We took a 5 hour bus ride from Lijiang to Dalí. The ancient town of Dali is quiet relaxed and fun. I want to highly recommend the Jade Emu Hostel. For the Cost of 130 yuan per night for a double room, we got: large clean room, huge and very comfortable bed, bright clean floor, and big shower with towels, shampoo and soap. The room also had a DVD player and TV, you can take a movie from the hostel. This hostel felt like a hotel compared to some other hostels in China. Beyond the comfort and cleanliness of the room, the Australian owners of the hostel, and the English speaking stuff, were always nice and helpful. The food is not cheap, but delicious. You can play billiard at the entrance of the hostel. You can do laundry for free; all you need is the detergent, which costs 4 yuan. You can book bus tickets and day trips in Dali through the hostel. One evening was Dumplings party at the hostel; we learned to prepare delicious Dumplings then ate it at a cost of 20 yuan per person. We enjoyed very much of the great atmosphere.
Our rating for Jade Emu hostel is 10 of 10.
We booked tickets to Mount Cangshan through the hostel at cost of 100 yuan per person, including transportation to the mountain, cost of entry and cost of cable car back and forth. The trail is nice and cozy, at the time we traveled we almost didn’t see any other tourist, even though it was during the national holiday and the weather was wonderful. We took the cable car up to the area of the Gingbi stream– beautiful waterfalls and blue water. Then we walked up towards the beginning of the trail. After climbing some stairs you turn right and start walking the 12 kilometers trail. It was nice to see all Dali, Erhai Lake and the great scenery from above. We did it in a rather calm and slowly pace and it took us about 4 hours.
You should note that there is no place to buy water or food during the walking so you better stock up in advance. At the end of the trail you need to take the chair lift down witch takes almost half an hour. Then you can take a taxi for about 20 yuan back to the hostel area.
Today was a relaxing day, we rent bicycles and ride around Erhai Lake and traveled in Dali. We met some Chinese art students and did some drawings together. it was really fun. At night we took the 8 hour sleeping bus ride to Kunming, which was a strange experience and we barley slept…
Our rating for Dali is 8 out of 10.