At No. 321 Fuxing Road, in the center of Dali Ancient Town, the past and present share a single courtyard. This ten-thousand-square-meter sanctuary began in 1285. It survived fires, wars, and the dismantling of its halls in the 1970s.

The journey begins at the eastern entrance, where the grand Wanren Gongqiang screen wall stands. Beyond it, visitors cross a white marble bridge over the semicircular Pan Pond, feeling the cool, smooth stone underfoot. Ahead lies the Dacheng Gate, a single-eave, hip-roofed wooden structure. In the twentieth century, the architectural historian Liang Sicheng inspected this gate, identifying its timber joints as surviving work from the Ming dynasty. It remains the oldest original structure on the site, standing firm through centuries of regional change.

Behind this gateway, the rebuilt Dacheng Hall rises under yellow glazed tiles that catch the sharp Yunnan sun. Its front doors bear eighty-one polished brass studs, cold to the touch. On the central steps, massive coiled dragons emerge from relief carvings in the stone, while two large pillars feature double dragons winding upward, their scales shaped by local stonemasons. The architecture blends imperial palace styles with local Bai ethnic design, visible in the deep, aromatic Jianchuan wood carvings.

For generations, Dali families maintained a quiet ritual here. Parents brought their newborns to the temple to gather a handful of soil, wrapping it in the child's clothes before crossing the hill to the military temple to gather a second handful. This simple act expressed a hope that the child would grow up balancing both civil wisdom and physical strength.

In the southern section, the Dali City Library occupies an eighteen-hundred-square-meter space. Here, the scent of ink and aged paper rises from twenty-eight thousand rare ancient books and Republican-era documents. In the courtyard, the soft rustle of daily newspapers turned by local elders fills the quiet air. Nearby, artisans teach traditional woodblock printing and tie-dyeing.