Early Friday saw us headed off to Dali - again the required three hour journey! - for our last small city experience in Yunnan Province.
The view from the bus was quite promising and arriving at the hotel was simpler - we had learned a thing or two from our arrival in Lijiang!
Like Lijiang, Dali is an old city. Here. The old gates and part of the wall are still intact. But unlike Lijiang, a lot of it still allows motorcycles, which made it much less pleasant to walk around. As most of the motorcycles are electric, they are silent. While this is great for emissions, it is not so great for pedestrians! There is lots of honking to make up for the lack of engine noise!
However, not to be deterred, we first set out to see the Three Pagodas of Chonseng Temple.
The central one was built in 823 to 840 AD, while the other two were built 100 years later - which makes them all pretty old. At that time they believed the area was inhabited by dragons, so these structures were built to deter the dragons (because the dragons like pagodas)! They are built at the base of the Cangshan Mountains, with Lake Erhai in front.
Like so many other things Chinese, there was damage to the complex during the Cultural Revolution, so there was significant rebuilding that started in 1986. There had also been an earthquake in the 1920's, which is why they are a little off vertical!
It was quite an extensive complex with many similar-looking buildings inhabiting the hillside. Sue and I faithfully walked up to and climbed the last one and were disappointed that even with the height, the temples blocked a view of the pagodas.
I always like to check out the position of Buddha's hands.
Once again there were items hung in trees.
Sue said each of the animals on the roof tops represent a different dynasty.
There are many Buddha statues here.
As is the way with temples, it was a busy place - people burning incense, lighting candles, prostrating themselves. The presence of the monks was minimal I'm sad to say. The one hall where there was chanting, was a recording. With the many tourists each paying 121 Yuan ($17.50 USD), I suspect it is more secular than religious.
Following our excursion to the pagodas, we walked through the old town to get a 'feel'. Much of the merchandise was similar to Lijiang, but overall it seemed to be toned down a 'notch' - this didn't feel as exclusive and pricey as Lijiang. One we got into the area that prevented motorized vehicles, it was much more pleasant, but the architecture was not as entrancing as we had seen elsewhere.
This window looked old, but many of the buildings looked quite new.
There was a McDonald's.
This young man was pulling taffy. It was a type of candy that involved yak milk, I think!
A street merchant made these lovely decorations out of toffee.
And this street musician played on.
This was a popular spot for 'selfies' and posing for pictures.
This was just too colorful to ignore!
The following morning we headed out with a driver for the day - to take us to some villages we had read about outside of Dali. The first was enchanting - a Bai village called Xizhou Town - which was apparently an important historic site on the Tea Horse Road. It is set up as a market, but unlike Dali the buildings had a very characteristic look and some were so busy looking as it they were about to fall apart, that their authenticity was quite clear!
We wandered away from the market, looking to find Lake Erhai, and stumbled upon this odd announcement. This place was so entrancing, I'm just going to put up a bunch of pictures so you can see for yourself inside and out.
This man said he was hanging up these sticks to dry the cheese wrapped around them!
The coloring was very distinct in this area, with stone base for the walls and then pounded earth which was painted white with distinctive blue decorations. Sometimes the more modern ones might also have a little pink thrown in, but blue grey was the dominant color. The effect was quite beautiful.
Sue and I each found some treasures and at one point, as I was waiting for her to decide on a purchase, a woman asked if she could have her photo taken with me. I indicated that would be OK, never anticipating that in a flash I was to become a minor celebrity surrounded by numerous people wanting their photo taken with this tall white woman.
That's me in the middle with the funky hat I just bought sticking my thumb up! I was a little afraid that maybe I was being robbed, but all was secure. Sue said they might be Koreans - I'll never know!
This lovely village was followed by another one of those tourist 'museums' based on indigo dyeing, which is specialty of Zhoucheng Village. While the displays were well done, it was the expectation that one would buy something that spoiled it. As our driver didn't speak English and we didn't speak Chinese, there was not much opportunity to discuss other options.
The woman from the hotel who arranged the trip suggested we would enjoy Shuanglang Island. Apparently it is quite close to the shore of Lake Erhai and can be reached via a bridge.
What she did not explain to us is that the road to get there is completely torn up for 2 - 3 kilometers, so the only way to visit is to leave the car and take a tuk-tuk for the last distance. It was the bumpiest, most lurching ride I've ever taken!
But it was very popular with the Chinese tourists who must have a lot more money than me, as the stores were very high end. It was also crazy with motorbikes and construction. When we discovered that we would have to pay an extra 10 yuan to even get to the end of the island we decided we'd had enough.
Sue posed with water behind her, just to prove she'd been there.
Getting back to our car and driver was also a pretty tentative event - as we couldn't describe to the drivers where our car was! Happily with Sue's phone, the help of a young man selling pearls who spoke a little English, and the return of our original tuk-tuk driver in the nick of time, we were safely delivered and headed back to town.
The old city wall in Dali. (The single pagoda in the background is not the one we saw the other day - it is further along the valley).
One of the lovely pedestrian walk ways here. We had dinner nearby.
In order to maximize our time in Dali, we had arranged to take the overnight train to Kunming, so after a walk on the city wall and dinner in town, we set off to the train station.
No comments:
Post a Comment