In 1873, Yunnan Governor Cen Yuying stood on the grounds of a former mosque near the western gate of Dali, overseeing the construction of a grand academic complex. This was the new Dali Prefectural Examination Hall, relocated here after war destroyed its previous home. Originally founded during the Ming Dynasty in the city's northwestern corner, the institution had already migrated once in 1734 to a former coin minting bureau before arriving at this final site onHuguo Road.

For decades, young candidates known as tongsheng traveled from seven prefectures across western Yunnan to sit for their entry-level civil service examinations. Inside the sprawling complex, which faced east, they walked past a massive screen wall, through side gates, and into rows of narrow examination booths. They sat for hours, their ink brushes scratching against paper under the watchful eyes of imperial administrators.

Today, a single primary hall survives, tucked quietly behind the Dali Rural Film History Museum. It stands five bays wide, built with exceptionally thick, heavy timber posts and lintels that have carried the weight of the roof for over a century. The single-eave hip-and-gable roof sweeps upward at the corners, its smooth lines cutting against the Yunnan sky. Visitors who look closely at the eaves can still touch the deep, hand-carved grooves of the wooden bracket sets and decorative flower panels, preserved exactly as late Qing craftsmen left them.

When the imperial exams were abolished in the early twentieth century, the halls fell silent. The structure adapted to new roles. In 1985, the city carved away the front grounds to build a public cinema, layering the sounds of mid-century film projectors over the older echoes of military drills and classical recitations. Now protected as a prefecture-level cultural relic, this surviving hall remains a quiet anchor in a changing tourist district, holding the physical memory of Dali's long intellectual history.