The story
Dali March Street Festival in Dali
A week-long Bai ethnic market and cultural fair held from the 15th to 21st day of the third lunar month at the foot of Cangshan Mountain outside Dali's old city walls. Originating over 1,300 years ago as a Tang-dynasty Buddhist gathering, it grew into one of Yunnan's largest markets, historically a trading point for Dali horses, and still centers on horse racing, herbs, handicrafts and livestock trade.
Dali's Sanyuejie fair traces back more than 1,300 years to a Tang-dynasty Buddhist gathering honoring Guanyin, and it kept that religious core even as it grew into one of Yunnan's largest annual markets under the Nanzhao Kingdom, the Bai-led state that dominated the region from the eighth to tenth centuries.