Yunnan Travel Notes Day 2: Dali in Autumn

Dali City

 

In China, there is a world-renowned dancer, her name is Yang Liping , from Eryuan County, Dali City, Dali Prefecture.

She made enough money early on. After many celebrities and rich people get rich, they like to live in first-tier metropolises because of the convenience and abundant resources.

But Yang Liping has always lived in her hometown of Dali.

It wasn’t until my first trip to Dali that I understood her choice. If I had enough money to live on for the rest of my life and no longer had to work hard for life, I would also like to live in Dali for the rest of my life.

 

What we call Dali now generally refers to Dali City. The broader term Dali refers to Dali Prefecture, which is located in the central and western part of Yunnan Province. In China, states are located in minority areas. Therefore, generally administrative regions with "autonomous prefecture" will be preceded by the name of a certain ethnic minority. And Dali is called "Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture".

When you travel to Dali City in Dali Prefecture, the people you encounter most are definitely the Bai people. However, since most of the Bai people, like other ethnic minorities, have been Hanized, it is difficult to tell whether they are Bai people through their clothing. Nowadays, only the older generation still wear their national costumes, while young people have caught up with the trend. However, you can tell from the color of the building's exterior walls that most of the people living here are ethnic minorities. Since it is called Bai people, it must be related to the color white. Almost all buildings in Dali City have white walls and gray tiles.

Residential buildings photographed in Dali Ancient Town on January 28, 2018 (photographed with a Xiaomi Mi 4 mobile phone at the time, the picture quality was not high)

 

Dali is said to be the city with the fewest high-rise buildings in China. Although it is a modern city, it does not have the hustle and bustle of the city. With a population of only over 700,000, this small town looks peaceful and soothing. I always think that this small town is not suitable for group tours because the tour guides are too pressed for time. When traveling to Dali City, you should slowly experience the tranquility of the times in the ancient city and Erhai Lake. However, many group tours only limit the time to visit Dali to one day, and rush to Lijiang early the next morning. As a result, many tourists did not have enough time to appreciate the charm of the peaceful ancient city of Dali City, and did not visit some scenic spots, such as Zhangjia Garden , Xizhou Ancient Town , Cangshan Mountain , Chongsheng Temple , Wuliang Mountain Cherry Blossom Valley .

This is the first time I took a picture of the ancient city of Dali from the cable car on Cangshan Mountain in Dali. I can see that there is not a single tall building in the entire ancient city. (Because I was still using a Xiaomi Mi 4 mobile phone to take the picture, and the cable car was moving downward, the picture quality was not clear enough)

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The next day's itinerary

The high-speed train from Kunming to Dali will not open until July 1, 2018. Tourists who came here before had to take more than 4 hours by car to get to Dali. During the peak travel period during holidays, it sometimes even took 5 or 6 hours. If you take an ordinary train, it will take you 7 and a half hours each time to get to Dali. Now it only takes a little more than 2 hours to take the train. Of course, if you are traveling in a group, don’t expect to take the train, it must be a bus. Because the bus is the cheapest.

 

The tour guide sent us a text message last night asking us to meet in the hotel lobby at 8 o'clock in the morning. The tour guide looked to be nearly 40 years old, neither tall nor short, with brown skin and a somewhat stern appearance.

 

The group was supposed to leave around 8 o'clock, but it was delayed because someone was late. You will find that no matter when and where you travel, as long as you join a group, whether it is a private group or a tour company group, there will be people late every time before departure, and there will be people late every time when you return. On our trip this time, there were people like this for several days in a row. The most outrageous thing was that on the day we went to Pudacuo Park, someone was more than an hour late.

 

Around 8:30, the car started moving. The tour guide told us about the itinerary for the past few days in the car. At the same time, he also talked about a little bit of his own experience. He said that he was from the Naxi tribe in Lijiang and that he once fought with someone over a woman in Lijiang. It seemed that he was trying to save the woman. I forgot the more specific reason. After all, this happened nearly four years ago. He beat the man seriously and was arrested and sentenced to several years in prison. He said that he used to have a hot temper and loved to fight, but after he came out, he calmed down a lot.

 

The tour guide said that we can eat Dali's special dish called "Haishao Fish" for lunch today. I have never heard of this dish. I had already traveled to Dali at the end of January. We chose a high-end private tour, which was very expensive, but the tour guide didn't take us to eat this dish, and he didn't even mention it.

 

It wasn't until I ate this dish at noon that I understood why the tour guide on my first trip to Dali didn't take us to eat it.

 

It tastes terrible!

 

This dish is made from silver carp. The meat quality, taste and texture of this fish are quite poor, and there are many bone spurs. It must be eaten with caution, which is very troublesome. Nowadays, few people eat it. But this fish was the protein of choice for many families in the 1980s and 1990s. Because China's economy was still very poor at that time, the per capita income was low, and it could not afford good seafood, so it could only choose the four major fish species: silver carp, grass carp, herring, and bighead carp. Since this kind of fish itself has no characteristics ( if the loose meat and excessive bone spurs can be considered characteristics ) , unlike those fish that do not need to be deliberately cooked, they can be delicious just by steaming or boiling them. As a sea fish, silver carp needs a very complicated cooking method and a lot of seasonings to get rid of its strong fishy smell and the muddy smell unique to many freshwater fish.

 

This is silver carp

Our bus stopped at a restaurant on the highway in Xiangyun County at 12:40 noon. After looking at the grand signboard and restaurant environment, I thought this lunch would be good. Yuanyuan and I were also very hungry.

"Ancient Yunnan" stone tablet in Xiangyun County

 

Usually when I get to a restaurant, it takes a few minutes to ten minutes for the food to be served. I don’t want to waste time waiting, so I wander around the restaurant. On a traffic circle in front of it, there is a huge stone monument with the words "古" Yunnan, the source of Yunnan ".

What does it mean? It means that this is the source of Yunnan. During the Han Dynasty, Yunnan was still called "Dian Kingdom". In 109 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent troops to attack, and the King of Dian surrendered. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set the former Dian Kingdom as "Yizhou County", and there was a county under the county called "Yunnan County", which is now Xiangyun County. This is the first place named Yunnan. Therefore, it is correct for Xiangyun County to say that it is called the Origin of Yunnan.

Around 12:46, the food started to be served on the table. It is no exaggeration to say that the appearance of these dishes alone makes people unappetizing.

That chicken, I suspect, is steamed directly with soy sauce. You would think that the cabbage is boiled, poured with soy sauce and stirred for a few times before being served to the guests. The stir-fried bitter gourd had a few slices of carrots in it, and it seemed that it was fried with some salt and served to the guests. The dumpling-like food at the back on the left side of the picture has something wet on it, or it is just the color it was born with. It looks like it is sold to people in the countryside who have never seen the world. And the things in the copper pot are even more exaggerated. Do you think it is a hot pot? That is boiled food, with not a single piece of meat inside. There are only imitation meat dumplings made with a lot of starch, ham chunks synthesized with a lot of starch, and tomato chunks, fungus, carrots, and zucchini, without any taste.

 

I'm not exaggerating. It really has no taste at all, not even a little bit of saltiness. As for rice, this kind of rice is only suitable for making porridge, not dry rice. I suspect that the chef at this restaurant may not even know that some rice is only suitable for making porridge, right?

 

After a while, their special dish "Haishao Fish" also appeared. Based on my many years of experience eating out, I knew it would definitely not taste good just by the color of it.

 

As expected. It's said to be unique, but there's actually nothing special about it. This dish is originally spicy and sour, but the one we ate today was neither very spicy nor very sour. You can’t tell which flavor it prefers. As for the fish pieces inside, they were crumbly and had a bad texture and taste. I feel that even if you add a few slices of ginger and soy sauce to steam it, the taste will be better than this pot of red stuff.

 

Many readers will probably feel angry when they see this. How can you feed your guests such bad food?

 

No way, this is the price of participating in a group tour. Nowadays, many tour groups often keep their prices very low in order to compete with their peers. However, after all, the wool comes from the sheep, and the registration fee is low, but people still have to make money, so what should we do? You can only make decisions about food and accommodation. Generally speaking, there won’t be much of a problem if you live there. After all, the hardware and supporting facilities are fixed. But eating is different. There are many tricks you can do in it. For example, on our lunch table today, there are only four dishes with meat. One is the so-called Dali specialty sea fish, which uses the cheapest silver carp. One is steamed chicken, which is probably made from frozen chicken. Another dish is fried pork slices with fungus, which only contains about 3 taels of meat. Another dish is steamed eggplant with a few minced pork sprinkled on top, probably less than 1 tael. As for other things, you have also seen that the raw material cost of this table of dishes will not exceed 40 yuan. Why do I know? Because I have done catering before.

 

In the past 10 years or so, the most popular place for tourism in China can be said to be Yunnan, especially Dali and Lijiang. These two cities have also produced a large number of inns, hotels, restaurants and travel agencies. Although inns, hotels and restaurants also compete on price, they still need to build good reputation and repeat business. But travel agencies are different. Travel agencies mainly consider cost control and rely on price to attract people. Because the current travel agencies have nothing to attract tourists. You are just the itinerary. What you have is also available in other agencies, so why should tourists choose you? Can only rely on lower prices.

 

How can we ensure ideal profits at a low price? First, long-term cooperation with inns and hotels. During non-peak seasons, inns and hotels will have a large number of rooms vacant for a long time, and they have to be rented out at a lower price. Because the hardware cost of inns and hotels is already fixed and will not change much, if you cannot rent it out, then the room will be at a "loss". Therefore, inn and hotel owners are generally willing to cooperate with travel agencies on a long-term basis and offer them super prices during non-peak seasons. Then the travel agency can indicate on the price list which star hotel the tourists will stay in that night or how much the hotel will cost. In fact, the cost is very low; secondly, it is to cooperate with a restaurant of average quality. Anyway, these tourists usually only come once. It doesn’t matter whether their evaluation is good or not. The most important thing is to make money. This is why many group tour meals are so bad. Of course, it has something to do with the conscience of the boss. In fact, not all restaurants that accept group meals are like this. There are some that do it carefully, but there are too few.

 

The owners of these restaurants probably think, these customers will never come again after eating once, so why am I doing so well? If it is so good, the cost of raw materials will increase, I will make less money, and they will not help me promote it.

 

In fact, it is still short-sighted. Tourists will complain, like me, and I really did. Is it possible for me to look for this tour group next time? Will I enter this restaurant again next time I pass this road? My friend asked me which restaurant in Dali is worth visiting. Do you think I would unscrupulously recommend this restaurant with a very poor experience?

 

Not only will I not, I will also tell my friends not to go to this place to avoid being scammed.

 

The worst group meal I have ever had in my life, without exaggeration, this was it. To be honest, if I knew in advance that I was going to eat these things for lunch, I would definitely not use my chopsticks. I would rather eat Shaxian dumplings and Lanzhou ramen outside, or find a restaurant to eat in Dali City by myself. Would love to eat any food here. Eating it will affect your mood. Some readers may think that I am too arrogant, but I am not. We are not in an age of famine, so we have no choice but to eat. Given the choice, I would not force myself to eat such crude food.

 

 

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Shuanglang Ancient Town

 

We didn’t arrive at the first tourist attraction of this group until 15:00: Shuanglang Ancient Town

 

There are many ancient cities along the Erhai Lake, among which the most worth visiting are Dali Ancient City, Xizhou Ancient Town and Shuanglang Ancient Town.

The water of Erhai Lake flows out from the southwest mouth

 

Although Erhai has the word "sea", it is actually not a sea, but a lake, or in other words, a river. Although it looks like a very large lake, it actually has an outlet. It is in the southwest of Erhai Lake. It flows out from there and joins the Heihui River, and then runs to the Pacific Ocean with the Lancang River. In Yunnan, the Naxi and Yi people refer to the sea as the same thing as lakes and rivers. Since the residents of the northwest and southwest regions were far away from the sea in the past, most people never had the opportunity to see the real sea in their lives. The sea sounds more powerful, so it is called the sea, such as Erhai, Chenghai, Lashihai, Napahai, and Qinghai.

 

Erhai Lake is very big, very big, very big. How big is it? A walk around it without taking a break would take a day or a night to complete. Because it is 116 kilometers in one circle. From north to south, it is about 42.5 kilometers long. From west to east, it is 9 kilometers at its widest point and 3 kilometers at its narrowest point. Do you know how long a standard marathon is? It is 42.195 kilometers. In other words, the length of Erhai Lake is longer than a standard marathon. Just traveling around this huge lake requires at least two days of preparation. Many tour groups only give tourists one to one and a half days in Dali, which is very unfair to Dali.

This is a very clean large lake and the most important freshwater resource for all residents of Dali City. Why do you say all residents? Because these residents include black-necked grebe, white-rumped sandpiper, water pheasant, cottontail, red-billed gull, purple waterfowl, chestnut tree duck, Egrets, Shelducks, as well as plants such as sea cauliflower and balsam pear, and it is said that there are as many as 33 species of fish in the lake. It can be said that protecting the ecology is everyone’s responsibility. The citizens of Dali will naturally protect their mother lake, mainly tourists. I hope that tourists from out of town come here and stop fishing, swimming, littering and washing cars here.

 

You read that right, many tourists used to drive to Erhai Lake to wash their cars.

 

 

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Nanzhao style island

Shooting on the edge of the pier in Shuanglang Ancient Town

 

There are four islands in Erhai Lake, from largest to smallest, they are Jinsuo Island, Nanzhao Fengqing Island, Yinsuo Island and Xiaoputuo Island. The most famous one is Nanzhao Customs Island, which has also been rated as one of the 25 quality tourism projects in Yunnan by Yunnan Province.

It only takes about 5 or 6 minutes to take a boat to the island from the pier, and the round-trip fare is 50 per person.

 

Scenery taken on Nanzhao Island

Serious Yuanyuan

Why did I look so aggrieved at that time? What's wrong with me?

The tree behind is called Daqingshu, and it is 100 years old.

"Daughter of Erhai" sculpture, one was submerged by the high tide, leaving only the head

 

There is a huge statue of Guanyin on the island. It is carved from white marble and is as high as 17.56 meters, which is equivalent to the height of a 6-story building. A-Chao (This word is pronounced cuo, with a yangping tone) Ye Guanyin A'zāoye is said to be the most important deity in the ancient Nanzhao Kingdom and Dali Kingdom, and she is also one of the gods of Buddhism. Since Yuanyuan and I do not have religious beliefs, we did not burn incense to pray for her.

 

Not long after you go up, you can see the largest building on the island, "Nanzhao Palace". It is said to be built in imitation of an ancient palace, but it looks like a hotel no matter how I look at it. Did I see it wrong?

Acuoye Guanyin Statue

Nanzhao Palace, doesn’t it feel like a hotel to you?

 

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Yuji Island and Yang Liping’s high-end mansion

The two most important attractions in Shuanglang Ancient Town are Nanzhao Customs Island and Yuji Island.

 

Yuji Island is not actually an island. If you insist on saying that it is an island, it can only be a peninsula. Let’s take a look at its geographical location:

You can see that it is connected to the land. This place has become so famous now, thanks to one person, Yang Liping mentioned at the beginning of this article. It spent more than 30 million yuan to build two high-end mansions here, one called the Moon Palace and the other called the Sun Palace. These two mansions were carefully designed by Bai painters Zhao Qing and Yang Liping themselves. The Moon Palace was originally Yang Liping's retreat for self-cultivation. But she never expected that after she built these two mansions, so many tourists would come here and disrupt her life. She rarely lived in the Moon Palace.

The Sun Palace, also known as "Yang Liping Art Hotel", began renting to tourists as early as 2009. There are seven guest rooms inside. The names of the rooms are as full of Chinese poetry and painting as the decoration inside. They are called , Mushanxi, , Tianjingsha, and Biyunshen. , Zuihuayin, Qingboyin, Linjiangxian, Yulinling. It seems that sister Yang Liping is also a dancer who loves Chinese classical poetry. The rooms are all split-level structures with different sizes, ranging from more than 200 to 300 square meters, which is quite grand. The accommodation fee for each room varies depending on the size, ranging from 2,380 to 3,680 yuan (the price later increased). It sounds like it's expensive. But I think it's not expensive. After all, this is Yang Liping's signature store. She put a lot of effort into building it. The decoration design and furniture inside are all made of high-quality materials and products. Is it possible to buy a villa now without tens of millions? We choose a room in the Taiyang Palace with a medium size and price for calculation. Assume that a 250 square meter guest room costs 3,000 yuan a night, 90,000 yuan a month, which is 1,080,000 yuan a year, a little over 10 million yuan in ten years, and 30 years. Just over 30 million. Think about it, are there any villas built near rivers and lakes in China that can be purchased for less than RMB 40, RMB 50 million, or even hundreds of millions? And among those villas that sell for tens of millions or hundreds of millions, how many can live in them for thirty years?

 

Therefore, spending more than 2,000 to 3,000 yuan to stay here for one night is really not expensive.

 

I haven't lived there because I have no money.

 

But I will definitely live here if I have money.

 

However, even if I become a rich man now, I may not have the chance to live in the Sun Palace.

 

Because the central government suddenly realized that the environment of Erhai Lake was facing severe pollution problems. The sewage and waste poured into the lake from inns, hotels and residential buildings along the coast have brought unbalanced ecological development to Erhai Lake. In those years, blue algae broke out in large areas in the lake, and plants that were indicators of water quality The sea cauliflower can no longer be seen.

 

Why is the pollution problem in Erhai Lake so serious? Because there are too many inns, hotels, and guesthouses.

 

How many are there? In 2014, there were 1,500 inns around Erhai Lake. You must remember the key point, this is only around Erhai Lake. These 1500 hotels have 31230 rooms and 60870 beds. Including the residential buildings around Erhai Lake, think about it, how much domestic wastewater and garbage is discharged into Erhai Lake every day? Erhai Lake is the second largest natural freshwater lake in Yunnan and is the source of life for people and other animals and plants in Dali City. Once this kind of pollution continues, the ecological disaster caused will be immeasurable. The promotion of government officials here in China is mainly based on GDP. When the relevant local government departments see the booming economy, they turn a blind eye to the problem of pollution.

 

This is short-sighted behavior. Once Erhai Lake becomes seriously polluted, who will be interested in visiting here in the future? How can the economy develop if no one comes here to play? You know, Dali City has no manufacturing industry and mainly relies on tourism. However, the promotion of officials here is mainly based on the economic income of the year as the most important consideration. Many people are short-sighted. First, we should improve the GDP, first make the development figures here look good, and first let ourselves be promoted. As for pollution, just leave it to those who come after you.

 

In China, many local governments act this way. The most serious one is undoubtedly the real estate industry. Today, we Chinese will soon have to pay for this deformed view of development.

 

The serious pollution problem of Erhai Lake did not improve until General Secretary Xi Jinping came for an inspection in January 2015 and said, "Erhai Lake must be protected." However, along the Erhai coast, "residents are retreating and real estate is moving in", and "managing and destroying at the same time" is still the case. The number of inns, hotels, and guesthouses has not decreased, and by 2018 it had increased to 1,806. The concentration of pollutants in Erhai Lake is also increasing year by year. In 2017, total phosphorus in Erhai Lake increased by 27%, permanganic acid increased by 9%, and the water quality of Erhai Lake also dropped to Class III.

 

The pollution problem aroused the anger of senior officials, who finally decided to demolish 1,806 inns and some residential buildings along Erhai Lake at the end of 2018.

 

Fortunately, Yang Liping's Moon Palace and Sun Palace were preserved. However, it has been stipulated that the Sun Palace shall no longer operate as a hotel in the future. Now it is mainly for tourists to visit in the form of works of art. To visit, you need to buy a cup of coffee, which costs 100 yuan. I think the price is acceptable.

This is the Shuanglang Ancient Town that I took on Nanzhao Fengqing Island that day. You can see that there are inns, hotels and restaurants on the shore. If you went there after 2019, you may not be able to see it anymore.

 

Part of the outer wall of the Moon Palace photographed that day

 

Street photography on Yuji Island

Yuanyuan and I had two bowls of noodles at the restaurant on the right

 

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Driving along the Erhai Lake

When you arrive in Dali, in addition to going to Dali Ancient Town and Cangshan Mountain, I suggest you rent a tram every day. The cost is 50 yuan, and you can drive it until the battery runs out. But the battery is out, and you have to push it back to the car rental shop yourself.

 

After we visited Shuanglang Ancient Town, it was still very early, less than 18 o'clock, so we decided to drive a battery car to Erhai Lake for a ride.

 

At that time, I didn’t know how big Erhai Lake was, or that its circumference was 116 kilometers long. I still wanted to take Yuanyuan for a spin around Erhai Lake before going back.

 

We drove and drove there, as if the road would never end in sight, and Erhai Lake seemed vast and boundless. From some angles, you might even think this is the ocean.

 

Looking at Erhai Lake like this, does it look like the ocean?

 

I try to obey the rules at all times. Firstly, this is a kind of education and quality. Secondly, I don’t cause trouble to others. Yuanyuan and I drove further and further away from Erhai Lake. There were fewer and fewer houses on the roadside. Slowly, there were no more people in sight. And I always insist on driving on the right side. Yuanyuan sat in the back and said that I abide by traffic rules. I often call on others to abide by the rules. In this case, many things must start from ourselves.

 

I want Yuanyuan to drive for a while, and I know she also wants to drive a tram on this long and peaceful seaside road for a while. When I drove to a section of road with few people and cars, I stopped and said Yuanyuan, please drive. She drove slower than me. I said no one here has a car. You can drive boldly and don’t be afraid. She still drove very slowly, maybe that's just how women are.

 

Looking forward from this angle, Erhai Lake also looks like the sea.

Erhai Lake turned golden by the setting sun

The Bai folk houses and children on the Erhai Lake, I wish I had lived here during my childhood!

Gesang flowers at sunset

 

The battery is almost dead, but there is still an endless view ahead. We need to use the remaining power to drive back to the car rental shop. Unfortunately, there was not enough time, or in other words, the tour group gave Dali too little time. I think it would take at least two days just to rent a tram and drive around Erhai Lake. This does not include scenic spots such as Zhangjia Garden, Chongsheng Temple, and Cangshan Mountain.

 

In the future, I also want to open a travel agency and be a tour guide. I want to let my customers experience the different Dali better and more comprehensively.

 

This dream should not be far away...