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Dali, China
Dali
By: Sarah
Here we are in Dali, China. We thought we would come here because we heard rumors of cleaner air and blue skies. We have a chill hobbit sky cabin in this nice MCA guest house outside of old Dali town. We have stunning views of the lake and the mountains that surround us. We are pleasantly happy here at the moment and pondering our next excursion, hopefully deeper into the forest of this tea region. We have our sights setting on a place called Xishuangbanna, where China starts looking like SE Asia and Pu'er Trees live in glory. We have not only come to this region for hopes of clearer skies, we are also seeking the famous Pu'er Trees that live here. From Xishuangbanna, we hope to make our way back up to Kunming by bus, stopping along the way to different small towns. From Kinming we will fly back to Shanghai for our remaining days in China.
Meanwhile in Dali, I am getting over a cold I acquired in Shanghai from the pollution. This limits the outdoor treking at the moment, but we are taking it easy in hopes of me getting better soon. Nick and I like Dali more than any place in China we have been so far. Mostly due to the nice weather and cleaner air, but it is also a smallish town that has preserved some of its local culture. The locals here are known as Bai, and their formal dress and hats are very beautiful. However, in dowtown Dali that is lined with shops, I don't know if they wear the outfits for themselves or for the tourists. There is a bit of hustling going on for various tourist wonders such as cormorant fishing, boat rides, smokie smokie, and other wonders; we have managed to escape all such traps as politely as possible. We will rent bikes today and do a bit of un-guided touring in hopes of seeing a little more of the beautiful surroundings. Now the view of Dali, China by Nicholas.
Dali
By: Nicholas
This place reminds me of San Pedro on the shores of Lago Atitlan in Gautemala. It's touristy and lakeside. There the comparison kinda breaks down when faced with the much larger scale that China imposes. It must be off season for foreigners, because it doesn't seem to be the hippy mecca that I read about. I doubt there is an off season for chinese tourists, however, because we're outnumbered by quite a few orders of magnitude. Hence the remark about scale. In China, there are heaps of people everywhere, and our search for cleaner skies led us here. Upon exciting the plane, I could smell pine trees and actually see some stars. There isn't as much haze here, and one can actually see across the lake to the mountains. The place that we're staying in is pretty quiet, and has some nice courtyards, gardens and ponds. "Downtown Dali" pretty much revolves around a pedestrian avenue lined with shops sellings clothes, jade, marble, flutes, tea, and handmade silver jewelry. The prices reflect China's first world status, and while haggling is accepted a good shirt is still 15 to 45 USD. We haven't been to the lake yet, so stay tuned for the answer to the big question: Is it clean enough to swim in? Happy trails, Bless!
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