Dali Travel Guide: Erhai Lake, Old Town, Cangshan

A walled Ming town from 1382, laid out on a grid, with the mountain at the west end of every street. Foreigner Street and Renmin Road are the busy ones, with cafés and live-music bars. The side streets still have vegetable markets. Walk the south gate and the wall in the morning; come back at night for the noise.

Just north of the old town. The big one, Qianxun, is 69 metres and about 1,200 years old, from the Nanzhao kingdom; the two smaller ones came some three centuries later, under the Dali kingdom. The temple behind them is a 2005 rebuild. The photo everyone takes is the reflection in the pool by the entrance, with the mountain behind.

The best-preserved Bai town on the lake, 20 km north: painted gateways, courtyard mansions built by tea and cloth merchants, and a square where the baba flatbread is made on the spot. The Yan family compound is open to visit. Go in the morning, before the tour buses, or stay the night.

Nineteen peaks in a row above the town, the highest over 4,000 metres. Three cable cars go up; the Ximatan one goes highest, to about 3,900 metres near a small lake. From the middle station the Cloud Traveller’s Path runs level along the mountainside for about 11 km with the lake below the whole way. Take a jacket: at the top it can be ten degrees colder than town, and cloud rolls in fast.

A flatbread baked between two pans of charcoal, sweet with rose sugar or savoury with pork and spring onion. Eat it hot in Xizhou’s square.

Bai cow’s-milk cheese stretched into thin fans and dried. Grilled on a stick with rose jam, or crumbled into three-course tea.

A Bai welcome in three cups: a bitter roasted tea, a sweet one with brown sugar, walnuts and rushan, and a third with ginger, Sichuan pepper and honey. Bitter first, then sweet, then the aftertaste. UNESCO listed it in 2022, as part of China’s tea customs.

March to May is dry and green; October and November are clear after the rains. June to September brings short afternoon showers. Winter days are sunny, nights cold.

The Third Month Fair, a Bai market festival, falls in April or May; the Torch Festival in July or August.

Fast trains from Kunming take about two hours to Dali Station. The station is in Xiaguan, the modern city at the south end of the lake, and "Dali" on a ticket means Xiaguan. The old town is 18 km north: about an hour on bus 8, 40 minutes by taxi or Didi. When booking, check for 大理, not 大荔, a town in Shaanxi province.

Dali airport is about 30 km from the old town, 40 minutes to an hour by taxi. Direct flights from Chengdu take about an hour and a half.

You walk the old town and ride the lake. Didi works here, in English, with foreign cards. Taxis at the station and airport rarely use the meter; agree a price first.

Alipay and WeChat Pay, both linked to a foreign card, are taken almost everywhere; carry small notes for baba stalls. Village menus in Xizhou are usually Chinese only, so point.

The old town has the most guesthouses, food and scooter shops, but Renmin Road is loud at night; pick a side street. Caicun, on the shore below, is quieter and on the path. Xizhou gets you the Bai town before the buses. Shuanglang, across the lake, is for the sunset.

1. Day 1. The old town wall and south gate in the morning, the Three Pagodas in the afternoon, Renmin Road at night.
2. Day 2. Scooter north along the lake to Xizhou for baba and the Yan family compound, back before dark or stay the night.
3. Day 3. Cable car up Cangshan and walk the Cloud Traveller’s Path, with a jacket.