Dali Ancient City

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Dali Ancient City

This place was WAY better than Kunming!! Oh man. Way nicer people and far better scenery. What's unique about Dali is that it's divided into the Ancient City and the new city, Xia Guan (lower town). The new city is modern; deluxe hotels and large shopping malls, while the Ancient City is a well-preserved relic from the 8th century. Nowadays, Dali Ancient City is mainly set up for tourist visitors. In fact, there's even a street named "yangren jie" which means "foreigner street" lined with shops selling bootleg CD's, crispy crust pizza, and cheap garb.

The Dali Ancient City lies on the western edge of Erhai Lake. The altitude here is 6,330 feet, almost the same elevation as Lake Tahoe. Behind it soar the Jade Green Mountians and the awesome Cang Shan at 13,330 feet. To me this city reminds me a lot of Bishop, CA and the corridor along Highway 395. Dali is famous because it used to be the end node for trade along the Burma Road during the 9th century. To protect it from rival kingdoms, Dali is surrounded by massive stone walls and thick gates on all four sides. The only group to have successfully taken the city by force was Kublai Khan and his Mongol Army. Like a bawws.

The day I arrived in Dali I came down with a BAAAD head cold. This thing was undoubtedly evil and would NOT go away. For three days, it felt like I had a brick on my forehead. Sick as a dog, I would nap and watching movies all morning. In the afternoons, I'd try to go out exploring but after stepping for 30 mins I'd start feeling terrible again. Let me say this, getting sick while traveling really sucks. Getting sick while traveling alone is just downright miserable. Each day feels like a wasted opportunity.

One the 4th day, I was fed up with lying in bed all day. I'd nearly watched every film in the hostel's movie collection and I strongly felt the need to do something active. Josh, a 25 y.o. Canadian staying at the same hostel, and I chose to undertake a popular bike ride around Erhai Lake. "Erhai" in Mandarin means "No. 2 sea". It really was like riding around an ocean because the Lake is 72 miles around and takes nearly 10 hours to circumnavigate by bicycle. Josh and I decided to split the ride into 2 days so our pace could be more laid back and besides, neither of us wanted to end up in Chinese hospital after having a heart attack! I'm glad we stretched it into two days because the ride around the lake was really pleasant. Warm temps with a light breeze the whole way. The road around the water's edge was lined with solar/wind powered lightposts which made our route finding super easy. We'd pass through a village every 15 kms so there were endless possibilities for buying snacks and waters.

We rode around the Lake in a clockwise direction and overnighted in Shuang Lang, a sleepy fishing village inhabited by Bai people. The hostel we stayed at was really nice (the Banyan Tree). It had opened only 8 months prior and I could tell it was new because the staff had never cooked spaghetti before! My dinner choice that night. The hostel owner said he had all the ingredients but there was nobody who knew how to cook it. He asked if I could give a demonstration in their kitchen. It was great fun! I taught them the expression "al dente" and showed them how you know when it's well cooked by throwing some noodles against the wall! For sauce, they thought I might like to use jarred ketchup! I told them nobody eats spaghetti with ketchup so wrote them a simple recipe for "basic red sauce" (whole tomatoes, garlic, Chinese basil, onion, oil).

After returning from the bike ride around the lake, I went to visit the iconic Three Pagodas of the Chongsheng Temple; the symbol of Dali. Every restaurant and hotel in Yunnan seems to have a painting or photo of them on the wall. They are among the oldest standing structures in southwestern China. The Chongsheng Temple is one of the most important Buddhist temples in all of China. You enter the temple from the bottom and work your way up three layers of buildings towards the top. It's hard to resist taking photos of the various buildings when you've always got Cang Shan and a ridge of snow covered mountains looming in the background.

My last day, I went for an easy day-hike in the mountains behind Dali Ancient City and the Three Pagodas. I followed the Qingbi Xi Stream up to the Gantong Temple and then walked along the Cloud Road north 16 km to the Zhonghe Temple. The Cloud Road was really pretty. It follows the contour along the face of the mountains as it winds in and out of steep, lush valleys and past countless streams and small waterfalls. The mountain air I think helped to cast away my disasterous head cold and the homebrewed beer served at the Bad Monkey on Renmin Lu never tasted so good.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

I'm glad I found your blog
Looks like a great town to explore. You must be American as you are comparing it to Lake Tahoe. Sorry you will sick but your body needed the rest. You've been exposed to a lot of things your body is not used to. Glad you are feeling better. That is very cool that you taught them how to make spaghetti. Happy travels.