There seems to be an alarming trend in tourist towns like Dali towards fashion shops that sell onlymilitary clothing,usually with AK47s or M16s as display pieces -- hardly surprising when you see that most children here start off with a wooden sword and soon graduate to plastic pistols and rifles.
Dali's growing season is almost never ending andfruithere is nothing like you see in the average supermarket. Watch out for peaches so large that they would frighten even Roald Dahl, sweet syrupy figs, and dozens of different apple-pear combinations.
Hundreds of shops in town sell Dalimarble,famous for its beautiful cloudlike patterns and anticorrosive nature; the marble is now even more in demand because the practice of quarrying from the Cang Shan mountains has been officially prohibited. For now most of it comes in the unfortunate form of cheap tacky ashtrays but a growing number of sculptors are setting up studios in the area, which could be promising. Other local specialties includesliced walnut vases and lampshades,but a block ofpu'er teamight be a little wiser. As always, comparison-shop before you commit to anything: A piece of batik on Huguo Lu can sometimes cost 10% to 20% more than another along Fuxing Lu (or vice versa). Forbatiks,you can usually get better prices in the wholesale factories and workshops in Zhou Cheng . In stores, it's not uncommon to bargain to half or two-thirds of the asking price.