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Bai People of Dali: Three-Course Tea, Indigo and White Walls

Customs
Nov 2, 2026
The Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple in Dali rising above green trees under a blue sky

The Bai people are the “white people” of Dali, and the name is meant literally. Their own word for themselves means something close to that, and white turns up everywhere you look: whitewashed walls, white headdresses, a white screen wall facing almost every courtyard. Most visitors meet Bai culture without noticing it. They sip a sweet tea, buy a blue tie-dyed scarf and photograph three pagodas. So this guide tries to connect those dots. It covers who the Bai are, why their tea comes in three courses, how the tie-dye is made and when the big festivals happen.

Who the Bai People Are

The Bai (白族) are one of China’s 56 officially recognised ethnic groups. China’s 2020 census counted 2,091,543 of them (Wikipedia, 2026a). Most live in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture in western Yunnan, between the Cangshan mountains and Erhai Lake. Smaller communities live as far away as Bijie in Guizhou and Sangzhi in Hunan. For the bigger map, see our overview of ethnic groups in China.

The language is a puzzle. Linguists file it under Sino-Tibetan, yet nobody quite agrees where it sits in that family (Wikipedia, 2026a). Some see a close link to Chinese; others don’t. Either way, most Bai also speak Mandarin, and daily writing happens in Chinese. The name “Bai” itself only became official in 1956 (Wikipedia, 2026a).

History matters here, too. The Bai helped build the Nanzhao kingdom, which ruled much of the southwest from the 7th to the 10th century. Then, in 937, a Bai noble named Duan Siping founded the Dali Kingdom. It lasted roughly three hundred years, until the Mongols took it in 1253 (Wikipedia, 2026a). So the old town of Dali was once a royal capital, not a backpacker village. That explains the scale of its temples.

Three-Course Tea: How the Bai People Welcome Guests

If you do one Bai thing in Dali, make it sandao cha, the three-course tea. It is a national heritage item, listed in 2014 (China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network [ihchina], 2014). The idea is simple. Each cup tastes different, and together they tell a small story about life:

  1. Bitter. Green tea from Cangshan, roasted and shaken in a hot clay jar until it crackles. Small cup, no sugar. This is the hard start.
  2. Sweet. Brown sugar and walnut slices (ihchina, 2014). Many hosts add thin strips of rushan, a local dried milk cheese. Things get better.
  3. Aftertaste. Honey, cassia bark and a few Sichuan peppercorns. It tingles. You are meant to reflect.

The usual summary is “first bitter, then sweet, then aftertaste” (ihchina, 2014). Its heritage file traces the habit back to the Nanzhao era. A Tang-dynasty text already describes people here drinking tea with pepper, ginger and cinnamon. Later, the Ming travel writer Xu Xiake recorded monks at Jizu Mountain serving him three teas in a row: plain, then salted, then honeyed (ihchina, 2014).

A tasting menu, not a ceremony

Westerners sometimes expect something like the Japanese tea ceremony. It isn’t, really. Sandao cha is warmer and chattier, closer to a three-course welcome than a silent ritual. Think of a host who pours you a sherry, then a coffee with cake, then a spiced toddy, and makes a little speech about life along the way. Most of the meaning sits in the order, not the etiquette. Meanwhile, it is one of six Yunnan items folded into the tea element UNESCO inscribed in 2022, “Traditional tea processing techniques and associated social practices in China” (UNESCO, 2022; ihchina, 2022). For the wider picture, our guide to Chinese tea culture covers the everyday side.

Where to try it? Many courtyard restaurants in Dali old town and in Xizhou serve it, often with a short song-and-dance show. Prices and formats vary, so ask what is included first.

Indigo and Knots: Bai People Tie-Dye

The blue-and-white cloth sold all over Dali is Bai tie-dye, zharan. It joined China’s first national intangible heritage list in 2006 (ihchina, n.d.). The process sounds simple. In practice, it takes real skill:

  • A pattern is drawn on white cotton cloth.
  • Then the cloth is stitched and bound tightly along the lines.
  • It is soaked and dipped in plant indigo, again and again, to deepen the blue.
  • Finally the threads are cut. Wherever the cloth was bound, it stays white.

The indigo comes from a plant that Yunnan people call banlangen (ihchina, n.d.). The village of Zhoucheng, north of the old town on the Erhai shore, is the best-known centre; the national culture ministry named it a “hometown of ethnic tie-dye” (ihchina, n.d.). Workshops there let you bind and dye your own small piece. The craft also has deep roots in China. Our story on the world’s earliest tie-dye explains a find from Qinghai that is far older.

One honest note. Much of the cheap cloth in tourist streets is machine-printed, not tied. Real tie-dye shows small irregular “cracks” of blue in the white areas. Two pieces of the same pattern are never identical.

White Walls and Village Gods: Bai People at Home

Bai houses are easy to spot. Grey tiled roofs curve up at the eaves. Gates are carved and painted. Inside, three wings usually face a tall white screen wall, which bounces light into the courtyard and keeps the wind off. Locals sum it up as “three wings and one screen wall”. The screen often carries big painted characters, a family motto of sorts. Xizhou, about 20 km north of the old town, has some of the finest surviving houses. It is also where you buy hot Xizhou baba, a crisp flatbread, at breakfast.

Faith is layered, as so often in Yunnan. Many Bai follow a local form of Buddhism dating back to Nanzhao. Alongside it runs benzhu worship: each village honours its own patron god (Wikipedia, 2026a). Some are heroes, some are nature spirits, a few were ordinary people. European readers might think of village patron saints. Each one has a feast day, a small temple and a local story nobody outside the valley knows.

The Three Pagodas

Then there is the postcard. The Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple stand just north of the old town, against the Cangshan range. The central Qianxun Pagoda rises 69.6 metres over sixteen storeys. It dates from the Nanzhao era, in the 9th century. The two smaller pagodas, each about 42 metres, came roughly a century later (Wikipedia, 2026b). They have stood through centuries of earthquakes. Go early, before the tour groups, or walk to the reflecting pond for the classic shot.

Festivals and Songs of the Bai People

Bai festivals follow the lunar calendar, so dates shift every year. Check before you plan around one.

  • Third Month Fair (Sanyuejie) — the biggest. It runs from about the 15th to the 20th day of the third lunar month, at the foot of Cangshan (Wikipedia, 2026a). It began as a market. Now it means horse racing, trade stalls, singing and dancing. Picture a medieval European trade fair that never stopped.
  • Raosanling — a spring pilgrimage-cum-carnival around Erhai. Villagers walk between temples of local gods, playing lutes and singing as they go (Yang, 2006). It roots in benzhu worship, yet the mood is joyful, not solemn.
  • Torch Festival — on the 25th day of the sixth lunar month for the Bai (Wikipedia, 2026a). Villages raise a tall torch and light it at dusk. The Yi people hold the most famous version; see our guide to the China Torch Festival.

Singing ties all of these together. Bai courtship once ran on improvised song duels, and older singers still trade witty verses at fairs. Our guide to Dali folk songs explains the form, the instruments and the big singing festival on Shibao Mountain.

Visiting the Bai People Respectfully

  • Ask before photographing people, especially elders in traditional dress.
  • Buy tie-dye from workshops that make it, in Zhoucheng or Xizhou if you can.
  • Village temples are working places of worship. Keep voices low and don’t touch offerings.
  • The colourful headdresses of young Bai women carry local symbolism. Admire them, but don’t pull at the tassels.
  • Around Erhai, stick to marked paths and cycling lanes. The lake shore is protected, and rules on access have tightened in recent years.

Getting there is straightforward. High-speed trains link Kunming and Dali in roughly two hours, and Dali also has an airport. Our Yunnan travel guide covers routes, and the Naxi heartland is a short train ride further north — see our introduction to the Naxi people of Lijiang.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Why are the Bai people called “white”? Their own name for themselves means roughly “white people”, and white is a valued colour in Bai culture. The Chinese name Bai (白) simply means white.
  2. Is three-course tea sweet? Only the second cup. The first is bitter, and the third is gently spicy, with honey and Sichuan pepper.
  3. Where can I see real Bai tie-dye being made? Zhoucheng village, north of Dali old town, has working dye yards and small museums. Some offer short hands-on sessions.
  4. When is the Third Month Fair? It starts on the 15th day of the third lunar month, which usually falls in April. Check the exact dates each year.
  5. Do I need a special permit to visit Bai villages? No. Normal entry rules for China apply.

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