Our morning in Dali consisted of visiting an old house an experiencing a three course Chinese tea ceremony. One of the moments I wanted to highlight from our Dali morning was a walk through a Chinese food market. While we had visited a few food stand markets so far in our trip, we hadn’t actually been to a legitimate grocery market. This definitely wasn’t in the new-town of Dali, and it was honestly a little uncomfortable to walk through. It was very dirty, the ground was wet, and there was a lot of raw meat that would look unsettling to any American.  
I think our tour guide took us through this area to show the incredible contrast of this market to the United States. Some of the food options included chicken feet, rotten tofu, and more. We witnessed a saleswoman take a live fish half the size of my body, and place it in a bag for a customer. I definitely had to remind myself “not bad, just different” many times throughout this area. It also really made me think about how lucky many Americans have it so we wouldn’t have to deal with a market like this daily.
In the afternoon, we visited the park of the Three Elegant Pagodas, which was absolutely stunning. Similar to Black Dragon Pool, the entire park was incredibly peaceful, and there was a lot to see. This is definitely the main attraction in Dali, and the pagodas were incredible to see. The pagodas were built over 1200 years ago, as well. Beautiful sightseeing and sunny weather made this an easy highlight of the trip.
We ended the day with a chairlift up a mountain. This gave an incredible view of the mountain, and on the way down, the entire view of Dali and Erkhai lake. Overall, the chairlift was just a really unique, relaxing experience.
At night time, we did some walking/shopping around Dali. A highlight was trying what we thought was ice cream. The Chinese don’t really eat dessert, but when they do, fruit is considered dessert. Myself and two others split what looked like a giant waffle ice cream cone. Instead of ice cream, it was just “cream,” and fresh mangos and red beans were on top. This was all inside a cone that wasn’t hard, but instead a fresh-baked waffle. The verdict: delicious. It was also much healthier than American desserts!
The city of Kunming is next on the travel itenirary!