Spring City Golf & Lake Resort

Two of China’s greatest courses — one Robert Trent Jones Jr., one Jack Nicklaus — on a plateau lake shore where the weather never closes the golf.

Spring City is the closest China comes to a Pebble Beach story: a resort two hours from Kunming, on the shore of Yangzong Lake at 1,700 metres, with two courses ranked inside China’s top twenty and the Lake Course rated among the world’s best. The thin plateau air carries the ball; the light carries the photographs.

The resort hotel is compact and personal — lake-view rooms, a courtyard restaurant that sources from its own gardens, and a practice facility serious players genuinely use. A round here is rarely one round; most guests stay three nights and alternate the two courses.

We build Yunnan weeks around it: Spring City as the base, Kunming Sunshine and Dianchi Lakeside as the variety rounds, then the high-mountain finale at Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in Lijiang.