We have settled in well at the Jade Roo, all our stuff spread out over the large suite! Dali is situated on the Erhai Hu lake (the 7th largest lake in China) and is below the Cang Shan mountains.
We hired bikes again and had a lovely ride along the lake and through the lakeside villages. We saw the fishermen bringing in their catch, people working in the fields, planting, harvesting and digging and people working on their houses, throwing up bricks to the man on the wooden scaffolding and rendering the outside. On our return route I got a puncture by the 3 pagodas, fortunately it wasn’t a huge walk back to the old town from there!
Today We decided to explore the Cang Shan mountains. We took a bus along the road and then visited a pretty temple where they had a bridge over a fish pond teeming with pretty goldfish. We started the climb up the hill to be met by a tuk tuk who offered to take us up to the park entrance for 2 yuan (20 p) ! The children had never been on a tuk tuk before, so we climbed in! At the park entrance we decided to take a cable car up the first bit, and then walk along the mountainside back to Dali. Having never been on a cable car before visiting China, this was now Will’s 3rd trip in a cable car!!! It stopped at a pretty riverside location, with lovely views back over the lake and down to Dali. We started a lovely walk along the mountain traverse. The sun was out and the sky was blue and we walked along in our shorts and t-shirts. Unfortunately due to a rockfall we had to cut our traverse a little short and come down the mountain early, but it brought us out next to the lone pagoda which looked beautiful with the sun on it.
After our lovely walk we went out to tea. We have found a lovely small, but very popular restaurant where they make delicious dumpings and a very tasty whitebait omelette. We then walked down to see the East gate of Dali old town which was all lit up, beautiful!
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