Butterfly Spring

The Butterfly Spring lies in the green trees at the foot of Yunong Peak of Cangshan Mountain. The Spring is 24 kilometers away from the Ancient City of Dali. It is a square spring pond. The water in the pond is clear like a mirror, and around the pond stand marble balusters, and the Chinese characters of the name Butterfly Spring have been inscribed by the famous Chinese contemporary intellectual Guo Moruo.

The pool is some 50 square meters overall and above it is an ancient decumbent tree. This is the famous 'Butterfly Tree', so called as in the short interval as spring turns to summer, its fragrant blossom attracts thousands of butterflies. These small multi-colored creatures fly around the pool and settle on the tree in great clusters as they sip the nectar from its blooms. The vast numbers of butterflies are hardly distinguishable from the flowers as the whole tree pulsates with every color of the rainbow. Some of the butterflies are as big as a palm while some are as small as a copper coin. There are more than one hundred kinds of butterflies flying here in the very season. Many of them may even connect with each other by head and tail, and hang from the big Silktree Albizzia to the water surface.This spectacular sight has given rise to a local festival when the Bai people gather at the tree on April 15th for the 'Butterfly Meet'. The romantic spectacle of the butterflies as they feed and mate in such abundance has become a symbol of courtship and each Bai youth will seek to engage with the love of his life by joining in with the traditional antiphonal singing. The Bai also refer to the spring as the 'Allegiance Spring' as it is here that true and eternal love may be found.

In the Park of Butterfly Spring there is a Butterfly Museum. In the Museum keep many rare specimens of butterflies. In addition, there are also Butterfly Pavilion and Butterfly Stele. Climb up to the mountainside, you can enjoy the beautiful sights of Erhai Lake from the Sea Watching Pavilion. You can also reach the Butterfly Spring by special cars that run from the bus stations and hotels in the city. The spring is quite near to Zhou Town, which is the largest of the Bai communities and was once the imperial garden of the Dali Kingdom. Here too you can learn more of the Bai culture and visit some truly wonderful ancient buildings.