Dali Shopping

Tie-Dyed Cloth

Tie-dyed Cloth is an ancient skill originating from the interior of China. The materials used are pure white cotton or cotton and flax. The color of the dye is indigo-blue. The blue and whit cloths are lovely. The patterns are usually flowers, birds, and fish. Zhouchen in Dali Town has become the main producer of cloth. The tie-dyed cloth is used to make clothes, caps, and bags.

Bai Brocade

Dai Brocade is an ancient traditional textile handicraft popular among the Dai people. Every Dai woman is expert at weaving. It is famous for its exquisite weaving, elegant pattern, bright color, beautiful presentation, durability and ethnic style. Different colors and patterns contain different meanings - for example, a peacock pattern indicates auspiciousness, and an elephant symbolizes a bumper harvest. Bags made of Dai brocade are considered to be a necessity for the Dai people, and are exchanged as tokens between lovers.

Dali Marble Products

Relief and vertical sculpture, hanging screens, fruit containers, and ashtrays are among the items made from the more than ten varieties of Dali marble.

Recommended Shopping Places

Foreigners' Street
Add: in Dali old town
Open: (for most stores) 9:00 am-midnight
Description: Along this street are many teahouses, antique shops.

South Gate Market
Add: Inside South Gate, Ancient City of Dali
Description: Best buys include clothing and embroidered accessories of the Yunnan minority people. Aprons, shoulder bags, embroidered shoes, headdresses and belts are particularly attractive, tea, Chinese medicines and dried mushrooms.
Open: 8:00am-6pm

Butterfly Spring Park market
Add: Butterfly Spring Park
Description: Bandhnu dresses, bandhnu works of art, bandhnu handicraft articles.
Open: 8:00am-6:00pm

Bandhnu Market
Add: Bai nationality Village, Zhoucheng, Dali
Description: Mainly marble stone handicrafts, Bandhnu Bai handicrafts for sale.
Open: 8 am-noon

March Street (Avalokitesvara Market)
The street has a history of a thousand years as a trading place. A fair is held yearly from March 15th to 20th, when minority people from seven provinces gather on the grasslands at the foot of Cangshan Mountain. They bring a rich variety of goods to sell and trade. The people dressed in their holiday best, sing, dance, and race horses. Traditionally well-known local products and specialties are Bowl-Shaped Compressed tea leaves, cigars, tie-dyed cloth and snow pears.