Ruili

Ruili is a small town in the far south of the Dehong prefecture of Yunnan, it lies smack dab on the border with Myanmar. The town is quite similar in appearance to Jinghong with lush surroundings and monsoon like rains, only it's scaled down to 1/10 the size and has most westernized things stripped out of it. If you're Chinese you can cross over the border to Myanmar for the day and visit the China-Myanmar friendship street, this connects Ruili to the town of Muse. Although I wasn't allowed, I could feel the Myanmar side bleeding over into China anyway.

Jinghong @ Xisuangbanna

There is nothing super special about Jinghong, however if you've been working for a month with no days off in a dark room in Beijing, this might as well be Paris or Cape Town. This city and the surrounding area is about the opposite of most of the cities I've been to in China, my experience is mostly northern and kind of lacking perspective. A country's border can only define so much, and this city is close enough to Lao and Burma that it begins to melt together with them.

Lots of motorcycles