Also known as the Kwan-yin Fair, March Fair is one of the most important festivals celebrated by the Bai Ethnic People in Dali in southwest China's Yunnan province.

History And Origin

Currently there is no reliable record of the start of March Fair. A local legend offers an interesting explanation which goes as follows: At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the devil called Luocha occupied the territory of today's Dali and persecuted the common folk. During the zhenguan Period, Kwan-yin from the west(today's India) subdued the devil and saved people from the suffer. Ever since, people would gather at the ancient town, offering vegetables to Kwan-yin. Even though the legend fails to give a reasonable and convincing reason on the history of the occasion. It at least shows the fair was at its first stage related to religion.

Present-day March Fair

Now March Fair has become a prosperous commercial fair with tens of thousands of participants and a total volume of trade of over ten millions each year. Besides the Bai ethnic people, other minority groups such as the Yi, Tibetan, Naxi, Nu, Hui in that region will all throng to the fair that day. During the March Fair, the streets at Dali town are compete with temporally stalls selling a mind-boggling variety of items, highlighted by ethnic minority souvenirs.

Visiting Dali during the March Street Fair is a refreshing experience. It is the best season of the locality. Though lingering traces of snow are still visible at certain less-shone places of the Cangshan Hill, azaleas have come in bloom and the blackish hill looks like a girl’s flushing, pinkish face. Belts of white clouds drift around the hill’s waist, and the Erhai Lake at its foot is dotted with white sails and islands. Water ripples, and the lake looks like a big loving eye, with willow twigs gently brushing against its bank like fluttering eyelashes. The cheerful season makes it an ideal time for a festival like March Street Fair. 

The Cangshan Hill and Erhai Lake, Dali	People of all races heading for the March Street Fair. The three towers are a Dali landmark.

March Street Fair (san yue jie) is the most important festival for the Bai nationality, an ethnic minority group in the southwestern province of Yunnan. It falls in mid-“March” (the third month) on Chinese lunar calendar (often corresponding largely to April on the Gregorian calendar).

People of the Ethnic Bai Group

Prevalent in Dali, the festival was initially a Buddhist religious event. According to legends, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva (more popularly known as “Guan-Yin-Pu-Sha” among Han Chinese population) would come to Dali and give preaching to local people. Therefore, at this time every year, believers would set up cloth sheds to worship him, giving rise to an annual Buddhist temple fair where sutras were chanted and offerings made.

It happened that Dali was a traffic hub – the Tea-Horse Trade Route runs through here – and believers who came for the religious events from various parts of the region would carry bundles of commodities for trade. The temple fair has gradually developed into a folk commodity trade fair in western Yunnan with nationwide influence. Dali horses, for example, were traditionally imported to China’s inland regions through this fair.

The busy street

Vendors surrounded by customers

The fair usually lasts for around a week at the foot of the Cangshan Hill. Attending the fair are not only the Bai people, but also other ethnic groups in nearby regions – the Han, Tibetan, Yi, Naxi, Lisu, and Hui peoples – who get dressed in festive attires, herd livestock and carry forest and farm products and home-made daily necessities for trade, making the square a bustling market place. People trade during the daytime, and indulge themselves in singing and dancing and performances at night. Folk sports like archery, horse racing, and ball games are played, too, adding a touch of masculinity to the soft breeze and sunshine of springtime.

Ethnic Bai girls flip the whips to signal the beginning of the annual Fair.

Sports activities like archery are held alongside the Fair.

Plucking the red flags from a galloping horse.

Singing competition - players sing self-improvised lyrics to counter each other.

Bonfire party. Tourists may join them.

Tourists from around the world.