Private Customized Tour: Dali City Highlights in One Day

Meet your tour guide in the lobby of your Dali hotel, hop on your private air-conditioned vehicle, embark upon your customized tour of the city's sights. Discuss the historical highlights and attractions you wish to see with your knowledgeable guide who will help you plan an itinerary according to your interests. Then, set off and explore. Typically, you will start with the Cangshan Mountain.

Cangshan Mountain includes 19 peaks and 18 streams. The highest peak is Malong Peak with the height of 4,122 meters (13,524 feet). To make good use of your valuable time, you will take the convenient cable car to reach one of the peak. Choose the peak you wan to go. Xima Pool Cableway takes you from Tianlong Babu Studio City to Xima Pool on Cangshan Mountain. The route is about 5,580 meters (6,100 yards) long. From the cable car you can see Dali Ancient City and enjoy the natural scenery on Cangshan Mountain. The whole journey takes about 40 minutes. Gantong Cableway is about 2,630m (2,876 yards) long and takes you to Gantong Temple. Zhonghe Cableway is about 1,668m (1,824 yards) long, and ends at Zhonghe Temple.

Then, heading directly to Dali Chongsheng Three Pagodas. The Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple is a 1,800 years old national treasure under preservation. It is also a record of the development of Buddhism in the area. They are standing at the east foot of the tenth peak of the massive Mt. Cangshan and facing the west shore of the Erhai Lake. Upon arrival, stroll around the temple and courtyards with your tour guide, admire over 1000 years old pagoda, get to know its history, culture, religion and art.

Continue to Dali Ancient Town. Spend some leisure time to stroll around the ancient town, enjoy its grand city wall, traditional Bai ethnic minority folk houses and marvelous scenery. You will enjoy lunch in one of the restaurant here. Dali ancient town was a gateway to the Silk Road in Southwest China, and also served as a seat of government and a major military barracks for Yunnan Province in ancient times.

Then, continue to Erhai Lake. Erhai Lake is the largest highland lake and one of the seven biggest fresh water lakes in China. It means, 'sea shaped like an ear', in Chinese.

Take the boat cruise Erhai Lake, then visit Golden Shuttle Island (Jinsuo Dao), and the nearby fishing community of Bai Minority, get to know Bai Minority's culture and lifestyle.

Depending on your time, you can visit Xizhou Town. Xizhou Town is a main residential district for Bai Nationality, as a birthplace of Dali culture; it is also a famous historic cultural town of Bai Nationality. You will spend some leisure time to explore the town, your tour guide will explain the detailed stories about Bai Nationality. Feel free to ask questions if you have. After the tour finished, you will be transferred to your hotel in Dali.

If you have already visit some of those places above before, and want to do something different. Please feel free to discuss with your tour guide on where to go, you can choose these attractions or activities base on your interests: Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture Museum/ Dali Municipal Museum/Butterfly Spring