Dali

Last Tuesday, I parted with Dr. Qiao and Adam to do a few days of sightseeing in northwest Yunnan by myself.  I took the overnight train from Kunming to Dali, an ancient town which ruled part of southeast Asia under a kingdom called the Nanzhao Kingdom, ruled by the Bai people, who are today still a substantial minority in the area. Dali was the end of the famed Burma Road, which served as a supply line for Chinese troops blockaded by the Japanese during WWII.  Today, it is a quaint little oldtown which has the added bonus of still having real people living in it, with real jobs and several schools.

Dali Old Town with Er Hai Lake in the background

I had a very full day on Wednesday as I arrived at 6 am.  I stayed at a hostel called the Jade Emu and I must give them a shout-out for letting me check-in and have my room at 7 in the morning!  I then took a cable car up the nearby mountain called Cang Shan, which had spectacular views overlooking the town and the large lake, Er Hai Lake, on the other side.  I spent about 5 hours hiking up and down little creeks, a gorge called 'the Cang Shan Grand Canyon' and seeing little temples and caves.  I actually ran into a party of French people and spent most of the day with a guy named Emmanuel with whom it was fun to practice my French!

Zhonghe Temple on the top of Cang Shan - remarkable for its painted wood carvings on the door panels

Picture taken by Emmanuel on the path around Cang Shan

In the evening I descended the mountain by cable car and walked around in the old town, did some shopping and got some famous Yunnan coffee at a little Tibetan Cafe.  Apparently Yunnan is quite famous for its coffee, and it was indeed the first real coffee I've had since moving to China.  I actually ended up getting Indian food for dinner at a little place called Namaste, which was awesome - its the closest I've ever been to India, after all!

Old Town Dali on a busy street

The next day, I took a bike from my hostel and biked down the hill to Er Hai Lake.  After one minor disaster with getting off the bike (I've never ridden a racing bike before, with the high bar - good thing I had a helmet on!) and getting lost several times, I managed to make it to the lake and had some pristine views across the water to some pagodas on the other side.  I even had the pier to myself for several minutes!  After biking back uphill, I got a bus towards Lijiang, my next destination in Yunnan.

Er Hai Lake