Our penultimate stop in China (disregarding a series of rough camps) was Dali. This is another very pleasant town in the Yunnan provence famous for its Three Pagodas of the Chongsheng Temple, its old city and the monstrous and very beautiful Erhai Lake.
The Pagodas, which sit beneath the mountains just to the north-west of the old town are an impressive 1800 year old landmark, providing as they do a stunning example of ancient Chinese architecture. Sadly they have more recently become a testament to the on-going development of a capitalist, rip-off culture in China. It costs tourists a slightly bizarre 121 yuan to enter this temple complex which is about 15 dollars. That is more than it costs to enter the (far more impressive) forbidden city in Beijing and, putting it in context, more than the amount that half the population of China earn in a fortnight. As much as I would have liked to take a look around this monument, this entry fee was so far out of kilter with the local economy and so blatantly designed as an exercise in ripping off tourists that I balked. I don't really mind paying slightly over the odds in some places but, guys, don't take the p*ss.
Having gained some time, as a result of being miserly, we decided to take a wander around the old town. Dali's old town, like Lijiang's, has been sympathetically converted into a tourist trap providing a plethora restaurants, art/craft stalls and tat shops. The local specialty here is marble and jade. There were a raft of different marble creations, including sliced, polished and framed marble sections and - allegedly hand-made - jade carvings. Not wishing to be a 'Doubting Thomas' but if these were hand-made they were done with a level of exactness and repeatability that was, frankly, astonishing and were remarkably (read exactly) similar to artifacts that we had seen in the markets in Lijiang. Hmmm! Hand made only to the extent of programming the machine that produced them, I feel. They were, nevertheless, rather nice if sadly a little too heavy to take home.
The old city, whilst similar in concept to its cousin in Lijiang is nowhere near as nice. It does, however, provide a pleasant place to kill some time and there are some very nice restaurants. Here we went on a quest to satisfy Steve's desire to eat Peking Duck. This, you would think, would not be difficult to achieve in China - it has, after all, to be one of their most famous dishes. After around an hour and a half of searching and a distinct loss of confidence in achieving our goal we finally stumbled on apparently the only restaurant in southern China that knew what a duck was - astonishing in itself given the normal range of the Chinese diet. Despite the alleged rarity of ducks in the region, this particular establishment cooked a mean 'duck a la orange' complemented as it was with some amazing Thai style fried rice, a mean helping of apple crumble and a couple of Dali beers. So good, in fact, that we went back the following evening had the exact same thing.
The Pagodas, which sit beneath the mountains just to the north-west of the old town are an impressive 1800 year old landmark, providing as they do a stunning example of ancient Chinese architecture. Sadly they have more recently become a testament to the on-going development of a capitalist, rip-off culture in China. It costs tourists a slightly bizarre 121 yuan to enter this temple complex which is about 15 dollars. That is more than it costs to enter the (far more impressive) forbidden city in Beijing and, putting it in context, more than the amount that half the population of China earn in a fortnight. As much as I would have liked to take a look around this monument, this entry fee was so far out of kilter with the local economy and so blatantly designed as an exercise in ripping off tourists that I balked. I don't really mind paying slightly over the odds in some places but, guys, don't take the p*ss.
Having gained some time, as a result of being miserly, we decided to take a wander around the old town. Dali's old town, like Lijiang's, has been sympathetically converted into a tourist trap providing a plethora restaurants, art/craft stalls and tat shops. The local specialty here is marble and jade. There were a raft of different marble creations, including sliced, polished and framed marble sections and - allegedly hand-made - jade carvings. Not wishing to be a 'Doubting Thomas' but if these were hand-made they were done with a level of exactness and repeatability that was, frankly, astonishing and were remarkably (read exactly) similar to artifacts that we had seen in the markets in Lijiang. Hmmm! Hand made only to the extent of programming the machine that produced them, I feel. They were, nevertheless, rather nice if sadly a little too heavy to take home.
The old city, whilst similar in concept to its cousin in Lijiang is nowhere near as nice. It does, however, provide a pleasant place to kill some time and there are some very nice restaurants. Here we went on a quest to satisfy Steve's desire to eat Peking Duck. This, you would think, would not be difficult to achieve in China - it has, after all, to be one of their most famous dishes. After around an hour and a half of searching and a distinct loss of confidence in achieving our goal we finally stumbled on apparently the only restaurant in southern China that knew what a duck was - astonishing in itself given the normal range of the Chinese diet. Despite the alleged rarity of ducks in the region, this particular establishment cooked a mean 'duck a la orange' complemented as it was with some amazing Thai style fried rice, a mean helping of apple crumble and a couple of Dali beers. So good, in fact, that we went back the following evening had the exact same thing.
posted by Al at 8:05 pm
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