Xiaguan was first known to the Chinese in the mid-8th century as Longweicheng; at that time it was built by Poluoge, king of the Nanzhao kingdom located in the area. After the occupation of the region by the Mongols in the late 13th century, it became a customs station and tax office, known variously as Longweiguan, Huweiguan, or Xiaguan. It grew into an important market town for local produce and was a centre of trade between Chinese merchants and the various minority peoples living in the surrounding mountain districts. Its trade in the 19th century was largely founded on tea produced in the vicinity. It was also a tea market second only to Pu’er in Yunnan, and tea processing became an important industry in the early years of the 20th century. Its prosperity increased still further with the construction of the Burma Road during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45), and its commercial role subsequently grew until it had become the chief collection and distribution centre in western Yunnan.

The contemporary city has remained a collecting point for cotton, tea, grain, sugar, pears, walnuts, and ham, as well as for fish from Lake Er; these products are mainly for shipment to Kunming. After 1949 the city experienced some industrial development, including grain milling, oil extraction, and tea curing. It also had some light engineering industries, such as the production of farm tools. Since the beginning of the 1980s, Dali has enhanced its economic status and become an economic and communication centre of western Yunnan. Newer industries include power generating, papermaking, cement manufacturing, marble processing and polishing, cigarette making, and food processing. The Yunnan-Tibet highway and the Kunming-Wanding highway (on the Sino-Myanmar border) cross there. In addition, a branch rail line from Dali to Kunming has been completed. A regional airport, which began service in the mid-1990s, now has regular flights to several Chinese cities.

1.Babi Club(芭比Club)

Address:

Tel：183131186617

Address:Canshan Road,Xiaguan

2.Jindian 17.5 cinema(17.5电影院)

Tel：0872-7183755

Address:No.66,Renmin Road,Xiaguan

3.Fulonghaiwan Mini Bar (富隆海湾mini酒吧)

Tel：0872-2194410

Address:Beside Haiwan Guoji,Xiaguan Erhe South Road,Xiaguan

4.Yinyuezhichuang KTV（音乐之窗主题量贩KTV）

Tel：0872-2329399

Address:Yunlong Road,Xiaguan

5. Dali Xigu Spring（大理栖谷温泉）

Tel：0872-2198299

Address:Tangzipu,Xiaguan

6. Miao Ethnic Group Pedicure（苗族足疗）

Address:No.102,Wenhua Road,Xiaguan

Tuocha or “dome-shaped bowl tea” is a compressed tea, usually made of pu-erh. The shape resembles a bird’s nest and tuocha range in weight from 3g to 3kg or more. Tuocha are convex in order to help the tea dry out after processing. “The name for tuocha is believed to have originated from the round, top-like shape of the pressed tea or from the old tea shipping and trading route of the Tuojiang River.”While mini tuocha can be steeped whole, most large tuocha are broken into pieces and only small amounts are steeped at a time.

History Of Yunnan Tea

Located in the Southwest frontiers of China, Yunnan Province features rough terrain which is dotted with cloud-veiled mountains and crisscrossed with meandering rivers. The Province has abundant rainfall, mild climate and fertile land, all of which prepare ideal conditions for tea cultivation, and Yunnan is the homeland of tea trees.

According to historic records, Yunnan has a history of 2,100 year since it domesticated the aboriginal tea (known as the ‘wild tea’). In Yunnan province, the 800-year-old cultivation type ancient tea tree is still growing in the Nannou Mountain of Menghai County, the 1,700-year-old ancient wild tea tree now growing in Bada of Menghai County and the 1,000-year-old ancient tea tree now growing in Bangwei of Lincang Prefecture which indicates the transition between the wild and cultivation types. They are praised as the ‘Three Ancient Tea-tree King’ of the world. Those ancient tea trees are regarded as the ‘living fossils’ of Yunnan’s aboriginal tea plants.

According to historic records of China, the ethnic Pu people in Yunnan began to grow tea and served it as tribute to the emperors as early as in the Chinese Shang and Zhou Dynasties. In the west and East Han Dynasties, tea was grown in river valleys and by the mountain trails of Yizhou. In the Three Kingdoms Period, The Nanzhong tea-seed was widely popularized. In the Tang Dynasty, tea produced in Xishuanbanna was marketed to Dali area and became the favorite drink of the noblemen of the Nanzhao Kingdom. In the Song Dynasty, Pu-erh County became a famous market for trading tea and horses. In the Yunnan Dynasty, tea had become the most important commodity in the transactions undertaken by people of all ethnic groups. In the former part of the Qing Dynasty, reputation of the Pu-erh tea reached its climax. The years starting in 1926 and ending in 1936 which were on the eve of the War of Resistance Against Japan marked the most prosperous period of production and sales of Yunnan tea, during which more than 5,000 tons of tea were yearly sold to Sichuan and Tibet, while over 500 tons were exported to foreign countries.

Yunnan’s tea export to foreign countries started more than 200 year ago. According to annals recorded during Emperor Qianlong’s reign in the Qing Dynasty, Yunnan’s tea export was stared as early as in 1763.

Yunnan is a treasure land of China for developing the tea industry. All the tea-producing areas of the province are located at elevations from 1,200 to 2,000 meters. The annual mean temperature ranges from 12 to 23 degrees centigrade, effective annual heat cumulation is between 4,500 and 7,000 degrees centigrade, and annual rainfall is 1,000-1,900mm. The monsoon season is concentrated in May through October, during which the rainfall constitutes about 85% of that of the whole year. The monsoon coincides with the hottest months, and there is a very high value of effective rainfall. In the dry season which starts in November and ends in April, There are sufficient sunny day. There is adequate sunshine, and the tea trees have a long growth period. Under normal conditions, the tea-leaf plucking period may last for 8 to 9 months. The tea-growing areas are generally covered with red, yellow of brick-red soils with the pH value ranging between 4 to 6. Comparing with other major tea producing countries, the climate of Yunnan is more suitable for growing tea trees. Therefore, Yunnan has rich varieties of tea trees and excellent tea species.

Up to the present, Yunnan has registered a total number of 199 species of local tea trees, the good ones among which are 46 asexual-propagation species and 153 sexual-propagation species. Overall, Yunnan’s tea species are known as the “Yunnan large-leaf tea”, which, just like the ideal Assam tea of India and the Kenya tea, belongs to superb tea species of the world, and is the ideal raw material for producing the black tea and Pu-erh tea. Comparing with the small-leaf species, Yunnan tea has higher polyphenol by 5-7% than the average value, catechin by 30-60% higher than the average value, and water-soluble substances by 3-5% higher than the average value.

According to the different method used in tea processing, Yunngn tea is made into over 100 kinds of products. Yunnan Tuocha Tea is famous for its medicinal properties, it was proved to be an efficacious beverage with the functions of eliminating fat, reducing weight, strengthening body and lengthening longevity, stimulating metabolism, and balancing and regulating the level of cholesterol. Yunnan Tuocha Tea is also highly reputed as ‘slimming tea’, ‘beauty tea’ and ‘healthy tea’ in more than twenty countries and regions including France, Spain, Japan, Hong Kong and so on.

Name：Longxin KTV(龙鑫KTV)

Address：Jinlong Road,Nanjian County,Dali

Name：Tiancheng Bar(天城酒吧)

Address：Around Nanjian Road,Nanjian County,Dali

Name：Pinwei Tea House(品味茶楼)

Address：Fuming Street,Nanjian County,Dali

Name：Wendi Bar(温迪酒吧)

Address：Jinlong Street,Nanjian County,Dali

Name：QiyeTea Bar(七夜茶吧)

Address：Caiyun Road,Nanjian County,Dali

Tiaocai (跳菜), a kind of Yi people’s folk dances, was presented by some folk artisans at the Wuliang mountain Eco-Tea Garden in Nanjian County of Dali, Yunnan Province. The dance has a long history which can be dated back to the matrilineal society in China. Dancers time their steps to the music and at the same time, serve various local dishes to guests. Tiaocai dance is regarded as a courtesy by Yi people and is listed as a national intangible cultural heritages.

Origin of the Yi Torch Festival

 There are records about the origin of the Torch Festival in the “Kunming County Annals” written in the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty: “There was a Yi woman Anan in the Han Dynasty. Her husband was killed by evildoers, and she swore that she would not submit to the killers. So she jumped into fire and died at that day (the 24th in the sixth lunar month). People felt very sad and held the festival for her.

 A description of another origin story from a different source goes: “King Piluoge of the Yunnanzhao (a local regime in ancient China) planned to meet of the rulers other five cities in the Songming Building. He wanted to trap and burn them to death so that he could swallow up their territory. The wife of King Dengdan—a woman named Cishan—tried to persuade her husband not to go, but he refused. Then she put an iron bracelet around the arm of her husband. He went as scheduled and was burned death. Cishan identified and brought back her husband’s body according to the iron bracelet. Piluoge heard of her virtue and wanted to draw her over to his side, but Cishan closed the city gate and committed suicide. So people of Dian (an ancient name for Yunnan) burned torches to grieve over her.”

 In a folk legend, it is said that the Torch Festival stems from a time when God sent pests to destroy crops in the human world and Yi people drove them away with fire. Some people also say that the festival commemorate a fight in which ancestors defeated the Prince of the Devils by attacking them with fire. Most of the records and legends are forced interpretation. Chinese historians say the Torch Festival for praying for good harvests and came into being as a result of the poor harvests by the ancient Yi society. Over the years the religious elements of the festival have diminished and the entertainment value has increased.

Yi Torch Festival

The Yi Torch festival. features courtship rituals, music, dancing around huge bonfires and bloodless bullfights. In the daytime, a ceremony is held to offer prayers to the gods or spirits associated with their lives. Prayers to earth God are made with chicken blood. After sunset, people light torches to send the gods backs. One Yi told Smithsonian magazine, “The celebration is all bustle and excitement. We slaughter goats and chickens, drink liquor, sing songs and dance, We also invite our best friends to a big feast.”

 The Torch Festival is celebrated on the 24th day of 6th lunar month in July or August in southwest China by the Bai, Naxi and Yi people. Participants light torches in front of their houses and set 35-foot-high torches—made from pine and cypress timbers stuffed with smaller branches—in their village squares. The Bulang, Wa, Lisu, Lahu, Hani and Jinuo minorities hold similar festivals but on different dates.

 “The Torch Festival” has traditionally been celebrated by many Chinese ethnic groups around 24th day of the sixth lunar month. During the festival, Yis in all villages carry torches and walk around their houses and fields, and plant pine torches on field ridges in the hope of driving away insect pests. After making their rounds, the Yi villagers gather around bonfires, playing moon guitars (a four-stringed plucked instrument with a moon-shaped sound box) and mouth organs, dancing and drinking wine through the night to pray for a good harvest. The Yis in some places stage horse races, bull fighting, playing on the swing, archery and wrestling.

 The Yi Torch Festival is held at different times among different Yi groups. It is generally held on about 24th of the sixth lunar month in Sichuan and Yunnan, and about the 6th of the sixth lunar month in the Guizhou Yi region. The length of the celebration varies from three to seven days. When it comes, some people butcher chicken and pig, and some butcher cattle and sheep as sacrifices offered to the ruler of heaven, the mother of earth and ancestors. The Yi also pray for the safety of humans and domestic animals and for an abundant harvest of all food crops. At nightfall, torches are lit and villages compete to have the best torch. Recreational, sports and entertaining activities include antiphonal singing (alternate singing by two choirs or singers), dancing, bullfight, horse race, wrestling, archery, and tug-of-wars. Business and trade activities are carried out.

 Because Yi people believe that torches get rid of evil and ghosts, they light up every corner of their house after the torch is lit. In some villages, torch teams go from house to house, and then gather at the edge of a village, or on slope or in fields to play torch games and hold a fire party, where young men and women decked out in their finest festival dress sing and dance and party all night long. An ancient poem describing proceeding centuries ago goes: “The mountain seems wrapped by rosy cloud; Uneven torches move back and forth with people which are like ten thousand of lotus flowers blossoming in mirage, and stars all over the sky fall down to the human world.”

 The festival honors a woman who leaped into a fire rather make love with a king. Before the village torch is lit people gather around it and drink rice wine. The village elders use a ladder to climb to the top of the torch as they distribute fruit and food to the villagers while they boisterously sing the “Torch Festival Song.” The torch is then solemnly lit. The villagers light their torches off the village torch and sing and dance and eventually make their ways to their homes and light the torches there.

Name：Shanshui KTV(山水KTV)

Address：Yongle Road,Yongping County,Dali

Name：Yimingxuan Wine Bar(逸茗轩酒吧)

Address：Yongle Road,Yongping County,Dali

Name：Zhongze Hemeishenghuo Shopping Hall(中泽·和美生活广场)

Address：No.69,Bonan Road,Yongping County,Dali

Name：Jinse Nianhua Bar(金色年华吧)

Address：No.44,Bonan Road,Yongping County,Dali

Name：Shanshui Yunjian Bar(山水云间休闲吧)

Address：Yongle Road,Yongping County,Dali

The Southern Silk Road is a ancient network of footpaths crossing Yunnan from East to West that provided trade links between China and the West. The part that passes the Bonan mountains is known as the Bonan trail (博南古道, Bo Nan Gu Dao).Also of a later date and less used then the Northern Silk Road it still provided a link between the cultures of China and Burma and the Indian subcontinent. Marco Polo took this route through Yunnan on his way back from visiting the Burmese king in Bagan.

Start and finish of the trail

Like any road or trail going east west in Yunnan crosses serious rivers and high mountain chains.The trails lead across these mountain ranges to the places where the big rivers could be crossed.The Bonan trail started in Yangbi at the Yunlong Bridge and ends in the Walled town of Tengchong across the Gaoligongshan mountains and crosses the Lancangjiang (Mekong) river at the Jihong Bridge (Build in 1681 as a metal chain bridge, before there was a rattan bridge at the same location) and the Nujiang (Salween) river at the double Shuanghong Bridge (Build in 1759) or later the Huiren Bridge (Build in 1839). On its way the trails cross several smaller rivers and streams.

Original trail

Historic documents tell the story of temples in combination with the Silk Road trail. These temples were regarded to be safe stopovers and travellers often stayed there overnight. One of the mentioned places is the Jiang Ding Si temple.

Most of these trails were just dirt roads but some stretches got paved such as the trail in front of the Jiang Ding temple. The thousands of pack horses and mules have worn out the trail with their iron clad hoofs and their marks still can be seen in the paving stones of the trail.

Recently it got quite busy again along the trail near the Jiang Ding Si temple. New access roads and a whole new suspension bridge were build to aid the work on a huge railway bridge for the new Dali/Baoshan high-speed railway.

And in Er’yuan ,you will experience not only mountains and rivers,But also hot spring.Dali Geothermal Paradise in Jiuqitai Hot Spring,Eryuan County.Aside from the amusing name, the “Geothermic Kingdom” is the largest hot springs in Asia, and may be the most beautiful. Set in a valley surrounded by mountains, and so big you could get lost inside. There are pools of all temperatures and sizes, pools shaped like giant hands, pools with caves, pools filled with skin purifying milk, and one that claims to cleanse your heart and soul. It’s just over an hour from Dali city, open 24hrs.

Name：Eryuan geothermal spring

Tel：(0872)5128888

Address：Around Cibi Lake,Eryuan County

Name：Eryuan Library

Address：No.31,Wenkang Road,Eryuan County

Name：Eryuan Wenquan Spa(温泉会馆)

Tel：(0872)5129999

Address：No.30,Wenkang Road,Eryuan County

Name：8090 Drink Bar

Tel：+8615125030077

Address：Around Spring District,Wenkang Road,Eryuan County

Name：Jinshuige Teahouse

Address：No.90,Xingyuan Road,Wenkang Road,Eryuan County

Name：Culture Hall

Address：No.32,Wenkang Road,Eryuan County

Innumerable tourists visit Eryuan County in throngs to see its beautiful lakesides and mountains, its numerous humanistic landscapes, and its rich ethnic culture and customs.