Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, or simply as Dali, locates in the central west of Yunnan Province in between the Erhai Lake to the east and Diancang Mountains to the West. This 29,460 square kilometer municipal administrative region, including 1 city, 8 countries, and 3 autonomous counties, inhabits about 3.29 million inhabitants, over half of which are Bai and Yi minorities. Dali is a particularly famous place in the south east of China, attracting millions of tourists from home or abroad every year for its beautiful scenery, pleasant climate, and strong ethnic characteristics. In this letter, you will follow us to this amazing land, to experience its unique humanity features.

Dali Ancient City

Dali City, served as the political, economic and cultural center of Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, was approved in 1984 as an open city by the State Council. Dali is known as “the states of literature”, where the Long history has left many important cultural relics, including 4 national key cultural relic protection units and 19 provincial key cultural relic protection units, which can be summed up as “three ancient categories”, that is, ancient city, ancient tower, and ancient stone tablet. Continue reading →

Chinese Traditional Love Legends In Chinese, along thousands of years of history, are spread many touching love legends. Here are some of the most renowned ones. Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai (Butterfly Lovers) The Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese legend about the tragic romance between two lovers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, or Liang Zhu, from whom the name of the legend is widely known in Chinese people. The legend is often regarded as the Chinese equivalent to Romeo and Juliet.

It was in the feudal China hundreds of years ago, when love as among young people was considered to be devious from the norm of the society. A young woman named Zhu Yingtai from Shangyu, Zhejiang Province, disguised herself as a man travelling to Hangzhou to study. During her journey, she met and joined Liang Shanbo, a companion schoolmate from Kuaiji, now known as Shaoxing in the same province. They studied together for three years, during which their relationship was strengthened. However, Liang never guessed Zhu’s true identity; he only found out that she was a girl when both met again in Zhu’s hometown, while she was dressed in female clothing. Although they were devoted and passionate about each other at that time, Zhu was already engaged with Ma Wencai, a man her parents had arranged for her to be married. Depressed, Liang died in as a county magistrate. On the day Zhu was to be married to Ma, whirlwinds prevented the wedding procession from escorting Zhu beyond Liang’s tomb. Zhu left the procession to pay her respects to Liang. Liang’s tomb split apart, and Zhu dived into it to join him. A pair of butterflies emerged from the tomb and flew away.

Music and theatrical renditions of the story are popular among the Chinese. Continue reading →