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On our fourth day of Kunming-Dali-Lijiang tour, we left Kunming city for Dali. Journey was approximately 400kms or 4 hours by coach via expressway. We were about one-third in our journey when our tour leader informed us a fraction of expressway was under maintenance. This resulted in our driver having to detour to old trunk road. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We saw lots of beautiful countryside homes, people working at the green paddy fields and brick-making cottage industries. Simply awesome!

As we were approaching Dali, we began to see some mountains, forming a beautiful backdrop to the pictures I had taken. 'These mountains must be Cangshan', I was thinking, trying to recall the facts I read about Dali. Frankly, this city of Dali in Northwest of Yunnan province of China has never crossed my mind as a place I would want to visit. In fact, I only heard of its name after signing up for this tour.



Hearing our tour side introducing Dali, my curiosity grew taller. Apparently, Dali has a very interesting feng shui site, with Cangshan (Green Mountain) on its west and Lake Erhai on its east. On the map, both the mountain range of Cangshan and Lake Erhai are almost parallel with towns mushrooming in-between. Erhai literally means 'ear-lake', due to its shape that resembles human ear. It measures 42km from north to south, making it the seventh-largest freshwater lake in China. Rivers in Dali are said to connect till Mekong River in Vietnam.

Weather here is very pleasant, always breezy with temperature averaging 16.5 degree Celsius all year round. The fact that Dali is sitting on 1900 meters elevation,  allowing this highland city to be dubbed as 'Switzerland of the East'.

How the name 'Dali' does came about? First version says Dali means 'Great Administration', the other says the name Dali originated from Dali marble, a product which this city produces a lot and is famous for.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was the capital of Nanzhao and Dali Kingdoms, the political, economic and cultural center of Yunnan. It served as an important gateway of cultural exchange and trading with Southeast Asia countries, also an important transit point as 'Silk Route of the South'.

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