13^th March to 11^th April 2009

Barry Virtue and Steve Anyon-Smith

The Plan (and a couple of acknowledgements)

The focus of our holiday was to look for birds in some of Yunnan Province¡¯s mountainous areas, running along a long arc from Ruili in the south-west, north-easterly to Zhongdian (or Shangri-La) on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau (see map below). Once more we used the services of the Chengdu-based travel agency Sichuan China Youth Travel Service, who planned a tour of 27 days for us . While birding provided the focus, Yunnan features much ethnic diversity, scenery, good food and a relaxed and safe atmosphere. Barry-Sean Virtue joined me for our eighth holiday together. We are still friends.

Whilst most of the key birding sites can be visited in much less time than we allowed, I always like to spend more time so that non-birding activities can be explored, particularly opportunities to interact and learn more about local people and customs (this means drinking alcohol in the street).

It has been said that mammals are hard to see in the parts of Yunnan we were to visit. Those that said this were proven correct.

Fortunately birding legend Dion Hobcroft had travelled much the same route as we did and he started only ten or so days before us. He called us on the mobile a couple of times with important site tips; and later our guide would call Dion¡¯s ex-guide to ask questions. This added much value to our trip and more importantly, enabled us to see more birds than Dion did. Well, we had an extra week or so, but the handicapper said that this was fair.

One of the trip reports we were carrying was written by Jemi and John Holmes. Fate determined that I would meet in Tengchong where the Holmes¡¯ reinforced the value of staying at the Higherland Inn above Old Dali in the Cang Shen Mountains National Geopark. This site was a trip highlight for us.

More information http://www.birdschina.com/upload/word/Yunnan_Tour_Steve_Anyon-Smith_ 2009.doc