Dali Travel Guide: The Top 6 Awesome Things to do in Dali!

Add Dali, Yunnan Province to your bucket list, because I’m about to share with you 6 awesome activities that will allow you to explore Dali’s history, nature, culture, and food in less than a week! What to do in Dali? Ride a bike around a beautiful lake and see huge, green mountains as you go. Wander around Ancient Towns and taste the local foods. Explore The Three Pagodas up close and try and spot different species of butterfly at Butterfly Springs. This blog post describes all of my favourite things to do in Dali. It will help you to make good use of your time.

#1 Bike Around Erhai Lake

Erhai Lake is the most popular sight-seeing place in Dali. It is the second largest freshwater lake in Yunnan Province and one of the most beautiful lakes in China. You will see trees, wildflowers, Cangshan mountains, and little houses that highlight great Chinese architecture. It is a must-see if you are staying in Dali!  Now I did not cycle the whole lake- but I know it is possible. The information below is for someone who wants to enjoy a bike for an hour or two. Be surrounded by nature and take a few pictures.

How do I get to the lake?

Option 1- You can use a Didi (Taxi) a bit like Uber to get to the lake, it’s very inexpensive and can drop you right near the entrance. You can also rent bikes near the lake. They have different types of bikes to suit your needs. If you have the Meituan App then you can rent a yellow bike for 25RMB for an hour. I recommend this as they have the yellow bikes along various points of the lake. You can stop riding pretty much anywhere and get a different form of transportation if you need to. If you rent a bike from a local, then you will need to bring it back as well.

Option 2- You will see lots of TukTuks, that will happily take you to and from the lake. I used one for a 30-minute ride and it only cost 30RMB. 

Option 3- There are also Mopeds which you can rent for the day or for however many hours you like. I don’t recommend you do this as you can’t ride the bike close to the lake. However, on the East side of the lake, Mopeds are better because you can ride right next to it.

How long will it take me to cycle along the lake?

The first time Daniel and I visited the lake, we rented mountain bikes and tried to cycle from Dali Old Town all the way to Xizhou Ancient Town. We got there, but it took us around 5 hours there and back. This was very tiring, and, in the heat, it made it all that much more difficult. Plus, exploring the town with a big bike was near impossible.

The second time we visited the lake was much better. We rented Meituan bikes and cycled for around an hour looking at one part of the lake. We took our time and enjoyed the experience a lot more. Then we got taxis to other parts of the lake that we wanted to explore. This was a lot more enjoyable and I highly recommend it! If you have a drone, you can fly it over the lake and surrounding houses. You can capture some beautiful photos from a different perspective.

#2 Explore Xinzhou Ancient Town

Xizhou Village is probably the second most popular place to visit after cycling the lake. It is a 1000- year- old historic village filled with original architecture and local Bai people. If you love history and quaint little shops down cobbled alleyways- then this is for you! There aren’t a lot of restaurants there, mainly local people making street food. Daniel and I have tried both- eaten only from a restaurant there and only street food. I highly recommend just walking around and trying out the different local foods and drinks. It is cheap, fun and you get a range of flavours. 

How do I find this amazing historic village?

Xizhou Village is along the west side of Erhai Lake. You can cycle there from Dali Old Town. However, it will take you about 2.5hrs. Alternatively, you can take a 30-minute taxi ride instead and feel fully energised to enjoy the village. You will see tie-dye-filled shops, local street foods, and local people. It is worth a wander through! There is also a great little pond and bridge filled with lotus flowers that in July are in full bloom. It was great to walk around something rich in culture. See the local people doing their everyday activities and trying their local food. So overall, it is definitely worth a visit as it is close by to Dali Old Town.

#3 Spot Butterflies at Butterfly Spring

Butterfly Spring is a park located about a 15 minutes’ drive from Xinzhou Village, which makes it perfect to visit both places on the same day. Being a big fan of nature and beautiful views, we went to visit it. You can get to the park by taxi and everywhere has signs. The signs are in English and there are plenty of maps around the park to guide you. The cost of entry is only 40rmb and the park is beautiful. 

Within the park you will find a greenhouse filled with cocoons and butterflies. This was nice as you can get quite close to them. There is also a lake, a museum and my favourite part- a crystal blue reflective spring. The water is so blue, and it sparkles! Behind it is a steep staircase that will lead you to a temple that overlooks the lake and mountains. The park is not very big, it will take 2/3 hours to explore. We enjoyed the park, but the best time to visit is in April and May as there are more butterflies. 

#4 The Three Pagodas

Why should I take my time to visit the Pagodas? The Pagodas you can see from many parts of Dali Old Town, you can even see them from Erhai Lake.  SO why should you pay to get a closer view of them? Ticket entry to the Pagodas is 75rmb. I personally enjoyed walking around the Pagodas, seeing the gardens and Chongsheng temple. If you are into architecture, religion and history then you will like it. If you just want to admire them from afar then you can do that too!

#5 Explore Dali Old Town Day and Night!

Visit Dali Old Town- a historic town filled with shops, cafes, and restaurants. The town has beautiful architecture and it’s a peaceful place to wander around during the day. It’s extremely crowded at 6 pm because the temperature is a lot cooler. Top tip, enjoy the town during the day.

However, the night time brings all sorts of delights with live music and local people selling various things. You can walk around and try the street food, do archery, watch people have photographs with alpacas! It really gets random in the evening! You can also overlook the rooftops and bustling people from a temple. You can take a nice picture of the town lit up and get a different viewpoint. You can’t fly drones over the city, so this is the highest place you can get a photo from.

#6 Try the famous Mushroom Hotpot of Yunnan

When visiting Dali or Yunnan from June to September, wild mushrooms are a big deal during this time. Mushrooms are everywhere and the variety is huge! So, when visiting Dali, you will have many opportunities to try mushroom hotpot and you should as it’s tasty! You will see plenty of restaurants that offer mushroom hotpot. If you don’t speak Chinese and can’t read characters, then it can be a little overwhelming to try and order. Luckily, we had a helpful server who helped us order a classic mushroom hotpot. Gave us a variety of different mushrooms and made sure they were cooked before we ate them.

I highly recommend this mushroom hotpot place- 源汁原味.野生菌火锅店 for great scenery and service. The mushrooms in this hotpot are called- 竹荪, 鸡油菌, 牛肝菌和鸡枞. At this hotpot restaurant, we got given a 20-minute timer to ensure the mushrooms were cooked properly. We communicated through translation apps, and we used the little Chinese we know to order some other items we wanted. It was super tasty and its a must when in Dali.