Dali Butterfly Spring: Tickets, Shows and Whether It’s Worth Your Time

Butterfly Spring (Hudiequan, 蝴蝶泉) in Dali, Yunnan, is worth 2 hours if it sits on your route past Xizhou and you arrive in time for a Bai “Raosanling” procession. It isn’t worth a special trip. Wild butterflies gather in numbers only during Butterfly Festival week, on the 15th day of the fourth lunar month.

The rest of the year, the live butterflies are in the park’s greenhouse, not over the spring. That’s why Butterfly Spring reviews split so sharply. We’ve planned Dali days since 2006, and our guests’ feedback follows the same line. People who catch a show rate the park well. People who only walk to the pool call it “just a pond.”

Below are the park’s show times, plus the trap prices and wheelchair route from our own visits, so you know when to arrive and what to walk past.

1. What Is Butterfly Spring in Dali?

Butterfly Spring is a spring-fed pool inside a landscaped park at the foot of Yunnong Peak, the northernmost of Cangshan’s 19 peaks. The water comes off Cangshan Mountain. It’s clear enough to see the sandy bottom, and blue-green in morning light. A century-old albizia (silk tree) leans out over the water. The stone inscription on the pool wall is in Guo Moruo’s calligraphy.

Chinese visitors come for the history and the legend. The Ming-dynasty traveler Xu Xiake stood here in 1639 and wrote of butterflies hanging from the tree in chains, head to tail, down to the water. The 1959 film Five Golden Flowers shot its love-song scenes here. Guides still open the tour with the Bai legend of two lovers who drowned in the pool and rose as a pair of butterflies. Most of our Western guests haven’t heard of any of this, so they judge the park on what they see.

The park is a compact loop, small enough to walk end to end. These are the stops that matter:

2. Will You See Butterflies?

Butterfly Spring gets its famous clouds of butterflies only when the albizia and surrounding trees flower in late spring. The traditional peak is the Butterfly Festival (蝴蝶会), held on the 15th day of the fourth lunar month. That lands between early May and early June. Outside that window, you can walk the whole park without seeing a single wild one. Even in festival week, there are far fewer wild butterflies than in older photos. The festival programme has included timed butterfly releases over Lovers Lake, alongside Bai song and dance, a village-deity procession and a craft market. Go for the festival events; large numbers of wild butterflies aren’t guaranteed.

The live butterflies you will see are in Butterfly World. It’s a warm greenhouse, and staff dab honey water on your hands so butterflies land on your fingers and shoulders. Light-colored clothing draws more of them. The greenhouse runs year-round, and it’s the one part of the park that families with young children consistently enjoy. Similar butterfly gardens can also be found in the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden and Wild Elephant Valley.

We tell guests this before they arrive, not at the pool. Guests who know in advance enjoy the park. Guests who find out at the pool feel cheated.

3. Plan Your Visit Around the Bai Shows

Whether you catch a show makes the biggest difference to how you’ll rate Butterfly Spring. All shows are included in the CNY 40 ticket. The schedule below is the park’s summer (July–August) timetable. The park adjusts it by season, so ask for the day’s times at the gate before you start walking.

Most shows fall in two windows: 10:00–11:45 and 14:00–15:50. Nothing runs from 11:45 to 13:00, so arrive for one of the two windows. Raosanling runs four times a day and is marked ⭐ below.

Raosanling: the one to wait for

• When: 10:00 · 11:00 · 14:30 · 15:30 (20 minutes each)
• Where: Butterfly Archway

Raosanling (绕三灵) is the park’s daily version of a Bai spring festival of the same name. Visitors take part instead of watching. Bai women hand you a bawang whip (a bamboo rattle stick), show you the rhythm, and the procession circles the spring with you in it. One of our guests from Singapore said even the shy ones in the group ended up dancing. A Brazilian family we hosted had a child who normally won’t join in anything. That child marched the full loop, whip in hand, and hummed the tune on the drive back.

If you only have time for one show, make it this one. It’s also the show most likely to change your opinion of the park. A guest of ours from the UK expected little after reading the reviews online. They stopped for a CNY 10 pot of tea by the spring and caught the Raosanling on the way out. Afterwards they told us the park was far better than its reviews.

Cormorant fishing: short, and great with kids

• Lovers Lake: 11:25 · 14:55 (5 minutes)
• Tongxin Island: 13:00 · 13:30 · 16:15 (10 minutes)

The birds dive and come up with fish quickly, which holds children’s attention for the whole show. Most adults find it too short to plan around. Paired with the black swans on Lovers Lake, it’s the second reason to bring kids here.

Duets and sanxian: slow and quiet

• Boat duets, Water Stage: 11:30 · 15:00
• Sanxian: Couple Tree 11:25 · Water Stage 15:10

The duets and sanxian sets are slow and atmospheric. They’re good from a bench by the water and not worth waiting for if you prefer something livelier. Our ranking, for guests with limited time: Raosanling first, cormorants second, duets last.

4. Tickets, Access and Getting There

Tickets and hours

The gate ticket is CNY 40. Chinese platforms sell it for CNY 38, but they need a WeChat or Alipay account. Trip.com sells it in English at the gate price, with entry on your passport. For a CNY 2 difference, the window is fine. The park opens 08:30–18:00 and stops admitting visitors at 17:00.

The posted discount policy gives half price to full-time students and visitors aged 60–69. Entry is free for visitors 70 and over, children 1.2 m and under, active military, and disabled visitors with a disability certificate. Bring the ID that proves eligibility.

Wheelchair access

Most of the park works in a wheelchair. The visitor center lends wheelchairs free of charge, and the main paths and restrooms have step-free access. The 800 m from the gate to the pool is flat enough to push. Our guests’ wheelchairs have gone right up to the water’s edge. Butterfly World and Lovers Lake are reachable too.

The exception is Wanghai Pavilion: 120+ steep stone steps that a wheelchair can’t manage. The exit arcade is a long stretch of stalls, so allow extra time to push through it. If pushing the full distance is too much, the park’s electric cart (CNY 10 one way) runs from the east gate to near the pool. Ask at the visitor center for the current step-free route when you arrive. For planning the rest of the trip, see our guide to wheelchair travel in China.

Getting there from Dali Old Town

Butterfly Spring is 25 km north of Dali Old Town along the lakeside road toward Eryuan.

From Xizhou, it’s a 10-minute taxi ride. That short hop is the main reason Butterfly Spring works as a half-day add-on rather than a destination. More on the Erhai loop and its sightseeing bus in our Erhai Lake guide.

5. Tourist Traps to Walk Past

Most complaints about Butterfly Spring concern what happens around the pool. None of these are dangerous, and all of them cost money you don’t need to spend. The prices below come from our own visits and our guests’ reports.

The “free guide” and the CNY 66 blessing plaque

A “free guide” offering to walk you through the park is there to sell you something. The guide stops at a jiama (甲马, a Bai blessing plaque) and talks about health for your parents or luck for your children. Then the guide puts a CNY 66 plaque in your hand. It’s presented as optional, but the sales talk makes refusing feel rude. We’ve heard of families leaving with three to five of them.

Some cart tickets come with a “free guide” assigned. Decline at the gate; “bù pāi bù mǎi” (不拍不买, “no photos, no buying”) is enough. If you’re already mid-tour when the plaque comes out, step away to take photos or find the restroom; you don’t owe anyone a purchase. Our guide to hidden shopping stops covers the same pattern at bigger sites.

The sightseeing cart

The electric cart costs CNY 10 one way or CNY 20 return. It runs 9:00–18:00 from the east gate toward Wanghai Pavilion, passing close to the pool. The ride to the pool takes 2–3 minutes. The walk is not long, whatever the cart sellers tell you. The pool is 800 m from the gate on a gentle path, 10–15 minutes on foot past small gardens and a stream. Skip the cart unless someone in your group is older or has trouble walking; for them, the CNY 10 is well spent.

Gate photographers and garland sellers

Photographers at the entrance sell packages at CNY 100 for 15 shots, and the results come out dark and soft. Your phone does better. Bai women selling flower garlands and costume rentals at the gate won’t take a polite no; a firm one works. If you want to dress up, the costume rental inside the park is CNY 10 a set.

The exit arcade

The exit is routed through a long souvenir arcade, and vendors walk alongside you. Keep moving.

6. Best Time to Go and How to Get the Photos

Go between 9:00 and 11:00 AM; that’s the window we plan our own visits around. The light on the pool is soft, the tour buses haven’t arrived, and the greenhouse butterflies are most active. By mid-afternoon the light turns hard and flat on the water, and the paths fill up.

Across the year, the late-spring bloom around the Butterfly Festival is the only time wild butterflies are a realistic hope. October through March is the quiet season: Butterfly World stays open and the air is cool, so bring a light jacket. Through September, the tail of the rainy season leaves the pine-needle and stone paths slick; wear shoes with grip. Avoid the national holidays. The first week of October is Golden Week, and Dali’s lakeside sights fill fast.

For photos:

• What to wear: white, cream and pale blue stand out against the blue-green water. Bai tie-dye clothing suits the setting; rent a set inside for CNY 10.
• Where to stand: the edge of the pool beside the old albizia, shooting down for reflections; the bamboo path near the entrance; the flower beds in Butterfly World; the boardwalk around Lovers Lake.
• What to pack: Dali’s UV is strong year-round, so bring sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses. In summer, add insect repellent. Leave heels behind; the stone paths are slippery when damp.

7. How to Fit It Into a Dali Day

Butterfly Spring works best as one stop on the west shore of Erhai, not as its own outing. On our private tours, Xizhou, Zhoucheng and Butterfly Spring usually share the Dali-to-Lijiang travel day. All three sit along the road north. Xizhou comes first; Zhoucheng and Butterfly Spring lie 1 km apart, 10 minutes further up the road.

A simple version for independent travelers:

If you would rather see the morning shows, flip it: Butterfly Spring at 9:30, the 10:00 Raosanling, then Xizhou for lunch. Either way you close a loop along the west shore without backtracking. Our Zhoucheng tie-dye guide compares the workshops and what a session costs. Still deciding how many days Dali deserves against Lijiang? Our Dali vs Lijiang comparison lays out the trade-offs.

8. FAQ

We can fit Butterfly Spring, Xizhou and Zhoucheng into your drive to Lijiang, timed to the shows and with no shopping stops. Tell us your dates.