Donglianghua @ Dali

Half way between Dali and Weishan is a little 800 year old Muslim village called Donglianghua. On my way back from Weishan I decided to catch the small green bus and make a stop at there. I've been exploring dusty, crumbling places for the past week; so I was surprised to see that this place was clean as a whistle and in pristine shape in general.

This village is beginning to be commercialized so there's a small parking lot for visitors and some of the courtyards have been converted into mini museum displays. When you get past that stuff you can however see that people really do live here for the most part unaffected by tourism; I managed to stumble into a couple courtyards where people were finishing their farming related work for the day and also a school where I could see the days lesson still written on the board. If you find yourself at the school, climb the stairs up one level higher and you will find an incredible view looking out in all directions over the village.