Da Li

The Three Pagodas at Chongsheng Temple are Dali's oldest visible landmark by a wide margin. The tallest, the 69.13-metre Qianxun Pagoda, was built between 823 and 840 AD under the Nanzhao Kingdom — the regional Tang-era power that once controlled much of what is now Yunnan — while the two smaller, 42.19-metre pagodas flanking it were added later, during the 12th-century reign of the Dali Kingdom's Duan rulers. All three have stood through more than a millennium of earthquakes in a seismically active part of Yunnan, a fact that's as much a feat of engineering as of preservation.

That layered history — Nanzhao, then the independent Dali Kingdom, then eventual absorption into the Chinese empire — is also why Dali feels culturally distinct from the rest of Yunnan. The Bai ethnic minority, whose white-walled courtyard houses define the old town, trace their presence here back through both kingdoms, and their marble-work and tie-dye textile traditions remain active crafts rather than museum pieces. The old town itself, gridded and walled, is compact enough to explore on foot in a single day, though most visitors end up staying longer than planned.

Geography does a lot of the work, too: Dali sits in a narrow band between the Cangshan mountain range and Erhai Lake, one of China's largest freshwater lakes, giving nearly every street a view of one or the other. That position also makes Dali the natural staging point for trips further into western Yunnan — Lijiang, Shangri-La, and the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau are all reachable from here. March to May and September to November bring the clearest mountain views and the most comfortable temperatures.