What’s better to start the day than a wonderful breakfast? Hotel Indigo Erhai’s breakfast spread was incredible from steamed dim buns:
To stir-fried dishes that you could have them as lunch!
My favorite was their made-to-order noodle station where you can add sides to customize your noodle soup. I had the Yunnan mixian (云南米线) with meat sauce; it was mild spicy and delicious!
Our kids love their selection of yogurt; their favorite flavor in China is the red date! They also have a soymilk machine that makes different flavors of soymilk; I had the red date with dried longan, it was super healthy and good!
After the full breakfast, we got ready (kids’ bathroom break) and took Didi to Xizhou Ancient Town (喜洲古镇) which was around 1 hour away from our hotel; it was only 74.80 CNY for an hour ride! The map of the ancient town at the entrance gate:
Xizhou’s architectural style is based on the Bai’s minority group (白族):
From this entrance gate to the center of the town was a nice long stroll lined with trees on each side of the road along with souvenir stalls/shops. I bought their traditional-style earrings in one of the stalls:
The Bai minority group is famous for their dyeing process, which you can have a hands-on experience at Xizhou.
Blue is their color as you can see from the architecture and clothes!
We walked into a courtyard where one of the many dyeing shops is located so our daughter can experience the dyeing process. She was really excited to try that out!
The courtyard has so many beautiful patterned cloths hanging to dry:
We picked a small square cloth size, it was like 55 RMB, and our daughter selected the butterfly pattern. One of the staff showed her where to sew the dots to create the pattern.
She tried it out herself and managed to sew one of the sides of the butterfly wings 😀 Her little hands were tired after two sides so I had to step in to help….mommy to the rescue LOL!
After we were done with sewing, the next step was soaking the cloth in the huge bucket of dye, swirling around for 30 seconds or so a few times:
Next, a quick rinse:
Lastly, it was time to cut and take off the threads:
Ta-da!!! Now you can see the design!
We did it!!! The butterfly came out great, she was so proud of her work 😀
After the hands-on experience, we continued our way to explore the ancient village. The exterior details and artworks on the wall were incredibly beautiful.
Yunnan is also famous for its silver jewelry craftsmanship, so there are multiple stores along the way selling these….the prices are by weight. This was a huge store even with a courtyard inside but their prices were higher than in Dali Ancient Town.
As we approached the ancient town center where it was filled with souvenir shops, restaurants, and cafes, we found a post office store! Jason mailed a postcard and we bought some nice bookmarks from the store.
A lot more busy in the center of the ancient town!
It was time for lunch and a break….I saved this web-famous restaurant called 山丘花园·云南创意料理(麦田小火车店), it is very close to the rice field train station:
The restaurant has a pretty garden facing the rice field:
My son loves the tractor:
When looking for our way to the toilet, we saw a rabbit that wasn’t moving; we thought it was fake. My daughter quickly approached it and it started jumping away so she took off to chase the rabbit 😀
For lunch, we ordered the “water” vegetable; it’s a regional specialty. The texture was like those empty-in-the-middle vegetables, but the taste was just okay.
Another Yunnan special – the chicken soup, it was bursting with flavors!
The fried pork ribs was tasty but too dried in our opinion.
The sweet and sour pork was good but very small portion as you can see this dish:
Their fried tofu was tastless – it was the most disappointing dish 🙁
After lunch, we walked out to see the rice field.
All the houses surrounding the rice field have been converted to restaurants and cafes:
We walked to the “train station” and purchased the tickets for our short ride around the rice field…it was expensive (compared to things in China) around 50 CNY per adult; the kids were free.
Those houses have been converted to homestays:
They also have horse rides too!
The ride seemed like 10 minutes, it was short. Then, we walked back to the village center for souvenir shopping…..disappointingly, mostly selling the same things as in Dali Ancient Town. The wooden gate is beautiful:
As well as the rock gate:
It was getting really busy and crowded, so we decided to head to the lotus pond where we saw it on our ride to the ancient town. It was a little one, not the huge one we saw:
This square has a beautiful pagoda that served as a stage for performances!
The details on the ceiling of the stage:
They have a little park with exercise equipment LOL
There’s also a public toilet in this square! We finally found our way to the big pond filled with lotus flowers! They were in bloom!
This reminded me of ancient fantasy drama scenery.
We came across a local selling fruits, we have not seen this type of mango with a pointy end. We didn’t end up buying one to try it because we were so busy sightseeing that we rarely have time in the hotel room to eat the fruits.
We walked out of the lotus pond, crossed the street, and took DiDi back to Dali Ancient Town. We were dropped off at the South Gate parking lot and it was day time so we could see where it is to find our way back later in the night. We saw this super cute pink Hello Kitty car!!!
From the parking lot, it was a short walk up to the South Gate tower:
We did souvenir shopping and bought silver bracelets, pendants, and snacks. We found the shop next to the South Gate the cheapest in prices.
I called this the lantern street:
In China, red lanterns are the most common, so I was surprised to see this street filled with golden lanterns instead which was quite spectacular!
Now the reds….
Around the corner of the lantern street, we came across a store selling ceramic flowers! We had seen similar ceramic flowers in Bratislavia and those were expensive (3-5+ Euros each) so we didn’t buy any when we were there. Here, those are 10 CNY for 5…..a fraction of the price!!!! I ended up buying two vases and 20 flowers 😀
Once we got tired from souvenir shopping, we walked out of the South Gate to a chain restaurant called 段公子·特色大理菜·野生菌火锅(文献路一店). This branch is right outside of South Gate and at the beginning of the food nightmarket street where we got “lost” last night.
The interior of the restaurant is nicely decorated with ancient elements and artifical flowers.
Their furniture and ancient decor reminded me of ancient kungfu dramas:
Their menu…the dishes were very inexpensive for a pretty place like this, mostly under 100 CNY!
We ordered the crispy chicken, although it tasted good, but it was too dry for our liking.
Their signature dish – the spicy chicken was huge on this wooden sword “plate”:
Look at the size of this!!!! It tasted good but no way we could finish this 😛
Their version of mashed potatoes….it was no taste urg.
Once again, the pork rib was too dry.
We also ordered their “milk fan”, it was interesting but it was more like a dessert.
The waiter said if we “check-in” on Dian Ping, we’ll get a free “sour plum soup” drink. It was in a cute ancient wine container and refreshing!
Our Father’s Day dinner, Happy Father’s Day Jason!
The kids….
We took a little stroll down their food night market street:
Insects anyone?
The South Gate lit up and it was sunset- beautiful, isn’t it?
Dali Ancient Town looked beautiful day and night! We didn’t stay for long as it looked like it might rain so we took Didi back to the hotel to rest. We found our way easily this time!
