Dali
Overview
According to some writings, Dali used to be a backpackers’ paradise in which to chill out and relax for a couple of days or even weeks. As it had a very nice Old Town, Chinese government started to promote it and this brought in more and more mass tourism, predominantly Chinese tour groups. The government even rebuilt almost the whole Old Town, and again according to writings, Dali got a bit spoilt but still was a good destination for a couple of days.
Well, right now Dali is probably the last city you want to visit in the whole China. It is totally spoilt. The only thing you have in the Old Town is souvenir shops, Western food restaurants and cafés and thousands of Chinese tourists, most of them in groups led by a person dressed in a traditional Naxi costume.
This being said, the only two reasons to visit Dali are if you are tired of China and want to get back “home” for a couple of days (eating Western Food, speaking English, buying souvenirs) or if you want to explore the Erhai Lake area. This last option is the best one, as by hiring a bike and getting outside of Dali you have a wonderful trip across a beautiful landscape and passing by small traditional vilages. Really reccomendable, but if you have the money, try to stay overnight in any of the villages by the lake rather than in mass-touristified Dali Old Town.
Well, right now Dali is probably the last city you want to visit in the whole China. It is totally spoilt. The only thing you have in the Old Town is souvenir shops, Western food restaurants and cafés and thousands of Chinese tourists, most of them in groups led by a person dressed in a traditional Naxi costume.
This being said, the only two reasons to visit Dali are if you are tired of China and want to get back “home” for a couple of days (eating Western Food, speaking English, buying souvenirs) or if you want to explore the Erhai Lake area. This last option is the best one, as by hiring a bike and getting outside of Dali you have a wonderful trip across a beautiful landscape and passing by small traditional vilages. Really reccomendable, but if you have the money, try to stay overnight in any of the villages by the lake rather than in mass-touristified Dali Old Town.
Sightseeing
Dali Old Town has almost no interesting sights. There are 3 main streets competing between themselves to win the title of most crowded street in China: Renmin Street, Foreigners’ Street and Fuxiou Lu.
Renmin Street goes from the West to the East Gates (rebuilt gates that give entrance to the Old Town from the city walls), Foreigner’s Street runs parallel to it, and Fuxiou Lu goes from The North to the South Gates (you can get up the gates to have a view of the crowded surrounding streets).
All these streets are crowded with Chinese groups of tourists, souvenir shops and pricey restaurants and cafés. They are only worth a walk to see what mass-tourism is or to have some expensive pancake or coffee.
Besides these 3 main streets, there are other ones where Dali people live, but they have not very much attraction, as most of them are empty and lacking sights.
-3 Pagodas Complex: The most famous sight of Dali is a quite big complex featuring 3 pagodas (a really tall one and two smaller ones) and a temple at the back. The entrance price is 122 yuan and you cannot even get inside the pagodas, so we didn’t enter the complex and instead went biking around the complex, from where you can see al the pagodas.
-Pagoda: As you approach the Old Town, you will see a white tall pagoda on your left hand side. In theory it is free to visit, but when we went there the park where it is was closed and we could only see the pagoda from outside.
-Erhai Hu (Erhai Lake): The only one good reason to be near Dali. If you are in Yunnan it is really a must to come here. You can hire a bike (or an electric scooter) in Dali and head to the lake to circumnavigate at least a part of it. A reccomendable day trip (the one we did) starts in Dali by bike (20 yuan per bike for the whole day) at around 11 in the morning.
Go first to the 3 pagodas complex and from there take the main road heading north to Lijiang. Take any road going right until you reach the lake. From there head left following the shore of the lake. There are signs pointing the direction of the road to circumnavigate the lake, so you cannot miss the road. Bike and bike passing by small villages, temples and amazing landscape, stopping on the way for pictures, visiting temples, having some food… until you reach the village of Xizhou, some 20 km from Dali. It took us 4 hours with several stops to get to Xizhou.
Xizhou is a really nice traditional small village that unfortunately looks like in a few years will be a mini-Dali. Still, right now is really reccomendable to visit, wandering around its streets and alleys and visiting a nice Taoist temple it has.
From Xizhou, to get back to Dali, we took the main road and where back in Dali in 1,5 hours, although the road is boring and tiring. If you can, start really early in the morning from Dali so you won’t have to rush to get back, or stay overnight in any of the vilages around the lake (many of them have really nice accommodation just by the lake, but I guess expensive, as well).
All in all, Dali is a totally avoidable place to visit in China, if you have the chance, skip it, book some nice accommodation by the Erhai Lake, rent a bike, and go circumnavigating the lake for a few days. You will see real Chinese village life, beautiful lake landscape, wonderful tiny villages and small but authentic temples on the way.
And go soon, because it looks like in a couple of years even the Erhai Lake area will be totally spoilt, as they are already building plenty of hotels in the lakeside that will attract the Chinese hordes, exactly as in Dali.
Renmin Street goes from the West to the East Gates (rebuilt gates that give entrance to the Old Town from the city walls), Foreigner’s Street runs parallel to it, and Fuxiou Lu goes from The North to the South Gates (you can get up the gates to have a view of the crowded surrounding streets).
All these streets are crowded with Chinese groups of tourists, souvenir shops and pricey restaurants and cafés. They are only worth a walk to see what mass-tourism is or to have some expensive pancake or coffee.
Besides these 3 main streets, there are other ones where Dali people live, but they have not very much attraction, as most of them are empty and lacking sights.
-3 Pagodas Complex: The most famous sight of Dali is a quite big complex featuring 3 pagodas (a really tall one and two smaller ones) and a temple at the back. The entrance price is 122 yuan and you cannot even get inside the pagodas, so we didn’t enter the complex and instead went biking around the complex, from where you can see al the pagodas.
-Pagoda: As you approach the Old Town, you will see a white tall pagoda on your left hand side. In theory it is free to visit, but when we went there the park where it is was closed and we could only see the pagoda from outside.
-Erhai Hu (Erhai Lake): The only one good reason to be near Dali. If you are in Yunnan it is really a must to come here. You can hire a bike (or an electric scooter) in Dali and head to the lake to circumnavigate at least a part of it. A reccomendable day trip (the one we did) starts in Dali by bike (20 yuan per bike for the whole day) at around 11 in the morning.
Go first to the 3 pagodas complex and from there take the main road heading north to Lijiang. Take any road going right until you reach the lake. From there head left following the shore of the lake. There are signs pointing the direction of the road to circumnavigate the lake, so you cannot miss the road. Bike and bike passing by small villages, temples and amazing landscape, stopping on the way for pictures, visiting temples, having some food… until you reach the village of Xizhou, some 20 km from Dali. It took us 4 hours with several stops to get to Xizhou.
Xizhou is a really nice traditional small village that unfortunately looks like in a few years will be a mini-Dali. Still, right now is really reccomendable to visit, wandering around its streets and alleys and visiting a nice Taoist temple it has.
From Xizhou, to get back to Dali, we took the main road and where back in Dali in 1,5 hours, although the road is boring and tiring. If you can, start really early in the morning from Dali so you won’t have to rush to get back, or stay overnight in any of the vilages around the lake (many of them have really nice accommodation just by the lake, but I guess expensive, as well).
All in all, Dali is a totally avoidable place to visit in China, if you have the chance, skip it, book some nice accommodation by the Erhai Lake, rent a bike, and go circumnavigating the lake for a few days. You will see real Chinese village life, beautiful lake landscape, wonderful tiny villages and small but authentic temples on the way.
And go soon, because it looks like in a couple of years even the Erhai Lake area will be totally spoilt, as they are already building plenty of hotels in the lakeside that will attract the Chinese hordes, exactly as in Dali.
Accomodation
We stayed at the Five Elements Youth Hostel, just a few meters from the Pagoda and Remnin Street. At 80 yuan the room with shared toilet it is a really good deal in Dali. The hostel is a Chinese one: a bar and restaurant serving both Chinese and Western food, a nice courtyard where to chill out… but it has the typical Chinese problem: Internet is almost unexistant. Being Yunnan, it has an additional problem: it’s cold at night. In Yunnan heating systems don’t exist and all what you get is an electrical blanket, which makes your bed warm, but everywhere outside the bed is freezing cold. Day temperatures, though, are perfect. A last annoyance of this hostel is that it has two dogs. If you don’t like dogs, are allergic or whatever, don’t stay here, as the dogs (big ones) wander around freely inside the hostel and at times they can be annoying, especially when you are eating. They should advertise it, but for us it was an unexpected surprise.
If you want to stay in Dali, Five Elements is a good option, but the best would be to stay somewhere else around the Erhai Lake, although I assume the accommodation there must be quite expensive.
If you want to stay in Dali, Five Elements is a good option, but the best would be to stay somewhere else around the Erhai Lake, although I assume the accommodation there must be quite expensive.
Food & Drink
Plenty of options in the Old Town. Actually, the only one reason to visit Dali is if you’re tired of Chinese lifestyle and food. Here you’ll find plenty of restaurants and cafés selling all kinds of coffees (cappuccino, latte, etc) and Western food (pizzas, hamburgers, steaks, pancakes, etc) but at a really high price.
If you are in a low budget or if you want to have Chinese food, it is still possible. Just walk off the main streets and you may come across some Chinese food restaurant offering noodles (across the bridge ones, so it means with soup), dumplings or hotpot, but expect to pay more than in the rest of China.
While biking around the lake, you will find some villages on the way with boutique hotels. You can eat there or get inside the villages to find some authentic food experiences. In Xizhou, you have some good options in the main square.
If you are in a low budget or if you want to have Chinese food, it is still possible. Just walk off the main streets and you may come across some Chinese food restaurant offering noodles (across the bridge ones, so it means with soup), dumplings or hotpot, but expect to pay more than in the rest of China.
While biking around the lake, you will find some villages on the way with boutique hotels. You can eat there or get inside the villages to find some authentic food experiences. In Xizhou, you have some good options in the main square.
Transportation
We got to Dali from Yuanyang. The process was to take a bus from Nansha to Jinshui and from there a night train (12 hours, 166 yuan) to Xiaguan. The train stops in Kunming at around midnight, so it will get crowded and noisy. It arrives at 7 in the morning in Xiaguan (Dali New Town). From there, take bus 8 or the “Express 3 Pagoda” bus to get to the Old Town (1 yuan per person, some 40 minutes).
Getting around Dali Old Town is done on foot, but to go to the Erhai Lake you can rent a bike (several places in town, 20 yuan per bike per day) or an electric scooter.
To get out of Dali, we went to Lijiang by train. The train departed at 15:30 (there’s another one around 9 in the morning), it cost 34 yuan for a seat and it took 2 hours.
Getting around Dali Old Town is done on foot, but to go to the Erhai Lake you can rent a bike (several places in town, 20 yuan per bike per day) or an electric scooter.
To get out of Dali, we went to Lijiang by train. The train departed at 15:30 (there’s another one around 9 in the morning), it cost 34 yuan for a seat and it took 2 hours.
Safety
Despite being a mass-tourist and crowded destination, Dali Old Town felt really safe. When you go biking to the lake, if possible take the lakeside road to go back to Dali, as the main road is tiring, boring and with quite a lot of traffic.
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