大理：新大理人

Dali is a very small place, but it has a very big mountain and a very big lake.

The mountain is called Cangshan; the lake is called Erhai.

The old town sits right between the mountain and the lake.

From the window of my room, I can see the mountain.

In the morning there are clouds on the mountain.

At noon the clouds go away.

In the afternoon the clouds come back.

The owner of my guesthouse says: the mountain here is different every day.

He isn't from Dali.

He used to work in Shanghai.

I asked him: why did you come here?

He said: I used to work twelve hours a day.

Then I came to Dali for a week's holiday.

After I went back, I kept thinking about the mountain here.

The next year, I moved.

I asked: don't you miss Shanghai?

He said: sometimes.

But now I can see Cangshan every day.

He said there are a lot of people like him in Dali.

Local people call them new Dali people.

In the afternoon I walked around the old town.

The old town isn't big; you can walk the whole thing in an hour.

There are a lot of shops on both sides of the street.

Some sell tea, some sell clothes, some sell coffee.

Music plays in the shops.

A lot of people sit outside drinking something.

I said: this isn't what I expected.

The owner said: what did you think Dali was like?

I said: I thought it would be very quiet.

He said: the old town is lively; the lakeside is quieter.

You can cycle out to the lake.

The next day, I cycled out to Erhai.

There was wind on the road, and sun.

On one side of the road was the lake, on the other side the mountain.

I rode for two hours.

I saw a lot of villages.

The houses in the villages are white.

There are flowers and characters painted on the houses.

An old man was sitting in a doorway.

He said: this is a Bai house.

Bai people like white.

Our name has 'white' in it.

He invited me in for tea.

There are three courses of tea.

The first course is very bitter.

The second course is very sweet.

The third course is a little spicy, and a little sweet.

I said: why three courses?

He said: the first is bitter, like when you're young.

The second is sweet, like what comes after.

And the third?

The third one you work out for yourself.

I finished all three courses.

I sat in the doorway and looked out at the lake.

The old man said: there used to be a lot of guesthouses by the lake.

Then the government said Erhai had to be protected.

A lot of the lakeside guesthouses closed.

I asked: do you think that was a good thing?

He said: when the guesthouses closed, some people lost their jobs.

But the water got cleaner.

He said: when I was small, you could drink the water in Erhai.

Later you couldn't.

Now it's a bit better again.

I looked at the lake.

The water was clear and the sky was blue.

In the evening I went back to the old town.

There were still a lot of people on the street, still lively.

But now I know Dali has two faces.

One is the old town at night.

One is the lakeside in the afternoon.

When you go somewhere, do you want to stay on the liveliest street, or far out by the lake?