Dali Old Town

The trip to Dali from Kunming took some four hours. As it is written in the guidebooks, the bus stopped in Xiaguan, the new Dali City. Local buses 8 and 4 run through the main city street up to the Old Dali Town. The ancient town is a walled city accessible through four major gates and smaller passageways. The buses pass through Boai Road from the south then turn left at Yu'er Street to the West Gate. I stayed in a nice and cheap hostel teeming with backpackers at Boai Road. As a rule of thumb, when I get to a new place and while the sun is still up, I explore the area as much as I can to check on places to see, eat and wander around. And that was exactly what I did after checking in at the Old Dali Town Hostel. I found a map in a ticketing office by the gate of the inn but it was too large it wasn't convenient to carry around, besides I didn't like attracting attention to myself in any way possible [being invisible is much more fun I guess] so I quickly memorized the location of the hostel in relation to the main streets. My goal was to find the tower I saw on my way to the old town from Xiaguan and determine my next itinerary from there. I walked down Boai Road to the south gate and climbed the wall and the tower. Well, that was easy! Dali was beautiful from the tower - rows and rows of traditional Chinese buildings swathed with the shadows of massive tall mountains to the west and tamed by the gentle breeze from the Erhai lake to the east. Months of hazy Longzhou and everywhere else I was in China made me long for the blue Cordilleran skies back home; and there I was in Dali overwhelmed by the enormity of a clear sky made more prominent by the hugeness of the mountain ranges surrounding a vast valley and a wide lake. On the downside, the development of the areas around the old city into commercial and residential spaces seemed to have taken away the novelty of an otherwise sleepy quaint village.

Next stop was Fuxing Lu. This was a cobbled walking street lined with souvenir shops that stretched from the south entrance all the way to the north gate, well, almost. I've noticed that stores started to dwindle after Yu'er Lu. Traditional houses close to the north gate, I later found were more rickety and worn out than those towards the southern gate which I think more truly represent the Old Dali Town. If you are into jewelries and Chinese arts, then this might be the place to hunt for that precious stone or antique painting you've always wanted, otherwise you can simply wander around, ogle at things and watch people come and go and enjoy the distinctiveness of the place from most Chinese cities. I tried a grilled cheese from a woman selling in one corner of the streets as suggested in some of the guidebooks - well, it's nice but for me, it's not something I'm going to crave for.

I turned right at Renmin Lu towards the east gate and Erhai lake. The tower looked very close from where I was standing. It turned out it was quite a distance. I climbed into the tower and waited for the sunset. It was a beautiful sight watching the city at twilight as the streets came alive in the evening with the lights popping up from the street lights and house lamps. I headed back to the main commercial area and wandered some more. Huguo Lu was abuss with diners and shoppers. Apparently, it has become a favorite hang out for foreign travellers so western foods and drinks are served in almost all of the restaurants. Coffee is of course ever present in a western menu in the Chinese context which until now I can not understand why it's very expensive when very few Chinese persons drink it. Yunnan coffee was free at the hostel during breakfast and so I had my fill there. I found out it's the same variety I used to pick from our backyard garden when I was young! Now, I missed my mother's freshly brewed Arabica! Back at the hostel, Indiana Jones was showing on a wide screen.