A trip to Dali wouldn't be complete without some exploration of this dominant feature of the local landscape. There are two ways to go about doing this: You can climb up the mountain or you can take a cable-car (38 Yuan round-trip) to the Zhonghe temple, several hundred kilometers up, and begin your travels there.

I chose the latter for several reasons: because I am an inexperienced hiker, because I was slightly injured, and most of all, because I was alone (everyone I was traveling with at the time was either too lazy or hung-over to go climb a mountain with me) and I felt the cable-car option was safer.

When you reach the place where you get off the cable car, the short dirt path will lead you to the Zhonghe (peace and justice) temple. The temple itself was unremarkable. I found the Goddess of Mercy temple more interesting. However, I was very surprised by the amount of activity there was buzzing about the temple, which undoubtedly had something to do with the fact that it was the first day of the Lunar New Year. However, there were so many food stalls and restaurants (the latter of which, of course, appeared to be permanent establishments) that I was led to believe that there is regularly quite a lot of activity around here.

The food up here looked pretty good, and since I saw only locals up here, you can expect a good "authentic" Bai meal, and you can eat it on a deck that overlooks Dali.

From here the path winds up and around to a ridge, a walking path that winds around the mountain for six kilometers (and another six kilometers to get back). It was for this that I was glad that I had taken the cable-car, because I would rather use my time here, on a narrow piece of rock separating me from the snowy peaks that towered to my left and the frightening drop to the ground, hundreds of meters below, to my right, than spending hours climbing up the mountain. However, while I prefer the dramatic scenery and nice flat walk, if you are looking for a challenging hike in the athletic sense of the word, you should skip the cable-car.

About midway through the trail, there is a large bridge which connects from one peak to another. There is, very near here, a tiny path which winds upward through the trees for a while. I would never had taken it had not the cutest little Chinese boy, (not a local but a city-boy tourist) who was making the hike with his parents, encouraged me to follow him there. I'm glad he did because the path leads to the great waterfall in the photo below.