Travels Through Dali With a Leg of Ham

Drive to Master’s Well Village

In the morning, follow the road north along Bi River, which the locals call Pi River, as it meanders past white-walled Bai villages. Elegant, covered wooden bridges every few kilometers are a fading monument to the historic salt wealth of the region and will indicate you are getting close to Master’s Well Village.

Salt Making With Local People

Upon arriving, visit the home of a local salt maker. Shelter under a makeshift cover and watch how salt is extracted from a well and crystalized, using a traditional process unchanged for centuries. Relax on the porch and watch they process the salt further and prepare it for the market. Then before we leave, taste the final product, a salt with a sweet aftertaste referred to as tu yan.

Ham Curing

Visit a local farm and see ham in its different stages of curing. Then visit the local market and whet your appetite for dinner. Wander back up to the farm and admire the skills as the local people scorches, cleans and cuts the Ham, preparing it for dinner. After, kick back and relax for tomorrow’s drive to Shaxi.

Note: Ham making is only available in January, February, and December.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Shundang Village

Under the bask of a beautiful Yunnan sunrise, hit the road to Shundang Village. Passing the turnoff for Master’s Well Village and continuing further north (about a 2.5-hour drive) will bring you to Shundang Village, another of the 8 famed salt villages. Admire the Qing-era fortifications that protect the path leading into the village and marvel at how different Shundang is from Master’s Well. Now home to very few, wander past traditional tombstones and through the abandoned old village. Leave behind the covered bridges and the family’s of Yunlong and continue on to Shaxi, once a bustling trade town on the tea horse caravan road.

Shaxi Village

After a fresh, local lunch, leave behind the covered bridges of Yunlong and continue on to Shaxi, once a bustling trade town on the tea horse caravan road. In the late afternoon, after a scenic 5-hour drive, we’ll arrive in Shaxi, a beautifully preserved market town nestled in the idyllic rural landscape halfway between Lijiang and Dali. The town was once an outpost where horses and tea, among other exotic goods, changed hands en route to Burma and Tibet. With Buddhist grottoes, lively weekend markets, and delightfully simple rural cuisine sourced straight from the surrounding farmland, Shaxi is packed with cultural intrigue and pastoral charm.

Cheese Making with Mrs. Shi

Step into the home of Mrs. Shi Fumei, a local cheesemaker and discover how Dali boasts its own unique cheese culture, a remnant of earlier Mongolian influence. Watch as Mrs. Shi steams milk on a wood-fired stove before separating the curds from the whey. Then wait for your delicious cheese snack to cool and chat with Mrs. Shi as she stitches cloth shoes.

A Morning Hike Through Shibaoshan

The magnificent rock carvings of the 1,300-year-old Shibaoshan Grottoes showcase the dissemination of Mahayana Buddhism along the Tea and Horse Caravan Trail from Tibet to Yunnan province. We uncover each of the five grottoes on a 90-minute hike, new statues waiting in each. Then, we’ll end our hike at the Stone Bell Temple, its curved roofs and red walls clinging to the mountainside.

Stone Dragon Village

After, we will visit Stone Dragon Village where ‘Those who can walk, dance; and those who can talk, sing’. Meet the region’s Folk Music King and watch a captivating musical performance full of longing and lust, wantonness and excitement.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Shaxi Market

Friday is market day in Shaxi. Every Friday morning, Yi, Bai, Lisu, Naxi, Hui, and Tibetan ethnic groups from the surrounding mountains gather in town to buy and sell produce, livestock, and handicrafts. Men and women will be dressed in their traditional colorful clothing and we’ll see them carrying large baskets and leading pack horses and mules down the network of narrow lanes leading to Shaxi’s central square. (only available on Friday)

Drive to Dali

On the two-and-a-half-hour drive back to Dali, sit back and take in Yunnan’s famed backdrop of rolling hills, jagged peaks and, hopefully, the occasional grazing yak.

Bai Tea Ceremony

On the way into Dali, enter the traditional world of the Bai Tea Ceremony, an important ritual performed at weddings and festivals and governed by strict rules of etiquette. The water is boiled and tea steeped in a clay pot in front of you, before you are given the chance to sip three varieties which range from bitter to sour to sweet, this fixed order itself a metaphor for life’s journey through hardship to happiness.

Xizhou Village

Walk through Xizhou, a traditional Bai village on the shores of Erhai Lake. We’ll explore the markets and learn about Bai architecture. We always recommend trying Xizhou pizza, a culinary treat that delights the taste buds of locals and travelers alike.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Drive to Weishan Old Town

This morning, we’ll drive to Weishan, a town home to mainly Yi and Hui ethnic groups (~1-hour drive. )In the midst of overdevelopment in Yunnan’s well known destinations, Weishan Old Town still keeps its original charm. About two hours south of Dali, Weishan’s buildings, as well as the artisan traditions of their residents, keep to the old ways of when the town was a cozy outpost along the ancient Tea and Horse Road.

Visit Madame Chen’s Pickle Factory

Meet Madame Chen, the 79-year old queen who reigns over the most famous pickle ‘empire’ in Weishan. Head into Chen’s central courtyard and watch her staff prepare vegetables for pickling. Look above the worker’s heads at the rows and rows of meter-high jars, filled to the brim with vegetables in pickling liquor before having a taste…or 3.

Return to Dali Old Town

Enjoy lunch at South Street restaurant before returning to town and spending the afternoon in Dali’s Old Town. Protected from bandits and invaders by 6-meter-deep stone walls, Dali was once an important outpost on trade routes that spanned Tibet and Southeast Asia, and has been the center of the Bai universe for more than a thousand years. Today, this charming checkerboard town of crisscrossing streams and lanes has become a popular stop-off for travelers, and you’ll no doubt find yourself swept up in Dali’s irresistibly laid-back vibe as you wander its narrow lanes and sip tea in the tranquil surrounds of a traditional Bai courtyard home. For dinner, tantalize your taste buds with a cross-cultural culinary experience at Gil’s Casa Bai.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Your Departure Flight

Rise early to watch the sunrise over Erhai Lake and spend the morning enjoying Dali’s dynamic interwoven streets. When it is time to head to the airport, your WildChina guide will escort you to the terminal and help you check in for your departure flight.

Meals included: breakfast