Travel to Xizhou Old Town in Dali

East to Erhai Lake and West to Cangshan Mountain, Xizhou is located in 18 kilometers north of Dali Old Town. Xizhoiu is the important town for Bai nationality. The most well-preserved Bai residences can be seem here. The famous compond with rooms on three sides and a screen wall and typical quadrangle with five yards indicate the wisdom and artistic creativity of Bai nationality.

Residential houses of the Bai people in Xizhou pay much attention to the decorations of screens, doors, windows, walls, flower terrace, arches over gateways. The center of the screen is often inscribed with four characters, or embedded with a marble. Doors and windows are mostly made of rare wood and carved with auspicious designs. Walls are painted with white lime and decorated with wash drawings. Arches over gateways with upturned eaves are exquisitely carved with great care and precision. They are cultural relics at national level.

The famous handicraft of Bai people is Tie-dyed Technique. This technique uses white cotton cloth as the raw material and colorfast indigo-blue as the dye. Procedures include designing by hand, tying knots, dyeing and bleaching, untying knots, and spreading. Tie-dyed cloth shows white patterns on a blue background.

What’s more, you can taste special Three-course Tea, which is a traditional custom of the Bai to entertain guests. The first course is plain tea. The second, flavored with brown sugar, milk, walnuts, and sesame, has a sweet aroma. The third, called afterflavor tea, is seasoned with honey, ginger sauce, Chinese prickly ash, cinnamon and pine nut. Three-course tea connotes the three stages of life.