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Dali Ancient City

Dali The Ancient City faces Erhai Lake to the east and Cangshan Mountain to the west. The gate tower of the City is grand and the sights here are beautiful. According to literature, Dali Ancient City was a gateway to the Silk Road in Southwest China, and also served as a seat of government and a major military barracks for Yunnan Province in ancient times. It enjoyed magnificent scale, with a wall length of 6 kilometers (3.73 miles), a height of 7.5 meters (24.6 feet) and a thickness of 6 meters (19.7 feet). There were four city gates facing west, east, north and south, a gate tower stand on the top of each gate. As the city was declined during these years, only the city base remains till today. The city layout was uniform, there are five main streets from south to north and eight main streets from east to west, while marketplaces were neatly arranged within the city, which is remained unchanged till now.

The traditional Bai ethnic minority folk houses give the city distinctive feel, unlike any other Chinese city. A typical house is characterized by 3 rooms and a wall screen and 4 joints and 5 courtyards. 3 rooms and a wall screen' means that every house One Pavilion in Dali Ancient Cityhas a principle room and two wing-rooms and facing the principle room stands the wall screen. When the sun shines on the wall screen in the afternoon, the sunlight is reflected back to the courtyard, thus illuminating the whole area. 4 joints and 5 courtyards means houses are built with four sides; and four courtyards in the joining parts of the houses' corners and one big courtyard in the center makes five courtyards. The decoration is another construction feature of the folk residences, paying great attention to the gate tower, the eaves and corners. The windows, doors and the wall screen are adorned with woodcarvings, colored patterns, marbles and wash drawings. The delicacy, freshness and elegance of their construction may be called first-class among folk residences in Southwest China.

On both sides of streets in Dali City there are many shops and booths selling things made from marble. Marble is also called Dali Stone in Chinese because it is produced in Dali. There are marbles on all the nineteen peaks of Cangshan Mountain. The marble has exquisite texture and unique veins. It is colourful and glitters translucently. The development and utilization of marbles began in the Kingdom of Nanzhao in as early as Tang Dynasty. All kinds of craftworks made from marbles are available in these shops and booths such as screens, brush pots and vases.