Practical Tips

The weather in Dali is mild every season. Summers are comfortably warm and winters are only slightly chilly.

A festive spirit spreads throughout the streets during special occasions. The Sanyue Jie, beginning in April, lasts a week and commemorates a visit by Guanyin, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, to the Nanzhao monarch, and is also known as the Guanyin Festival. The market goes into overdrive as people trade wares and smiles. The three-day Three Temples Festival is another vibrant event in May. A procession starts from Dali's South Gate, to Xizhou's Sacred Fountain Temple, where merrymaking rocks the village until dawn. The troupe heads to Jingui Temple near Erhai Lake before going back to Dali. If you spot torches and firework displays through the night in July then you've come during the Torch Festival. Held usually in July or August, celebrations include dragon boat racing, an event that has spread all over Asia.