Winter on Dianchi Lake, Kunming: The Seagulls’ Long Holiday

Kunming is a landlocked plateau city – about as far from the sea as you can get – yet every winter it somehow feels coastal. From early November through March, flocks of black‑headed gulls with bright red bills (the famous Kunming seagulls) arrive from the far, cold north. In a funny way, they’re doing exactly what well-off urbanites do: escaping winter and “moving to Kunming for a season.”

People say Kunming’s romance with these birds began in 1985. That winter, a huge wave of gulls poured into the city. The first arrivals were shy – almost bashful – keeping their distance from humans. Locals, though, were generous to a fault: Youtiao, plain steamed buns, whatever they had, they shared. After that first “human–gull summit,” the birds seemed to decide that the two‑legged creatures here were friendly (or perhaps the early bribery worked a little too well). Since then, they’ve returned on schedule every year, gifting the lake with scenes so pretty they feel pulled from a classical line: sunset clouds, wide water, and wings lifting into the same sky.

Kunming’s subtropical highland monsoon climate stays pleasantly mild, almost like spring, with temperatures often around 18°C. After enduring the severe cold of the far north, gulls find this an ideal place to overwinter: open water, plenty of food, and crowds of people happy to feed them. That is why tens of thousands of them leave Lake Baikal, one of the coldest freshwater lakes in the world, and make the long southbound journey. They fly for more than thirty days and cover over 3,000 kilometers, just to spend a few months around Dianchi Lake in Kunming. When the flock rises all at once, the birds look weightless and quick, like snowflakes swept up by a strong wind, and the spectacle is so vast that it is hard to take in at a glance.

Best places to watch them around Dianchi:
· Wangguan Wetland Park (best in the morning)
· Haigeng Dam (also best in the morning; a classic viewpoint on Dianchi)
· Laoyuhe Wetland Park (good morning and afternoon)
· Haihong Wetland Park (best in the afternoon)
· Haiyan Village (good any time)
· Green Lake Park (I prefer afternoons)

Tip: bring small sweet buns – after years of watching, I’m convinced the gulls have a real weakness for the extra-sweet bread local photographers carry.