Writer of the Day, Harrison

Harrison, on one of the many shopping streets in Dali.

We ate breakfast on "foreigners" street, notice the variety of Western and traditional dress.

Students at the gate to Cang Shan Mountain park.

We took the path along Qingbi Stream identified by this carved tablet.

There were several suspension bridges along the way.

As you can see here the path was very steep.

We also stopped to see the three pagodas, a famous landmark in Dali.

AACE Director, Mary Greene with our excellent guides, William and Leo (Li Peng). With "the purchase of the day".

Harrison writes:
Today was a relaxing day in Dali. We got to sleep in late and around 9:00 we walked to a restaurant for breakfast. It was definitely the best breakfast I have had for the entire trip. We ate a western style breakfast at Katy’s Café that consisted of fried potatoes, a spam-like meat, fried egg, and two pieces of toast. My favorite part of the meal was the potatoes.

From breakfast we took the bus to the bottom of Cang Shan Mountain where we planned to hike. The hike involved climbing steep stairs and encountering beautiful views of the canyon along the mountainside.After the hike we headed back to the hotel for a much appreciated nap.

My favorite part of the day came with dinner. We walked to Young’s Place located in the same neighborhood as our breakfast meal. We sat down with everybody at the same table as delicious Chinese food was being brought out, Bob Marley was playing on the stereo of the restaurant. It was wonderful to have good food, good music, and good friends at one of our last meals of the trip. At dinner I had time to reflect on what an amazing trip this has been.

Students wait in the courtyard of the Dali Gu Cheng Bu Luo Ren hotel, to go to breakfast.

We took a gondola up the mountain; the views were spectacular on this lovely clear day.

On our hike we encountered many very steep stone stairs.

These statues were near the giant chinese checker board at the top of the tram.

The views were right out of a Chinese landscape painting.

Group of local women walk down the street in Dali, doing their shopping.