Dali has been a place where people from elsewhere settle for a long time. The town sits between a large lake and a high mountain, the climate is mild at two thousand metres, the light is clear and living costs have historically been low, which has made it a magnet for artists, musicians, climbers and people who want out of the bigger cities. That population created a bar and cafe culture, and in the last decade it produced a small brewery scene of its own.
What is brewed
Dali's brewers work with the province's ingredients. Yunnan is the coffee province of China, and coffee-infused stouts and porters turn up fairly often; so do local fruit - plum, pomegranate, hawthorn - in sour and fruit beers, and the province's tea in lagers and pale ales, both the green teas of the centre and the darker fermented teas. Honey from the mountain slopes and herbs from the Dai kitchens have been used in saisons and wheat beers. Alongside the experiments there are straightforward pilsners, IPAs and wheats, brewed for a drinking public rather than for novelty.
Where to drink
The old town's lanes, inside and outside the walls, hold most of the small bars: courtyards with a few tables, rooftop terraces over the tiled roofs, places with a guitar and someone playing. There are also taprooms on the streets outside the old town where the breweries themselves are, and bar clusters on the lake shore and in the villages around the basin, where the clientele is a mixture of local people, domestic tourists, long-stay visitors and the resident foreign community. It is a relaxed scene: low volumes, food available late, and no dress code.
Practical notes
Dali is served by train from Kunming and by air, and the old town and the lake villages are connected by buses, taxis and bicycle hire. Bars open in the late afternoon and close when the last customers leave; weekends are busy, and the whole town fills up during Chinese public holidays, when prices rise and the best places are full. Beer travels badly, so buy at the brewery or a taproom with a bottle-shop counter if you want to take some away. Combine an evening in the bars with the excellent street food of the old town, which runs well past midnight.
