Dali - Day 1

I left Kunming at around 11.00 for the two hour trip to Dali by train. Lots of tunnels there as we we entering a mountainous area.

I took a bus from the railway station to the Ancient City area. This took about 40 minutes and cost RMB 3 (THB 15). I got off on the eastern side of the area and my Chinese style B&B place was on the western side. I had estimated that to walk through the city wouldn’t be too long. Again wrong estimate, it was quite a long walk and when I got to the area where my lodging was, I couldn’t find it. 

There were no street names and my app took me to the place where the B&B was supposed to be but there was another place. So I walked through the narrow streets trying to locate the right place. After more than an hour, I gave up and called the place. They told me to take a taxi there, which I then did. The taxi took me to the area where I had been, in front of the other hotel but neither did the taxi driver know, where my B&B was. So I asked him to call the place and soon a man emerged from maybe 20 meters away. So I had been very near but hadn’t seen the sign for the place.

Dali was an independent kingdom from 937 to 1254, when the Mongol armies defeated it. There are still some remnants that can be seen from that era, like the Three Pagodas.

There is also a very interesting Ancient City, very commercial but I liked the buildings there. Without this commercialism, the place most likely wouldn’t exist any more. Lots of people walking the streets but I didn’t see many westerners there.

After resting a while, I went for a walk to the Ancient City. Alltogether, I walked almost 16 km. that day.