Xizhou is located in the north of Dali Ancient Town, about 18 kilometers far away. Close to Erhai Lake in the east and Cangshan Mountain in the west, Xizhou is an important town of Bai people in Dali. If you come to learn to speak Chinese in Yunnan, you should know there are local style Bai people‘s dwelling houses building complex preserved the best and the most in Xizhou. From the aspect of layout, most houses belong to the structures of “three houses with one screen” and “four courtyards with five patios”.

The decorations on all parts of the houses are colorful and fully indicate the Bai people‘s building talent and artistic creativity. As soon as you arrive in Xizhou, the first thing you see would be the two giant trees with densely branches and leaves. Such kind of tree is rare in the north of China which is called “evergreen tree”. In Bai people’s eyes, this kind of tree is the symbol of prosperity of the village, hence calling it Feng Shui Tree.

Generally speaking, each ancient Bai people’s village should have “evergreen tree”. Usually, such trees often connect with stage together to form the group activity center. But one thing you should know when you are learning Mandarin Chinese is that the two trees in Xizhou are vey old. The interesting thing is that the legend says each tree belongs to yin and yang. When one germinates, another tree’s leavers begin to fall. The two trees become the best place for taking a rest when the villagers feel like having a break during working.

If someone in the village dies, the people taking part in a funeral procession should walk around the trees and burn the paper pennants under the trees to attach the love of the dead to the village. The centre of Xizhou is a square surrounded by small shops. The standing stone archway is the “archway of civilization” which was constructed just in recent years.

In the past, the stone archway there was named as “Ti Ming Archway” constructed after several scholars succeed in imperial examination. Some students who study Mandarin online may know the villagers could inscribe their names on it as long as they succeed in examination in the past. Even though it is a town at present, Xizhou had the scale of a city in the past.