Dali City is the center of Bai Autonomous County, an area as large as three fourth of Taiwan.  Its originally a time-honored state in China, once has been known as Nanzhao(南詔國) in Tang Dynasty and Dali(大理國) in Song Dynasty.  You may be familiar with the name 大理 because of Mr. Jin Yongs famous novel, but right now you just cant associate that refurbished, too much commercialized old town of Dali, built in Ming Dynasty, with the novel at any rate. 

Basically, flat or two-storied houses with black roof and white stucco are mostly seen in Dali City, no matter in the old town or in new towns.  Seldom can we see high-rise buildings there.  In the vast area of adjacent townships there are crop fields and pastures only to behold, a real idyll of a rural society that is similar to Yilan, Taiwan. 

A beautiful city must be embellished with natural ornaments, and Dali is no exception.  Dali city have that magnifient, secluded Cang Mountain(蒼山), a national park, on its back, and Erhai(洱海), a large, tranquil lake, by its side.  In the midway up to Cang Mountain by cable car, we can a remote lake, Erhai the "高原明珠", quietly sleeping at below, and Dali City is nestled snugly in between.  When we got back from the mountain, we immediately rushed to Erhai and got on the last steam boat to have a tour in the lake.  How lucky we were.  But we were unlucky not to have the chance to visit the largest lake Dainchi(滇池) of Yunnan when we returned to Kunming. (Erhai is the second largest one in Yunnan.)