Dali

Dali is the kind of city that slows a person's rhythm down. The Bai have lived here for generations, their days half a beat slower than Lijiang, two beats slower than Kunming; the nineteen peaks of the Cangshan range lie across the north, Erhai Lake spreads out to the south, and the plain in between is the whole of their life. The Bai three-course tea — first bitter, then sweet, then a long aftertaste — is really a vegetarian philosophy of taste: bitter tea first, then a sweet tea with milk fan and walnut, and finally a tea that lingers. Three cups for three stages of a life, and no advice offered.

In Xizhou the local baba flatbread has been made for six hundred years, flaky and available sweet or savoury, best eaten straight from the oven. We take you to Xizhou for a vegetarian version of the Bai eight-bowls banquet, to Zhoucheng to learn tie-dyeing with indigo from a Bai grandmother, and then to Shaxi for two nights — the last market town on the Tea Horse Road that is still quiet.

The best seasons are March to May and September to November, when the wind is light and the sky clear. Shaxi is about two hours by road from Dali old town and worth two nights of its own, but buses are few, so hiring a car is advisable. At around 2,000 metres the ultraviolet is strong — do not economise on sun protection. Afternoon showers are common in the rainy season, so leave some slack in the schedule.