so lots of tropical plants and fruits (bananas, coconuts, pomelos etc) but also a lot of BIG creepy bugs! giant spider eggs and enormous snails!
I explored the town before heading to the bus station and getting the local bus to see the Rhino's at Pu'er Sun River National Forest Park. the rivers running through the Park all belong to Lancang River, a huge park there are thousands of different plants and fauna an animals. I pleasant place to explore and walk around and not as crazy hot as it's high up (just make sure you put on plenty of bug spray)
high in the mountains, it's on the same route as the famous tea plantation, so its a good idea to do both on one day (go early) unfortunately theres not many buses and taxi's are hard to get. the views during the ride are really nice,
taxi man. hotel. bus trip grans. animals, birds and exploring. store bag.
rhino park:
red pandas: https://youtu.be/tnD3SFXjoBw?si=rCAJxxpTVaYDF38B
Pu'er tea fields.
PU'ER EXPO TEA PARK
The road to the wildlife park is the same route for the tea plantation, you actually pass it on the way. As it was the end of Summer and during Covid (just after the Shanghai city lockdown) it was not busy. My bus had a few locals on it and also some older travellers. They were all very friendly when they learnt I could speak Chinese, the older female traveller added my number, she travels and blogs and promised to send me features and ideas for places to visit that she had been to or was planning to go to. She was from Beijing. The local lady who got off on the way to the park had her own tea fields and later sent me some of her tea, a traditional Pu'er tea brick when I got back to Shanghai. she also invited me to hers for dinner and to stay and time I wanted (Chinese can be very hospitable like this)
it was very quiet and peaceful. they had some examples of the local minority group houses, tea picking activity and store. Because it was off season and during Covid I had the place to myself. was very relaxing!
tea fields: https://youtu.be/1jBCMf3n8xk?si=C6KzgGu_kldSiChA
They are known to eat more "exotic" foods here, its not unknown to eat "strange" animals or dye animals and sell. they have many posters warning / advising locals to not eat exotic animals for dinner.... there's also a lot more hilarious chinglish translation fails
别让野生动物成为“盘中餐” don't let wild animals be part of your main dish
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