Xizhou

A village of preserved Bai courtyard houses about 25 km north of Dali Old Town on the western shore of Erhai Lake. Several of the merchant compounds have been opened as small museums or boutique hotels — the Yan Family Compound is the largest and best-preserved.

The village square has a daily produce market and food stalls selling xizhou baba, a wood-fired flatbread filled with savoury chopped pork or sweet brown sugar that has become a local specialty. The Linden Centre on the edge of town is an American-run cultural centre and hotel in a restored compound, running short courses on Bai cooking, tea, and tie-dyeing. Reach by bus from the old town (¥6) or by bicycle (about 90 minutes one way along the lake road).

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A story
Xizhou was a wealthy merchant town in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when Bai families grew rich from caravans on the Tea Horse Road. Many of the town's 100+ surviving courtyard houses were built by these merchant clans — the Yan family compound, now restored as a hotel and museum, was once the largest private house in Yunnan. American journalist Joseph Rock based himself in Xizhou for part of his time in Yunnan (1922–1949), writing the dispatches for National Geographic that inspired James Hilton's *Lost Horizon* and the modern myth of Shangri-La.

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