15/02/2010 - Yunnan, The Province of Mountains, Part 3.2

After lunch at the restaurant in the Dali University, we proceeded to our next destination, Yan Jia Da Yuan （严家大院）. It's a mansion that was built in 1920's and owned by Yan's family, and later became the property of the Dali government and opened to the public.


The big white wall is used to reflect the light of the Sun into the houses, it's known as Zhao Bi （照壁）


The whole mansion is connected, it means that once one went in the mansion, he/she can access to any room in the mansion




Another Zhao Bi in the mansion

There's a presentation in the hall of the mansion regarding some traditions of Bai Zu including some dance performance and also the wedding ceremony of Bai Zu. We were treated with teas from the Bai Zu as well, which they called it Bai Zu San Dao Cha （白族三道茶）, which means the 3 cups of tea of Bai Zu.


The first cup of tea is bitter, it represents that life was bitter in the beginning


Following by sweet tea, it means that life will be better after all the bitterness （苦尽甘来）


And the last cup of tea is Hui Wei Cha （回味茶）, which means when one look back at their life with bitterness and sweetness, that's life


The wedding ceremony of Bai Zu, the bride will wear the sunglasses as she will cry during the ceremony, which is a must. Later, the bride will be pinch during the ceremony, the more she get pinched the better it is




The main entrance of the Yan Jia Da Yuan


An ancient looking door while on my way back to the bus

After visited the Yan Jia Da Yuan, we started our long long journey to Li Jiang （丽江） which took us 2 hours. While on the way to Li Jiang, I saw plenty of Canola Flowers' farms, and the Canola Flowers are blooming, how I hope I can go down from the bus to have some shot of the Canola Flowers' farms.

When we reached Li Jiang, it was around 7:00 pm, so the bus dropped us to our hotel first to drop our luggage back to our rooms and have our dinner. We were having Dim Sum （点心） for our dinner. There were 2 local delicacies which I have forgotten the name, though they have some funny name.





After dinner, we went to visit The Old Town of Li Jiang （丽江古城）, it's one of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.











The source of water in the river of the town was from the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, which is very clean and cold


There're quite a number of shops selling silver ornaments, but Jacky told us not to simply buy silver ornaments from the shops, as some of them are not selling ornaments that are made from pure silver





After an hour plus in the town, we headed back to our hotel to rest, as we are going to wake up very early in the morning next day to go to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, which to me, is the best tourist spot in this trip.