50) Dali and its famous pagodas

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June 28th 2005

Published: August 3rd 2005

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Stephan and Klaudia

One of Dali's stunning pagodas

The oldest standing structures in SW-China are placed in a beautiful setting

We again carried the luggage first down the uneven stairs and the cobbled road, until the tarred road running up the Lion Hill began. The weather was bad, it was drizzling and Peter and Klaudia waited with the luggage under a tree until Stephan returned with a taxi. We had hardly arrived at the bus station, when somebody shoved Peter and Klaudia into a small bus, while Stephan bought the tickets. And we were gone, heading for Dali, where we could not spend much time due to the uncertainty concerning our visas. We arrived in Dali in the late afternoon, the bus suddenly stopped somewhere (we were definitely in Dali because we had already seen the pagodas, but this was not the bus station), but the spot seemed to be the right one, as a lot of mini vans waited there for tourists. We were the only tourists on this bus and the drivers outdid themselves so that we might engage one rather than the others. They of course wanted to take us to a special guesthouse, but we would not let them influence us, we had already made our decision. The problem was they all offered the same service, so

Dali shop assistants

Trying to sell the maximum in colourful costumes

which one to choose? Stephan was weary of it all and started a counting game to select our driver, which quite amused them.

When we came to the MCA Guesthouse (thanks for the recommendation, Jenny and Jona), it was quite full but we could get a triple room for 100 Yuan. The room was a bit dark, but we did not really care since we would only sleep in it and that made no difference. The guesthouse wad like a backpackers' oasis, set in a very nice garden with a swimming pool and free internet access as well as free laundry service. Already the guesthouse in Lijiang had offered free internet for its customers, but they had only one computer while this guesthouse in Dali had at least 7. While Stephan was sifting through the Tibet pictures on the computer, we were addressed by many people, among them a group from Germany who had been on the road on bicycles for several days. A conversation was started, we also told them about our visa problem and their guide hinted that we should go to Hong Kong if the Chinese did not extend our visas in Kunming. There we could

Streets of Dali

View of Dali's old city with a fortified tower in the background

easily acquire a new visa for China. His remarks quite puzzled us, since we considered Hong Kong to have been part of China since 1997. Well, we strongly hoped that everything would work out fine and we would not leave China in a rush. The owner of the guesthouse also addressed us, who had talked with the guide of the bicycle group. He was Tibetan, and when he saw the wonderful pictures Stephan had made of his home country, he grew nostalgic and invited us to one round of rice schnapps after the other. He himself drank the most and was no longer sober when he told us a lot about Tibet and you could feel how painful the current situation was to him.

Before dinner we wanted to go for a short walk inside the old city. Dali is special in as far that it has conserved intact town fortifications with impressive gates to all cardinal directions. The streets are broader than in Lijiang and Dali lacks its charm, although the gates were brightly illuminated in all the colours of the rainbow. We did not get very far as it started raining more heavily and we slowly grew

Small pavilion

Several of these nicely decorated pavilions adorn Dali's centre

hungry. Close to the MCA Guesthouse, quite many restaurants have emerged trying to lure the tourists from the hotel food. Whatever was fresh that evening was on display on trays outside the restaurant, very practical if one did not speak Chinese and the waitresses did not speak English. We chose one place partly the lady cook was not slim at all and we concluded that her meals would be good. We pointed at everything we wanted and soon our table was full with chicken, delicious mushrooms, mussels from the lake nearby and some other vegetable dishes including very good pickled horse radish. Finally we tasted real Chinese cooking and it tasted very good. When the Chinese leave a table after their meal, the degree of mess they leave behind indicates how much they liked the food. Well, when in Rome..., so we also simply threw the chicken bones down on the table, and according to how we left it we liked what we had eaten! The cleaning of the table was effectuated in a very radical way: the waitress came with a huge bucket and with a sweep of her hands wiped everything from the table into it. We had

Carved door

Colourful door on the top floor of a fortified tower

spent a nice evening and hoped that the weather would get better tomorrow for our visit of the three pagodas.

Next morning the sky was overcast again and did not look very promising. But what could we do? We were here in Dali and had only this morning for a visit, so we set off after breakfast. The bad weather did not deter us from walking to our destination, although it was rather far from the hotel. We had to cross the whole city, that’s exactly what we liked about it. We passed by a fortified tower in the middle of town, climbed it and had our first nice view of the Three Pagodas plus another single one on the other side, and looked down on Dali’s everyday life. After a short visit to nicely decorated small pavilions and a look at a pond full of water lilies we had to move on because the distance to cover was still quite big. We felt Dali to be less touristy than Lijiang, at least the parts we were walking through that morning. But we supposed to see more tourists at the Three Pagodas, which are a site famous in whole

Local pedestrians

No colourful fantasy costumes this time, but typical local clothes

SW-China. We quickly left the old city behind passing through another gate, walked by little shops and stalls selling beautiful flowers and fresh delicious-looking fruit, like peaches. Klaudia was not feeling very well, so we had a short break in a small park. There we saw a big group of little children and watched them practising for the catwalk or some show. It was funny how they were normal children one minute, and next moment they turned into tiny grown-ups, some of them showed real zeal and may be part of a coming generation of models. After this amusing intermezzo we passed an animal market where the last deals were just being concluded, goats were led off by their new owners or chicken carried away on their legs.

When e arrived at the Three Pagodas it had started drizzling again, but now we were there and would also enter the site, although the entrance fee was again very high (60 Yuan). Right after the entrance we encountered a large beetle in a metallic green carapace. So the Chinese have not eradicated all wildlife yet! In comparison to India or Nepal there were hardly any birds in the cities, nor

Local kids

Future models before their training...

many other animals to be seen apart from domestic animals. We approached the pagodas through a very nice park all planted with camellia trees in flower. What a lovely sight! The garden was really beautiful, in the end it turned out to be the best part of the site. You definitely have a much better view of the pagodas from further away and there was not much more to see, only a building with a big bell in it and another one containing huge statues painted in gold of modern making. Anyway, the Three Pagodas are the oldest standing structures in SW-China, the Qianxun Pagoda, the tallest one in the middle, has 16 tiers and a height of 70m, while the smaller ones are provided with 10 tiers and a height of 42m each. On one side of the last building we noticed the constant coming and going of workers, was there probably another construction site around? Peter could not help having a look, and Stephan and Klaudia followed him, there was nothing else to do, it was raining slightly and there was no place to sit. The first group of workers was occupied with making a garden, digging out

Kids on the catwalk

... performing what they are asked to

the trees and shrubs that had been there and planting new ones. At first we did not understand why they were doing so, but on moving on with some difficulty (there was no footpath, of course, and we were definitely not meant to walk where we were just walking), we discovered the reason: a brand new monastery had just been built on the other end and the gardeners were beautifying its surroundings. The gate was not locked (it was not explicitly open, either) and we decided to have a closer look. We discovered that the huge complex only lacked the finishing touch, apart from that it was perfect. Wonderful, Dali was going to possess a new tourist attraction soon! Strangely enough, we were not the only visitors on this site which was not even open to the public yet. A group of Chinese tourists was shown around the place, they looked very impressed and deferential. Suddenly some official-looking young man turned up, he did not have a very pleased look on his face. For about 10 min he tried everything to bolt the gate, through which we had come in, in the end he succeeded and we had to take

Tough training

The trainer makes them see that it's not easy to become a star

the ‘official’ way out. We came to a road which was also under construction, close to Dali’s golf course. Klaudia was very tired and we wanted to take a horse car, but the driver asked for too much money and only limited bargaining was possible. So we walked on, determined to make it to the bigger road, where we considered it easier to find a taxi. We did find one in a small side lane, the lady driver was certainly happy to have found other customers so quickly, and we were glad that we did not have to walk the whole way again. In the middle of the way we decided to keep this taxi until the bus stand, it being time to catch a bus to Kunming. Only now we understood why the bus had dropped us on the road the day before, the bus stand was not in Old Dali but in New Dali, some kilometres further. The taxi brought us there at a very decent price, we bought some provisions and had soon left Dali behind. We quite do not understand why this place is considered as a dream location, maybe it is due to Dali’s surroundings