Dali Attractions

Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple
The Chongsheng Temple was the Buddhist center of Nanzhao State. And the temple, commonly known as Dali Three Pagodas, is built between 822 and 859. The three pagodas used to be situated in Chongsheng Temple at the foot of Diancang Mountain on the shores of Lake Erhai. The temple no longer exists, but the three pagodas, different in size and history, remain. The three pagodas have survived more than 30 strong earthquakes in the past 1,000 years and stand intact a marvel of architecture; it is a major national treasure under preservation. Standing like three legs of a tripod, the Chongsheng Three Pagodas made of bricks were built a thousand years ago.

Cangshan Mountain
Cangshan Mountain, also known as Diancangshan, two kilometers west of Dali, comprises nineteen peaks. All of them are 3,000 meters above sea level. Green trees and beautiful rivers are everywhere. From north to south the 19 peaks are Playful Cloud, Green Waves, Five Terraces, Lotus, White Cloud, Crane Cloud, Three-sun, Orchid Peak, Snowman, Ying Le, Goddess of Mercy, Harmony, Dragon Spring, Wang Ju, Horse-dragon, Sheng Ying, Buddhist Top, Horse Ear and Setting Sun. The names are all related to the landscape. The highest peak is Horse-dragon, 4,122 meters above sea level into the sky under a snow mantle that never thaws.

Butterfly Spring
Butterfly Spring is located at the foot of the Yunlong Peak of the Cangshan Mountain, 25 kilometers north of Dali. It is actually a pool four meters deep and 20 square meters wide with ancient camphor trees beside it. In the fourth lunar month every year, when the trees put forth fragrant flowers, thousands of butterflies' flutter among the branches and over the spring water forms a dazzling Kingdom of Butterflies. Swarms of butterflies in twenty or so breeds descend on the tree, linking those head against tail into numerous colored ribbon-like strings which keep dangling over the pool.

The Erhai Lake and Erhai Park
Erhai Lake is a famous alpine lake in Yunnan, known as Kunming Lake in ancient times, just as its name implies, is similar to an ear in the form. It is a lake formed after a foundering of the earth's crust. It is a fresh water lake in the Yunnan Plateau at an elevation of 1,972 meters. In the middle of it, there are islets and sandbars. It lies on the Tuanshan Mountain in north of Dali. It starts at Dengchuan in the north and ends at Xiaguan in the south with a length of 42 km and width of 8 km. It is 116 km in circumference and covers an area of 250 square km. The average depth is about 11 meters and the total storage capacity is 2.5billion cubic meters.