Honghe 红河Hónghé

About Honghe

Honghe is named after the Red River, and south of it the Hani have carved the Ailao Mountains into the Yuanyang Rice Terraces, a World Heritage Site since 2013. To the north lies a plateau of old garrison and trading towns: Jianshui, with one of China's largest Confucian temples, and Mengzi, a treaty port on the French-built railway to Vietnam, whose stations such as Bisezhai still stand. Gejiu's tin fortunes built mansions such as those of Tuanshan Village, and Mengzi claims crossing-the-bridge noodles as its own.

What to eat in Honghe

• Crossing-the-bridge noodles (过桥米线)
• Jianshui grilled tofu (建水烧豆腐)
• Steam-pot chicken (汽锅鸡)

Featured places in Honghe

• 

  Yuanyang Rice Terraces 元阳梯田

  Thousands of flooded paddies mirroring the sunrise across southern Yunnan's hills

  Best time: Dec–Mar (flooded terraces) · Time needed: 2 days · 4A scenic area · National heritage site · UNESCO World Heritage

• 

  Jianshui Ancient Town 建水古城

  A Ming gate tower, a great Confucian temple and grilled tofu on the way to Yuanyang

  Best time: Oct–Apr · Time needed: 1–2 days · 4A scenic area · National heritage site

Listed sites in Honghe

28 sites in Honghe are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.

• Alu Ancient Cave 阿庐古洞 4A scenic area
  A group of karst caves in Luxi County, billed as the 'First Cave of Yunnan', made up of the Luyuan, Yuzhu and Biyu caves and the underground Yusun River, together more than 3 km long.
• Bisezhai Railway Station 碧色寨 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  A station on the French-built Yunnan–Vietnam railway, opened in 1909, where goods were transferred to the narrow-gauge Gejiu–Bisezhai–Shiping line, turning a small village into a busy trading post nicknamed 'Little Paris of the East'.
• Dishui Miao Town 滴水苗城 4A scenic area · on the map
  A newly built Miao-style district and tourist hub on the Muyang River at the north-western edge of Pingbian county town, with stilt-style houses, covered bridges and a waterfall on the river.
• Dongfengyun Art Town 东风韵 4A scenic area · on the map
  An art and leisure town begun in 2014 on the former Dongfeng state farm south of Mile, a grape-growing area since the farm was founded in 1958.
• Fenghuang Eco-Park 凤凰生态公园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A large city park in Kaiyuan's southern new district, opened in 2017, made up of Phoenix Hill, Phoenix Lake with a small beach and lakeside walks, and a wetland along the Nandong River.
• Former Mengzi Customs House and Southwest Associated University Memorial 蒙自海关旧址 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  Mengzi was opened as a treaty port after the Sino-French War, and its customs house, set up in 1889, was the first in Yunnan.
• Huquan Eco-Park 湖泉生态园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A large lakeside park on the western side of Mile city, set around a broad lake with a sand beach, islands, lakeside paths and birds such as egrets and black swans.
• Jinping Mountain and Mile Maitreya Buddha 锦屏山 4A scenic area · on the map
  A hillside temple park north of Mile whose centrepiece is a seated, laughing Maitreya Buddha 19.99 m tall, installed in 1999 at the top of a flight of 1,999 steps.
• Keyi Village 可邑小镇 4A scenic area · on the map
  A village of the Axi, a branch of the Yi people, north of Mile, regarded as one of the birthplaces of the Axi tiaoyue, a moonlight dance to the three-stringed guitar listed as national intangible heritage in 2008.
• Laoyin Mountain 老阴山 4A scenic area · on the map
  The forested mountain that rises steeply above the east side of Gejiu, the old tin-mining city, to a summit of about 2,160 m.
• Mabang Ancient Town (Yisa), Honghe County 马帮古城 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
  Yisa, the county town of Honghe County, is built along a narrow ridge south of the Red River; it grew rich on mule-caravan trade and is known as a home town of overseas Chinese.
• Nandong Cave, Kaiyuan 开远南洞 4A scenic area · on the map
  A scenic area on the southern outskirts of Kaiyuan where underground streams emerge from the limestone hills to form the Nandong River; long counted first among the area's traditional eight views, it opened to visitors in 1988.
• Samaba Rice Terraces 撒玛坝梯田 4A scenic area · on the map
  Samaba is a sweep of Hani rice terraces on a single mountainside in Baohua town, Honghe County, which the prefecture's publicity department puts at more than 14,000 mu (over 9 sq km) in over 4,300 levels.
• Swallow Cave (Yanzidong), Jianshui 建水燕子洞 4A scenic area · on the map
  A large karst cave in the hills east of Jianshui, divided into a dry cave and a water cave through which an underground river flows.
• Taiping Lake Forest Resort 太平湖森林小镇 4A scenic area · on the map
  A forest and lake resort on the outskirts of Mile city, built on once-barren karst hills that have been replanted, with forest cabins to stay in, flower fields and a lakeside wetland.
• Tuanshan Village 团山村 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  A village of courtyard mansions about 13 km west of Jianshui, settled by the Zhang clan from Jiangxi in the early Ming and rebuilt on a grand scale in the late Qing with fortunes made in the Gejiu tin mines.
• Yilong Lake 异龙湖 4A scenic area · on the map
  A shallow plateau lake beginning just east of Shiping town, known for the lotus flowers that cover parts of its surface.
• Baofenglong Trading House 宝丰隆商号 National heritage site
  A tin-smelting works and residence built between 1916 and 1926 for a leading Gejiu tin merchant surnamed Li, described as the city's only surviving tin-smelting site of the Republican era.
• Faux Namti Bridge 五家寨铁路桥 National heritage site
  A steel arch railway bridge built in 1907–08 by the French Batignolles company to carry the Yunnan–Vietnam railway across the Sicha River gorge, 102 m above the riverbed, between tunnels cut into sheer cliffs.
• Kaiyuan Changhong Bridge 开远长虹桥 National heritage site
  An open-spandrel stone arch bridge over the Nanpan River, completed in 1961, with a main span of 113 m, a total length of 171 m and a height of 30 m.
• Laihe Pavilion 来鹤亭 National heritage site · on the map
  A small hillside complex at the top of Xiaoruicheng village on the shore of Yilong Lake, made up of a pavilion with upswept eaves and the Wenchang and Kuixing halls behind it.
• Nalou Chieftain's Office 纳楼长官司署 National heritage site · on the map
  The headquarters of a Yi hereditary chieftain (tusi) of the Nalou line, built in 1907 high on a mountainside above the north bank of the Red River, nearly 1,000 m above the water.
• Shiping Confucian Temple 石屏文庙 National heritage site
  Shiping's Confucian temple, founded in the Yuan dynasty and rebuilt in 1389, stands in the old town of a county long known for its scholars, among them Yuan Jiagu, the only Yunnanese to come first in an imperial examination (1903).
• Shuanglong Bridge 双龙桥 National heritage site
  A 17-arch stone bridge about 148 m long where the Lu and Tachong rivers meet west of Jianshui, described as the largest and finest old stone bridge in Yunnan.
• Xin'ansuo Old Buildings 新安所古建筑群 National heritage site
  Xin'ansuo, south-east of Mengzi, was a Ming military garrison town, walled in 1517, and is now a national historic town, although its walls were pulled down in 1951.
• Yuhuang Pavilion, Mengzi 蒙自玉皇阁 National heritage site
  A temple group in central Mengzi whose main building, the triple-eaved Tongming Pavilion founded in 1578, stands about 20 m tall between matching east and west pavilions added in 1734.
• Zhengying Village 郑营村 National heritage site · on the map
  An old village in Baoxiu, west of Shiping, with lanes of traditional courtyard houses; it was named a Chinese historic and cultural village in 2008.
• Zhou Family Mansion (Wangyun Museum) 周家宅院 National heritage site
  A Chinese-Western merchant's mansion of four courtyards and about 90 rooms, built from 1916 by Zhou Ziyin, a banker and railway promoter, reportedly with money the Guangdong governor Long Jiguang had given him to build a residence for Long.

Getting to Honghe

Train, flight and driving times from the cities most visitors come from, with stations, fares and how many run a day; each opens the full comparison.

• Kunming 昆明 to Jianshui · high-speed train 1 h 46 min, 7 a day, from ¥51
• Jinghong 景洪 to Jianshui · train 5 h 49 min with a change at Kunming
• Dali 大理 to Jianshui · train 4 h 39 min with a change at Kunming
• Baoshan 保山 to Jianshui · train 7 h 57 min with a change at Kunming
• Lijiang 丽江 to Jianshui · train 6 h 48 min with a change at Kunming

All routes

On the map

Open Honghe on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.

Learn more

• Wikipedia
• Official website
• Wikipedia (Chinese)