Yunnan Golf Courses

Yunnan (Beautiful Clouds in the South) Province is the most southwest region of China bordering the countries of Vietnam, Laos, and Burma. Yunnan Province borders Guizhou Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to the east, Chongqing and Sichuan to the north, and Tibet Autonomous Region to the northwest. Yunnan encompasses 394,000 square kilometers (152,084 square miles) and has a population of more than 42 million people.

Within these borders, Yunnan has a diverse topography that ranges from alpine mountain ranges to tropical rainforests and the greatest number of plant species in China (more than 18,000) as well as an incredible array of animals, including the Asian elephant and the protected Yunnan golden monkey. There is even a rainforest in the area known as Xishuangbanna where you will find many rare and endangered species of plants and animals.

Yunnan is a good place for golf playing 9 golf courses in the whole province as follows:
Kunming Meadow Lake Golf Course
Kunming Wanda Golf Club
Kunming Sky Oasis Golf Resort
Xishuangbanna Golf Course
Tengchong International Golf Resort
Lijiang Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Golf Course
Lijiang Ancient Town Lakefront Golf Club
Dali Stone Mountain Golf Club
Kunming Lakeview Golf Club
Kunming Country Golf Club
Kunming Sunshine Golf Club
Kunming Spring City Golf and Lake Resort

Just about an hour and a half flight from Chiangmai in northern Thailand or slightly longer from Bangkok and you are in Kunming, the city of eternal spring and the capital of Yunnan Province, China. Yunnan can lay claim to being the inspiration for the mythical paradise of Shangri-la in James Hilton's classic book 'The Lost Horizon'. There is even a town of that name near Dali, a city a little further inland in the province from Kunming.

What was not so mythical about the province being at the foot of the mighty Himalayas was that the famous 'Flying Tigers' of WWII, the American squadron of fighter planes flown by mercenery pilots actually flew regularly across the place from Darjeeling in north-eastern India bringing much needed supply fuel to the Allies in China over the Himalayan mountain ranges that gave the route its name: 'the hump' (of a camel). Wreckages with dog-tag IDs of pilots are still being discovered deep in the natural beauty of the thick forests, often well protected by the inaccessible snow and cold weather.

But what is quite un-mythical about present-day Kunming is that there are at least eight top class golf courses in and around Kunming, thanks to the mild climate. The city is great value, friendly, safe and clean. Together with Lijiang and Dali, Kunming provides some of the best golf in Asia and in a prefect year round climate as well.

Golf in Kunming is seriously a 365-day a year affair! Here are some statistics in support of the totally un-mythical: Yunnan Province was host to about 160,000 golfers between 2002 and 2003. Per-capita spending on golf and total golf tourism revenue exceeded USD 260 and USD 44 million respectively (Source: HKTDC). Golf is the new hot sport, or more precisely, the new top revenue earner for the province. It is undoubtedly helping to drive tourism in the province.

Recently US-based Golf Digest magazine released its annual list of what it considered to be the China's top ten golf courses. Kunming ended up beating out the big and generally better-developed coastal cities with both the Spring City Resort's courses: the Robert T Jones II-designed Lake Course and the Jack Nicklaus-designed Mountain Course scooping the top two honours. And that was not all. The relatively new Lakeview Golf Club, which was the site for the Yunnan stops of the Omega China Tour as well as the Faldo Series Asia, added another feather to the cap by taking sixth place on the list.

If you have the time, you'd definitely want to golf in Shangri-la - a mythical one or not.