Dali

It's easy to see why Dali has become such a popular tourist destination. Few places can match its setting, lying on a long plain flanked on one side by the high (over 4000 metres) serrated peaks of the Azure Mountains (Cangshan) and on the other by the 42 km-long Erhai Lake. Eighteen brooks tumble down from Cangshan, watering the fertile plain and emptying into the lake. East of the lake, which averages just under 7 km in width, rise the smaller, ruddier, more barren hills of the Phoenix Mountains. Steamers and fishing boats ply the waters, the boats sometimes in fleets, with white triangular sails aloft to catch the wind.......