Three Pagodas of The Chong Sheng Temple 崇圣寺三塔 - Dali, China

This trip to the Three Pagodas was our second time. Previous day we went there in the morning and as we reached the ticket office rain started coming down. The rain was relentless so we decided not to go in especially finding out that the ticket cost RMB 75 (USD 10.47).

Three Pagodas are located in a huge area which mostly has to be covered by foot. Visiting on a rainy day was really a bad idea. The second time we visited the sky was also grey. We didn't have a choice since that's our last day in Dali.

We made it there early just before 9 am. As we walked there there was a girl who offered to sell us discounted tickets. I could not remember the exact price but I think we could have saved RMB 10 (USD 1.40) per ticket. Not bad. She even explained to us that the price would be cheaper than Meituan which we still had to wait for 30 minutes.

We politely declined though she was pretty persistent. I was worry whether it's counterfeit tickets or whatnot. And as a foreigner I didn't want to be a criminal in a foreign country.

We straight away went to the ticket counter and showed the lady our passports. She took a look and told us that we did not need tickets just show our passports at the entrance. I could not believe my hearing. Luckily hubby also heard the conversation so we happily proceeded with the instruction. True enough, we just showed our passports and be let in. Ha ! 😂

Translation of the script above (translation by Google Translate) : The Three Pagodas have been famous for their "magic" since ancient times. They are built on earth but have stood for thousand of years. They have no underground palace but have a heavenly palace. The tower body was cracked in a major earthquake but was able to recover on its own. Recently another netizen accidentally took an amazing photo from the front, the two small towers and the main tower are in the shape of an "eight" from the back, the two small towers and the main tower have become an inverted "eight" shape! Perhaps, every tourist has a different Three Pagoda in his eyes, and your Three  Pagoda is waiting for your pursuit and discovery!

We managed to take some photos of the Three Pagodas and followed others to do ritual of circling the Pagodas. Then we decided to check out other parts of the temple. We walked to the front thinking there's other stuff to see which turned out to be just an entrance though very grand. Apparently the RMB 75 ticket covers ground transportation inside the compound of the temple.

As we decided to turn around rain started coming down pretty strong too. We took cover thinking that we may be able to continue when the rain tapered off. But it never did so we left. 😔

Some of the photos here were taken from Baidu map by other users.