Yuxi, Yunnan

Yuxi is another interesting town, a bit more then 100 km south of Kunming (by car following the motorway it's a little less). Over the years I have been several times now in Yuxi. It's a reasonable sized town on the way from Kunming to Jing Hong. Yuxi is located just south of the Dian Xu, the big lake just south of Kunming. It's a very nice road that follows the lake on the west side. Most of the road is in good condition and especially along the lake it is very quiet.

Is Yuxi worth a visit? I would say yes, it's at least worth an afternoon to have an idea what the heart of Kunming looked like. Yuxi's old city centre is not yet (?) renovated, at least not all. A large part is still in use as a shopping mall in the old traditional Chinese houses.

The city centre of Yuxi, still traditional houses

The little shops sell anything from shoes, clothes, flowers to bicycles, pottery, plastics, fruits and wedding presents. Food is plenty available. Like Kunming here are some Muslims who sell barbeque meat and fried potatoes. But here you may want to try some cold noodles with spicy peppers and vegetables. Drinks in all colors are available. It's a very nice place to hang out for a few hours. Especially in the evening it's a very nice place.

But you may want to see a bit more. Just on the south part of the old centre, there's an old traditional teahouse with a pond. Men playing cards or mahjong here.

The old teahouse of Yuxi

The pond is in fact part of a longer stretch, like a canal. On this canal you can find among others, the PSB building.

Another worthy place to visit is the temple just on the east of the old city. This temple is completely renovated. Unfortunately when I was the three times in Yuxi, all three times the temple was closed.

The temple just outside the centre of Yuxi

Outside the complex is another interesting feature to visit: a watchtower, as I was told. This tower too is good renovated and is open to public.

Convenient for the cyclist/traveler is an internet cafe right in the middle of the old city centre. As expected for a city of the size of Yuxi, there are plenty of hotels but some don't take foreigners (though accept overseas Chinese).

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