Dali Bai Ethnic Village, Yunnan China

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Bai Ethnic Village

The Bai Ethnic Villages are the most in Dali prefecture of Yunnan Province and it is one of the earliest development minorities in Yunnan. The feeling of Bai ethnic in Dali has been attracting the visitors for many years.

In New Stone Age four thousand years ago, the forefathers of Bai ethnic began from the Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Sea as their center to live and multiply in Yunnan Province. They started the agricultural culture on the plain near the rivers and lakes this region is Dali. During the late period of Shang Dynasty to West Han Dynasty (1100BC~24AD), the Bai ethnic created splendid bronze culture of Erhai Sea. The Bai ethnic had done an outstanding contribution to the human being in ancient times.

In course of the development in history, the Bai ethnic has formed its own unique ethnic culture. In their language melted with large number of words and sentences of ancient Han ("predominate ethnic group in China"). At the aspect of folk custom, including the ethnic festival --- the Sanyue Street, the Ghost Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-autumn Festival and so forth are Han ethnic. We can say that the philosophic of the Bai contains the tolerance of all ethnic.

Nowadays the Bai Ethnic Village in Dali has become unique landscape and it is a beautiful sightseeing resource of Yunnan Province. With its long history, its customs, ethnic songs and dances, construction arts etc. are all worthy to visit for you. We suggest if you travel to Dali, go to have a look at the Bai Ethnic Village, visit the Bai family, and taste that well-known "Three Paces Tea". We believe you will have a travel worthy aftertaste.

The Bai Ethnic Songs and Dances

From ancient times, there was a common saying: "no songs and dances, life will lose luster." The ethnic likes to express their affections with singing and express their happiness or anger with dancing. Especially in the villages collected minorities in Dali, the people are all good at singing and dancing, so Dali claims to the title of the town of singing and dancing for long time. In the Bai ethnic songs and dances, the most famous is the "Raosanling". Melts with poem, music and dance together beautifully, it forms a set of Bai ethnic dance as large-scale singing and dancing performance and it is the main amusement project in the Bai ethnic festivals. Whenever the "Raosanling" is performing, often attracted a large number of visitors to appreciate it.

The Bai Ethnic Residents

The Bai Ethnic call themselves "Baizi" ("White Tribe"), they live by the mountain and near the river, particularly in the districts of the Erhai Sea and the Cangshan Mountain, many structures in Dali carry Bai style. The tradition "three rooms and one wall" is the main type of Bai houses. The arch decorated exquisitely, the furnace is magnificent, and the modeling of the houses is very graceful. Every Bai family likes to plant flowers and trees in the courtyard.

At the aspect of selecting color of wood and decoration, they all embody their own tradition. Including the wood, many stones are also used. The arch is use for modeling and inside the house, they use clay sculpture, woodcarving, and colorful drawings to decorate. They use marble and green brick to fix and beautify the construction, it is the character that the Bai ethnic. They are know to use local materials and give play to imaginations of construction arts richly, so the constructions of Bai are not only resplendent and magnificent but also very simple and generous.

The "Three Paces Tea" of Bai Ethnic

China is a tea-drinking nation. The Bai began to plant tea and make tea long ago, they have formed their unique tea culture on tea drinking, and tea tasting called "Three Paces Tea of Bai Ethnic". It is famous in the tea culture fields all over the world for its unique tea culture --- first "bitter", second "sweet" and third "aftertaste". Early in Ming and Ch'ing Dynasty, the Three Paces Tea had already become a conventional way that Bai ethnic treat visitors.

"Bitter tea", is that the host burnt and toasted the special local product --- Tuo Tea with small china container on the stove burnt all around the year and the tea is yellow but not burnt. When the fragrance fills the air, putting the boiling water, then the tea will be finished. This tea has thick taste, only less than half cup, using taste and let the fragrance on the tip of tongue sends out slowly.

Second is "Sweet tea", using the special local product --- walnut meat and brown sugar as condiments, the taste is fragrant, sweet, and tasty. The teacup is like small bowls and very special. Third is "Aftertaste tea" added a little Chinese prickly ash, ginger and cassia bark with honey. The tea is sweet with fragrance and hot, making us aftertaste endlessly.

After unearthing and the wide spread publicized by tourists, viewing the process of making the "Three Paces Tea" and tasting the Bai ethnic tea culture is widely love by the tourists. If you go to Dali, do not forget to taste this unique tea. That is another kind of enjoyment!