Originally Posted by
stut
I would certainly agree for the longer distances, particularly if you're on a limited timescale. However, a long train trip is, for me, a part of just about any trip, and I'm glad I was able to make the (tiny in the scheme of things) trip that I did when I was out there.
I like the Chinese trains, too, but they are still a bit of trouble to reserve. And it can be hard to know what you're getting on the less popular routes.
But geography works against taking a train to Lijiang. You first have to head south to Dali and then east. When I concluded that Kunming wasn't really worth my somewhat limited time (2 weeks in China), I decided against the train.