Atlas of China
Xishuangbanna 西双版纳Xīshuāngbǎnnà
Rainforest, gilded Theravada temples and most of China's wild elephants
- Type
- Dai Autonomous Prefecture
- Region
- Yunnan
- Seat
- Jinghong
- Featured places
- 2
- Listed sites
- 1613 rated 4A · 4 national heritage
About Xishuangbanna
Xishuangbanna, Sipsongpanna to the Dai, straddles the Mekong at its capital, Jinghong, in Yunnan's tropical far south between Laos and Myanmar. The Dai share Theravada Buddhism and close kinship with the Thai and Lao, and their New Year, the April Water-Splashing Festival, is the high point of the year. Rainforest survives among the rubber plantations at places such as the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden and Wild Elephant Valley, and the Six Great Tea Mountains of Mengla grow some of the most prized pu'er.
What to eat in Xishuangbanna
- Dai pineapple rice (菠萝饭)
- Bamboo-tube rice (竹筒饭)
Featured places in Xishuangbanna
-
Xishuangbanna & Jinghong 西双版纳与景洪
Gilded Dai temples, a Mekong-side night market and April's Water-Splashing Festival
-
Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden 中国科学院西双版纳热带植物园
China's largest botanical garden, with giant banyans, palms and true primary rainforest
Listed sites in Xishuangbanna
16 sites in Xishuangbanna are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.
- Dai Ethnic Park 西双版纳傣族园 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
A ticketed area at Ganlanba (Menghan), south-east of Jinghong, that takes in five lived-in Dai villages. - Dayi Tea Estate 大益庄园 4A scenic area · on the map
A tea estate of about 100 hectares at Menghai, formerly the Tea Horse Road scenic area, renamed in 2016 when the Dayi tea company, a provincial tourism group and the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences' Tea Research Institute joined forces to run it. - Mengbala Resort 勐巴拉 4A scenic area · on the map
A resort development beside the Mengbala golf club on the G214 just outside Menghai town, combining hotels, a hot-spring resort, holiday housing and leisure facilities set in tropical gardens. - Mengjinglai Dai Village 勐景来 4A scenic area · on the map
A Dai village of stilt houses in Daluo town, Menghai county, run as a scenic area by the villagers together with a tourism company; it was listed as a Chinese Traditional Village in 2013. - Mengle Great Buddhist Temple 勐泐大佛寺 4A scenic area
A large Theravada Buddhist temple complex on the southern edge of Jinghong, built from 2005 on the site of Jingpiao Temple, a royal temple of the old Dai kingdom destroyed in war in the 19th century; when it was consecrated in 2007 it was billed as the largest Theravada temple in China. - Mengyuan Fairyland 勐远仙境 4A scenic area · on the map
A limestone area of seasonal tropical rainforest at Mengyuan village in Mengla county, with karst peaks, stalactite caves and an underground river. - Single-Tree Forest, Daluo 独树成林 4A scenic area · on the map
A huge old banyan in Daluo town whose aerial roots have grown down from the branches and taken root as separate trunks, so that one tree looks like a small grove. - Wangtianshu Rainforest Scenic Area 望天树 4A scenic area
A rainforest area near Bubeng, north of Mengla and within the Xishuangbanna nature reserve, named after the wangtianshu (Parashorea chinensis), a dipterocarp that grows 40 m tall or more and is under first-class national protection in China. - Wild Elephant Valley 野象谷 4A scenic area
A visitor area in the Mengyang section of the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, about 36 km north of Jinghong, where wild Asian elephants sometimes come out of the rainforest to feed and drink. - Xishuangbanna Primeval Forest Park 西双版纳原始森林公园 4A scenic area
A forest park created on about 25,000 mu (some 1,700 hectares) of tropical valley rainforest in the Caiyanghe area east of Jinghong, described as the closest primeval forest to the city. - Xishuangbanna Southern Medicine Garden 西双版纳南药园 4A scenic area
A 20-hectare garden of medicinal plants on Xuanwei Avenue in central Jinghong, set up in 1959 by what is now the Yunnan branch of the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development. - Xishuangbanna Sunac Theme Park 西双版纳融创乐园 4A scenic area · on the map
An amusement park in the Sunac resort district on the western side of Jinghong, part of a large complex of hotels and holiday housing. - Xishuangbanna Tropical Flower Garden 西双版纳热带花卉园 4A scenic area · on the map
A tropical garden run by the Yunnan Institute of Tropical Crops on Xuanwei Avenue in central Jinghong, with palms, fruit trees, crop plants and more than a thousand kinds of plants along shady paths. - Jingzhen Octagonal Pavilion 景真八角亭 National heritage site
The ordination hall of Jingzhen Temple in Mengzhe, built in 1701 and the only original structure left after the temple was destroyed in 1853; the rest of the temple has since been rebuilt. - Manduan Temple 曼短佛寺 National heritage site
A Theravada Buddhist temple in Man'en village, Mengzhe, whose main hall, built in the late Ming or early Qing, is the oldest surviving timber building in Xishuangbanna. - Manfeilong Pagoda 曼飞龙塔 National heritage site
A cluster of nine white brick stupas at Manfeilong village in Menglong, with a central stupa ringed by eight smaller ones on a plan shaped like an eight-petalled lotus.
Getting to Xishuangbanna
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.
On the map
Open Xishuangbanna on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.
Open Xishuangbanna on the map