Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture Museum

Dali area has a civilization more than 4,000 years, during when it was set up to be the regional kingdom for more than 500 years. Besides, the Silk Road has brought rapid development for this area. Therefore, you can have a close look at the precious historic relics in the museum, where was a place that has enjoyed great significance in the Chinese culture.

The Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture Museum locates in the east of Erhai South Road in Xiaguan Town of Dali City, Yunnan Province. It was built in 1986, and has a total area of about 8 acres. Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture Museum is the first Autonomous Prefecture Museum in Yunnan Province. The architectural style of the museum combines ancient Dali and Bai together. It is a garden-style Museum with strong local ethnic minority's characteristics, where is also the central institution where the government of Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture conducts cultural relic research, excavations, collecting, exhibiting and so on.

From the surrounding pines and cypress, we can learn that the Museum adopts symmetric forms of layout. All of its constructions seem to be an integrated mass. The museum’s exhibition hall shows the clear domestic house architectural style of Bai, "Three rooms and one wall screening, four joints and five courtyards". The museum itself is a great architectural work of art of the Bai ethnic minority, which is indeed worth visiting when traveling in Dali.

The Museum has twelve main exhibition halls. Eight of these exhibit year-round, including 'Bronzes Cultural Relics Exhibition Hall', 'Nanzhao Kingdom and Dali Kingdom Stone Carving Arts Exhibition Hall', 'Nanzhao Kingdom and Dali Kingdom Painting Arts Exhibition Hall', 'Chinaware Exhibition Hall', 'Fine Marble Exhibition Hall', 'Nanzhao Kingdom and Dali Kingdom Cultural Relics Exhibition Hall', 'Bai Folk-custom Exhibition Hall', 'Dali Modern Revolutionary Historical Sites Relics Exhibition Hall', etc.

The Museum has amassed a considerable collection, the amount of which is about 7,000 sub-collections including historical, ethical, revolutionary and cultural relics, fine marbles and other materials. Among these invaluable relics, the Dali Bronze Drum and Serial Bells from the time of the Warring States (476 B.C.-221 B.C.), the Earthenware House and the Earthenware Horses from the Western Han (206 B.C.-24 A.D.), the holy Buddhist Maitreya's Pictures and the fine natural marble pictures like 'A Peacock Showing its Tail' from the Nanzhao Kingdom will be a feast of eyes.

Opening Hours: 8:30 -- 11:30   14:00 -- 17:30

Ticket Price: 10 CNY

Location: No. 8, South Erhe Road, Xiguan Town, Dali City

Transportation: From the Dali city center, you can come here on foot or by bus No. 6.