The Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture in west Yunnan aims to be a destination for wedding ceremonies in an effort to add more drivers to local economy, according a recent news release.

Having weddings in Dali prefecture has formed a new trend. On May 20, lady photographer nicknamed “City” got married beside the Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake.

Born in Chongqing, City and her groom travelled to a diversity of destinations in ASEAN, Europe and Newzealand, taking pictures whenever they were impressed by the sight.

Then, they settled in Dali and opened their own photography shop called “Secret”. “Dali is really a rare place in China, and you can take good pictures even on cloudy days,” said the groom, adding around 1,000 pairs came to their shop for wedding pictures.

Planned by the Jiye florist studio, City’s wedding took place at the Honor Resort Yunshu Dali hotel at a cost of 280,000 yuan. “We hosted over 20 high-end weddings in 2019 and over 90% couples chose to marry in Dali,” said Yang Di, the person in charge of the weddings. “They can get married and have a good trip at the same time.”

Dali already has won a good reputation from couples who had a wedding here. Last year, the magazine “Wedding Vogue” chose Dali to be a top destination for weddings. “Dali enjoys unique natural beauty and over 400 pairs come to Dali for wedding each year,” said Zhao Wei, head of the Dali Bureau of Culture and Tourism. 

Zhao added Dali city is gifted to be a “wedding capital”, citing traditional love stories of the Bai ethnic group, as well as Canshan and Erhai as allusions of ever-lasting love in the Chinese language.

Dali has focused on tourism in recent years. Now, hotels, homestays and gardens have already adapted to wedding styles. The lovers who came to Dali for beautiful pictures are potential customers for customer-made weddings.

By 2022, Dali will receive around 65,000,000 global visitors, with the gross revenue amounting to 120 billion yuan. Tourism will contribute 25% of local GDP.

Source: Spring City Evening News; trans-editing by Wang Shixue and Li Yushuangyue