Dali Xizhou Ancient Town: Yunnan Street Food & Stunning Rice Fields

Dali Xizhou Ancient Town: Yunnan Street Food & Stunning Rice Fields

Hello everyone, JHMedium here, we are continuing our trip in Dali, Yunnan Province. Today, we are in Xizhou Ancient Town, around 20 kilometers north of Dali Ancient City. In the second part of our Dali trip, we’ll use Xizhou as our base to explore the stunning fields nearby, the lakeside parks, and of course, the vibrant town itself. We’ll also go on a Yunnan street food feast. I’ll share with you everything that you should try here in the ancient town. This is why you should not skip Xizhou on your trip to Dali. We have made it over to our second stop on our Dali trip, Xizhou, and we just checked into our guesthouse. Originally, I booked a 180 RMB per night standard room, but since this is low season, the owner decided to upgrade us to a two-bedroom apartment. This one is supposed to cost 450 RMB per night. It’s so nice in here. It’s really, really spacious. You get this living room, tea set. This whole decor is made out of wood, so it looks quite old, quite vintage, but you still get all the amenities and facilities that you could possibly want, and breakfast is also included, which is definitely a plus. It’s already late in the afternoon, so we’re going to explore the ancient town tomorrow. Right now, we’re going to grab some dinner. Xizhou is probably the second most popular ancient town in the Dali area, but we are staying a little bit further away from the center. So this part of the village is very quiet. Plus it’s low season right now, so most of the places are empty, which is perfect for us. We got two different types of mixian. Zhajiang mixian, which is the fried sauce mixian. It has some minced pork on top, I believe. And then this is what I came here for, douhua mixian, the bean curd tofu pudding mixian. Two of my favorite things into one dish. That just sounds amazing. The mixian sauce soaked into the tofu gives it this silky and savory taste. There really are so many different types of mixian to try in Yunnan. After dinner, we’re going to go for a short walk near the village just to check out the area. But tomorrow we’ll head into town and really explore Xizhou. Good morning. Today there’s a blue sky and lush green rice fields. We’re going to explore the central area of Xizhou Ancient Town. It’s also an area we didn’t seem to explore very thoroughly last time we came. Once a bustling hub on the Ancient Tea Horse Road, Xizhou flourished as a center of trade, agriculture, and architecture. The town is renowned for its beautifully preserved Bai-style courtyard homes. The historical home of the largest family, Yanjia Dayuan, the Yan Family Courtyard, is now a museum that you can visit. The ticket price is only 18 Yuan, so be sure to check it out if you want to learn about Bai architecture. Since we already went the last time we came, we’ll skip it on this trip. Today, Xizhou Ancient Town is still a living museum of Bai culture and history. The streets are filled with stunning old buildings, vibrant tie-dye creations, and of course, delicious street food. Let’s go check out this ancient town. One of the most popular street food in Dali is baojiang doufu, this custardy tofu. When you bite into it, the inside is supposed to be this smooth custard-like texture. You get this crispy golden exterior with an almost melted cheese-like texture inside. There’s also a bit of natural sweetness, which balances well with the chili flakes on top. You can find vendors selling this all over Xizhou, and it usually costs 10 Yuan per bowl. Ever since we had baojiang doufu once in Xishuangbanna. Every time we come to Yunnan, we always look for this street snack. But none of them compare to that first one we had, which was truly unforgettable. Since the weather is perfect today, Xizhou is just as crowded as Dali Ancient City. Looking for some crochet inspiration. Hope I can crochet something like this too. It’s so cute. We got two more street food dishes, some pork skewers and this juanfen, which is basically a cold rice roll. First, I’m going to try the juanfen. When they make it, they have this pre-cooked rice roll. They roll it out and they stuff all the ingredients inside. There’s some cucumber, some wood ear mushrooms, some chili, I think also some peanuts. So this is the vegetarian type. There’s also a meat one as well. The flavor is similar to a liangpi, or maybe like a cold Cantonese rice roll. It’s really good. It’s crunchy inside because of the peanuts and the wood ear mushrooms. Very refreshing. It really is just like a rolled up version of liangpi. And now I’m going to try one of the skewers. These are pork skewers. It looks like it’s half fat and half meat. Really tender meat, and the fat just completely bursts in your mouth. It becomes a liquid. Super delicious. After all these savory snacks, it’s time for something sweet. Arguably the most famous dessert in Yunnan is xianhuabing, the flower cake. Traditionally, the filling is made with edible rose petals like these. We had flower pastry xianhuabing many times in Yunnan already, but this time we decided to get two different flavors that are not the traditional type. Mine is the white peach flavor. And they even have a different packaging for each flavor, which is a very nice touch. Visually from the outside, this is not the flaky type of xianhuabing that we’re used to. It looks more like a little cake. I’m gonna try it. The dough here is a bit more firm. It definitely tastes more like a cookie rather than like a flaky pastry. But yeah, I cannot taste the white peach flavor. It really is just the rose flavor. It’s delicious. Maybe I’m just not that picky. I think as long as you can taste the rose flavor, it’s delicious. Other than the countless different types of street food here, another thing you’ll see everywhere in Xizhou are these beautiful tie-dye pieces. Zharan, tie-dye is a very important art form in Bai culture. These blue sheets add a vibrant look to this ancient town. You can also experience tie-dye yourself, but we’ll save that for our next stop in Shaxi. We saw this drink kaonai at so many little stalls around these streets. They bake the milk in this clay pot, and inside there’s like rose petals and different herbs as well. It looks a lot smaller after they put it in the cup. I’ll be honest, out of everything we ate today, this is probably the least exciting. It’s just warm milk with a faint floral taste. The herbs and tea don’t seem to add any extra flavor to it. Well… It’s alright, just okay. Even though Xizhou is without a doubt still very commercialized, I feel like it’s a smaller, more intimate version of Dali Ancient City. So walking around here, there are still some small alleyways that are more quiet, that feels more like the Yunnan I’m looking for. Other than the ancient town itself, the biggest attraction in Xizhou is the rice field. However, this area right outside the ancient town is not really farmland anymore. It’s now completely transformed into a tourist attraction. They even built a train track here with very vintage looking locomotives that you can actually take. 100% a gimmick, but honestly it looks quite pretty from afar. It is quite beautiful, but It’s not quite the idyllic, peaceful countryside scene I had imagined. So tomorrow we’ll head out of the ancient town and explore farther areas. We found this small hidden cafe with a secret entrance right next to the field. It’s part of this tofu pudding shop. So we got a bowl of tofu pudding and now we’re just sitting here. Nobody else is here. Everybody else is on the other side and they cannot come in. You can easily spend an entire day exploring Xizhou Ancient Town. Many people choose to come here as a day trip from Dali Ancient City, which is definitely enough for the ancient town itself, but there’s still so much more to see within a few kilometers from the town center. So that’s what we’re going to explore tomorrow. Back at our guest house, they provide one free afternoon tea set for each stay. Since we ate so many snacks already today, we asked them to save ours for a light dinner instead. They prepared for us some Xizhou baba, which is probably the most famous pastry in the Xizhou area. It kind of just looks like a pancake. They have the savory type and the sweet type. Cheers! The savory version is filled with ham, pickled vegetables, green onions, and lots of spices. While the sweet one has brown sugar and sesame seeds. Both are hearty, fluffy, and a great snack or meal. You can find them everywhere in the ancient town. A new day here in Dali and today we’re renting a scooter to explore the area surrounding Xizhou. Our first stop is Haishe Park next to Erhai. Haishe literally means the “tongue of Erhai.” This refers to the narrow peninsula with a tongue-like shape that extends into the lake. Since it’s still winter right now in March, the park is quite barren. I’m sure it would look even more stunning in the spring or autumn, like the painting on this postcard. But either way, it’s still a great place to have a morning stroll. Unfortunately, after a while, the serenity was ruined by the loud music of a group having a team building event. That’s our cue to move on to the next spot. We’re at this field next to Zhongzhuang and look at all these canola flowers. It just goes on and on forever. We’re gonna take some pictures inside. Mid-February through mid-March is peak canola flower season in Dali. It gives the villages a bright yellow hue. You can see these flowers everywhere along Erhai and in the surrounding villages. By April, all these flowers will be gone and the pods will start to dry. So we’re here at the perfect time to catch the bloom. Further north near Langqiao are some more stunning fields. On the map, this field is called “wo zai Erhai you kuai tian,” literally meaning “I have a field by Erhai.” Whether it’s wheat in the spring or rice in the autumn, when the wind blows through the field, it’s like an ocean wave of green dancing in the breeze. After a day of exploring the fields, there’s one more that we have to look for. Before we return our bike today, we found one of our favorite roads in Dali. Last time we came here in Xizhou, this is where we shot some of our favorite shots of our entire trip. But now the field is completely gone. And they put this small train track here probably for the tourist trains. This area is completely different from when we came here in 2021. Hopefully, this field is only barren because we’re not here in the right season. Maybe it will once again be flourishing in the autumn. Let me cut to what it looked like back in 2021. So confused. So to cheer ourselves up after finding out our favorite field doesn’t exist anymore, we’re here to eat some shouzhuafan. This is very similar to the peacock feast, kongque shengyan, we had last time in Dali, but like a smaller version of it since this is only for two people. Looks like there’s some grilled fish, grilled pork belly, papaya salad, grilled chicken, some spicy beef, and of course sticky rice, the shouzhuafan, with the coconut milk. Just as the name suggests, we’re eating everything with our hands. Shouzhuafan, “hand grabbing rice.” I think that’s how you can translate it. I’m not going to review every single dish because there’s just too many, but I think my favorites are the grilled chicken and the grilled pork belly. The sticky rice is also pretty good with the coconut milk. So we’re going to enjoy our shouzhuafan and I’ll see you guys in the morning. Today is our last day in Xizhou, and this morning we woke up early to catch the sunrise when nobody else is here. But before I show you Xizhou at dawn, we’ll jump forward to later in the day to share with you one more unique restaurant to eat at, or to stay at. We were wandering around the Xizhou area and we walked a little bit outside of the ancient town area and we found this tapas place. It’s sort of a fusion food tapas restaurant. We ordered one of their afternoon tea sets. They have some pancakes, croissant, hummus I think, garlic shrimp, and this is the thing that looks the most interesting to me, pad kra pao in a hot dog bun. The whole set looks very elegant and there’s a lot of variety as well. So let’s dig in and try all of these dishes. Now time to try the craziest dish inside this set. The pad kra pao hot dog bun. Thai people, look away. A little bit spicy. It’s definitely a very interesting idea. Pad kra pao, instead of using rice, you put it with bread. I mean it’s fusion food, but pad kra pao is actually really delicious. It kind of reminds me of like the yakisoba hot dog bun you have in Japan convenience stores. So yeah, I think overall this is a very nice afternoon tea spot. It’s actually located inside a hostel, a car hostel. All the rooms inside this hostel are built in RVs, trucks, or vans. We couldn’t look at the interior because people are staying there, but the idea is really cool. So if you’re looking for some food that’s not Yunnan cuisine, which honestly is quite hard to find here, or if you want a unique hotel experience, come and check out Nuannuan Hostel. Now let’s rewind back to earlier this morning to enjoy the sunrise at Xizhou. This is why you gotta wake up early. You get the whole landscape to yourself. Whether you want to immerse yourself in the lush emerald green rice fields, have an endless feast of delicious Yunnan street food, or learn about traditional Bai culture, Xizhou is a perfect destination on your Dali trip. If you’re staying in the ancient city and want to visit as a day trip, Xizhou is just a short taxi ride away. But if you have the time, I highly recommend staying overnight and exploring the town early in the day. You can see the locals going about their morning routine. You can hear the soothing soundscape of rural China. And in moments like these, you truly appreciate why Dali is a place beloved by so many. Next up, we’re leaving Dali City and heading north to Jianchuan County in Dali Prefecture. At the midpoint between Dali and Lijiang lies the ancient town of Shaxi, a place that I think is by far my favorite ancient town in all of Yunnan. You do not want to miss that video when it comes out. So please do subscribe to JHMedium for more China travel videos coming soon. I will see you in Shaxi. Thanks for watching.

Join me as we explore Xizhou Ancient Town, just a few kilometers north of Dali Ancient City. From mouthwatering street food like mixian and tofu pudding to sweet rose-filled pastries, this is a foodie’s dream. We’ll also stroll through stunning fields, visit lakeside parks, and soak in the natural beauty of this region. Xizhou is perfect for nature lovers and foodies alike. Don’t miss out on this little town in Dali.

Visited During: March 2025

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VIDEO CHAPTERS:
00:00 – Arriving in Xizhou & Room Tour
02:30 – Xizhou Ancient Town 喜洲古镇
10:36 – Afternoon tea
11:34 – Haishe Park 海舌公园
12:35 – Stunning fields around Xizhou
15:30 – Shouzhuafan 手抓饭
16:28 – Tapas
18:25 – Xizhou Sunrise

GEAR:
Main Cameras: Fujifilm X-H2s, Fujifilm X-T4, DJI Pocket 3
Lenses: Fujifilm 18-120mm f4, Fujifilm 35mm f2, Tamron 11-28mm f2.8
Drone: DJI Mavic Air 2
Action Camera: Insta360 X4 & DJI Action 5 Pro
Phone: iPhone 14 Pro
Mic: DJI Mic & Deity D3 Pro