Butterfly Spring in Dali
Chinese Name: 大理蝴蝶泉
English Name: Butterfly Spring in Dali City
Type: spring, gther palace for butterfly
Best Time to Visit: April 15th every year in lunar calendar
Recommended Visiting Hours: 1 hour
Opening Hours: 8:30a.m.~5:00p.m.
Ticket: Entrance Fee: CNY 60 Sightseeing bus: CNY 20
Location: under the Yunnong Peak, Mt. Cangshan, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, 27km south of Dali Ancient Town
Butterfly Spring
Butterfly Spring where thousands of butterflies flutter among the branches and blossoms and over the spring forming an amazing ‘ Kingdom of Butterflies’. Above the pool there is an ancient tree known as the Butterfly Tree, because its fragrant blossom attracts thousands of butterflies in the short interval of spring turns to summer. These colorful creatures fly around the pool and settle on the tree in great clusters as they sip the nectar from the blossoms. This spectacular sight has given rise to a local festival when Bai people gather around the tree on 15 April for the Butterfly Meet. Then the youth will seek to engage with their loves. The Bai also refer to the Butterfly Spring as the ‘Allegiance Spring’ as it is here that true and lasting love may be found.
Why is Butterfly Spring So special?
Butterfly Spring is the gather place of butterflies. Butterfly Spring where thousands of butterflies flutter among the branches and blossoms and over the spring forming an amazing ‘ Kingdom of Butterflies’. Travelers can view the spectacular sights of thousands of flying butterflies and booing blossom.
Where is Butterfly Spring?
Butterfly Spring is located under the Yunnong Peak of Mt. Cangshan, 27 km south of Dali Ancient Town.
Travel Information
How to get to Butterfly Spring
1. From Dali Ancient City, hire a taxi or local car, which costs CNY 60-100; or take a bus from the West Gate to the scenic area and the bus fare is around CNY 4.
2. From Dali city, take a bus from Xiaguan Town Bus Station and the fare is CNY 5-10.
| Ticket Fare | Entrance Fee: CNY 60 Sightseeing bus: CNY 20 |
| Opening Hours | 8:30 – 17:00 |
| Recommended Time for a Visit | 1h |
Main Attractions(Three Wonders)
Spring
The first wonder is “spring”. Butterfly Spring is soaked from the sand bed, the water quality is especially clear filtered by the thick sand layers without any pollution. The springs come from Butterfly Spring, in recent years the waters have been stored up in three pools by park managers for people to watch, the largest pool is about 10 mu. The park of Butterfly Spring contains a Butterfly Museum which keeps lots of species of butterflies.
Butterfly
The second wonder is the “Butterfly”. In Butterfly Spring, there are many different kinds of butterflies, every year in March to May, some butterfly is as big as a palm, and some is as small as bee. April 15 became Butterfly Party by the Bai people. Xu xiake described it in his travel notes: “There are thousands of butterflies, many of them may even connect with each other by head and tail and hang from the Silktree Albizzia to the water’s surface. The sight is so magnificent and wonderful.”
If tourists miss the Butterflies Party, there is a new butterfly pavilion in the south of Butterfly Spring, which reproduces the butterfly ecology, species and the butterfly culture in Butterfly Spring that provides the visitors who can’t visit the Butterfly Party the valuable information of Butterfly Spring wonder.
Tree
The last wonder is the “tree”. In the Butterfly Spring Park, there is “the beauty of the Butterfly Spring is green, please take good care of flowers and trees” environmental sign, this sentence show the beauty of the Butterfly Spring is green. The fernleaf hedge bamboos, the Christmas trees are seen along the passageway, and after the spring there are the pine forest, palm grove, tea grove, rhododendron forest, and some local unique aromatic incense tree species like albizzia. The acacia tree in Butterfly Spring, when the flowering season in early April, its petals just look like the hidden butterfly during the day, and its petals fold and smell fragrance at night. The poet praise the butterfly is the “flying flowers”, and this albizzia is “still butterfly”. All kinds of flowers bloom in the third and fourth month of every lunar year on Yunnong Peak. The big Silktree Albizzia gives off a faint fragrant scent. The scent attracts the butterflies, so thousands of them congregate around the Butterfly Spring.
Recommended Visiting Routes
Hours Couple Sightseeing Route
Sightseeing Time: 2 to 3 hours
For the crowd: couple
Arrival pattern: Special vehicle in the scenic spot, self-driving
Attractions on route: East Gate—Cuizhu Avenue—Xu Xiake Garden—Small Memorial Archway —Butterfly World—Five Dragons Spray Pond—Butterfly Spring—Big Crescent Moon Pool—Butterfly Museum—South Gate
Hours Family Sightseeing Route
Sightseeing time: 3 to 5 hours
For the crowd: family
Arrival pattern: special vehicle in the scenic spot, self-driving
Attractions on route: East Gate—Cuizhu Avenue—Xu Xiake Garden—Small Memorial Archway—Butterfly World—Five Dragons Spray Pond—Butterfly Spring—Big Crescent Moon Pool—Butterfly Museum—Wanghai Pavilion
Best Time to Visit Butterfly Spring
The Butterfly Party will be hold in April 15th every year in lunar calendar, at that time thousands of butterflies fly from all quarters, flying around the spring, many of them may even connect with each other by head and tail which is so magnificent.
Useful Travel Tips
It is any time to have a butterfly flying in Butterfly Spring, in addition to April each year, in the other time people can not see the wonder of thousands of butterflies congregate around, so it is not recommended to visit Butterfly Spring in unsuitable time.
