Dali - Part IV - Late September

I'm not going to give any explanations for these photos, just know they were taken on one day where we rented bikes and checked out the surrounding area.

And this one's my favorite.

And this one was from the roof of our hotel at sunset.

Dali - Part III - Late September

After leaving Wu Wei Su we had a few days until our flight to Bangkok so we went on a hike, visited our friend Ying Chang who gave us calligraphy instruction and just enjoyed the town.

This pagoda was closed and not yet open as a tourist attraction but you can still walk up to it.

Man and donkey, both wondering why we are there.

This one is for Tracey.

Some critters on the hike.

Graves up in the hills.

The hills.

Dali from above.

Ying Chang's studio.

We stayed at a hotel for Chinese, there is a separation between tourist hotels and Chinese hotels, some of which won't let you stay. We found this place by luck and a lot of walking but it was cheaper than any tourist place and we had our own room, bathroom, hot water thermos for tea and a really nice owner, Mr Lee.

Testing the water.

Dali - Part II - September

The reason that we went to China was to go to a Kung Fu monastery in the hills near Dali. We were unsure what day it started, or where it was, so we took a day and decided to find it on foot. Three hours later and 20kms we found it in the hills nearby. Below are some shots from the walk.

Dali is known for it's marble, the name in China for marble actually includes Dali in it's name. Some marble is carried by trucks, some by mule and some by hand. Anyway there isn't much in the way of workers safety here, we in the West enjoy cheap goods partially as a result of this. The man below is hand grinding a marble sink without a mask... he and the air around him are saturated with marble dust.

Some offerings being burnt by local people. There are many different ethnic groups in China, so many it feels like a world unto itself.

Between us and what we thought was our destination there was a golf course. This is the long, long wall skirting the premises which we had to circle. Jacqueline, keeping to the shade.

This is the road we should have taken... near the bottom is the lake near Dali, but you probably can't see it.

Now it's starting to feel like we're approaching a monastery, rock paths, the smell of pine trees, dew on the leaves, clean air, and most of all, silence.

Feel free to use this as a wallpaper for your desktop.

We got there, arranged to stay there and then left. Those photos are for later, below the East Gate by night.