Encounter Five Beautiful Bai Girls in Erhai Lake

Deep into Yunnan, you will always discover the beauties of Bai ethnic minority. Our first stop is Erhai Lake, an alpine fault lake in Yunnan, where there are five beautiful girls… 

This is the Erhai Lake photographed from the flight flying to Dali from Kunming, looking down from the flight, Erhai Lake lie quietly between the green hills and Dali.

The five beautiful girls quietly sat in the cabin waiting for me, ah…just kidding!

With the songs and dances from the five beautiful Bai girls, I firstly introduce you Bai’s highest courtesy to entertain guests from afar, the so called “three tea”. Bai's “three tea” is a unique way to drink tea for the Dali’s Bai people to entertain guests. First bitter, second sweet, and third aftertaste, that’s just is the characteristic of the “three tea”.

That first bitter tea means life should be hard to make a difference. First put some high-quality green tea into sand tank and bake it with fire, roasted yellow till the tea give out smell, added into a small amount of boiling water, after the bubble disappears, simmer a moment, when the tea turns amber, put the tea into the teapot.

Second tea symbols the life should be the first bitter then sweet, makes sense. Inject boiling water into the sand tank, adding sugar, walnuts, sesame noodles and so on, boiled for drinking.

The third tea should be added Dairy fan (a traditional dairy product of Dali district in Yunnan), honey, sweet-scented osmanthus, rice flower, pepper and other things in tea. When drinking, you will feel it sweet but slightly spicy, makes the spirit of people great, implying to develop a successful career.

Bai people are not only hard-working and brave, but also good at singing and dancing. The tone of Dali’s Bai people is loud and beautiful, has its own unique artistic style. 

When talking about Bai’s music, I must mention the Dragon Head Three-stringed plucked instrument. It is a kind of plucked musical instruments of Bai people, because it is decorated with the dragon head and got the name. It is popular in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, such as Jianchuan, Heqing, Eryuan, Dali, Yunlong and Lanping Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture and other places. Dragon Head Three-stringed plucked instrument is make by the local wood craftsmen, and the ones made by the craftsmen in Jianchuan County Bai are the best, known far and wide. The Dragon Head Three-stringed plucked instrument is not only a folk musical instrument for playing, but also a fine arts and crafts for viewing and collection. 

Bai people are good at singing and dancing, there are many Bai dances, which can be classified by the nature of activities, generally can be classified into entertaining, and the festival two categories. 

Erhai Lake is rich in aquatic, and many of the lakeside Bai people still remain fishing as their career. Return from fishing, the beautiful fishing Bai girls are sing the harvest songs.

After all, it is good to enjoy on a boat waving on Erhai Lake.

Next let’s talk about the clothes of Bai people. All the headdress on the head have their own meanings, the tassels hanging down form the hat means the wind, the bright floral means flower, the white on the top of the hat means the snow, and the curved shape means Erhai moon.

Bai people, as their name would suggest, favor white clothes and decorations. White clothes decorated and contrast against with bright colors, and beautifully wrapped, all of these fully reflects the high degree of artistic wisdom of Bai people in the clothing.

Speaking Bai clothing, I have to mention their tie dyes.

Eight Trigrams kerchief has the function of warding off evil, the locals usually put it on the back of the children or hang in front of the door to ward off evil.

Different sizes and different colors of tie-dyed cloth have different use. The small tie-dyed kerchief can be wore on the hat of a married girl, to cover bright floral on the collar.

Today, more and more fashion women love the tie-dyed cloth.


At the end of the trip, one of the beautiful Bai girl gave me a cloth. Goodbye, grils!


Dali Travel Guide: http://www.tourdechina.cn/chinaguide/Dali/