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This wasn't our bus, but we rode one that looked just like this one. So just pretend this is the bus we took from Lijiang to Dali.

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There's no train to Lijiang (yet), so our options were to fly or take a bus. The bus ride started out through beautiful rolling hills.

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The bus also went through small towns.

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We also got stuck behind some fume-spewing trucks

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Several days later we rode along this road (for a short distance) on our bikes.

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To put things in perspective: we were taking a leisurely hike and these women ran past us carrying hundreds of pounds of soil on their backs!

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Graves partway up the mountain to Zhonge Temple above Dali.

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Resting

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Bill wanted to grab a snack but Giselle saved him by telling him that these weren't twizzlers.

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Zhonge Temple

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apparently the high altitude has affected someone's brain.

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Once we slogged straight up the mountain (and, to be fair, there was a cable car which we eschewed in favor of slogging), the path along the ridgeline was mostly paved with intricate cobblestones. It was a beautiful walk!

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The path was known as the "Jade Belt Walk" because it runs just above the ring of clouds that encircle the mountain that someone once decided looks like a jade belt. Somehow this was then translated into english as "Cloudy Tourist Road."

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Overlooking the temples and San Ta Pagodas below.

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The trail has been carved into the mountain--it must have been a lot of work.

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"Hurry up! I'm getting tired of waiting for you!"

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The trail was supposed to lead to a Shaolin Kung-Fu monastery. We saw a small unassuming building, assumed that it couldn't possibly be the monastery, and kept walking. But then we got even further up the mountains on this dirt road, with no monastery in sight, and decided it must've been that small building we had already seen. We had a great walk nonetheless, despite our failure to achieve enlightenment and learn how to break bricks with our minds.

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You can see Erhai Lake in the distance, which we biked around the following day.

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Once back near Zhonge Temple, we stopped at a small restaurant and had dinner. We watched him clean and chop our vegetables, then he cooked our meal and brought it out piping hot. Delicious!

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The small restaurant. It was normal for restaurants to put their produce out front so you can inspect it. Also note the english sign on the side, letting us know what they had for us.

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We sat at these little tables with great views of Dali below.

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Pretending to enjoy riding the chairlift.

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Our room at Jim's Tibetan Guesthouse and Peace Cafe.

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We could definitely get used to having someone bring thermoses of hot water and cups with tea in them.

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The bathroom. It was perfect once we realized that the grate over the shower drain is actually a plug. It looks like it has holes for water to go through, but no water shall pass its ironclad clutches without permission. The second morning, when we removed the plug, the shower didn't overflow and fill the bathroom floor with water, which was nice.

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Dali is famous for its marble. Almost everywhere we went there were artisans making something out of marble.

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G and a lion outside the entrance to the San Ta Pagodas

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Bill's there too.

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the tallest of the San Ta Pagodas.

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Many great photos were ruined by that goofy tourist toward the right.

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that's better

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The monastery behind the pagodas was recently constructed and is very beautiful with the backdrop of mountains and clouds.

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Bill likes anthropomorphic incense burners. Especially impractically large ones.

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We weren't exactly sure what these were for. They looked ornamental, had lots of writing on them, but also spun around and had handles along the bottom. It looked like a playground toy to Bill, but Giselle wouldn't let him run around spinning it and yelling "yippee!"

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A monastery cat. What's he stalking?

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Ahh, a monastery bird.

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Critters on the roof.

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More pretty gold spinny things.

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A ferocious dragon

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Springtime in late November? It never really gets very cold here.

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Lots of restrictions in the old town. For the most part, people ignored them and honked or drove big loads on bicycles anyway. (but to be fair, we didn't see any exploding trucks)

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Quite a load

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A restaurant showing off their seafood and produce

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One of the main streets in Dali

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A new pedestrianized mixed-use development we stumbled upon had this beautiful waterway running through it.

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We expected to see far more statues like this, but there weren't many at all.

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Strolling down the street

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Open air tailor

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This prolific furniture maker needs a larger space to store her chairs.

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This is the OTB of Dali.

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One of the gates on the town walls.

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does this count as a green roof?

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people watching

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toilet paper delivery

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This guy had walking with style down to an art.

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These tractor/trucks are the workhorses of China. They go slowly, they pollute like crazy, but they somehow haul huge loads of bricks around.

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It's always good to bring along a spare.

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Shopkeepers frequently did some wash in front of their stores.

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This little boy was very curious about Bill.

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A vendor had hung her beautiful batik and scarves in an alley for customers to see.

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In my book, you get bonus mahjongg points for having a cool hat. And when you smoke a cool pipe AND have a cool hat, you automatically win.

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Blossoms.

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A chinese public library. Note the "Reading Room" and "Loan desk" signs.