Kunming West Hill (Xishan Forest Park), Yunnan, China

4Lonely Laowai 5:00 PM Jul 26, 2022

Half Day vs Whole Day offer a substantially different experience
When you arrive, you will get a booklet of tickets intended to cover the entire park. You can think of the park as being broken into three parts: 1) Temples 1: a winding road leading up to the cable car base. There are several temples (some quite large) on this road, offering a remarkably varied experience for anyone interested in Buddhist history. 2) Temples 2—The Ascent: These are the smaller, being set in the hillside and finally the very face of the cliff, the eponymous Dragon Gate that is the focal point of most visits. 3) The Summit—Battle with Kefka: pardon the Final Fantasy reference; this is where the cable car ends, but a new trail begins which can take you up to the very top of the hill to a gorgeous view of the lake and city. Within half a day you can easily do two of these. My first trip, I did 1 and 2, second I did 2 and 3. But if you expect to actually see all of the temples in part 1, expect to spend a good eight hours. The line to ride the cable car is nuts. Skip it and take the shuttle to the first temple and walk all of part 2 up to part 3. Then, you can choose to either head to the pinnacle, or cable car back down to the beginning of part 2 and walk back down part 1. In the end, it’s up to you what sort of experience you want to have. Temples and mountain temples, mountain temples and hike to pinnacle, or all three. But don’t expect to pull off all three within half a day.

4FaizalP61 5:00 PM Jan 10, 2020

Great view of City and ancient temples
Located to the west of Lake Daichi, these hills have a fantastic view of the lake and Kunming City. Easily accessible in 20 minutes by Subway line 3 (4RMB per person). From western Hill Subway station turn left and walk south for 80m then descend steps to feed village and ticket office. A combined entrance, bus, Cable car and buggy ticket can be bought for 130 per person. Take the Bus about 4 km to the end of the line, ascend the cable car/chairlift to the top and then follow the trail to the left to descend to Dragon's Gate and the temples and reach the electric buggy station and return to the base of the cable car station and the bus to the main entrance. There are fantastic views much of the way of the lake, city, mountain scenery and temples. Allow a minimum of four hours for the visit or a full day if you want to walk in and out rather than take the bus. There is a good variety of food at the village near the entrance including two muslim restaurants.