Yunnan · Dali · Yunlong
Yunlong County Town 云龙县城

Modern Yunlong is a pleasant small county town with little traffic.rnThe centre of town is the Y-intersection of the roads to Xiaguan, Baoshan and Lanping, with the bus-station at one corner. City architects have added plenty of flower-shaded pedestrian walkways and temple areas.

Right at the heart of town, opposite the new high-rise hotel, sits a small temple, once flanked by a suspension bridge that has now been replaced by a concrete one. Over on the western side of the river a walkway leads up to a modern pagoda with good views over the town. Just a little further downstream, an old pedestrian suspension bridge with a small shrine on the western side leads back to the main town.

Following the old road along the tributary stream 'Tiger Head Mountain' 虎头山 lies to the right, a temple mountain combining Taoist, Buddhist and Guanyin shrines: the locals claim that ordinary people worship the Taoist idols, Buddhism is not for them.

Large images of Buddha, rats and pigs are carved into the mountain sides as the path winds up to a temple on the top, seemingly protruding over cliff thus giving the complex its name. Locals wander up the mountain after dark on important festivals.

Opposite this park was once the town's center, developed near a salt well. Before it became the seat of government Yunlong was known as Stone Gate 石门 or Stone Gate Well 石门井 for the salt well upstream, the name Shimen still used as the town's name within the county.

The valley widens out where it receives a tributary coining from the east, the main stream continuing north. Shih-men-ching [Yunlong], a village of about 120 houses, is situated about half a mile up this tributary valley. Immediately to the north, stretching for at least 100 miles, is a large area of unsurveyed country which has never been seen by a European. There is not much land suitable for cultivation around Shih-men-ching, and the prosperity of the place has evidently declined in recent years. Numerous rock inscriptions, temples and memorial stones proclaim to the traveller that the village was the birthplace of a Chinese who rose to be governor of the province of Shan-si. This fact is blazoned forth on all sides, and in the eyes of the natives elevates their homestead far above the depressing level of the ordinary Yünnanese village. The Shih-men-ching brine-well is at the eastern end of the village. It is best described as a twin well as there are two shafts close together...

The road to 天池 ‘Heaven’s Pond’ branches east off the Lanping road and leads up the mountain, with a splendid vistas of Bi River’s double bend and the rice fields below. The road to Tianchi continues up the hill for another seven kilometres before reaching the lake at 2500m.

Around the lake are meadows with plenty of rhododendrons – prettiest in March and April, when the rhododendron flowers. The area around the lake is a nature reserve, a designated a provincial level scenic spot – with some exaggerated claimsto even have tigers.