Guest post by Artur.

City

City have old and new parts. New parts look like usual city without anything special. Old part is a mix of old buildings and new "ancient" buildings. There are some farmers markets located in old city where locals get their vegetables. There are parts of old city wall. And city have "sea" which you can drive around in one day.

Some city along the road
Paid road
All way to Dali you can see hills
Street marketing specialist ...
"Ancient" city street
Making photos on street ignoring car traffic
Discussing what kind of selfie to make next
10 yuan to make photos of flower field... I will just make one photo for free from distance
Dali new city center

Sky

Most colorfull part of the place is Cangshan mountains that are like a wall from west side of the city. All clouds comes from mountains. Whenever you look at mountains there always clouds. It doesn't matter if it's sunny or rainy -  you will get nice view on Changshan mountains.

View from hostel roof
Clouds are falling down
Clouds go up
Er-hai lake
People trying to make some photos

Food

Food becomes more simpler and more spicy. And now everywhere you see transparent shelves where ingridients are held.

Meat with vegetables
Salad
French fries with prawns and nuts
Spicy soup with fish and tofu
Simply prepared food. Meat and beans
MD in most center in old style building.
Here is kitchen, here are ingredients
Vegetables, milk sweet stuff, rice
Small birds. Chicken legs. Duck necks. Chicken wings. Dali beer.
Fresh dumplings with chilly and dirty water.

Tea

City have many tea shops, where mostly you can buy puer. I got some cheap toucha to try how it tastes.

Please sit and try to be tea master. On the roof of hostel there is proper tea table.
6 toucha teas
Some hostel people offered to taste some puer

Hiking

Maps didn't show any good roads here, but still I wanted to get as far as I can. Definately there are places where to hike. Deeper in mountains it gets coolder and more philosphical mood comes to you. I recommend to hike in Cangshan mountains. After few hours of making photos, I realised that there is no memory card in camera ... ha ha. Good that there is always old nokia in your hands.

Road to mountain
Road doesn't look safe, half covered with rocks. And some one mining there... I hear only sound of mining.
Road continues forever
Last bits of getting to highest point
On top of that mountain is small shrine. Too tired to continue hiking further
"Panorama"
I like my boots especially when you feel comfortable after hiking in mountains.
Hidden footpath in mountains.
On top there is road that goes further. I don't have enough food and water to explore more