Dali sits at about 1,970 metres in western Yunnan, on a plain between the Cangshan range and Erhai Lake, and it was the capital of two independent kingdoms, Nanzhao and Dali, which ruled this part of the world for five centuries before the Mongols arrived in 1253. It is the heartland of the Bai people, who are still the majority here, and the combination of that history, the altitude and the lake is why it looks and feels unlike anywhere in eastern China.
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What visitors come for is the Old Town: a walled grid of stone-paved streets below the mountains, in the first two photographs here, with the Bai architecture of whitewashed walls, grey tile and painted gables. It is thoroughly commercialised, which is worth saying plainly, and it is also genuinely beautiful and genuinely old, and the villages around the lake are where the Bai life the town has partly sold is still ordinary.
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What Is Here
The Old Town is walked rather than toured. The Wuhua Tower, the Foreigner Street that is now mostly Chinese visitors, the Catholic church built in Bai style and the city walls are the landmarks, and the pleasure is the lanes behind them in the early morning before the coach groups. The Three Pagodas at Chongsheng Temple, north west of the town, are the emblem of Dali: the tallest dates from the ninth century and the reflecting pool in front of them is the photograph everyone takes.
Erhai Lake is the destination as much as the town. It is forty kilometres long, the road and the cycle path run most of the way round it, and the standard and best thing to do in Dali is to spend a day going round it by bicycle, e-bike or scooter. The villages on the western shore, Xizhou, Zhoucheng and Shuanglang on the east, hold Bai markets, tie-dye workshops and the old courtyard houses. Xizhou's Monday market is the real thing. The lake in the third photograph is what you ride beside all day.
Cangshan rises to just over 4,000 metres directly behind the town, with two cable cars, a horizontal path called the Cloud Traveller's Path cut along the mountainside at about 2,600 metres, and real hiking above that. The Jade Belt Road walk is the easy version and is one of the better half days in Yunnan.
Beyond: Shaxi, an old Tea Horse Road town two and a half hours north, which is what Dali looked like before the tourism; Weishan, south, which is similar; and Lijiang three hours north by train, which is the other great Yunnan old town and the comparison everyone draws.
When to Go
March to May and September to November are the best months: dry, clear, and warm in the day at twenty to twenty-five degrees. Yunnan's altitude means the temperature range within a day is wide all year, and Dali at nearly two thousand metres is cool once the sun is off the plain.
June to August is the rainy season, with afternoon and evening rain rather than all-day, a green landscape and lower prices, and the mountain views disappearing into cloud for days. The rain is the reason the Cangshan cable cars close at short notice.
December to February is dry, bright and cold: daytime around ten to fifteen degrees and nights at or below freezing, with snow on Cangshan. Accommodation in the Old Town is frequently unheated or heated badly, which is the thing that makes a Yunnan winter uncomfortable rather than the air temperature.
Two scheduling notes. Chinese public holidays, particularly the first week of October and Chinese New Year, fill Dali completely and double prices; the Old Town in National Day week is shoulder to shoulder. And the Bai Third Month Fair in April is a week-long market and horse fair that is the best time to be here and also the busiest.
Getting There
The high speed railway reaches Dali from Kunming in about two hours, which has transformed access, and continues to Lijiang in about ninety minutes. Dali has an airport with domestic flights, and Kunming is the regional hub. Note that the railway station is in Xiaguan, the modern city about fifteen kilometres from the Old Town, and that the bus or taxi between them is part of every arrival.
Locally, buses run between Xiaguan and the Old Town constantly. Around the lake, e-bike and bicycle hire is the normal and best way to travel and the circuit is flat; a scooter covers more. Taxis and ride-hailing work, and the ride-hailing apps are easier than flagging a cab if you do not speak Chinese. Read the practical section below before you arrive, because payment and the internet both need setting up in advance in China.
Is Dali Safe for Women Travelers
UK FCDO: China has NO advised-against areas at all, which is worth stating plainly and is not the end of the matter. The phrase 'advises against' appears nowhere in its travel advice, and the regional-risks page nonetheless carries two sections that decide whether a trip is possible. TIBET AND THE TIBET AUTONOMOUS REGION REQUIRE A PERMIT AND AN ORGANISED TOUR, obtained through a specialist agent in China, and the authorities SOMETIMES STOP ISSUING PERMITS WITHOUT NOTICE or restrict travel to TIBETAN AUTONOMOUS PREFECTURES IN NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES EVEN IF YOU HAVE A PERMIT, which reaches into Yunnan and Sichuan and is the part nobody expects. XINJIANG carries a separate section recording violent unrest that has resulted in deaths, allegations that police use lethal force, and WIDESPREAD ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND EXTRA-JUDICIAL DETENTIONS, with increased risk listed for several groups including, in the FCDO's own list, FOREIGN NATIONALS. Everywhere else in China, including every destination covered on this site outside those two regions, carries no restriction.
Dali is in western Yunnan, carries no restriction, and is a long way from both of the regions the FCDO treats separately. One point of geography does matter here and almost nobody expects it: the FCDO notes that the authorities sometimes restrict travel to TIBETAN AUTONOMOUS PREFECTURES IN NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES even for permit holders, and Yunnan contains one, Diqing, in its far north west around Shangri-La. Dali is well south of it and unaffected, and if your itinerary continues north towards Shangri-La or Tiger Leaping Gorge then that is the thing to check rather than assume.
This is the most serious thing on this page and it has no equivalent in most countries this library covers. The FCDO states that CHINESE NATIONAL SECURITY LAWS HAVE BROAD SCOPE AND THAT YOU CAN BE ARRESTED WITHOUT HAVING INTENDED TO BREAK THE LAW. Both 'national security' and 'national interest' appear regularly in Chinese legislation and are not narrowly defined. It records a RISK OF ARBITRARY DETENTION, INCLUDING OF BRITISH NATIONALS, and that ACTIVITY THAT HAPPENED OUTSIDE MAINLAND CHINA, INCLUDING ONLINE ACTIVITY, COULD FALL UNDER THE SCOPE of mainland legislation, which means something posted years ago from another country is in scope. If you are detained on national security grounds you MAY BE HELD FOR UP TO SIX MONTHS BEFORE FORMAL ARREST AND DENIED LEGAL REPRESENTATION until charges are brought. The FCDO names being currently or previously linked to FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS, MEDIA OUTLETS or NGOs as raising the risk of surveillance, harassment or detention, says the list is not exhaustive, and says this is particularly relevant in areas with large ethnic minority populations including but not limited to Xinjiang. Separately, POSTING OR SUPPORTING POLITICAL STATEMENTS CRITICAL OF CHINA could be viewed as illegal. None of that is a reason not to go, and all of it is a reason to think about your own history and your phone before you do.
Always carry your actual passport, and this is the one country where a photograph of it is no help. The FCDO's wording is that police CARRY OUT RANDOM CHECKS, especially during periods of heightened security and major sporting or political events, that THEY DO NOT ACCEPT PRINTED COPIES, and that FAILURE TO PRODUCE YOUR ID CAN LEAD TO A FINE OR DETENTION. That inverts the standing advice in most of this library, which is to leave the original in the safe and carry a copy. Here the original goes with you, so the practical answer is a zipped inner pocket rather than a bag, and hotel check-in will also want it since accommodation registers foreign guests with the police.
The FCDO addresses women travelling alone directly in this section, which it does rarely, and it is worth quoting exactly. It says that personal attacks and sexual assaults are RARE but can happen, INCLUDING THROUGH DRINKS BEING SPIKED, and then: WOMEN, TRAVELLING ALONE OR WITH FEMALE FRIENDS, COULD BE AT HIGHER RISK. Its instructions are the ordinary ones and the honest framing matters more than the instructions: do not leave drinks unattended and do not accept drinks from strangers. China is a low-crime country for visitors by almost any measure, and the risk that does exist is concentrated in exactly this mechanism, so bottled or canned drinks opened in front of you, and refuse the invitation described in the scams section below, which is how most of these encounters begin.
In Dali specifically, the Old Town has a substantial bar scene concentrated on a few streets and a large domestic backpacker culture, which is sociable and friendly and is the environment that clause describes. Bottled or canned drinks opened in front of you, nothing left unattended.
The tea tasting scam is the one to know and the FCDO describes it step by step. Friendly strangers, often young and often practising their English, invite you to visit a bar, to DRINK TEA or to have a MASSAGE, and the establishment then DEMANDS A LARGE FEE. The FCDO records that this CAN BE FOLLOWED BY THREATS, VIOLENCE OR CREDIT CARD FRAUD. It happens in the tourist areas of Beijing, Shanghai and Xian most often and it is not confined to them. The defence is simple and absolute: do not accept an invitation from someone who approaches you in the street, however pleasant, and if you are already inside somewhere and the price is suddenly enormous, pay nothing, say you are calling the police, and leave. The FCDO separately warns about QR CODE PHISHING, which matters more here than anywhere because China runs on QR codes for payment, menus, tickets and entry: scan codes printed by the business, not stickers pasted over them, and never one handed to you on paper by a stranger.
Three practical facts shape a Chinese trip more than anything in a guidebook. PAYMENT IS BY PHONE. Alipay and WeChat Pay run almost everything, both now accept foreign cards, and cash is accepted by law but is increasingly awkward in practice; set at least one of them up BEFORE you arrive, because doing it on arrival needs the internet you may not yet have. THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ONE YOU USE AT HOME. Google, WhatsApp, Instagram and most western platforms are inaccessible without a VPN, VPN use sits in a grey legal area and VPNs must be installed before arrival because the app stores are restricted too, and the FCDO separately warns that the authorities may block the internet entirely during periods of tension. AND THE TRAINS ARE THE BEST PART. High speed rail connects almost every destination on this site, tickets are tied to your passport, and booking opens roughly two weeks ahead and sells out around national holidays.
Three local hazards no advisory carries, and the first is the reason this post exists in the shape it does. Altitude: Dali is at nearly 2,000 metres, which is enough to make people breathless and to disturb sleep on the first night, and Cangshan's cable cars go to 3,000 and above where mild altitude sickness is common. Go up on your second day rather than your first, and drink far more than you want to. The sun: at this latitude and this altitude the ultraviolet is severe, far stronger than the air temperature suggests, and sunburn on a cool bright Dali day is the commonest thing that happens to visitors. And the lake road: the Erhai circuit is shared with buses, trucks and scooters, parts have no shoulder, and a full-day e-bike ride ends in the dark if you start late.
The Dali Packing List
Merino base layers, because the day's temperature range is the whole problem
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the right answer to a place at two thousand metres where the sun is fierce and the shade is cold. The pattern is a warm afternoon cycling beside the lake and a cold evening in the Old Town within the same hour, and in winter an unheated room. Wool regulates both directions, insulates when damp, and the long sleeve is also the sun cover that matters more here than the temperature implies.
A fleece, and in winter something warmer
A Columbia Fast Trek fleece all year, because Cangshan at 3,000 metres is cold in any season and the evenings are cool even in July. From December to February add an insulated jacket, because nights are at or below freezing and the Old Town guesthouses are often barely heated.
A windproof shell
A Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket. It is the rain layer for the June to August afternoons and the windproof for the cable cars and the lake road, where the wind off forty kilometres of open water is the thing that makes a bright day cold.
Serious sun protection, which at this altitude is the priority
A wide brim UPF 50 sun hat and sunglasses, and high-factor sunscreen. Twenty-five degrees north at two thousand metres with a lake reflecting, the ultraviolet is far stronger than it feels, and the single most common visitor complaint in Yunnan is a burnt face from a day that was not even hot.
Shoes for stone lanes and a mountain path
A pair of waterproof walking shoes. The Old Town is worn stone that is slick in rain, the Cloud Traveller's Path is a cut ledge with loose sections, and the Cangshan trails above the cable cars are real mountain ground.
The small things
Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay before you arrive, which is the most important preparation for any Chinese trip and is covered above. Install a VPN before you arrive too, because the app stores are restricted once you are in the country. Carry your actual passport rather than a copy. A reusable bottle, since boiled water is available everywhere and tap water is not drinkable. Lip balm, because the altitude and the dry air crack lips within a day. A power bank. And a small torch for the Old Town lanes, which are atmospherically rather than usefully lit.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Dali
Emergency numbers: 110 for police, 120 for ambulance and 119 for fire. English is very limited on these lines outside the major cities, so the practical route to help is your accommodation, and a guesthouse in the Old Town used to foreign guests is worth choosing for that reason alone. Save your hotel's name and address in Chinese characters on your phone and on paper, which is the single most useful piece of preparation for travel in China and matters more in Yunnan than in Shanghai. The British Embassy's consular service for this region is handled from Chongqing and Beijing.
US State Department travel advisory: the China advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Chinese hospital care is good in the major cities and the practical obstacles are payment and language rather than quality. Public hospitals generally expect payment up front before treatment, including in an emergency, so a credit card with headroom and an insurer you can reach matter more than usual; the international wings of major hospitals and the private clinics in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are the facilities foreign visitors and insurers use, and they are expensive. Air quality is a genuine consideration in northern cities in winter, when a particulate mask is worth carrying rather than buying. Tap water is not drinkable anywhere; boiled water is universally available and is what everyone drinks. Altitude is the issue in Tibet and parts of Yunnan and Sichuan: Lhasa sits at about 3,650 metres, which is high enough for acute mountain sickness on arrival by air, and the organised tours the permit system requires normally build in an acclimatisation day for that reason.
Main hospital: Dali has a university-affiliated hospital and a prefectural people's hospital in Xiaguan, about fifteen kilometres from the Old Town, which handle ordinary illness and injuries competently and with almost no English. For anything serious the answer is Kunming, two hours by high speed rail, which has the province's major hospitals and the international clinics, and for anything major Chengdu, Hong Kong or Bangkok, which is where medical evacuations from Yunnan route. Expect to pay up front, including in an emergency. Confirm that your insurance covers medical evacuation by name and carry the policy number somewhere you can reach it without the internet.
Official health authority: the National Health Commission of China. Altitude is the relevant health issue here rather than anything tropical: Dali is at nearly 2,000 metres and the Cangshan cable cars reach above 3,000, where mild altitude sickness is common. Note that the health link here is the English-language National Health Commission site and that the live China hub links it over PLAIN HTTP, which this post does not
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Beijing.
Official tourism authority: the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism. For Yunnan specifically, the practical thing to check is not the national tourism site but whether any part of your onward itinerary enters a TIBETAN AUTONOMOUS PREFECTURE, because the FCDO records that these can be closed at short notice even to permit holders and Yunnan contains one in its far north west
Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay and install a VPN before you arrive. Both are much harder to do once you are in the country.
Carry your actual passport. Police do random checks and do not accept printed copies.
Do not accept an invitation to tea or a massage from someone who approaches you. The FCDO describes the scam and what follows it.
Solo women safety assessment: Dali is a comfortable and genuinely pleasant destination for a woman travelling alone, and China is in ordinary terms a very safe country to travel in: violent crime against visitors is rare, the infrastructure is excellent, and the high speed rail makes independent travel straightforward. The frictions are language and logistics rather than danger, and Dali has a large domestic backpacker culture which makes a woman on her own entirely unremarkable. CHINA HAS NO ADVISED-AGAINST AREAS ANYWHERE, and the phrase appears nowhere in its travel advice, which is why the serious material has to be read rather than grepped. TWO SECTIONS MATTER AND NEITHER IS ABOUT DALI. The first is national security law, where the FCDO states that the laws HAVE BROAD SCOPE AND THAT YOU CAN BE ARRESTED WITHOUT HAVING INTENDED TO BREAK THE LAW, that there is a RISK OF ARBITRARY DETENTION INCLUDING OF BRITISH NATIONALS, that detention on those grounds can mean UP TO SIX MONTHS BEFORE FORMAL ARREST AND DENIED LEGAL REPRESENTATION, and that ACTIVITY OUTSIDE MAINLAND CHINA INCLUDING ONLINE ACTIVITY can fall within scope, with greater risk for anyone linked to foreign governments, media outlets or NGOs. The second is the regional geography: Tibet and the TAR need a permit and an organised tour, and TIBETAN AUTONOMOUS PREFECTURES IN NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES can be restricted even for permit holders, which reaches into north west Yunnan around Shangri-La and is worth checking if your itinerary continues that way. Dali itself carries none of it. ON ASSAULT the FCDO says personal attacks and sexual assaults are rare and can happen including through drinks being spiked, and then addresses lone women directly: WOMEN, TRAVELLING ALONE OR WITH FEMALE FRIENDS, COULD BE AT HIGHER RISK. The Old Town's bar streets are the relevant setting, so bottled drinks opened in front of you. THE TEA TASTING SCAM is the thing to recognise: friendly strangers invite you for tea or a massage and the establishment then demands a very large fee, followed by threats, violence or card fraud, so decline invitations from anyone who approaches you in the street. Carry your actual passport, because police do random checks and do not accept copies. Penalties for fighting apply regardless of who started it, so walk away from any confrontation. THE LOCAL RISKS ARE ALTITUDE, SUN AND THE LAKE ROAD: nearly 2,000 metres in town and over 3,000 on the cable cars, ultraviolet far stronger than the cool air suggests, and a forty kilometre circuit shared with trucks that ends in the dark if you start late.
Reading On
Dali is the middle of the standard Yunnan route and the comparisons are the useful thing. The Lijiang packing list covers the other great Yunnan old town ninety minutes north by rail, which is higher, busier and sits under a snow mountain, and the Kunming packing list covers the provincial capital two hours south, which is where the flights and the major hospitals are. The Guilin packing list covers the karst landscape east of here. For the country as a whole the China travel guide for women and the China packing list carry the payment and internet set-up, the national security material and the regional permits in full. For why one wool layer handles fierce high-altitude sun and a freezing unheated room, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
