China Guide
Guangxi and Guizhou
Weining
The small town of WEINING sits above the clouds on a two-thousand-metre-high plateau, and seems to enjoy a surprisingly mild microclimate. A small, run-down shell of a place populated by a friendly mix of Muslim Hui, Yi and Dahua Miao, it's of interest for the cranes and other wintering birdlife at the nearby lake and nature reserve, Caohai.
Caohai, the "Grass Sea", fills about twenty-five square kilometres of a shallow lake basin, the core of a regional nature reserve thirty-minutes' walk south of Weining. Wintering wildfowl shelter here in huge numbers, including 400 rare black-necked cranes along with golden eagles, white-tailed sea eagles, black storks, Eurasian cranes, spoonbills and assorted ducks. A boat trip on the lake costs about ¥60 for a three-hour tour in a punt. On a sunny day, Caohai's overall tranquillity is a complete break with daily life in China; wintering cranes often hang out in the shallows near the shore and are not too hard to catch on camera.
Practicalities
Weining can be reached by buses from Liupanshui, Anshun, Guiyang, Zhaotong (for connections to Xichang in Sichuan) and Kunming; and by a couple of trains daily to Kunming, Anshun and Guiyang.
Exit the bus station, turn right, and you'll find Weining's most comfy accommodation 100m beyond the crossroads at the Heijing He Binguan ( 
0857/6222048, 
6224438; Price: ¥50–199), which has a mix of doubles with or without bathroom; exit the station, turn left for 50m, and take the street opposite, and you'll find several cheaper options, such as Juhongxuan Zhaodaisuo ( 0857/6223480; Price: Under ¥50), which is cleaner than most.
Restaurants outside the Heijing He do inexpensive stir-fries and hotpots and Weining is famous for its potatoes – skewers of chilli-dusted potato "kebabs" are sold everywhere.