Dali is one of the most popular spots for independent China travellers and hugely popular with those working, teaching and studying in China. Fifty minutes by plane and 5 hours by bus from Kunming, Dali is the perfect place to relax.Dali is the name of the Prefecture, the local city (aka Xiaguan ??) and the Dali Old Town (gucheng ??). Travellers visit the Dali Old Town for its traditional architecture, minority cultures - mostly Bai but also with many Yi and Hui - and simply to relax. The Old Town has a population of approx. 40,000 and the entire Dali Prefecture around three million people and an area of over 10,000 sq km. When discussing 'Dali', it is important to be clear whether you are talking about the entire Prefecture or just the Old Town. There is actually much to do and see in Dali Prefecture well outside the Old Town.With the beautiful Cangshan Mountains a short distance to the West of the Dali Old Town (approx 4200 metres at the peak) and Erhai Lake a few km to the East, it has a perfect natural setting. The climate is temperate with moderate Summers and mild Winters, though it can get rather windy in Autumn & Winter.Dali has a long and rather glorious history. In 738 the kingdom of Nanzhao was established with Dali as its capital and covered a large area of Yunnan and northern Burma and parts of Sichuan and Guizhou. The original capital of the Nanzhao Kingdom was located in Weishan (within Dali Prefecture) and later moved to sites around the Erhai lake. The territory conquered was quite substantial and held over a long period. The kingdom survived almost 200 years and had 13 kings before being collapsing. After several decades of chaos the Kingdom of Dali emerged in 937. The Kingdom of Dali established by DUAN Siping in 937 was controlled by the DUAN clan and survived until conquered by the Mongols in the 12th century. The Kingdom retained a close alliance with the TANG dynasty, and was one of the major transit points for the introduction of Buddhism throughout the rest of China. By AD1000, Dali was one of the 13 largest cities in the world.From 1856 - 1872 Dali was the headquarters of the Panthay Rebellion led by Du Wenxiu. That rebellion commenced as an uprising against local oppressive rulers by the Hui muslim minority and ended as open rebellion against the Qing Dynasty. The Palace of Du Wenxiu is on Fuxing Road and serves as the local museum (the museum exhibition on the rebellion paints it as a patriot workers revolt which it wasn't). The rebellion was brutally crushed by the Qing and hundreds of thousands of Yunnan muslims were killed in revenge.Many local people in Dali have the surname DUAN to this day (rare in other parts of China). These historical events are immortalised in the Martial Arts literature of Taiwanese author JIN Yong (read by every Chinese school kid), giving Dali a fame nationwide. Both the Nanzhao Kingdom and the Kingdom of Dali had a military alliance with the Tang Dynasty against the aggressive Turfan (Tibetan) Empire which made regular and aggressive incursions into their respective territories.The rulers of the original Nanzhao kingdom were probably precursors to the modern Yi peoples, while the Kingdom of Dali rulers were precursors to the modern Bai minority.A huge Memorial Steele to the "Pacification" of Dali Kingdom was built during the Ming Dynasty and remains standing at the end of "San Yue Jie" past the city's West Gate. Entrance is free. The Mongols destroyed the old capital & palace of Dali Kingdom, located just to the South of the Three Pagodas. Almost all the records of both the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms were burnt or destroyed, leaving much unknown about these periods. In addition, the Mongols brutally displaced many of the inhabitants of the prefecture, with the result that Bai minority people's were forced as far East as Hunan Province. Many Han Chinese also moved into the Kunming area during this period.The old Dali City was rebuilt in the early 1400s by the Ming Dynasty. What you see in Dali Old Town today is the rebuilt Ming town. Since then, the fortunes of Dali have declined and its importance as a cultural and economic centre in the Yunnan area have been overtaken by Kunming, the Provincial Capital. Despite it's fame as a backpacker haven, local Chinese tourists outnumber foreigners by 100 to 1. Local tourists tend to stay in nearby Xiaguan town so Dali becomes thankfully quiet in the evenings. http://wikitravel.org/en/Dali