Yesterday, we left hotel and in 5 taxis with a picture of the address of the long distance bus station. Our driver looked continually confused, kept asking me questions in Chinese and when I couldn’t answer, she just asked louder. We saw some of the other taxis some of the time but when she dropped us off, none of the rest of the group was in sight. We started walking down the street and showed our address to anyone who would look at it. They would just point further down the street.
It turns out she dropped us off 5 blocks away and charged twice as much as any of the others. We made it in time but our group leader was looking pretty frantic.
After almost a 5 hour bus ride we arrived in Dali. While Kunming had some traditional Chinese architecture, modern building were overwhelming some of the charming ones. In Dali they seemed to have embraced the change while still keeping large chunks of area protected, especially the ancient city.
We walked to the ancient city last night for dinner. It was quite pretty and very busy with Chinese tourists. There is a lot of LCD lighting to accent the scrolling woodwork of some of the traditional buildings. It sounds strange but has a nice effect at night. This is our hotel.
Today was a free day. The group went on a tour around the lake. I was interested in trying to get to Chongsheng Temple. Turns out it was right up the road and it was a truly delightful experience.
From the road you can see the three pagodas. There is a long granite paved walkway leading to the main pagoda surrounded by lovely gardens. Once you get to the main pagoda and around to the back, you can see a temple at the top of the hill. Another long walkway with multiple staircases up and there is a temple with a Buddha inside. Most of the other people here where monks or other people praying. There were very few tourists.
Again, once through the temple and out the back door, a new temple is revealed at the top of the hill. More steps up, more walkways, and a temple with a larger beautiful golden Buddha.
Out the back door of the temple and a new temple is revealed at the top of the hill. Are you noticing a pattern?
This is a huge temple complex that was designed so that you can only see one at a time and only after having ascended to the temple before. Before long I was looking down at the tops of the pagodas. There were eight of these, each time the Buddha inside was bigger and the temple more beautiful. The last Buddha was four stories high. You could walk up staircases inside the temple and then look out back at the tops of the temples before. Needless to say, I took some pictures. I set up the progression below.
