Dali Nuodeng Lvwo International Youth Hostel

A great town, and it’s worth climbing to the top of the hill to see the temples. I hear it gets crazy busy during the holiday season, so avoid going then.

There aren't many tourists, and the quiet is lovely. There are a few interesting hotels and guesthouses around, so bring a book and settle in. This was my best time in China.

It's an authentic village, though be ready to climb plenty of stairs.

I started with dinner at Old Yang's by the village entrance and picked up a Nuodeng ham before heading uphill. The village is big but not crowded. Many residents work elsewhere now, and the people who stayed have stopped making salt. These days Dali depends a lot on corn grown in Qiaohou Town in Eryuan. The famous "Natural Tai Chi Diagram" on the riverbank is just beyond the road, almost too close to see properly. For a better view, climb the opposite hill to Tianchi Lake. As I made my way through the village, the scenery kept changing and old houses appeared one after another, like a maze. The locals were so welcoming that I felt warmed and happy. At "Jinshi Di," I caught the smell of food and went in. When I saw dishes coming out of the kitchen, I made a big show of sniffing and saying, "That smells so good!" The owner smiled right away and gave me a piece of braised pork. I swallowed it in one bite, and the delicious smell lingered in my mouth. It was Ghost Festival, the 15th day of the seventh lunar month. In Nuodeng, when an elderly person has died that year, the custom is to hold a banquet. Guests receive cotton funeral clothes, mostly black and sometimes purple. They are said to serve different purposes, and the host burns them in three batches rather than all at once. An old path behind the village climbs to the Jade Emperor Pavilion and the Confucian Temple on the hillside. The setting sun left a glow that seemed to last. It brought to mind Wesley's novel "Dream Seeker," and I imagined myself as an ordinary Nuodeng villager: "A little path with trees on both sides. My heart feels uneasy, as if I'm eager to meet someone. At the end stands a fairly tall memorial arch with four characters carved into it..." Luckily, the words weren't "Chastity is a Wind," but "Soaring Dragons and Rising Phoenixes." The main hall of the Jade Emperor Pavilion is still standing, but it's empty in the middle, with all the statues destroyed. Bamboo surrounds the deserted place. A skinny horse grazed by the entrance screen wall, then neighed alone and raced over the sand and snow, looking east and west as if lost along the path. When it saw someone fleeing in a hurry, it turned around quickly and vanished into the wind...