Cockpit of tourist boat in Dianchi Lake is not very roomy. [Provided to InKunming]

　　　Picture shows the biggest tourist boat in Dianchi Lake at present.[Provided to InKunming]

　　　 A tourist boat is ready for sail.[Provided to InKunming]

　　　A tourist boat sails in Dianchi Lake.[Provided to InKunming]

[InKunming--Yunnan]  Dianchi Lake is renowned as Plateau Pearl in Yunnan Province. Along with water quality of the lake being improved, numbers of tourists to Dianchi Lake have surged in recent years. More and more people like to cycle and sightsee in Dianchi Lake. To them, to go sightseeing by boats in the lake is crowned as one of the most popular options.

Passenger volume of tourist boats in Dianchi Lake has escalated gradually, which reached 103 thousand people in the first half of 2014. At present, 6 enterprises with a total of 300 workers work in shipping industry in Dianchi Lake.

Dianchi Lake is famous for its beautiful scenery, scientific investigation value, folk tourism feature, etc. It is also of great importance in transportation junction for coastal residents. Up to now, shipping is still the main focus on tourist transportation there.

By boat in Dianchi Lake, tourists can enjoy distant views of Haigeng Park (海埂公园), West Mountain Forest Park (西山森林公园), Dragon Gate of West Hill(西山龙门), and Sleeping Beauty Mountain (睡美人山), etc.

No traffic accident has ever happened since tourist shipping was launched in Dainchi Lake. Meanwhile, all the tourist boats in service have met national environmental requirement.

Kunming has 11 embarkation places for taking boats to tour Dianchi Lake, with 5 distributed in Caohai Lake and 6 in open waters of Dianchi Lake.

Caohai Lake

In Caohai Lake, 2 embarkation places are located in Daguan Park and 3 in Haigeng Dam.

Travel route that departs from Daguan Park passes by Grand View Pavilion, Mingzhu Vocational Village, Jiangnanchun Racecourse, Sleeping Beauty Mountain, and ends at Haigeng Dam.

Tour guides will introduce every scenic spots that pass by along the route, including their historical culture and characteristics.

Ships are in service from 9:30 to 17:00. Every journey lasts for about 1 hour and no fixed time schedule is set for sails.

Ticket price is 80 yuan per adult. Children that are under 1.2 meters in height are free and children who are 1.2 to 1.5 meters high can enjoy discounts depending on different tourist seasons.

For the 3 embarkation places in Haigeng Dam, 2 shipping routes are set. Route A is a round-way course, and sails via Haigeng Dam, aerial railway connecting West Hill and Haigeng Park, an ecological wetland park, Sleeping Beauty Mountain and then sails back to Haigeng Dam. Route B is a single-way course, and passes by Haigeng Dam, Sleeping Beauty Mountain, Jiangnanchun Racecourse, Mingzhu Vocational Village and Daguan Park.

Adult Ticket price of route A is 80 yuan per person for taking pleasure-boats and 100 yuan for taking speed boats. Children who are under 1.2 meters are free.

Outer waters

For the left 6 embarkation places in outer waters of Dianchi Lake, 2 of them are located in Haigeng Park, and the other 4 ones are distributed in west and east side of Haigeng Park respectively.

No fixed shipping route is set in this area. Ships in outer waters are in service from 9:30 to 17:00, too. Tourists can view scenic spots, enjoy dancing and singing performances along the way on the boat.

Ticket price for tourist boat is 60 yuan per person in tourist off-season and 80 yuan in tourist high season. Taking speed boat is charged by hour.

Click here to view Chinese report.

(Editors: Tracy, Cathy Chen)