View down Fuxing Lu from Wu Hua Lou tower, evening, Dali old town (Dali Gu Chang)

Looking north from the centre of Dali towards its north gate. Dali’s strategic location near the southern end of Er Lake, at the foot of the Canshang range running north-south, ensured both its dominant trading position on the Tea Horse Road and its political power. It was the capital of two successive independent kingdoms, Nanzhao and Dali, for five centuries until it was overrun during the Mongol invasion in 1253.