At the northern entrance of Shacun, a traditional Bai minority village in Xizhou Town, Dali, stands a stone and timber memorial archway. This gateway marks the boundary of an ancient fishing settlement nestled between the Cangshan Mountains and Erhai Lake. Visitors passing beneath its detailed eaves follow a path aligned with Wanhua Creek, which flows directly through the village heart.

The archway introduces a community where ninety-eight point seven percent of the residents are indigenous Bai people. For centuries, local stonemasons have carved regional marble and timber to build these structures, leaving faint chisel marks on the stone bases. Artisans decorated the nearby family homes with hand-painted plaster and clay sculptures, reflecting a deep architectural tradition.

Shacun is a place defined by water. It is the birthplace of the Erhai fish eagle fishing culture, where generations of fishermen trained cormorants to dive into the lake. The smell of damp lake earth and the sound of rushing creek water still fill the air. In the 1960s, this landscape attracted filmmakers who chose Shacun as the setting for the classic movie Five Golden Flowers. The actors and crew walked these same paths, capturing the village's daily rhythms on film.

On August 26, 2013, the Chinese government designated Shacun as a protected Traditional Village. Today, the archway serves as a quiet sentinel near the Erhai Ecological Corridor and the sandbar of Haishe Park.