Ever since our daughter started kindergarten, we could only take a long vacation during the summer period so I was looking for “cooler” places to travel in China. We decided on the Yunnan region, where it’s at a higher altitude, but that was another risk – altitude sickness. Jason and I had been to high-altitude places like Peru and Bolivia so we just worried about our kids. We started at Dali (大理), lower altitude at 6,850 feet so it wasn’t an issue at all. We flew from Guangzhou to Dali via Chongqing, arrived at 3:30 PM. Dali’s airport is very small and old, once we got out of the airport, we tried to book a van via Didi but there was no van on Didi’s platform. Then, we looked at the Tencent platform and they have van so we booked that. We met the driver at the parking lot right outside the airport and headed to our hotel: Hotel Indigo Dali Erhai. Once we walked out of the airport, we felt the cool breeze; the temperature was perfect – in the low 80s, not too hot and not too cold! The airport was less than 30 minutes from the southern end of Erhai Lake (洱海) where our hotel is located so that was convenient. Inside the van, the driver has this map of Dali, all the points of interest are surrounding Erhai. Jason chit-chatted with the driver and asked his price for a transfer from Dali to Lijiang (丽江), he quoted us 600 RMB, which is cheaper than Didi so they exchanged their WeChat.
We arrived at Hotel Indigo Dali Erhai, the lobby is located on the 2nd floor and has a front-row view of Erhai. The glass flower decors hanging down from the ceiling were so pretty.
We visited Dali at the end of June; Yunnan’s busy season starts in July when kids in China start their summer vacation so we were at the perfect timing – great weather and not super crowded yet! Since it was not peak season and we had IHG Diamond status, we were upgraded to a room with a full Erhai view. The room can accommodate up to 5 people, so it fits our whole family, but in reality, it has two double beds (not even queen-sized), so no idea why they listed up to 5 people. Once entered the room, it has a long hallway of which the toilet area on the right side while the shower area on the left side of the hall.
I very much dislike the frosted glass it has to separate the shower and the bathtub, especially being in the same room as our kids. I don’t get why hotels like frosted glass so much; it lacks privacy in my opinion!
The vanity right at the end of the hallway in the middle, the space was a little tight for 5 people! I was surprised to see their toiletries are Shanghai Tang brand (I love the smell of it ever since we stayed at the Conrad Maldives).
Then, the bedroom with two double beds and a full view of Erhai. I guess the 5th person can sleep on that long sofa?
We settled down as quickly as we could, ordered Didi to Dali’s ancient town (大理古城), it was 45 minutes away without traffic! The driver didn’t mind that we had 3 adults and 2 little kids (some cities are more strict on the number of passengers in the car but it wasn’t an issue at Dali). We had a backup plan that if the driver refused, Jason could order another Didi. Jason was chit-chatting with the driver again LOL, he said it could take up to 2 hours during peak travel season to the ancient town!!! There are different gates to enter the ancient town, I selected the Erhai Men (洱海门) as that was the closest to the restaurant that I wanted to go for dinner – 沐府私厨.
The main street that runs through Erhai Men is Renmin Road (People’s Street – 人民路) filled with shops on each side. Shops in ancient architectural-style houses were beautifully decorated to attract customers.
One of the shops we checked out was this jewelry store that sells pearls right on the main street. Their designs were my style and they were running a promotion of buy 3 get 1 free so I bought those. In general, you can bargain prices in China except for shops that have prices marked. Even in those shops, you can try to ask for “free/bonus item”, sometimes they give you extras as an incentive to buy.
Also, don’t buy at the first shop; go around and get familiar with the prices first and then you have a rough idea of how much to bargain, as there’ll be many shops that sell the same things! After checking out a few shops, we walked back to the restaurant to have our dinner. I made the reservation on Dianping, it wasn’t that busy since it was not the peak season so then after that, we just walk in all the restaurants and there was no wait!
Their menu; one of Yunnan’s specialties is mushrooms. They have so many types of mushrooms that I have never seen before. One of the must-try in Yunnan is their mushroom hot pot! I am not a huge fan of mushrooms, so we didn’t try that, instead, we ordered dishes. Most of Yunnan dishes are spicy but each restaurant has non-spicy dishes or they can make it “mild” for tourists who are not used to their spiciness. We always ask before placing the order to make sure not spicy at all for the kids.
Prices in Yunnan are lower than in Guangdong in general, we couldn’t resist ordering many dishes to try it!
We ordered the Erhai shrimps for 68 RMB (like dried shrimps with peppers and spices). Those were tasty and crunchy!
Dumplings, stir-fried vegetables, and a mushroom-like pudding.
Our kids wanted to eat the dessert first hahaha!
Sticky rice in bamboo, my daughter loved this:
We also ordered the chicken pot, it was tasty.
Inside the restaurant, they have the “king’s chair” and my daughter asked for a photo in it 😀 Restaurant bathrooms in Yunnan were all squatting type; that was the most difficult part for my daughter and I 🙁 But the good news is that in all ancient towns, there are public bathrooms, of which has a handicap/family bathroom that has sitting toilet! We always go to those and it worked out well! Don’t forget to bring your own toilet paper, not many public bathrooms provide that!
After dinner, we continued to walk along the People’s Road to check out more shops.
We passed by performers in the restaurants to attract customers.
Fried bugs…ewwwww!
Dali Ancient Town is known for its nightlife with lots of food stalls and shopping!
The whole ancient town lit up at night and the People’s Road kept going and going without ending in sight! The mountain on the back is Cangshan (苍山), I guess you can continue on at People’s Road all the way to the base of the mountain?
A beautiful storefront wrapped in artificial flowers:
Grilled oysters….15 RMB for 8 woah!
Their watermelons were huge!
We came across a “fortune” shop that sells everything from golden money tree to bullion.
The whole store is covered in gold color!
The kids had fun souvenir shopping as well!
Another shop covered with artificial flowers!
Grilled/bbq meat:
A shop that sells rose items:
Dali’s 4th Middle School is on People’s Road:
A bar:
The further we walked into People’s Road, the more bars we saw. I have never seen so many bars in one street as in Dali Ancient Town!
We finally reached the big intersection and turned left toward the direction to the South Gate to see its famous 五華樓 and 南门 (South Gate). It was completely dark by this time and the lanterns lit up the whole street. It became a lot more busy filled with people who ventured out for dinner and shopping.
It was busy and lively so it was a challenge to take a photo without getting photobombed.
We finally reached 五華樓! It was free to climb up the ancient tower for the views, not to mention the incredible architecture itself to see in details
My daughter loved the wooden cravings on the door:
View from top of the tower looking down at the lively ancient street:
After a few pics, we walked down and continued our way to the South Gate. We walked pass a cascading water fountain:
Congshan Market….so many food stalls inside, we didn’t even check it out as we were still full!
Another entrance to the market filled with red and goldfish lanterns!
Finally, we reached the edge of the ancient town – the South Gate:
When I thought we had made it out of the ancient town to take the Didi back to our hotel……it was still the pedestrian-only area!!! Urg! Right “outside” the South Gate is the starting of the food night market!!! We continued our way hoping to get out of the pedestrian-only area….I was so wrong!
This is another endless street! The food stalls look interesting but at this point, our kids were tired so we just want to go back to our hotel.
After another 5 minutes of walk of getting nowhere near the end of the street, I said let’s turn back and find another way out. We walked back to the intersection/South Gate square and turned left instead and opened the Tencent map toward a big road. Phew, my gut feeling was correct this time; we saw cars! We took Didi back to our hotel and had a good night rest for our next day adventure!
