We have used a few apps to book tours along our travels throughout China, but usually the options are limited for most of the places we have been. There were not any that interested us in Dali, except one, titled “Cangshan Mountain hike and organic homemade dinner.” We were intrigued, except it had zero reviews. We usually avoid zero reviews when booking hotels or airbnbs and tours, because we don’t want to be the guinea pigs and what if it has no reviews because it is bad? Still, we were intrigued, and so I emailed the tour operator, a woman named Liya. She emailed back, and we went back and forth on what we were interested in, how much walking we wanted to do, any foods we didn’t like, and we booked the tour.
We met Liya at the base of Cangshan Mountain. Note that Shan is Mountain in Chinese, so saying “Cangshan Mountain” is like saying ATM Machine, but that makes more sense to me, so we’ll call it Cangshan Mountain.
Anyway, she had walking sticks, a backpack, and hiking boots, and we were a little nervous. She said it was about two hours to the top, and the path up were steps, so wouldn’t be too bad, and since we were already here (and paid), we followed her up. Liya is from Shanghai, and fell in love with Dali and had lived there for many years. We talked about traveling and got to know each other as we climbed 80 stories of stairs, past few people, and even saw a group taking horses up the mountain. She told us to love the nature, and hug the trees (literally).
After the two hours up, our legs eventually feeling like jelly, we made it to the flat part of the hike, along the mountain edge. There were more people here, as most skip the walk up and take a ski lift instead. We were treated with some great views of the city and Erhai Lake below.
In less than an hour we were at the Cangshan Scenic Area, which had a restaurant, a few vendors, and the Zhonghe Temple, as well as a nice viewing area. We ate some snacks and learned more about Liya, and that she was going to walk the Camino de Santiago, which goes through Asturias, the part of Spain we lived in for a year! What a small world.
Liya told us it would be only an hour to walk down the mountain, but more dirt and less stairs; it began to rain too…so I said, let’s take the ski lift down, and Jessica agreed (although she is not a fan of ski lifts). Jessica gripped the bar very tightly as we descended. It was a half hour down, as we were really high up.
We finally made it to the bottom, where we took a picture in front of the Cangshan sign.
Liya did not live too far from the entrance, and she let us into her home, then cooked us an excellent, healthy, meal, which was a nice break from all the oil, salt, and MSG. We ate saffron rice with veggie stir fry and duck and even dessert; it was all so good, and it had been a couple months since we had a home-cooked meal, so we were very pleased.
Now that the tour was officially over, Liya asked us if we wanted to explore more of Dali Ancient town, the parts where more locals frequented, that we had not seen on our visit a couple days earlier. We said, “of course,” as we had gotten along so well. Liya led us to a couple of cool, hidden away cafes, through the local markets, and into some vintage shops.
We were just walking the streets when a woman stepped out of a store, and offered Jessica a big bouquet of flowers! It was super kind and unexpected, and, since we were leaving in a few days, gave them to Liya. (Also, Liya is a much better photographer than me, as you can probably tell by the quality of the pictures of Jessica and I).
Eventually we wound up back in the main, touristy, bright, and very busy area of Old Town, where we said good night to Liya, and took a didi back to the hotel, worn out from such an active and stimulating day. If you’re unsure about booking a tour with no reviews, email them first, and if they seem cool, go for it! is the lesson we learned this day. We are also proud to be Liya’s first review, a five star one!
Phil's WayPastCool 