Weishan @ Dali

Weishan is another ancient village about 50km south of Dali, however easier to get to than say Yunnanyi. You can take the bus directly there and walk from the bus station right into old town. This place has taken a hit from tourism, if Dadgendan Dai is a 1 and Lijiang is 10, then this is at about 4 on the scale of tourist-exploitation. It's an interesting fit because all the streets are pretty stacked with touristy stuff however marketed extremely toward locals, it doesn't have the influence of the lao wai so much yet.

Many of the buildings are marked as historical sites which are open for you to walk in and explore. I talked to some of the people in these and they said they didn't live there, I'm not sure if they actually knew why they were there at all. There is also a tram that goes around the town carrying tourists as far as you want for 1 rmb, I rode this for 15 minutes and did almost a full circle but was surprised that half of the circuit felt very much like new town.

All in all this place was neat but I think it's in an awkward stage of its commercialization, from where it stands now it's only a matter of time before it's more in the Lijiang - Heshan category.