Dali: A Traveller's Dreamland
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Ancient Town of Dali : My Dream Place
Finally, I was able to get to my long desired destination -- the Ancient Town of Dali. When the ancient town’s city tower, so often seen in illustrated books and on TV, appeared in front of me, it looked very familiar.
In April when cherry trees are in full blossom in the foreground, the dark grey city wall behind looks especially foreboding. To encompass the wall, blossoms and people into one picture, one has to find a specific angle to shoot from. This means that people often need to queue up at one particular place to take photos.
A Town of Simplicity, Vitality and Sincerity
In the ancient town, beautiful Bai ethnic girls wearing white costumes can be seen everywhere, asking tourists whether they would like to have photos taken with them. Before you say yes, you had better think it over because this photo will cost you 10 yuan. I avoided them and swiftly entered through the arched gate.
This ancient town attracts tourists from all over China and even other countries. It is easy to distinguish where the Chinese tourists come from by their accents. It is also easy to tell which ethnic group the local Yunnan women belong to by their costumes, since the Bai, Dai and Yi people have their own unique style of clothing. Some foreign visitors are brave enough to wear colourful costumes of different ethnic groups. Seeing that, I could not help proclaiming, ‘Dali is a worldly city!’
The ancient town of Dali, which used to be the residence of King Piluoge of the Nanzhao State (738 -- 937), was of strategic importance to China’s northern defence. Looking at the present scale of the town, one can imagine the original size of the Nanzhao Kingdom, which stretched to the town of Xizhou to its north.
Dali took on a new look after renovation and repackaging by the local government, but unlike many other ancient towns which underwent a complete facelift, it still keeps the original flavour. There is one important reason why Dali is so charming: local people still live there. They run their shops, do housework, chat, laugh and relax there. To them, Dali has is different to other places. It is not uncommon to see a cart full of wood delivered to restaurants, guesthouses and residential houses along the stone path, as wood is still used for fuel by many locals.
