The old Nanzhao capital
The Taihe city ruins lie at Taihe Village, Xiaguan Town, Dali City, at the foot of Cangshan's Foding Peak, on the road between Xiaguan (the Nanzhao-era "Longwei Pass") and Dali. They sit about 6 km north of Xiaguan and 7 km from Dali Old Town to the north. This is one of the narrowest land passages between the Cangshan range and Erhai Lake — the inevitable gateway from Longwei Pass into the old city of Dali. The Nanzhao Kingdom made it its capital, and it stands among the most consequential ancient cities of southwestern history.
A famous stele recording Tang–Nanzhao relations
The ruins' most precious relic is the Nanzhao Dehua Stele: 3.02 m high, 2.27 m wide and 0.58 m thick, of bluestone, engraved in regular script, heavily eroded. Its text recounts the tortuous course of Nanzhao's alliance with, and later rupture from, the Tang court — a primary source for Tang-era southwestern ethnic history.
On March 4, 1961, the State Council inscribed the Taihe city ruins and the stele among the first batch of key national protected cultural relics.
