5 Days in Lincang

About 90 minutes into Shuangjiang county for Mengku town and the Bingdao old-tea village around 1,400 metres — tastings straight from the growers, with the wild-tea forests of the Mengku snow mountains outlined above 2,200 metres across the valley.

1. lincang bingdao old village

Northeast to the Bangdong bank of the Lancang (Mekong), where Xigui's old gardens hang above the gorges; the Lincang railway, opened at the very end of 2020, brought the first trains to the prefecture.

1. lincang xigui tea village

An honest transfer note — about three hours southwest — for the Wa village of Wengding, its thatched wooden houses rebuilt after the serious fire of February 2021; walk it as a living village and sleep in the county town.

1. lincang wengding village

Red-ochre figures and cattle on the Menglai cliffs, commonly estimated at some 3,000 years, and the long limestone halls of the Simangli cave nearby — the name of the Wa origin epic.

1. lincang cangyuan cliff paintings
2. lincang sigangli cave

The Qing-era Guangyun temple, listed for national protection in 1988, then the reservoir stretch behind the Manwan dam — the first big station on the Mekong, generating from the early 1990s — on the road back toward Lincang or the airport.

1. lincang guangyun temple
2. lincang manwan long lake