At another table outside were two Han tourists from the city of Chongqing. Zheng Jing, a big-bellied man wielding a Canon camera, was a repeat visitor. He said this park was the only place in the Dai region where he would ever consider staying.

"There are many villages around, and they're all primitive," he said as a Han motorcycle club pulled up to Mr. Ai Yo's house for lunch. "It's not suitable for us to go there. They don't speak the Han language. You can't have exchanges with them."

That kind of attitude puzzles Dai residents living right outside the park.

"The culture here is the same as inside the park," said Ai Yong, 32, a rubber farmer in Mannao village. "You're getting cheated inside. You come out here, you can see everything for free."

Fortunately Ai Yong is right- Yunnan is still rich in authentic minority life, and given the narrow scope of Han travel itineraries one doesn't have to go very far outside of the tourist zones to find it. Within a 30-minute walk from the Dali and Lijiang old towns, for example, you can find living and breathing minority towns, free from Han tourists and 50-kuai cups of coffee. Though I've spent less time there, the same can be said for Jinghong I'm told.