Trip Day 2 - Dali

http://wikitravel.org/en/Dali

The link will tell you about Dali, it's history, Old Town and New Town.

We took a 30 min flight from Kumming to Dali and were met by our guide, H., who drove us straight to Old Town and our hotel, The Landscape Hotel.
The hotel was close to the main street of Old Town as well as a very very popular tourist street called Foreigners Street. We were told that the street, several blocks of tourist shops and restaurants, was given it's name because of the impact of a few western backpackers who hung out there for a while when that part of China was first opened to westerners. Seems these backpackers longed for some spaghetti and hamburger, omelettes and other culinary memories of home. They opened a few restaurants and taught the locals how to cook western style.
Above you will see the effect in Clare's Cafe featuring all of the above.

It seemed to me a greater attraction to the street was the presence of busloads of Chinese domestic who come regularly to Dali's Old Town to see the foreigners on Foreigners Street. And, of course, have your picture taken there.