Dali

On the bus from Lijiang to Dali, the landscape looks ruined. Tool-waving men blast and beat the earth. Bulldozers claw at the pot-holed and dirtied road. Dust swims through the air. Cars, trucks and motorcyclists fight for space on the narrow road. Hawkers sell their goods by the road-side. In the distance, I see some farmers eyeing the scarred land.

Even far-flung Yunnan province has not escaped the pull of Chinese industrialization. This new road will allegedly shorten the travelling time between Lijiang and Dali, two of the province’s all-star tourist attractions known for their beautifully-restored old towns that recall some of the greatest Chinese dynasties. This interplay between the ancient and the modern, the old and the new, characterizes every corner of the world’s most populous country.