Exploration and discovery at Yunnan's Erhai Lake

My first visit to Erhai was by foot, from a guesthouse in the old town. Walking east across an extensive plain of dark brown alluvium, I continued past rice fields and irrigation channels to reach Caicun. This was a fishing village of two-story white-walled buildings set around a small square. Beyond, steps led down to the waters, where several long and narrow fishing vessels were tethered. As I gazed forth, women washed clothes by hand while others collected water in plastic buckets suspended from wooden shoulder poles. Out from the shore, nets supported by bamboo rods acted as fish traps. I watched as a man rowing a boat appeared to be throwing grass into areas enclosed within the nets. Meanwhile a sailing vessel moved south across the lake. In the evening fishermen would go out on bamboo rafts, using cormorant birds to dive for fish.

Returning to Dali, walking or by ‘horse-taxi’, the view was of the sheer backdrop of Cangshan. I would debate with myself, Yunnan is the ‘land of eternal spring’ but it could also be a ‘land of eternal youth’ for there was always, for me, this feeling of ‘Shangri-la’. A desire of not wanting to leave what initially felt as a location so relaxing and so detached from the world’s increasing urban hassles.