1-Day Dali Baba Cooking and Cruise Tour

In the morning, you will be picked up from your hotel in Dali Ancient Town and taken to the meeting point. Then we will drive to Xizhou, and visit the morning market where locals dressed in traditional minority clothing sell and buy local fruits, freshly cut meat, piles of fragrant spices and anything else you can think of. Wander through the rest of town and visit exquisitely well preserved old Bai-style traditional courtyards and feel in a different world as you explore the Bai minority’s distinctive culture. Xizhou is a small town with a long history, dating back thousands years, when it was an ancient economic hub along the tea-horse road. 

Xizhou Baba is a local delicacy which you can normally just buy on the local market. But on this trip, we will take you into a local folk house to make your own Baba. Xizhou baba is a baked pancake with a crispy crust and filled with one of two flavors: sweet or savory. The sweet one is made of sweet rose sugar and brown sugar in it, the savory one is filled with delicious salty meat.

Our next destination is Zhoucheng Village, which is called the “Hometown of Ethnic Bai Tie-Dye Culture” and take a look around a traditional Tie-Dye workshop. Don’t be fooled by the tie-dye we know in the west; the Bai people knot together true pieces of art that you would never have guessed to be tie-dyed. All tie-dye products are handmade with natural materials and dyes. Bai tie-dyeing is a century-old technique in China and can be separated in two steps, Tying and Dyeing. Bai ladies need a lot of skill and patience to shape the patterns and the results are different for each tie-dye product. Here you can see how grandmothers hand over this century old tradition to mothers and daughters and follow their process with your own eyes.

 Around noon, we will take a relaxing cruise on Erhai Lake towards Jinsuo Island – a small cormorant-bird fishing village. From there you can enjoy the majestic view of the green and clouded Cangshan Mountain Range looming over the Three Pagodas, as swarms of birds fly peacefully around you over the tranquil lake. After that, the guide will take you back to Dali Ancient Town. Spend your time in the old town having a drink in one of Dali’s many cozy little bars or warmly decorated coffeeshops or strolling around its lively main streets where local young artists sell all kinds of beautiful handicrafts. Your journey will end here and we wish you a great trip to wherever you are off to next!