Our first stop was about 18kms from Dali at Xizhou Village to explore the local village market. A thousand years ago, the Ancient Tea Route was a trade link from Sichun, Yunnan to Tibet. Xizhou was on the path of the caravans of the Tea and Horse Road also known as the Silk Road. Many of the houses decorated are traditional Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) architecture. They have a distinctive Bai touch of colorful pictures, gardens, use of marble decorations, u...

Today we are had a boat ride on Lake Erhai to Jinsuo Island which is home to a fishing village and the PAR minority ethnic group. It is pouring with rain and visibility is not great. We arrived at the island around 10am and walked around the local fishermans' market. There were lots of unusual treats like Dragon Fly Lava or crabs on a stick. Small eels called loach and lots of other live fish on offer. We then walked to a Chinese Temple where the locals we...

Today we left our hotel in Kunming, the Jin Jiang. We had a 5 hour drive ahead of us with numerous Mechanical and Police checks. Entering Dali we had our first glimpse of Erhai or Er Lake which is an alpine fault lake. Its' name means "Ear-shaped Sea", due to its shape. Lake Erhai is the second largest highland lake of China at 116 kilometres long and its average depth is of 11 metres The lake has a backdrop to all of Dali City and in the west against the...

We were up early at 6.30am for breakfast on the 23rd floor for a banquet. Chinese breakfast dishes and recipes though simple are as varied as the provinces and cultures in the different parts of china. Chinese breakfast dishes are mostly light yet nourishing and filling . There are steamed buns with meat or vegetable stuffing, with dounai or doujiang soy milk or tea. There was a soup made by fried tofu and cellophane noodles, plain rice porridge or rice congee...

Start of our Wendy Wu Tour - Yunnan & Sichuan Our flight left Tullamarine airport at 0.40 for Hong Kong and arrived at 6.55am. We had a few hours break in Hong Kong before we boarded another plane to Kunming, China arriving at 2.30pm. We had no delays at the airport going through Customs and Immigration. We were met by Daisy from Wendy Wu tours who was our local tour guide. We boarded a bus and drove to our hotel, the Jin Jiang Hotel in Kunming. Not lo...