Dali Ancient Town is located on the foot of Cangshan Mountain, about 13 kilometers to the new city of Dali. It was built in Ming dynasty in 1382, and named as the one of the first historical and cultural cities. Lying in the edge of Erhai Lake and Cangshan Mountain as background, Dali Ancient Town offers a picturesque setting of nature landscapes.

Overview about Dali Ancient Town
Entrance Gate of Dali Old Town

Dali Ancient Town is the home of the Bai ethnic minority where remains its old classical architecture with narrow cobbled streets and traditional stone architecture within original city walls. It is located in the center of Yunnan Province, one of China's southwestern provinces filled with ethnic and geographic diversity.

Dali is an ancient but pleasant town with well-preserved traditional houses of the Bai ethnic minority. Among all ancient towns of China, Dali Ancient Town has become unique because of its own characteristic for Bai ethnic group traditional houses. In additional for its nature beauty, Dali also has a rich history. As an important gateway of cultural exchange and trade with Southeast Asian countries and a former stop on the Silk Road of the South, Dali remains rich in natural scenery, cultural relics, ethnic customs, and tourism today.

Things to Do around Dali Ancient Town
Stunning Views of Dali Ancient Town

Dali is a popular stop over for backpackers and Chinese tourists during Yunnan tour. There are many interesting and worth things to do around the ancient town. With abundance of nature landscapes, it will bring visitor escape from the crowded city back to the nature. Walking in the city, tourists will enjoy the minority flavored historical relics, ancient buildings and rich minority customs, such as the Foreigners Street, the ancient Yuxi School, antique shops, tea houses, Chinese and Western restaurants. In Foreign Street, visitors can get the authentic flavor of snacks from the Bai ethnic community and also the famous Three Cups of Tea which will bring you pleasant experience.

As marble known as the Dali Stone in Chinese because its produced in Dali, then in both sides of the street along Dali Ancient Town houses plenty of shops and booths selling things made from marble. The marble has exquisite texture and unique veins. There, visitors can get all kinds of craftworks made from marbles.

More than that, because the ancient town lies on the edge of Erhai Lake, visitors are also able to have a short trip to this lake. Take plenty of pictures as memories for the charming Erhai Lake.

For most of the travelers, they might extend their Beijing tour to Xian where visitors can view the world heritage of the Terracotta Warriors after sightseeing to the famous Great Wall, the Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, etc in Beijing. But for me, I was not the same. Because of limited time that we only had after our3 days Beijing tour, then an excursion to Tianjin, a city near Beijing in the east coastline of China was only my choice. For Beijing residents, Tianjin is one perfect place to have a nice escape from the crowded Beijing.

In Front of Tianjin Railway Station

After half an hour's ride by Bullet Train, I arrived in Tianjin, another municipality in China and 120 kilometers away from Beijing. It was a very short train ride and my first try to ride bullet train in China. Tianjin is a small city, of course smaller than Beijing. The people there are polite and friendly, for Chinese people. From one to another destination, it has very easy to reach and the taxi price was also relatively low. So, it was okay for travelling Tianjin by taxi.

Tianjin Eye from Distance

Tianjin is a good example of a mixture of Chinese and Western features. Its historic European-style architecture, ancient Chinese cultural streets and beautiful coastline has attracts some tourists to have an excursion from Beijing. Numerous landmarks of Tianjin that we visit during one short day trip in town. One of them is the Tianjin Eye. The Tianjin Eye is a 120-meter-tall giant Ferris wheel built above the Yongle Bridge, over the Hai River in Tianjin. We took the giant ferris wheel costs 70 RMB per person requires 40 minutes per round trip. When it reaches the top, we could see the cityscape for about 40 kilometers around. That was a very worth activity to take especially at night when the cityscapes will be more brilliant. For you who travelling Tianjin with couple then come to this Tianjin Eye at night. In the other hand, you can also ask your partner to have a Hai River ferry tour at night.

Another interesting place called Ancient Culture Street is a pedestrian cultural street boasts numerous famous local stores. Hence its name, here we can enjoy outstanding architecture of Qing Dynasty-style and as the street itself offer lots of shopping choices, then visitors could have a nice shopping experience in Tianjin same as we did. Or in the other hand, just wandering the street is not bad choice either.

Dunhuang was of great importance as a defensive and cultural center on the western borders of the Chinese empire at various points in its history, especially as an important part of Silk Road. Dunhuang region was also become the site of very important Buddhist monastic complexes, the most famous of which was at the Mogao Grottoes.

Location of Mogao Grottoes
Top Attraction along Silk Road

Mogao Grottoes situated at a strategic point along the Silk Route, at the crossroads of trade as well as religious, cultural and intellectual influences. It is about 25 kilometres south-east of the oasis town of Dunhuang in Gansu province, western China, in the middle of the desert. Mogao Grottoes are famous for their statues and wall paintings, spanning 1,000 years of Buddhist art.

Overview of Mogao Grottoes
Mogao Caves

Dating from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries, the ancient Buddhist site contains 492 decorated caves temples excavated into 1.6 kilometers of cliff face. The site includes some 45,000 square meters of wall paintings and over 2,400 polychromed sculptures comprising the largest body of Buddhist art in China.
Mostly all the famous caves were excavated and filled with exquisite Buddhist art, manuscripts and treasures. Because its masterpiece design and architecture of Chinese art, Mogao Grottoes has listed as China first World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. The complex of grottoes represents a unique artistic achievement, an outstanding example of a Buddhist rock art sanctuary.

How to Get Mogao Grottoes?
Located little bit far from Dunhuang, 25km from the closest town, most people visit by taxi or private car. Visitors are also can take the green city bus to Mogao for 8 yuan each way. The bus also stops at the train station, and stops in front of the Silk Road hotel in Dunhuang city.
For your convenience, you can also reserve the tour to Dunhuang or our Silk Road Tour.

Some Information about Mogao Grottoes
Visitors are not allowed to take pictures inside the cave. More than that, to prevent damage to the caves' Buddhist frescoes new rules are also requires. All individual tourists should make a phone or online reservation before visiting the Buddhist shrine. And the maximum time tourists are allowed to spend in each cave will be shortened from the current eight minutes to five.

Silk Route not just about the ancient business route but also filled with lots of cultural and religious sites along the road. Mogao Grottoes is one that you should not be missed.