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Ancient town of Dali
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The bus from Kunming to Dali was about a 3 hour trip. We would be climbing higher in elevation, up to 2200 meters or 7200 feet. The name of the town gets a bit confusing. There is the Old Town Dali, and another town which also goes by the name Dali or Xiaguan. The latter one is a large city, and not the place you want to stay.
Along the drive we saw many farm villages growing rice and corn. There were many old wooden dwellings almost piled one on top of the other. We went through several tunnels, one of them was 3000 meters long. There was a lot of construction going on due to an overhead expressway that was being built. Everything along side the road was ripped up and in complete shambles. The poor people that lived along the road, their lives were totally disrupted.
It was really bizarre to see modern equipment like excavators in use along side horse drawn carts. There was dust everywhere. Only a few workers had a mask on. Our bus windows were soon caked in dust making it hard to see out. They were nicely washed not to much later when we ran into some heavy rain in the mountains.
The bus takes you to the larger city of Dali. When we got to the station we were immediately bombarded with taxi drivers shouting out prices to take us to the old town. We ignored them and carried our bags past them out of the station. They wanted 20 or 30 yuan. We walked about 5 minutes down the road to catch the local bus. It cost 1.5 yuan(20cents) each and was about a half hour ride.
We were dropped off near one of the old gates into the town. We wandered around and checked out a few guest houses. The one we wanted to stay at was full and the other ones around were not very good. We decided to go look at some just outside of the walled area of the town. We came across MCA guest house. It wasn't anything special, but it was clean enough and a good price at 100 yuan ($14 Canadian) for a double with bathroom. The only thing we disliked was the old spiral metal staircase we had to climb up to get to our room. We later found out we had paper thin walls and could actually put our t.v. on the same channels as our neighbors and watch it without the volume, we could hear theirs crystal clear.
Dali was an ancient walled city. It has a long history of civilization going back 4000 years. The ancestors of the Bai and Yi nationalities lived in this area. Today the Bai are the main inhabitants in the area at a number of 1.5 million. During the Tang Dynasty the Bai grouped together and defeated the Tang Imperial army and established the Nazhao Kingdom. The kingdom had great influence over China and somewhat over Southeast Asia. It controlled much of upper Burma in the 9th century. In the later years it was the end of the famous Burma road. In 1253 Kublai Khan conquered Dali Kingdom and made Yunnan province.
The city has the huge Erhai Lake on one side and is back dropped by the 4000 meter Cangshan mountains on the other.(also called the Jade Green Mountains) The circumference of the wall around Dali Ancient City was 6 kilometers long. The wall is 8 meters high and 7 meters thick with four large gate towers.
 
Unfortunately the old town has lost some of its charm from the hoards of Chinese tourist groups that come in on buses. It is still a nice enough place to hang out for a few days and see some of the attractions in the surrounding area. The main part of the old town is not allowed to have traffic or bikes going through it. The roads are cobble stoned and there are some lovely old buildings. In this part of the town they have accommodated into the sidewalks openings where the creek flows. People come with buckets to scoop out the water for washing and cooking with, etc.
 
We found a great restaurant here strangely enough called Cafe de Jack. It had great food. We had toasted tuna sandwiches, curry rice and vegetables with chapati bread, soups, and an awesome dish called Grandmas potatoes, it was done with onions and some pickled vegetables.
 
 
We went to a park area called the Three Pagodas. The entrance fee to this also includes entry to the Chongshen Temples Park right behind the Pagodas. We are learning that the attractions like this in China have some really steep fees to get into. This one was 120 yuan each, ouch! We decided to pay it and go in. The whole property is situated on a slope of Mt. Cangshan. You walk through different temples as you make your way higher up. Just when you think you must be reaching the end you walk out of a temple and see there are still many more in front of you, each one higher up than the last. We ended up spending about 4 hours walking around the park. Besides the many temples there are of course the 3 pagodas. They form a symmetrical triangle. The middle Pagoda is 69 meters (227 feet) tall and is one of the highest Pagodas of the Tang Dynasty, while the other two stand to the north and south sides of it. There were gold, silver, wood and crystal Buddha sculptures, Buddhist readings and more than 600 medicinal ingredients found inside the middle pagoda. There is a pond where the pagodas reflections can be seen. It makes for some nice photographs.
 
 
 
When we got to one of the large temples near the top, we were lucky to see the Monks prayer session. Dozens of monks were making their way up the steps to the temple. One monk banged on a drum type instrument while the other monks starting chanting. The same chant would be repeated over and over. A little bell would sound and the chant would change and be repeated many times again. Then a few monks would take turns coming over to some type of alter. They would do many different movements and gestures with a gold cloth they held. Then a series of kneeling and bowing their head to the floor with their arms laid out in front of them would be repeated. They were facing the enormous Buddha statues up in front of them while doing this.
 
We were going to rent bicycles and ride out to one of the minority villages. Again as any of the places like this in China, it is recommend to go to a village on a market day. Here we go again with the confusion on what day the market is in a particular village. The guest book in our room said the market was in Wase village on the 20th or 23rd of June. The free city map we were given says it is on the 20th and 25th. The guy at the front desk of our hotel says the guest book provided in our room is wrong and the market is today the 24th, so we should go today. Things were confusing enough so we didn't bother to mention to him that today was actually the 23rd. We pretty much gave up the idea of going to a market on our own, for that day anyway.
 
We spent a few days here just wandering around the cobblestones streets. The street that our hotel was on was quite interesting because it had local peoples dwellings and shops, as well as little eateries that were not meant for tourists. We were out of the walled city where the main hotels and restaurants were. Each place to eat had a few places to sit. The food is placed outside each day in many different plastic tubs. There are selections of fresh vegetables and live fish in buckets. You basically just come over and pick out what you want and they will cook it up for you.
Our street was quite long and was great for walking and seeing how the locals live. There were a lot of wood carvers and furniture makers. Some of the furniture was beautifully done. There were chairs, dressers, and shelving units a traditional Chinese style. The carved wood doors were the real beautiful. The people carving them, both men and women would work all day and late into the evening.
 
The sidewalks along the street have a deep trough that acts as the sewer run. You have to be careful not to fall in it. Many times we would see parents hold their babies or young toddlers with the split open pants over the trough to do their business. I guess it would end up in there anyway if they did it inside, so why not skip a step!
We have to mention the ladies in Dali referred to as the Grandma dope pushers. The first time you walk past the sweetest, wrinkly little old lady and she whispers to you " you smoka the ganja?" it will certainly take you by surprise!
We got to experience some entertainment in the streets at night. One evening there were ladies doing traditional dancing in their costumes. On another evening we saw a large group of locals gathered just outside one of the gates into the old town. We could barely get close enough to get a glimpse, but could hear people singing. It was a man and a woman. Each would take a turn singing to the other. We were not quite sure what was going on, but it appeared as if they serenading each other. It went on for quite sometime. It was really interesting to watch. Each time one of them would sing it would get a bit more intense. It was almost like a yodel in Chinese. The crowd around cheered them on. The mans voice was remarkable, I must admit the ladies was a little too high pitched for our liking.
Girls in traditional costumes near one of the gate towers. They charge money to have your photo taken with them.
Next blog our trip around the lake.
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| 83. | Ancient town of Dali - Dali, China Jun 22, 2006 (  30 ) |
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