Dali

Got the bus south to Dali.
This is another anchient city but is a much nicer place to hang out than Lijiang.
The straight street plan and larger size means that it doesn't have the overcrowded maze feel that Lijiang has.
The new city is a good 16km away and the old city is still mostly a real place but also has many "backpacker trendy" haunts.

We rented bikes for an afteroon and headed down to the nearby lake through warrens of little lanes and through fields, trees marsh etc. Nice to see real rural china.
Lots of little vilages with tiny lanes and no cars,
Loads of people working in the fields with very little machinary.
Manpower is the main way to get things done in China,
it is not uncommon when visiting a temple to come across a load of guys chipping away at rocks with hand tools to get them to the right shape for building.