July 15, 2010 - Dali, Yunnan, China

Pinyin: Bai wen bu ru yi jian

English translation: Seeing it once is better than being told 100 times

Idiom: A picture is worth ten thousand words

Our early morning walk took us to the Muslim Mosque, via the local Germany bakery for a pastry and latte. I've never experienced this before, but the men loitering at the mosque kept pointing at the prayer room and saying, "Sunni."    

Dali is surrounded by a number of small, rural Bai villages.  Visiting the Zhoucheng Village to witness customary indigo dye techniques, we were able to observe some level of traditional life-ways.  In Xizhou we wandered the fish, meat, and vegetable farmers market and participating in a traditional tea ceremony in the Xizhou Village.  It was here that we learned about the importance of tea in regards to love.

In spring Dali hosts the three day Butterfly Spring Festival.  Historically Bai people have arranged marriages, but during this Valentines-Day-type-festival, married men and women could "be with the one they really love."  And there are no questions asked after the festival ends.  More importantly, families welcome babies that result from the festival.  I've heard about other cultures with similar types of customs.  These festivals help keep the peace because wives who are married to impotent men can still get pregnant.  Today the Bai people can choose a partner, so the Butterfly Spring Festival has become a time when women and men of marrying age dress in their finest traditional garb and go to the festival.  At the festival a man will approach his desired woman and sing her a personalized love song.  If she reciprocates his interest, she will ask him three questions:

1. If I am sick, what will you do?

2. If I am poor, what will you do?

3. If I am old, what will you do?

The best answers he can give her are:

1. If you are sick, I will climb the highest mountain to find the right medicine for you.

2. If you are poor, I will be a beggar on the streets for you.

3. If you are old, I will care for you, like I care for my mother.

This is only the courtship's beginning.  After some time the suitor will attend tea at his desired woman's home.  The man will be served bitter tea first.  If the parents like him, he will eventually be served sweet tea as acceptance.  If only served bitter tea, the family has rejected the man.

For the afternoon, a friend and I rented high-end mountain bikes a for ride into the hills, past the Three Pagodas.  Dali is a Chinese vacation destination; outside of town a large golf course surrounded by condominiums, mansions, and a four-story villa-style club house stand.  Biking rugged roads, we eventually found our way up the hills to check-out the upper-middle-class suburb.  The Dali tourist industry takes pride in the golf course cut into the surrounding mountain forests.  After a small ascent, we came upon pristine green links being watered, fertilized, and mowed; so assumed golfers would be present... but no, only village people with baskets full of wide mushrooms were coming out of the forests and crossing the course.  So much building and no people present, there's a "if we build it, they will come" feeling.  Poaching Hole 1 and then bombing down Hole 10, we realized no one, except a few grounds keepers were present.  It was decided this was pristine mountain bike conditions for the taking, so we took liberty of riding the course, then after a small bushwhack, we headed back into Dali.

The perfect end to a big ride is a latte.  We've decided that Dali is "Italy with Chinese characteristics."