7 Days in Honghe

The prefecture seat Mengzi keeps Nanhu lake, where the crossing-the-bridge noodle story is set; 10 km north, Bisezhai station opened in 1909 on the French-built metre-gauge line finished in 1910.

1. honghe bisezhai station
2. honghe mengzi nanhu lake

Fast rail or road to Jianshui — Chaoyang Tower went up in 1389, the Confucius temple of 1285 spreads over about 7.6 hectares, and the Zhu family compound packs some 20,000 sq m of Qing-era rooms.

1. honghe jianshui old town
2. honghe jianshui confucius temple
3. honghe zhujia garden

The 13-km heritage train from Lin'an station passes the 17-arch Twin-Dragon Bridge — about 148 m, begun in the Qianlong era — and ends at the Zhang-clan village of Tuanshan.

1. honghe jianshui heritage train
2. honghe shuanglong bridge
3. honghe tuanshan village

About 2.5 hours of hill road from Jianshui to Xinjie town; the Bada terraces face west for sunset inside the 2013 World Heritage landscape, a core of roughly 17,000 hectares and 82 villages.

1. honghe yuanyang terraces

Dawn at the Duoyishu viewing decks, then the thatched mushroom houses of Azheke; the long road back reaches the rail line by evening.

1. honghe azheke village
2. honghe yuanyang terraces

An hour and a half west, Shiping sits by Yilong lake, one of Yunnan's nine great plateau lakes; the old town's well-water tofu made its kitchen name, and native son Yuan Jiagu headed the 1903 special imperial examination.

1. honghe yilong lake
2. honghe shiping old town

The red-brick Dongfengyun art park and Jinping Hill's seated Maitreya, about 20 meters tall; fast trains from Mile station put Kunming about 40 minutes away for the flight or connection.

1. honghe dongfengyun
2. honghe mile buddha