![]() Gentle at first, but giving me the occasional sly reminder of what is to come. The climb starts early, just outside my front door. Some routes are wild and untamed, some not quite so much. ![]() And its location at the foot of Cangshan makes Dali a hiking paradise. Like many popular tourist destinations in China, a more authentic version lies just around the corner. Chinese domestic tourism often results in garish facsimiles of traditional dress, wooden dance troupes, and trinkets made in east coast factories. Gone are the days of trade with Tibet the primary industry is now tourism. Even with the language, it may be Mandarin, but so heavily accented it’s incomprehensible to even northern Chinese. Myriad tiny villages surround Dali Old Town, often primarily one ethnicity, but I won’t know which one until I see a mosque or a temple, some Arabic writing, or realise I don’t understand the local language. The Han have been here since at least the time of the Tang, but more Han migration followed the arrival of the Ming, which spelt the end of the Yuan in Dali. Next are the Hui, who accompanied the Mongols in their journey of conquest, leading to this area becoming part of Yuan dynasty China. The Bai and the Yi are the most prolific, and there is still some debate about which of these founded the ancient kingdoms of Nanzhao and Dali. ![]() The area has been inhabited since at least neolithic times and has given rise to different cultures, ethnicities and kingdoms. ![]() The lake basin boasts a benign microclimate and a minority culture as rich as its farmland. The descendants of these small, famously tough Tibetan horses are still here today, as are those of the equally tough people who carried the tea. There are still sections visible, restored in Dali, but jumbles of stone pathways, walls and formerly grand gates in the villages further north. It was once an important town on the ancient Tea Horse Road, the trade route that took tea from all over Yunnan to Tibet and brought horses back. Some of the bridges and other infrastructural along Amtrak's current line are more than a century old, and projections indicate ridership along the Northeast Corridor - which includes Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, Trenton and Wilmington - will rise sharply in the next 30 years.The sun burns its way down the eastward side of Dali’s Cangshan mountains as if eager to allow the temples at its foot to reacquaint themselves with the morning.ĭali nestles on the western shore of Lake Erhai, an alpine lake perched at 2,000 metres as southwest China’s Yunnan province rises to meet Tibet further north. The agency is looking for a long-range solution to traffic congestion in the Northeast. And that would happen only if the FRA opts for alternative one from its menu of potential designs. The route would follow Amtrak's current line as far east as Old Saybrook, then break northward to the opposite side of I-95 and run eastward to Kenyon.īut the FRA has emphasized that it's only at the stage of large policy decisions for the route the exact alignment - and all requirements for eminent domain or historic preservation – would come out in detailed engineering studies later on. Preliminary maps suggest the new tracks would run 1 to 2 miles north of the current ones. The 60-mile bypass is intended to move trains more swiftly and smoothly than the current route, which largely hugs the shoreline and is dogged by curves and bends that force low speeds. Our existing rail lines need modern, reliable coaches and locomotives and more service," Gold said. "Invest in the existing Northeast Corridor. Representatives of 17 towns in the Lower Connecticut River Council of Governments voted this winter to oppose the new route, which would also include a new rail bridge over the lower Connecticut River, said Sam Gold, director of the organization.
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