Day 5 - Dali

From Yunnan Province

Great day overall as we took in the sights of Dali. Several things to do here, but less so in winter months. After breakfast at our hostel, we headed out to the center of town to walk around and then caught a ride to the entrance to the ski lift chairs that went up Cangshan Mountain. It was a nice 30 minute ride to the top and very peaceful and quite. It somewhat reminded us of Gatlinburg, but only larger and of course, with a Chinese twist.

At the top was a Buddhist temple which we decided to not linger around, but instead head south along a VERY level and maintained path that took us 11 km winding around the top of the mountain. As you can tell from the picture above, great overview of the city. Certainly a cake walk hike compared to Tiger Leaping Gorge and Elephant Hill the previous days and we welcomed the nice stroll through the mountain. We ended our walk and took a cable car back down the mountain.

A very late lunch was a local fried cheese and a pizza. We then walked the streets of Dali Old Town and made our way north to see the old Three Pagodas at Congshen Temple. These have actually been restored as early as 1986. It is expensive to go into the grounds and it was late in the afternoon, so we decided to take a couple of pictures from the entrance and head back to town.

On the way out, Jamie did find a marble pestal and mortar she had been wanting. Solid marble and very heavy, it was a bargain here in Dali because Dali is very famous for its marble. It is everywhere and very beautiful. If we were going back to Shenzhen, it would be tempting to purchase more marble pieces (vases, framed art, etc). Incredible deals that are literally 90% off of what you would pay in the U.S.

We strolled back through town and will probably stay in the hostel relaxing for the evening. We aren't sure if we are going to stay in Dali all day tomorrow (Christmas Day) or head to Kunming.

Check out the pictures of today and check the blog again for our upcoming trip to Kunming.

We hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. We miss our families...