If you only have one day in Kunming, just follow this itinerary.

I traveled to Lijiang alone in December and passed through Kunming. I only had one day, so I left my luggage at Kunming Railway Station and started exploring right away! Kunming surprised me so much! (One day is not enough to see everything. It's a great place to explore slowly.) ✅Itinerary: Haigeng Dam—Kunming Old Street [Dongfang Bookstore]—Cuihu Park—Wenlin Street ✅Schedule: 1️⃣ First, have a bowl of steaming hot rice noodles 🍜 at Juan'er Xiaoguo Rice Noodles (I saw many people recommending it. The taste is good, the portions are large, and the owner is very welcoming. It felt like home in Kunming.) 2️⃣ Go to Haigeng Dam to see the seagulls. In winter, red-billed gulls from Siberia come to Kunming (Don't feed them anything other than breadsticks, which are very cheap at 10 CNY. The gulls are most active between 9am and 11am.) 3️⃣ Stroll around Kunming Old Street and check out the "Paper-thin Building". You can also spend the afternoon reading a book at Dongfang Bookstore with a cup of jasmine milk tea. 4️⃣ Take a walk in Cuihu Park 🚶‍♀️, a park loved by locals. I didn't finish exploring it before heading to Wenlin Street (many people take photos of the ginkgo leaves there). There are many local snacks! Kunming's food is delicious and affordable! ✅If you have time, you can also visit Doumen Flower Market (I heard it's best to go either very early or very late for the best deals and beautiful flowers.) ✅The Kunming Museum is also worth a visit (I didn't manage to book a visit this time). It's worth spending two hours or more there. If you like collecting stamps, bring your stamp book! ✅Food recommendations: Rice noodles (Xiaoguo Rice Noodles, Clay Pot Rice Noodles), Erkuai, authentic Yunnan cuisine, flower cakes... (My friend said any restaurant is good, so I just tried a few random places, and the food was delicious.) ✅Transportation outside the city: Airplane, train, high-speed rail Transportation within the city: Bus, subway 🚇 (The subway is sufficient.)