By taking the overnight train (7 and half hours) from Kunming to Dali, I arrived at Dali in the early morning. I took the public bus to the ancient town and joined one local one day tour for convenience.
When I was a child, I really want to come to this place, not for its sightseeing, but for one TV program “Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils”. Now my dreams come true.
We started at 9:00am in the morning when the sky is clear. First, we drive to the ports of Erhai Lake to take a 40 minutes’ cruise along the lake. The lake is clean and the sky is blue. Everything looks wonderful.
After 40 minutes’ cruise, we stopped in another village and then drive for few minutes to take the cable cars to the Tianlong Cave which is a natural karst cave. Compared to the view of other karst caves, I have to say it is not very worthwhile. But the sightseeing around is nice and it is also good to come as it is one of the view of TV program “Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils”.
From the outside of the cave, you could see clearly the shape of the Erhai Lake which looks like the ear of human. You could also see many Bai Minority people’s white houses.
By taking the cable cars down, you could visit one garden called Shangguanhua Garden where you could see some flowers there, like Datura and Fuchsias. And then you will visit the Tianlong Temple which is also one of the places used for the TV program many years ago.
After lunch, we visited the Xizhou Ancient Town. Compared to Dali Ancient Town, this town is more rural. It showed me the Bai minority cultural, the ethnic tradition of Three Courses of Tea and also the local people’s daily life. As this is the last sightseeing today, I choose to left the group and spend some time in this ancient town by myself. Besides Yan Family Compound, you could also visit other old houses.
Tasting the local food is also one of my interests. Xizhou Baba is made of flour, meat, sesame and other ingredients which are quite tasty. If you go there, you could have a try. They have two flavors-salty and sweet.
After that, I took one local vehicle to the Haishe Park by the Erhai Lake. This park is around 6KM far from Xizhou Ancient Town. You could see other side of Erhai Lake from there. I have to say I made a good choice. On the way, you could see some Bai Minority people’s house.
Before you go inside the park, you will see some bamboos along the way. With the sunshine, it looks very nice. Inside the park, you could see the beauty of the park and also the Erhai Lake.
The water is very clean and you could also see many conches along the lake.
After that, I took the local bus back to Dali Ancient Town. Compared to Xizhou Ancient Town, it is more commercial. But it is still interesting to walk around to see the local snacks and stuff. Climbing to the top of the building, you could see the whole image of this ancient town clearly. You could even find the Three Pagodas from a far distance.
After a tiring and interesting time in Dali, I took the overnight train back to Kunming. But I will come back again in the future. If you will come here, it’s my great pleasure to help you organize it too.
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