07/20/2025 - 07/21/2025
View Asia 2025 on zzlangerhans's travel map.
Having taken a three-wheel taxi, we thought it would be the ideal transport to reach the shores of Erhai. The ancient town was located two miles from the lakeside, which was too far for us to walk. This positioning was due to the marshy, flood-prone land near the lake, which was suitable for agriculture but not for living. Additionally, the town's location at the base of Cangshan offered good protection against attacks from the west. We traveled through vast rice paddies and fields of legumes, with the hazy outline of Cangshan behind us.
When I first planned our trip to Dali, I noticed the long, narrow Erhai and assumed there would be a vibrant ferry service transporting residents across the lake. I envisioned a full day of lakeshore exploring using boats and taxis. Our initial taxi driver quickly corrected this perception, explaining that ferries mainly catered to tourists and weren't practical for exploration. While we did well driving around Erhai for one day, we only covered less than a third of the lake's circumference. I still desired to experience the water, and this final free afternoon was the perfect chance.
Our driver dropped us off at Caicun wharf, where some small operators offered boat excursions to the eastern shore. Fortunately, buying tickets on short notice was not an issue, and soon we were on the water. It was clear that the largest urban area was Xiaguan at the southern end of the lake, while the other towns were relatively small. I had believed we were headed to Jinsuo, the lake's only sizable island, which I knew little about besides its several resorts and a cave with a disputed authenticity temple. As we neared the island, we changed course towards a promontory on the eastern shore featuring a tall pagoda and temple pavilion.
Consulting Google Maps, I found this short peninsula was called Luoquan and recognized as a scenic area and cultural park. The boat docked, and we were informed we had an hour and a half to explore the two buildings before returning to the western shore. Everyone hurried to the paths and staircases leading to the headland's summit. A sign informed us that the temple was Tianjing Pavilion, originally constructed during the medieval Song Dynasty, along with three other pavilions marking the lake's compass points. Only Tianjing Pavilion survived into modern times, but it was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, a fact the placard cleverly omitted. It was reconstructed in the 1990s, similar to other irreplaceable Dali heritage that had been lost. Tianjing means "sky mirror," reflecting the clouds and mountains on the lake's still surface on calm days. The original eighth-century Luoquan Pagoda was also demolished and later reconstructed around the same time. I found it astounding that a society could convince itself that destroying its ancient heritage was a path to the future. I hoped the structure we were viewing was an accurate replica of the original, but there was no way to confirm that.
Each of the pagoda's four faces displayed a statue of the warrior monk Luoquan as a Buddha, representing various aspects of his virtuous character. One advantage of visiting a modern replica was the elevator that quickly took us to the top level. The gently rippling expanse of Erhai lay before us, flanked on both sides by forested hills nearly touching the shoreline. It reminded me of looking down upon Lake Como the previous summer. Jinsuo and the eastern shoreline had a surprising number of large resorts, some styled after a Santorini aesthetic with rounded white walls and navy blue domes.
For our descent back to the wharf, I took the boys down a water slide likely installed when the temple buildings were reconstructed. It was a delightful ride with excellent views of the lake. Our initial departure from Luoquan was interrupted when three additional passengers raced down from the temple after the boat had already left the shore. The captain kindly returned to pick them up, even though we had been warned about the lengthy wait for the next boat if we missed ours. We got off at the first stop on the western shore, a lakeside village named Longkan, since there had been little of interest where we had departed.
As soon as we left the dock, we realized we made the right choice, arriving on a busy main road bustling with a street market. We found several delicious snacks at roadside stalls and dined in a makeshift area set up in a parking lot. We decided to continue our walk through Longkan, which was quite colorful, maintaining the local aesthetic with brick and stone buildings featuring traditionally-styled layered roofs. Almost every courtyard entrance gate was crowned with an elaborate ornamental archway, often taller than the gate itself. Some imposing gates were oddly constructed in the middle of
07/20/2025 - 07/21/2025 View Asia 2025 on zzlangerhans's travel map.
07/20/2025 - 07/21/2025 View Asia 2025 on zzlangerhans's travel map.
07/20/2025 - 07/21/2025 View Asia 2025 on zzlangerhans's travel map.