Dali 大理

1

Ancient capital of both the Nanzhao Kingdom and the Dali Kingdom; the present square walled city was built in the 15th year of the Ming Hongwu era (1382) after Mu Ying and Lan Yu pacified Yunnan, with all four gate towers still standing; the layout of "a stream around Cangshan, Cangshan embracing the old town" endures to this day

2

The surviving core of Chongsheng Temple, the royal monastery of the Dali Kingdom; the main Qianxun Pagoda was built during the reign of Quanfengyou of Nanzhao — a typical Tang-dynasty dense-eaved, hollow brick pagoda 69.13 m tall — with two smaller pagodas added in the Song dynasty on either side

3

Nineteen peaks lining the west side of the Dali basin, with the main peak Malong at 4,122 m; every peak keeps snow and every stream flows into Erhai Lake; "Cangshan Snow" heads the four famous scenes of "wind, flowers, snow and moon", and the area is now a UNESCO Global Geopark

4

Yunnan's second-largest plateau freshwater lake, named for its ear-like shape; the lake covers about 250 sq km, and "Erhai Moon" is one of the four famous scenes of "wind, flowers, snow and moon"

5

The largest Bai ethnic market town on the west shore of Erhai Lake, famed since the Ming and Qing dynasties for the 'Xizhou merchant guild'; in the Republican era the four great families—Yan, Dong, Yin and Yang—ran tuocha tea and import-export trade reaching as far as Southeast Asia

6

A fishing village on the east shore of Erhai Lake, famed as the 'top town for Cangshan and lake views' and grown into an art enclave around the lake: dancer Yang Liping's Sun Palace and painter Zhao Qing's Qinglu 'Moon Palace' stand by the water, making it the birthplace of Erhai guesthouse aesthetics

7

A band of fishing villages on the west shore of Erhai Lake beside Dali Ancient Town; Longkan Pier was once a fishing dock and is now Erhai's top sunrise photo spot—morning light frames the silhouette of Cangshan Mountain against golden ripples on the lake

8

The highest form of Bai hospitality: the first course of bitter tea is brewed from roasted tea leaves, symbolizing that one must endure hardship before achieving success

9

An art zone converted from the old factory buildings of the Dali Prefecture Bedsheet Factory, home to a photography museum, independent bookstores, galleries and live music venues; the Four Seasons Street Market runs on weekends

10

Cradle of the Nanzhao Kingdom, where Xinuluo rose to found the Dameng State in the early Tang; the present town was walled in the Ming Hongwu era, and Ming dynasty gate towers such as Gongchen Tower and Xinggong Tower survive intact—one of China's best-preserved Ming-Qing county-town layouts

11

The only surviving ancient market town on the Yunnan–Tibet Tea Horse Road; Sideng Street's Sifangjie (square street) layout is intact; Xingjiao Temple is a Ming-dynasty Bai Azhali (Esoteric Buddhist) temple and one of the very few Azhali temples still surviving in China

12

A thousand-year-old Bai village that prospered on salt; since the Tang dynasty it has been famous for salt from the "Nuodeng Well", and the Salt-Horse Road headed north from here into northwestern Yunnan

13

A famous spring of Dali; legend tells of the lovers Wengu and Xialang who died for love and turned into butterflies here; Xu Xiake's Ming-dynasty travel diary already recorded "a great tree above the spring, which flowers in early April like butterflies"; the April–May "Butterfly Fair", when butterflies hang upside down by the spring, is famed far and wide

14

A Song-dynasty-style film-set base built around 2002 at the foot of the Cangshan Mountains to shoot the TV series "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" (Tianlong Babu); it contains zones such as Dali Kingdom Street, Liao Kingdom Street and the Western Xia Royal Palace, and is the on-location stage for the stories of Dali's Duan clan in Jin Yong's novels

15

A renowned Buddhist mountain; legend says Mahakasyapa, the chief disciple of Sakyamuni, entered meditation here guarding the Buddha's robe; the mountain takes its name from peaks shaped like a chicken's foot

16

Winter cherry blossom scenery in the tea plantations of Wuliangshan Town, Nanjian County — in the 1990s tea farmers planted cherry trees between the tea rows for shade; now every year from late November to mid-December the blossoms open before anywhere else in China, with dark-green rows of tea spread beneath the pink blossoms; "spring arriving early" has become a winter... for photographers nationwide

17

Danxia landform Shibao Mountain in Jianchuan County: the Shizhongshan Grottoes in the mountain were carved from the Nanzhao to the Dali Kingdom period, with over ten grottoes still extant, and the Nanzhao royal sculpture "Geluofeng Deliberating State Affairs" is first-hand pictorial material for studying Nanzhao history

18

A natural highland lake wetland in Eryuan County; Bai fishing villages are scattered across six islands in the lake, connected to one another only by rowing boats, and the "villages in the lake, lake in the villages" highland water-town layout is well preserved