Hello and welcome back once again to this week’s edition of ‘Bajan,’ Chinese Style! I hope you have been enjoying our travels throughout Yunnan and, just to give you an idea of how much there is to do and appreciate in this province, we find ourselves here at our 10th Yunnan edition and quite frankly, we’ve only just gotten a little more than halfway! With that in mind, let’s take our first precursory look at yet another Yunnan UNESCO world heritage site, The Kingdom of Dali.

Historically known as the Kingdom of Dali, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture or simply Dali, is the traditional seat of the Yi ethnicity. This differs from the neighbouring ancient towns of Lijiang and Shangri-La, of which the major (traditional) ethnicities consist of the Naxi ( Re: Naxi Ethnicity )and Tibetan principally. There are many reasons for this, of which geography undoubtedly plays…