China Tour - Dali, Yunnan Province
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From Kunming we took a (very) early flight to Dali where we were met by a new guide Daisy and driver Mr Cha. The southern eastern tip of the Himalaya range starts here with the Cangshan Mountains but after the morning chill it's hot with clear, dry air and wonderful scenery. We went to see the Erhai Lake, the second largest highland lake in China, 40 kilometres long, shaped like an ear and covering some 250 square kilometres. The biodiversity of the lake provides an important food source for the Bais people, an ethnic minority with distinctive dress and architecture.
Their attractive towns and villages painted black, grey and white are sandwiched between the lake and the snow laced mountains. Water is abundant and is used to advantage everywhere.
Close to Dali there are 3 pagodas the oldest of which dates back over 800 years. This is earthquake country so it is not surprising that there has been damage. The oldest and largest has been restored but of the two that came 300 years later one has a bit of a lean to it!
There is also an enormous temple complex, some of which is old but a lot was built within the last 10 years… nonetheless impressive.
Below is Kwan Yin (or Guanyin) Buddhist Goddess with much mythology attached from different factions of the religion around the world. He/she is said to have started as a male and became female goddess of mercy, some say the goddess is still a male but with female qualities and attributes. Some think that this transformation was introduced to encourage women as Buddhism had no female deities or traditions. We were to see more of Kwan Yin at our hotel later on.
We always love the markets so we also visited a busy market selling just about everything…
Straw products
Tiny river fish like white bait
Cane Sugar loaves
Vegetables (n.b. big basket of chillies)
Ducklings and chicks. Close to the market was a small craft workshop where girls were being trained in the old skills of silk embroidery. The work is painstaking and slow requiring nimble fingers and a good eye. The more complicated pieces of work can take months to complete.
It was good to see that they are trying to keep traditional skills alive whilst giving these women an additional source of income. The visit was very interesting, only spoilt a bit by a hard sell at the end to buy one of the larger works. However, once we had explained our “domestic circumstance” they backed off a bit!
The photograph doesn’t do justice to this piece of work which had a 3 dimensional quality and was just exquisite. Everywhere in Dali women can be seen embroidering even in their boats with their husbands fishing on the lake. After a 04:30 start to our day we were ready for rest so Daisy and Mr Cha took us to the Asia Star Hotel, the best so far, where we had an excellent suite adjoining Peter’s. The entrance was startling with massed bougainvillea and azaleas, what seemed like acres of colour and a gigantic mural of Kwan Yin last seen at the Buddhist temple earlier on.
The following morning before leaving Dali we had a trip on the Erhai Lake to see a display of cormorant fishing. We saw this last year in Guilin but there it was too quick. Here it was more obvious what was happening and the size of fish they caught was much larger too.
We were ferried out by a Bais oarsman who was able to get very close to the fishing. About 8 cormorants were carried with one or two rogues in the flock. Wife rowing and husband managing the birds they caught some very large fish in a short time. However, the naughty characters had other ideas; one came to attack the ropes on our boat, I certainly would not like to be pecked at, their beaks are fierce hooked affairs perfect, of course, for catching fish. Another naughty bird sneaked off and was having rare fun with a sod of floating grass; its behaviour was a bit like an otter. Anyway the large fish came in from the goodies who were all rewarded with their own small fish before piling back on the boat where they were held by thin cords. Each bird always took the same position apparently and would shoo off another bird if it tried to take its place. Fascinating but perhaps a tradition that will die as China becomes more and more sophisticated. It was time to leave Dali with a 3 hour drive to Lijiang. Daisy came with us for part of the way to take us to two Bais villages. At Xizhou village we visited a cheese maker’s house complete with cows in the byre. This cheese is probably most like mozzarella but slightly stronger tasting. Small batches are made quite quickly.
Then wrapped around bamboo canes and hung to mature a little.
Our next
visit was at Zhoucheng village to a typical house built around a courtyard with
a tie-dying craft workshop which involved the whole family. In these houses,
which seem really large, the family divides into the different wings around the
courtyard according
to age and status. The eldest have one wing which is most protected from
weather, the youngest couple who help to look after the elders have the more
modest wing whilst the parents with progeny get most space. Other areas are for
work, storage, social gatherings and there is always room for visitors.
The painstaking tie-dying work involved using locally produced cotton fabrics all dyed in indigo and some of the pieces were stunning. This may look like a rather blue hedge-hog but it isn’t.
All the hand stitching is removed and voila – Spiderman’s bed cover. This will now be washed and ironed ready for sale.
Some finished articles can be seen in the background. We were shown the process but we don’t have a clue how these patterns, which are handed down from mother to daughter, have actually been designed and transferred to become a beautiful product. Spider man’s bed cover was not our cup of green tea but some of these designs were gorgeous, so much so we had to buy one. To end our Dali visit Daisy took us to lunch at a spectacular restaurant before we said goodbye. As usual more than we could eat but so fresh and beautifully presented.
Really we just wanted to stay here! |
