Xizhou Village, Horse Drawn Carriage Ride, Tie-dye Art and Dali Three Pagodas

Meet your guide at the lobby of your hotel in Dali city centre and drive outside the city to explore the surroundings of the Erhai Lake. Before arriving to your first destination, your guide will introduce you to the history, culture and life of the area. 

First you will stop at Xizhou village, home to one of the minorities in China, the Bai. Before accessing the village, you will climb into a horse drawn carriage to enjoy a pleasant ride around this picturesque village and the Erhai Lake. Then you will take a walk inside the town, famous for its traditional style living quarters clustered around. You will be escorted to visit some homes of local peasants, which consist of rectangular courtyards with a screen wall facing the gate. While visiting these farmers’ houses, you will be treated with a genuine tea ceremony along with a song and dance performance from this ethnic group. 

Then you will stop for a while to learn the tie-dyeing art, a way of printing flower patterns on cloth. The process consists in making the cloth into certain shapes by pinching, creasing and flanging it according to the flower patterns, then tying it tightly together to make a bunch of knots, and dye until a satisfactory color is achieved. Once dried, stitches are taken out of the knots and the cloth is smoothened out to reveal that part of the cloth which was tied, forming beautiful flower patterns. 

Next you will enjoy a traditional Chinese cuisine lunch in a local restaurant before driving to the final stop: The Three Pagodas. The Three Pagodas are inside the Chongshen Monastery, a building with a history of over 1,800 years located at the foot of Cang Shan Mountain facing Erhai Lake. These three ancient independent pagodas form a symmetrical triangle, something unique in China, and are the most iconic attraction in Dali.

 After exploring the area, your guide will drop you off at your hotel in Dali city centre.