We arrive at Dali 大理 in the morning. And the new guide will pick us in the arrival and bring our name. And it turns out the other four that sleep in 1 room with us is other travel partner XD.
So we have 6 people for this trip, it still called private tour. We even use small van for touring. Our guide is very pretty too and very kind.
Dali City, formerly known as Tali, is the county-levelseat of the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture in northwestern Yunnan. Dali City is administered through 12 township-level districts, two of which are also commonly referred to as Dali.
Xiaguan (下关镇) is the modern city centre and usually conflated with Dali City by virtue of being its seat. This town is the destination of most long-distance transportation heading to Dali and is sometimes referred to as Dali New Town (大理新镇) to avoid confusion.
Dali Town (大理镇) is another division of Dali City, located 10 km (6.2 mi) to the north of Xiaguan. This town, commonly referred to as Dali Old Town (大理古城) to distinguish it from the city seat in Xiaguan, is usually the Dali referred to in tourist publications. The old town is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Yunnan, known for its natural scenery, historical and cultural heritage, and vibrant nightlife.
Credit: Wikipedia
Tian Long Ba Bu Film Studio 天龙八部影视城
Website: here
Tian Long Ba Bu Studios is located in Dali China scenic spot scenic Cang er center of the beautiful foothills of Dali provincial tourism resort Area. Beautiful back the Mountain, overlooking the boundless expanse of blue water of Erhai Lake, Dali, one east. .5 Km south of Dali March Street Street Field 0. .5 Km from the national cultural heritage 2 km Three Pagodas, Dali provincial tourism resort is to “Tian Long Ba Bu” Film shot to construct a large base of film.
The Showbiz City covers an area of 700 acres, with a total construction area of 2. .5 million square meters, total consists of 146 single building components.
Three Pagodas 崇圣寺三塔
Wikipedia: here
The Three Pagodas of the Chongsheng Temple (崇圣寺三塔; Chóngshèng Sì Sāntǎ) are an ensemble of three independent pagodas arranged on the corners of an equilateral triangle, near the old town of Dali, Yunnan province, China, dating from the time of the Kingdom of Nanzhao and Kingdom of Dali in the 9th and 10th centuries.
The Three Pagodas are located about 1.5 km (0.93 mi) north of Dali old town. They are at the east foot of the tenth peak of the massive Cangshan Mountains and face the west shore of the Erhai Lake of ancient Dali.
The Three Pagodas are made of brick and covered with white mud. As its name implies, the Three Pagodas comprise three independent pagodas forming a symmetric triangle. The elegant, balanced and stately style is unique in China’s ancient Buddhist architectures, which makes it a must-see in the tour of Dali. The Three Pagodas, visible from miles away, has been a landmark of Dali City and selected as a national treasure meriting preservation in China.
The main pagoda, known as Qianxun Pagoda (千寻塔; Qiānxún Tǎ), reportedly built during 823-840 CE by king Quan Fengyou (劝丰佑) of the Kingdom of Nanzhao, is 69.6 meters (227 feet) high and is one of the tallest pagodas in China’s history. The central pagoda is square shaped and composed of sixteen stories; each story has multiple tiers of upturned eaves. There is a carved shrine containing a white marble sitting Buddha statue at the center of each façade of every story. The body of the pagoda is hollow from the first to the eighth story, surrounded with 3.3 meters (10 feet) thick walls. In 1978, more than 700 Buddhist antiques, including sculptures made of gold, silver, wood or crystal and documents, were found in the body during a major repairing work. The designers of the pagoda are supposed to have come from Chang’an (present-day Xi’an), the capital of Tang Dynasty at that time and the location of another pagoda, Small Wild Goose Pagoda, which shares the similar style but is one hundred years older.
The other two sibling pagodas, built about one hundred years later, stand to the northwest and southwest of Qianxun Pagoda. They are 42.19 meters (140 feet) high. Different from Qianxun Pagoda, they are solid and octagonal with ten stories. The center of each side of every story is decorated with a shrine containing a Buddha statue.
From Three Pagodas, we go to Butterfly Spring Park.
Butterfly Spring Park
Butterfly Spring where thousands of butterflies flutter among the branches and blossoms and over the spring forming an amazing ‘ Kingdom of Butterflies’.
Located 27km south of Dali Ancient Town, the Butterfly Spring was named as the spring rises to form a pool which was shaped by the dense leaves. Above the pool there is an ancient tree known as the Butterfly Tree, because its fragrant blossom attracts thousands of butterflies in the short interval of spring turns to summer. These colorful creatures fly around the pool and settle on the tree in great clusters as they sip the nectar from the blossoms. This spectacular sight has given rise to a local festival when Bai people gather around the tree on 15 April for the Butterfly Meet. Then the youth will seek to engage with their loves.
There are Three Wonders in Butterfly Spring.
【Spring】
The first wonder is “spring“. Butterfly Spring is soaked from the sand bed, the water quality is especially clear filtered by the thick sand layers without any pollution. The springs come from Butterfly Spring, in recent years the waters have been stored up in three pools by park managers for people to watch, the largest pool is about 10 mu. The park of Butterfly Spring contains a Butterfly Museum which keeps lots of species of butterflies.
【Butterfly】
The second wonder is the “Butterfly“. In Butterfly Spring, there are many different kinds of butterflies, every year in March to May, some butterfly is as big as a palm, and some is as small as bee. April 15 became Butterfly Party by the Bai people. Xu xiake described it in his travel notes: “There are thousands of butterflies, many of them may even connect with each other by head and tail and hang from the Silktree Albizzia to the water’s surface. The sight is so magnificent and wonderful.”
【Tree】
The last wonder is the “tree“. In the Butterfly Spring Park, there is “the beauty of the Butterfly Spring is green, please take good care of flowers and trees” environmental sign, this sentence show the beauty of the Butterfly Spring is green. The fernleaf hedge bamboos, the Christmas trees are seen along the passageway, and after the spring there are the pine forest, palm grove, tea grove, rhododendron forest, and some local unique aromatic incense tree species like albizzia. The acacia tree in Butterfly Spring, when the flowering season in early April, its petals just look like the hidden butterfly during the day, and its petals fold and smell fragrance at night. The poet praise the butterfly is the “flying flowers“, and this albizzia is “still butterfly“. All kinds of flowers bloom in the third and fourth month of every lunar year on Yunnong Peak. The big Silktree Albizzia gives off a faint fragrant scent. The scent attracts the butterflies, so thousands of them congregate around the Butterfly Spring.
credit: Here
Erhai Lake 洱海
Credit: Wikipedia
Erhai or Er Lake (洱海; Ěrhǎi), is an alpine fault lake in Yunnan province, China. Its name means “Ear-shaped Sea“, due to its shape as seen by locals and travellers. Erhai was also known as Yeyuze or Kunming Lake in ancient times.
Tian Long Cave Scenic Area 天龙洞
Dali Tianlong Cave 天龙洞 is an ancient cave at Yunnong Peak of Cangshan Mountain. With the altitude of 2400 meters, Tianlong Cave is about 2400 meters far away from Dali Butterfly Spring. The tourism bus can reach from Boluopang Village to the foot of the mountain where there is a parking lot. After getting off the bus, you can just climb up the mountain along the stone steps and the paths in the mountain.
The famous Tianlong Cave 天龙洞 is facing the east with wide cave entrance. With the path of zigzagging shape, the whole length is about one hundred meters. According to the introduction of those foreign students who learn in Chinese learning programs in Yunnan, you can see an arched hall as soon as you step into the scenic spot Tianlong Cave 天龙洞. The stalactites and stalagmites are formed vertically and horizontally.
Credit: here
Then we go back to the city and watch Dali Performance.
I think Dali is a beautiful city and there’s so many culture and history in there. Seems like I come to a movie set. When you have a chance, you have to come here at least one and explore the history and culture.
Then we go back to hotel for rest.
Cheerful Traveller's Diary 