At the eastern foot of Yingle Peak on Mount Cangshan, three white plaster-coated brick pagodas stand in a perfect equilateral triangle, facing the western shore of Erhai Lake. This is the architectural anchor of Dali.

The central giant, the square-shaped Qianxun Pagoda, rises 69.13 meters into the mountain air. Commissioned by King Quan Fengyou of the Nanzhao Kingdom between 833 and 840 AD, its sixteen tiers of upturned eaves mimic the Tang Dynasty style of Xi'an. Inside, the hollow brick core rises to the eighth story, where ancient builders left round scaffolding holes in the masonry. Each outer facade holds a carved niche sheltering a cool white marble Buddha. In front of this tower sits a stone tablet carved by Mu Shijie during the Ming Dynasty. His bold inscription, "Forever Control Mountains and Rivers," was a plea to stop the floods that locals blamed on mythical dragons. On top of the spires, copper-cast golden-winged birds with crystal-beaded tails stood guard, representing the mythical predators of those water-dragons.

Nearly three centuries after the central tower rose, builders under the Dali Kingdom added two flanking octagonal towers. Standing exactly 70 meters away from the center and 97 meters apart, these 42.19-meter-high sibling pagodas feature ten tiers decorated with relief carvings of lotuses and vases. Today, both smaller towers lean visibly, their slanting brickwork resisting gravity.

These structures survived the rise and fall of the adjacent Chongsheng Monastery, a royal temple where nine kings, including Duan Zhengchun and Duan Zhengyan, abdicated their thrones to wear simple monk robes. Fires and wars destroyed the monastery's wooden halls. The brick pagodas stood firm. They survived over thirty earthquakes, including the catastrophic 1925 disaster that leveled nearly every other building in Dali.

During a major restoration between 1978 and 1981, engineers discovered a hidden cache of over six hundred relics inside the pagodas. Among the dust of centuries lay gold, silver, and crystal statues, bronze mirrors, and Buddhist scriptures. These relics, alongside the tilted brick towers, preserve the engineering genius of ancient Yunnan.