Xizhou

Xizhou made money in the tea and cotton trade with Tibet and Burma, and the families that made it built courtyard mansions in the Bai style, whitewashed with painted grey ink panels on the gables, carved screens and the three-sided plus screen-wall plan called sanfang yizhaobi. Several are open, including the Yan family compound. The town keeps a working morning market, and it is known for the xizhou baba, a flaky wheat pastry baked between charcoal above and below and sold sweet with rose paste or savoury with pork and spring onion. Rice fields run from the town toward Erhai lake.

What you actually see

• The Bai courtyard mansions - merchant houses with painted gables and screens.
• The morning market - a working produce market in the square.
• Xizhou baba - flaky pastries baked over and under charcoal.
• The fields to the lake - rice and rape between the town and Erhai.

When to go

March to June and September to November; rape flowers in late winter and rice greens in summer. The market runs in the early morning. Holidays crowd the main lanes.

Honest expectations

Tourism has grown fast, with cafés and boutique guesthouses in the old houses. Some mansions charge separately. The town is small and a couple of hours covers the core.

Nearby

Dali lies south; Shaxi is northwest.