Summer Huang | A Paradise on Earth: Dali
The magic of Cangshan Hiking Home comes from its diverse guides and perceptive guests. This account shares experiences of moss collecting, birdwatching, and the surreal beauty of Eryuan West Lake.
If Cangshan Hiking Home is wonderful, it's because of its unique guides and sensitive guests—like a deep conversation built on genuine exchange. During Christmas 2024, we spent over ten days in Dali, joining young locals who truly love nature. We hiked Cangshan for pinecones, dyed moss by the stream, stargazed on Eryuan Lake, visited a beekeeper, and watched sunset at Huoshan.
On the first day, guide Xiao Mi took us moss collecting. She drove a mini van with a bamboo basket and her dog. We found tiny mosses on a hillside, carefully dug them out, and created mini landscapes in glass jars. We sat on dry leaves under the trees, drinking apple tea and eating snacks—pure bliss.
Birdwatching on West Lake was unforgettable. Expert Wang Bin borrowed a farmer's boat. As we drifted, golden birds flew overhead—ruddy shelducks, fat and lazy. The boat entered a maze of tall reeds, and we played hide-and-seek with the birds. The lake was calm, the scene dreamlike.
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Jason | Using AI to Create Your Own Mini Program/Website
Two months ago in Chiang Mai, I stumbled upon the chance to start learning how to build mini programs. My AI programming mentor, Wangshen, told me, 'Once you finish your mini program, write a summary report.' Now I've completed the new mini program for Cangshan Hiking Home, and it's already being tested. It not only solves problems I've wanted to address for a while, like adding age tags to filter activities and providing an English version, but it has also introduced new features, such as browsing restaurants, guesthouses, and meeting points on a map for a more intuitive experience, and using AI to provide quite intelligent responses.
Learn AI Programming Together
Some information about AI programming
Celebrate the Torch Festival in a Nanzhao Royal Clan Village
Over the past two years, we have taken guests to celebrate the Torch Festival in Songhe Village, Eryuan. Together we slaughtered a sheep, and with the whole village, erected a huge torch in the center of the village square. Everyone made their own torches from hemp stalks, and together with the older and younger villagers, we rushed to grab the blessing baba (cakes) from the big torch, passing blessings to each other with fire. Even for me, a native Bai person, these are rare and precious traditional festival experiences. Dali has endless festivals, and I want to experience them more before they fade away. I remember the Torch Festival of my childhood: torches were no longer enough for me. Before the festival, I would tell my dad to prepare a bucket of waste engine oil and diesel, mix them together, and then I would tightly bind cotton and old cloth with rope into a ball (some kids would secretly take cotton from their quilts at home to make it). Finally, I would make an iron wire ball, soak it in the bucket of oil, and secretly take it out every day to look at it, looking forward to having a great time on the day of the Torch Festival. We would compete in the village and by the rice fields to see whose fireball or torch was more impressive. When the torches and fireballs were almost burned out, we would rush home, walk around the potted fruit trees in circles, and say blessing words, hoping they would grow even better in the coming year.