what to eat

Dairy Fans
It is a type of food made from both milk and yoghurt which is then shaped into a fan form. Both ingredients are mixed together and then spread into a pan. They are cooked similarly to pancakes, although can also be steamed or boiled. Dairy Fans are a common local food and can be found served on many of the city's roadsides and lanes.

Er Kuai
One of the most conventional foods of Dali is Er Kuai, a rice-based dish. The rice is first washed, soaked, stewed and then mashed into a paste, before being molded into various lumps, slices and shreds. It is usually grilled over burning charcoals with a sugar, walnut, or sesame filling.

Xizhou Town Ba Ba
Ba Ba is in fact a kind of savoury snack made from wheat flour. The dough is first rolled into a cake shape and is then sprinkled with a combination of chopped onions, salt and diced ham before being baked in oil. This local fast-food is favored by both locals and travelers alike.

Sandaocha
Since the Ming Dynasty, it has been common practice for Bai ethnic group people to receive and show hospitality to guests by serving three cups of their unique Bai tea (Sandaocha), which literally means "treating guests with three cups of tea". The first cup of tea is made with Tuo tea (Tuocha), reportedly the best tea in all of Dali, which tastes a little bitter. The second cup is made with sweet ingredients, like milk fan (a local dairy product similar to cheese), walnuts and brown sugar.

what to buy

The Compressed Tea (Tuo Cha) of Xia Guan
Due to its resemblance to the shape of a fungus, the compressed tea of Xia Guan is called 'Tuo Cha'. It enjoys an excellent reputation for its fragrance and cleansing effects. Xiaguan can promote health by refreshing both body and mind and is also an excellent method used for weight-loss.

Tie-dye
The tie-dye of the Bai Minority is usually made by stitching patterns on cotton cloth and impregnating them in plant dye. Traditional dyed fabrics have white patterns on a background of indigo and are used for tablecloths, door curtains, hats, clothes, and scarves as well as other items. In Zhoucheng Village, there are many family workshops which make dyed fabrics. Visitors can take minibuses and carriages to the village.

what to see in the evening

Butterfly Dance
Butterfly Dance was created based on the imagery of BYTHE BUTTERFLY SPRING (an interlude of famous film “Five Golden Flowers”). Butterfly Dance has absorbed the essence of traditional dance technique of Bai. The dance displays the vitality of girls of Bai by using the skill of personification. The girls are singing and dancing vividly just likes butterfly playing beside the Butterfly Spring. This dreamful scene brings you into the wonderful scenery with mountains and rivers of Dali. Butterfly Dance got Excellence Prize in the Peacock Competition in China on October in 1998 and watched by more than one hundred thousand people in its performance.
 

weather

The weather pattern of Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, aka Dali, is defined by its latitudinal and topographical features. Firstly, because Dali lies on a low latitude in the northern hemisphere (it lies at a latitude of 25 degrees N, circa, only 1.5 degrees above the Tropic of Cancer at 23.5 degrees N) it tends to have a warm, subtropical monsoon climate, but because it is situated on a high plateau, it tends to be cooler than more low-lying regions, such as neighboring Kunming, about 315 km (195 mi) to the east. Therefore Dali has a relatively temperate climate year round, with no extremes in summer or in winter.

In fact, as is true of most of Yunnan Province except for mountainous terrain, the daily temperature variation tends to be greater than the seasonal variation in temperature, which calls for layered clothing, or jackets and sweaters early in the morning and again during the evening. The climate of Dali is generally characterized as a subtropical highland monsoon climate, with lots of sunshine and fresh air. In fact, quite a lot of both – and especially the latter – given that the city is located on a flat plateau between a mountain range (the Cangshan Mountains to the west) and a large lake (Lake Erhai to the east), creating a natural wind tunnel, Dali gets a great deal of wind, year round. In fact, like the city of Chicago in the U.S., which is also located nearby a large lake (Lake Michigan) and therefore gets a lot of wind year round, Dali is nicknamed "Windy City".

The best time to visit Dali is from March to June when springtime is in full swing and all of nature seems to be in the process of rebirth, as it were.