The popular beauty spot Butterfly Spring is located on the south of Dali Ancient City. Situated under the first peak of Cangshan, the spring rises to form a square shaped pool that is shaded by the dense foliage on its banks. The spring water is as clear as a mirror. Butterfly Spring features, summed up in “three unique": spring, butterflies, and trees.

The pool is about 50 square meters and there is an ancient decumbent tree above it. This is the famous "Butterfly Tree", which in the short interval as spring turns to summer; its fragrant blossom attracts thousands of butterflies. These multi-colored butterflies fly around the pool and settle on the tree in great clusters as they sip the nectar from its blooms. The large numbers of butterflies are hardly distinguishable from the flowers as the whole tree pulsates with every color of the colored ribbon. Such spectacular sight has formed a local festival when the Bai Nationality people gather at the tree on April 15th for the 'Butterfly Meet'. The romantic spectacle of the butterflies as they feed and mate in such abundance has become a symbol of courtship and each Bai Nationality youth will seek to engage with the lover of his life by joining in with the traditional antiphonal singing. The Bai Nationality also named the spring as the 'Allegiance Spring' as it is here that true and lasting love will be found.

The Butterfly Spring wonders have existed since ancient. It has been vividly described and recorded by Xu Xiake ,a great geographer in Ming Dynasty (1368～1644). When Guo Moruo travelled here in 1961, he had handwritten "Butterfly Spring" three characters, which carved in stone on the bank of the spring. In recent years, through trimmed with expansion, there are Butterfly House, Hexagonal, Large Crescent Pond, Butterfly Herbarium, Wanghailou and Xu Xiake statue in the Butterfly Spring Park. Every April, there will be a large number of tourists are attracted here to look the wonders.

Best Time to Visit

Butterflies Meeting will be held April 15th (Lunar New Year) annual, then, thousands of butterflies flying from all directions, flying around the spring, which is spectacular.