All the open courtyards are paved with stone slates, the top part of the walls elaborately decorated with nice ink paintings, wooden doors come with carving of auspicious motifs and symbols. What impressed us the most were the many potted flowers. It seemed all the families are happy to have flowers in their courtyard and they try to pick up specific species that would respectively come in bloom in different seasons.
We visited the courtyard of one of the Middle Eight, the House of the Zhaos'. A 200-meter winding alleyway took us to its secluded premises. This complex consists of two parts, four connecting courtyards to the left wing which were built in the Qing Dynasty, and a single row of connecting rooms to the right wing which were done in the Ming Dynasty. Each courtyard is in rectangular shape with houses erected in the Qing Dynasty on three sides, while the Ming part stands to the fourth side. The sheltered corridor under the eaves of the Ming rooms links up with left wing and serves as an arched passageway leading to each of the courtyards. This is a lovely quite isolation in which, we believe, all residents could enjoy the tranquility and live up to advanced ages.
It was past midday after we have visited four old courtyards and spent much time having a chat with the families. Though there still remained a lot more we wanted to know about this place we decided to give it a miss and go for lunch in the village square.
We had Xizhou Baba (baba is a local word for cake or bread) to satisfy our hunger. The locals roll out the pastry and put them in large flat cooking pans, and then heat them up with charcoal fires from underneath and above. The Baba takes only a few minutes to cook. Xizhou Baba comes in two tastes: one is salty with minced pork and scallions; the other is sweet with brown sugar and finely chopped rose petals. Both are delicious. This is one of the best snacks I had for my time in Dali.
That was a wonderful day.