Backpacking in Yunnan Province: Luoping Yellow Canola Fields, China

Luoping is a fantastic off the beaten track place to witness natural yellow Canola Fields in an unknown village called Jin Ji Cun. This part of China is remote and inspiring.

Luoping is so isolated and remote that almost every travel guide book for China doesn’t even mention it! It’s certainly not a well known tourist spot, even more reason for you to check it out!

Backpacking in Yunnan Province – Yellow Canola Fields near Luoping.

What are the Yellow Canola Fields in Jin Ji Cun?

A fantastic series of yellow fields! They are yellow because the flower for harvesting rapeseed is coloured bright yellow. Rapeseed oil is made from them, also known as Canola.

When to visit the Yellow Fields?

You can ONLY see these yellow canola fields in Spring time, so this is ESSENTIAL to know. Generally this means January to April, but really do your research first. Early March seems to be a good time.

How to get to the Canola Fields at Jin Ji Cun?

It’s not entirely easy to get to, but make sure you first arrive in the city of Luoping. You can ask around at your hotel or show locals some pictures or Chinese characters for where you want to go. Most of them will know where it is. A bus will take you there within 20 minutes.

The first bus will be a green mini-bus which costs 5RMB. There won’t be any other foreigners around.

The bus will get you there in around 20 – 25 minutes and you will notice the yellow fields on the right hand side.

How much does it cost to visit the Yellow Canola Fields?

You will be happy to hear they are free to visit. Simply turn up, walk around and enjoy to your heart’s content!

What is there to do at the Yellow Fields near Luoping?

They are yellow canola fields. You look at them and you admire them and you take some photos. Yes that’s it. On the way there you walk down a path through a market where there are lots of local food stalls – things like potato, chicken and honey are all sold here. The path is less than 500 metres long and that’s the only commercial thing here! There is no ticket booth and certainly no widespread advertising. This is as natural and uncommercial as a top tourist attraction can get.

To get really decent views over the yellow Canola fields, head to the top of one of the small hills in and around the fields. There are custom built paths up to the top.

Once you’ve seen it, head to the village of Jin Ji Cun to get a place to stay for the night. The yellow canola fields are meant to look great at sunrise and sunset. When we visited, you couldn’t see the sun at all, so it was just admiring the fields themselves!

Are the Yellow Canola Fields in Jin Ji Cun unique?

NO, of course not – these types of fields are everywhere, including parts of China, Australia, Canada and the USA. BUT this is a great place to see a vast number of them looking so pretty. It is also a fantastic off the beaten track spot and it was my first time to see these types of yellow fields. I really recommend it!

What else is there to do near the Yellow Canola Fields?

There are a few other things to see and do including an incredible national park with the 9 dragons waterfalls and riding on the back of a cart led by a yak. But the main attraction for now is the Yellow Canola Fields!