Yunlong

Nuodeng, a thousand-year-old Bai salt village built into the hillside, shot to fame for its ham on A Bite of China, and is linked to the Bi River's “natural Taiji symbol” and Yunlong's cluster of ancient bridges.

Yunlong County lies in the valleys of the Lancang (Mekong) and Bi rivers in western Dali Prefecture, Yunnan. A mountainous county with a largely Bai population, it has been famed for its salt wells since ancient times, and the Salt and Horse Road ran from here to towns across western Yunnan. Northwest of the county town, the ancient village of Nuodeng has more than a thousand years of history, with tiers of well-preserved Ming and Qing courtyards, old salt wells, the Yuhuang Pavilion and a Confucian temple; Nuodeng ham became famous after featuring on A Bite of China. North of town, the meandering Bi River forms the iconic “natural Taiji symbol,” best viewed from a lookout on the hill to the west; the Taoist temple on Hutou Mountain beside town offers views from above, and Tianchi to the west is an alpine lake and Yunnan snub-nosed monkey reserve. To the south, Baofeng Ancient Town was once the prefectural seat, while to the north the “Yunlong bridge cluster” — including the Tongjing, Anlan and Caifeng bridges and the Shundang rattan bridge — is strung along the Bi River, one of the rare concentrations of ancient bridges in China. The best season is the dry season from November to April, with clear weather, and winter is also ham-curing time; mountain roads may see landslides in the Jun–Sep rainy season. Getting there: buses run from Dali to Yunlong town in about 3–4 hours, and the journey is shorter now that the Dali–Yunlong expressway is open; from town, Nuodeng is about 15 minutes by taxi. Stay at a guesthouse in Nuodeng and allow 2 days: one for the village, the Taiji viewpoint and Hutou Mountain, and one for Baofeng Ancient Town or the northern bridge cluster.

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