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HarvestThe first thing we saw when we came close to Dali, were lots of farmers who were harvesting some kind of stuff. Very smart is the use of traffic, otherwise they would have to thresh it themselves.
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And soon you notice it isn't just the farmers who are harvesting, it looks like the whole village had come to help. |
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If you rent a bike, you can see the farmers from close by. They are very friendly, and laughing at me and my strange style of bicycling (with my knees next to my ears, because the bike obviously is not my size). |
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Bai peopleDali is the home of one of China's minorities, the Bai people. You can see many of them in Dali. However, the best places to see them are the local markets in the towns close to Dali, Xizhou and the other one of which I forgot the name. |
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In one of these market towns, we also visit a school and an
small tofu factory. Visiting a school is a wonderful experience, the
children really like it that you're visiting them. The teacher is not so
happy with us, the rest of the day she will have a hell of a job to get the
children quiet again.  |
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And the tofu factory.... better skip that if you ever
want to eat tofu again. |
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Three PagodasThose who are into historical relics, should visit the Three Pagodas (Santa Si). The oldest is almost 1200 years old. The temple complex around it is not so old; that dates from 2003, rebuilt after the original temple was destroyed in the earthquake of 1996. There's also a Lone Pagoda near the South gate of the city, which we didn't visit. |
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If you're not interested in history, take the chair lift
up into the mountains for a promised view over the pagodas and the Erhai
Lake. Notice: you can't see the pagodas because of the trees and the electrical wires that block the view, and you can't see the lake because of the smog. |
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