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.

The ancient city is a must for every tourist visiting Dali. Located at 10 kilometers northwestern of the downtown city, a site of Dali Ancient City, back to the Ming Dynasty Hongwu 15 years (AD 1382), has been standing over six hundred years.  According to literature, Dali Ancient City 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. It enjoyed magnificent scale, with a wall length of 6 kilometers (3.73 miles), a height of 7.5 meters (26.6 feet) and a thickness of 6 meters (19.7 feet). There were four city gates facing west, east, north and south, upon which sat a gate tower. Four further towers were also placed at the four corners of the city wall. As it underwent many phases of prosperity as well as decline, only the city base remains till today. We can explore the mystery belonging to that period of history, especially through witnessing some parts of the city wall, the North City Wall Tower and the South City Wall Tower which were restored in 1982. The city layout was uniform, with five main streets from south to north and eight main streets from east to west, while marketplaces were neatly arranged within the city, which has remained unchanged to this date.

If we say the downtown city of Dali gives some kind of prosperous, bustle feeling, then the Ancient City just diffuses a pure simplicity and tranquility. The stream traveling through the city, the flowers and fruits planted in household gardens, and the tea house hidden in the deep streets, all the sceneries seem gently reminding you to the fading stories somewhere in the past.

Bai Ethnic Building

The traditional Bai Ethnic minority folk houses give the city distinctive feel, unlike any other Chinese city. A typical house is characterized by “3 rooms and a wall screening” and “4 joins and 5 courtyards”. “3 rooms and a wall screening” means that every house has a principle room and two wing-rooms and facing the principle room stands the wall screening. When the sun shines on the wall screening in the afternoon, the sunlight is reflected back to the courtyard, thus illuminating the whole area. “4 joints and 5 courtyards” means houses are built with four sides; and four courtyards in the joining parts of the houses’ comers and one big courtyard in the center makes five courtyards. The decoration is another construction feature of the folk residences, paying great attention to the gate tower, the eaves and corners. The windows, doors and the wall screening are adorned with Jianchuan woodcarvings, colored patterns, marbles and wash drawings. The delicacy, freshness and elegance of their construction may be called first-class among folk residences in Southwest China.

When people walk along the cobble-paved streets in the ancient city, a sense of primitive simplicity and elegance will be invoked. Besides the Bai ethnic minority traditional folk houses, the houses all with grey-green roof tiles, peculiar workshops, temples, schools and churches with an antique flavor are scattered. Traditional artworks made of marble, such as pencil vases, striped screens, and a variety of woven handicrafts made of fine straw are laid chockablock on both sides of the street to be appreciated and purchased.

Ethnic Diet

Speaking of Dali diet, it should always refer to the famous “Three-course Tea” ceremony for receiving guests that includes “bitter tea”, “sweet tea” and “final tea”. The Fish casserole and Dengchuan Rushan (Dengchuan Milk Fan) are also well-appreciated dishes. Most of Dali’s best restaurants are concentrated in the Ancient City, to enjoy people can go to Renmin Road, where many foreign tourists gather. In Huguo Road, western style restaurants with Bai, Tibetan and other ethnic minorities featured snacks can be seen everywhere, tourists can enjoy either the flavor of Yunnan cuisine or the western dishes. The Foreigner Street is also a must-see, providing snacks with the traditional flavors of the Bai ethnic community.

Of course, the city’s attractiveness not only rests in the local diets, but also in the cafes and tea houses with a quiet and relaxed atmosphere. There people can listen to music, drink cold beer, and spend a leisurely afternoon. Almost all coffee shops are providing travel information and booking services, some are also available for visitors to rent bicycles.

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.

Meng Jiangnu and Fan Xiliang (Meng jiangnu cry the Great Wall)

This story happened during the Qin Dynasty (221BC-206BC). An old man named Meng sowed a seed of bottle gourd in his yard. Bit by bit, the bottle gourd grew up and its vines climbed over the wall and entered his neighbor Jiang’s yard, and out came a beautiful bottle gourd in autumn. Amazingly, when they cut the gourd a pretty and lovely girl was lying inside! They felt happy to have a child and both loved her very much, and named the girl Meng Jiangnu, which means Meng and Jiang’s daughter.

As time flies, Meng Jiangnu grew up as a beautiful, smart and industrious woman. She took care of old Meng and Jiang’s families filially, and villagers all liked the good girl a lot. One day while playing in the yard, Meng Jiangnu found a young man hiding in the garden. She called out to her parents, and the young man came out. It turned out that the young man Fan Qiliang was evading officials from building the Great Wall. Meng and Jiang liked this good-looking, honest, and good-mannered young man. They decided to wed their daughter to him. Both Fan Qiliang and Meng Jiangnu accepted happily, and the couple was married shortly. However, three days after their marriage, officials suddenly broke in and took Fan Qiliang away to build the Great Wall in the north of China.

The great wall

It was a hard time for Meng Jiangnu after her husband
was taken away – she missed her husband and cried nearly every day. She sewed warm clothes for her husband and set out on long journey to visit her husband. Day and night she climbed over mountains and went through the rivers, slipping and falling many times, but finally she reached the foot of the Great Wall at the present Shanhaiguan Pass.

However, bad news came to her, unfortunately, that Fan Qiliang had already died of exhaustion and was buried into the Great Wall. Meng Jiangnu could not help crying. She sat on the ground and sorely wept for three days. Suddenly with a tremendous noise, a 400 kilometer-long (248-mile) section of the Great Wall collapsed over her bitter wail. The workmen and supervisors were astonished. Emperor Qin Shihuang happened to be touring the wall at that exact time, and he was enraged and ready to punish the woman. When the guards were trying to catch her, she suddenly turned around and jumped into the nearby Bohai Sea.

Meng Jiangnu’s story has been passed down from generation to generation. In memory of Meng Jiangnu, later generations built a temple, called the Jiangnu Temple, at the foot of the Great Wall in which a statue of Meng Jiangnu is located.

Legend of White Snake

This is a love story about a man and a white snake. The first short tale was found during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618). That was a cautionary, vigilant and tragic story of a man in love with a lady in white. The scenes of the West Lake and the Thunder Pagoda were added and the central theme was established during the Song Dynasty (AD 960). The entire story was completed during the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368). It was rewritten to beautify characters in some episodes in Qing Dynasty (AD 1644).

Today we find that the stories are somewhat different depending on which source has been used, because of rewriting. The complete story should have at least 16 episodes. The following is the shortest abstract of the story.

Once upon a time, a white snake and a green snake that had magical powers were in the Mountain Er-Mei and had transformed into two beautiful young ladies, one white, one green. They met a man named Hsu Sheng at the West Lake of Hang Zhou city. The white snake fell in love with Hus Sheng at first sight. They got married soon after.

The Lady White helped her husband to open a herbal medicine store and helped with writing the prescriptions. Patients unable to pay were given free treatment and medicine. The store quickly became well known and popular. One day a monk called Fa Hai saw the couple and warned Hsu Sheng that his wife was a white snake.

It was during the Dragon Boat Festival, When Chinese families like to decorate with calamus and Chinese mugwort the house and drink realgar wine to drive away spirits. This was dangerous to Lady White and Lady Green, since they were spirits after all. Lady White was pregnant at that time and her magical power had weakened a lot. She tried to drink wine to please her husband. Unfortunately, she couldn’t control herself and turned into her snake body in her bedroom. Hsu Sheng saw the white snake and was literally scared to death.

In order to save her husband’s life, Lady White went to steal the resurrection plant on the Kunlun Mountain. She failed. But her true love won the resurrection plant and the life of Hsu Sheng was restored.

Hsu Sheng remembered Fa Hai and went to the Golden Mountain Temple to see him. Fa Hai suggested to Hsu Sheng become a monk to forget his wife. Fa Hai could take care of the spirits. Lady White asked a great army of underwater creatures for help and brought forth a flood over the Golden Mountain Temple to fight with Fa Hai. Fa Hai had the magical power too and asked the heavenly soldiers to save his temple. Since the Lady White was pregnant, she was too weak to fight harder, thus gave up the battle and waited for the time after giving birth.

Hsu Sheng went to see his son and brought with him a magical hat from Fa Hai for his son. The magical hat captured the White Snake. Fa Hai imprisoned the White Snake inside the Thunder Pagoda. The Green Snake was unable to fight Fa Hai alone, escaped and practiced her magical power even harder. After the son of Lady White grew up, she took revenge by destroying the Thunder Pagoda and rescued White Snake. White Snake was reunited with her husband and her son. The story ended here.

Since the story is so popular, it was turned into Chinese operas, movies, novels, comics, cartoons and even PC games. The beginning and the ending portions have been adapted for various versions.

Fox spirits in Chinese mythology are spirits of a fox type that are akin to European faeries and demons. They can be either good spirits or bad spirits.

In Chinese mythologies, it is believed that all things are capable of acquiring human forms, magical powers and immortality provided that they received certain energy, such as human breaths or essence from the moon and the sun.

The fox spirits that people encounter in tales and legends tend to be females and appear as young, beautiful women. One of the most infamous fox spirits in Chinese mythology was Daji, who is portrayed in the Ming novel Fengshen Yanyi a beautiful daughter of a general; she was married forcibly to the cruel tyrant Zhou Xin. A nine-tailed fox spirit who served Nvwa entered into the possessed her body, expelling the “true” Daji’s soul. “Daji” and her new husband schemed cruelly and invented many devices of torture, such as forcing righteous officials to hug red-hot metal pillars. Due to such cruelties, many people, including Zhou Xin’s own former generals, revolted and fought against Zhou Xin’s dynasty, Shang. Finally, King Wu of Zhou, one of the vassals of Shang, founded a new dynasty named after his country. The fox spirit in Daji’s body was late driven out by Jiang Ziya, the first Prime Minister of the Zhou Dynasty.

Typically fox spirits were seen as dangerous, but some of the stories in Pu Songling’s Liaozhai Zhiyi are love stories between a fox appearing as a beautiful girl and a young human male.

In modern Mandarin slang and Cantonese slang, the term “fox spirit” is a derogatory expression describing a woman who seduces a man.

You may have seen Chinese national flag and national emblem, but do you know how they come into being and what the meaning they stand for?

The flag of the People’s Republic of China is red in color and it has five yellow stars. The color red symbolizes the spirit of the revolution, and the five stars signify the unity of the people of China under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. The national flag of China was adopted at the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference held in September 1949, shortly before the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

The national emblem of China is Tian’anmen in the center illuminated by five stars and encircled by a cogwheel and ears of grain. Tian’anmen symbolizes the Chinese nation, and the cogwheel and the ears of grain represent the working class and peasantry. In was in September 20, 1950 that Chairman Mao Zedong announced the National Emblem of People’s Republic of China.

What the national flag and national emblem look like in your country? You’re very welcomed to share the stories behind them with us.

This idiom is rooted to an interesting old story and is still widely used in today’s daily life.

Once upon a time, a man in the state of Chu had a spear and a shield for sale. He loudly praised his spear and shield. Very soon, a big crowd gathered around him.

“Look,” said the man, picking up his shield. He clanged and showed it to the crowd. “My shield is very strong. Nothing in the world, no matter how hard and sharp it may be, can pierce through it.”

With a proud expression on his face, the man put down his shield and picked up his spear. Brandishing his spear, he said, “My spear is the best in the world. It is so strong that it can pierce through anything.”

“Wait a minute,” shouted one of the on-lookers from the crowd, “I wonder if you could tell us what would happen if your spear is used to pierce your shield?”

It is impossible for an impenetrable shield to coexist with a spear that finds nothing impenetrable. The seller was tongue-tied. He did not have an answer and the crowd burst out laughing.

Hence the expression “Zi Xiang Mao Dun” (literally, one’s spear contradicts his/her own shield) is used to mean self-contradiction. Dear readers, do you have done or met anything that “Zi Xiang Mao Dun”?

Jiang Taigong is a popular name for Jiang Ziya, a statesman and strategist of King Wen of the Zhou State in ancient China. He, at the age of 80, helped the young King Wu overthrow the Shang Dynasty and establish the Zhou Dynasty.

Jiang was a senior official during the reign of King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty. Since the king was muddleheaded and atrocious, and the masses had no means to live, Jiang resigned and lived in seclusion on the shore of the Wei River. At that time the State Zhou was strong and prosperous. Ji Chang, King Wen of the Zhou State, was courteous to the wise and condescendent to the scholarly, ruling the state with benevolence and unrighteousness. He had long been in search of a virtuous assistant. One day, Ji Chang went to hunt on the northern shore of the Wei River. He saw an old man fishing by the shore who, oblivious of so many people passing by, continued to fish quietly. That was Jiang, who was over 70 then. Ji Chang felt curious so he stepped down from the chariot and walked to the old man, only to find the man’s fishhook was not bent, impossible to get any fish. Realizing this man was not a common one, Ji Chang began to chat with him. He found this was the right man he was in quest of, and realized that this man was the sage his grandfather had long. So he called him Taigong, a respective name for old man. Ji Chang returned with Taigong, sharing his carriage with him, and treated him as his mentor. With the assistant of Taigong, the Western Zhou became more flourishing, so the people of other states came over and pledged allegiance one after another.

It is said that Taigong was intentionally using an unbent hook for the purpose of fishing Ji Chang, the expected wise master, rather than the real fish. Nowadays, Taigong’s story has become a two-part allegorical saying – Jiang Taigong fishing, those who are willing to hook, which means when a person is doing something he’s got an implicit purpose, rather than the obvious one.

Yue Fei was a patriotic military commander of the southern Song Dynasty and a national hero in resisting the invading Jin people. Born into a peasant family, Yue Fei joined the army as an ordinary soldier. By rendering meritorious service, he gradually rose to be the most important general of his time.

In 1126, several years before Yue Fei became a general, the militant jurchen of the Jin Dynasty invaded the north of the country forcing the Song out of their capital Kaifeng and capturing the emperor of the time Emperor Qinzong who was sent into captivity in Manchuria. This marked the end of the Northern Song, and the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty under Emperor Gaozong.

Yue Fei fought a long campaign against the invading Jurchen in an effort to retake the north of the country. Just when he was threatening to attack and retake Kaifeng, corrupt officials advised Emperor Gaozong to recall Yue Fei to the capital and sue for peace with the Jurchen. Fearing that a defeat of Kaifeng may cause the Jurchen to release Qinzong, threatening his claim to the throne, the emperor followed their advice. Yue Fei was ordered to return twelve times in the form of twelve gold plaques. Knowing that a success at Kaifeng could lead to internal strife Yue Fei submitted to the orders of his emperor and returned to the capital where he was imprisoned and where the traitor Qin Hui would eventually arrange for him to be executed on false charges.

Qin Hui could not find a reason to execute the captured Yue Fei and was about to release him. However, Qin Hui’s wife, Lady Wang, made the suggestion that since the emperor held absolute power, Qin Hui having the authority of the emperor, needed no reason to execute Yue Fei. He and his adopted-son, Yue Yun (1119-1142), were sentenced to death and executed on charges that were not proven but instead “could be true”. The phrase has entered the Chinese language as an expression to refer to fabricated charges. For their part in Yue Fei’s death, iron statures of Qin Hui, Lady Wang, and two of Qin Hui’s subordinates, Moqi Xie and Zhang Jun, were made to kneel before Yue Fei’s tomb (located by Hangzhou’s West Lake). For centuries, these statues have been cursed, spat and urinated upon by young and old.

This story happened over two thousand years ago.

In the late of the Three Kingdoms Period, Cao Cao, the first emperor of Wei, specifically favored Cao Zhi, his third son, because of his great talents. Cao Zhi’s eldest brother Cao Pi was, therefore, very jealous of him. After succeeded the regality, Cao Pi could not stand his own jealousness anymore, and planned to kill Cao Zhi.

One day he asked his younger brother to compose a poem impromptu, to test whether he was really talented or not. One requirement Cao Pi imposed on his brother was that the poem should be finished at the end of the seventh pace, not later. Under such pressure Cao Zhi could not but try, yet he finished a poem before he took the seventh pace. Literally, it carries the following meaning:

To fry beans in to burn beanstalks,

Thus beans are crying when fried;

Grown out of the same root,

Why are we burned together?

The poem was also quoted by Collection of Literature Works of One Hundred and Three Famous Writers in the Han Dynasty and the Wei Dynasty by Zhang Pu, a famous poet of the Ming Dynasty.

Later the allusion is used to describe a very quick wit, or a fratricidal fighting and faction.

The Chinese idiom that Old Man Yu Gong Moved Away is often used to describe a person who has strongly persistence in his or her mind, and never stops until the goal is reached.

A story of this idiom goes like this. Once upon a time, there were two mountains Taihang and Wangwu covering a territory of seven hundred square miles, with a ten thousand cubits height. They were formerly situated in the south of Jizhou and north of Heyang.

Old Man Yu Gong of the North Mountain was about ninety years old and he lived in a house facing the mountains. He did not like the mountains blocking his way and making him go up and down or around the mountains when he left home. One day, he asked his families to come together and said to them, “You and I shall set to work with all our strength and level the mountains so that we may have a path leading straight outside and reaching clear to the northern bank of the Han River. What do you say?” The family agreed, but his wife was worried, “With your strength, you can’t even do anything with a little hill. How can you move the two great mountains away? Besides, where are you going to put away all the rocks and soil?” The Old Man said, “We can throw them into the end of the Bohai Sea and the north of Yintu (Siberia).”

He then led three of his children and grandchildren, who could carry loads, chip the rocks and shovel the soil, and carried them in baskets to the end of the Bohai Sea. An orphan boy of the neighbor’s widow, who had just shed his milk teeth, jumped along and came to help them and returned home once a season. The Wise Man of nearby laughed at the Old Man and tried to stop him, saying, “What a fool you are! With all the strength and years left for you, you can’t even scratch the surface of this mountain. What can you do about the rocks and soil?” Old Man YU Gong drew a deep sigh and said, “Your mind is so blocked up that you cannot think straight. I cannot achieve my will definitely, but when I die, there will be my children to carry on the work, and the children will have grandchildren, and the grandchildren will again have children. So my children and grandchildren are endless, while the mountains cannot grow bigger in size. Why shouldn’t they be leveled some day?” The Wise Man could not make any reply.

Now the Mountain God heard about, the Old Man was worried that the leveling of the mountains would not cease, and then went to speak to God. God was touched by the Old Man’s sincerity of heart and ordered the two of his sons to carry the two mountains and placed one in Shuodong and one in Yongna. From then on, the south of Jizhou and north of the Han River became level ground, and the spirit of the Old Man Yu Gong has been passing down.

As the Rabbit Year has come, rabbit, pronounced "Tu" in Chinese, appears more and more often in the daily life of Chinese people. The cute, white rabbit has long been bestowed pure and vivacious meanings, used as the symbol of people who are full of kindness or vitality. Besides the divine image, Chinese people also regard the rabbit as the embodiment of cleverness. There are many Chinese idioms to describe its vigilance and agility, for instance:

Dong Ruo Tuo Tu: as nimble as a rabbit that has broken loose.

Wu Fei Tu Zou: time passes so fast, just like how the crow (the sun) and the rabbit (the moon) travel every day.

Shou Zhu Dai Tu: to wait by a tree which a rabbit rushed into and dies, hoping to get another prey with the same good luck.

Jiao Tu San Ku: a canny rabbit always has several holes, making it hard for predators to track it down.

Usage Examples

- Things are always changing, we should not trust to chance and windfalls.

- The criminal did so many crimes and hid in many burrows, thus the police spent much effort to arrest him.