Jinghong
Where? Never heard of it! But you've probably heard of Xishuangbanna, the region surrounding it. Jinghong is Xishuangbanna's capital.
Ah, yes - China's deep southwest. All pineapple rice, Buddhist temples and brightly clad ethnic minorities. That's the place. It's wedged at the bottom of Yunnan province with Burma to the southwest and Laos to the southeast, and it looks, feels and tastes a lot like northern Thailand. At its centre is sleepy Jinghong, although this is changing. The town still retains considerable charm but has suffered greatly because of the package-tourist fad sweeping China's urban middle class.
Is it busy then? Especially during holiday periods. It used to take days to reach Jinghong; it's now a short 40-minute flight from provincial capital Kunming. Tour groups come for quick three- and four-day jaunts during which time they gawp at the 'exotica' and normally get drunk at a 'traditional' dinner, visit a Burmese-border market town, swing through a tropical garden and do a bit of water splashing.
Water splashing? The Dai minority, the largest tribe in the area, celebrates its New Year (around April) with three days of dragon-boat racing, fireworks, parties, a lot of drinking and water splashing. Originally intended to wash away the previous year's bad luck, water splashing now happens every day at 3pm in Chunhuan Park to titillate tourists.
Sounds tacky. It is, but there is a lot that isn't. Despite the dozens of uniform concrete hotels springing up, and the sweeping highways built to accommodate the tour buses, there is enough in Jinghong to keep a visitor entranced for more than a few days. The sprawling, vibrant vegetable market in the town centre and Manting Lu in the east are the best slices of traditional life left. The last is a wonderful collection of Burmese jade traders, Buddhist temples, street stalls and balcony restaurants serving a cheap and cheerful collection of standard traveller fare, Dai minority dishes and Thai, Lao and Chinese cuisine. There is also largely unexplored jungle hinterland that still fills most of Xishuangbanna.
Step off the main drag and there are hordes of markets, villages and jungle treks that hardly see any visitors at all. You can cross into Burma if you are a Chinese national and go into Laos if you have a valid Lao visa. The best plan is to use Jinghong as a base, but the further you go from the capital, the worse the roads become and the cheaper the buses.
What about accommodation? If you stay in the villages expect amazing sights combined with bad beds and dirty toilets. The tourist influx in Jinghong means the standard is higher; the Tai Garden is probably the flashiest place in town. Avoid the package-dominated concrete monoliths -unless you're on a package. The place many rave about is the Xishuangbanna Hotel. Known locally as 'the Banna', it is set in spacious tropical grounds intersected by wide avenues lined by palm trees. The place is actually a collection of buildings: some of which are cheap and some aren't. None of it could be described as luxury but it makes a great base. The staff are suitably laidback and the barbecues, held every warm night under swaying palms - with good, cheap and fresh local food and cold, strong local beer - are what good holidays are all about.
