(Photo by Yang Feiyue/China Daily)

"Tibetans visit Eryuan to enjoy the hot springs during the Spring Festival when temperatures at home typically fall to their lowest," says Ma.

The Three Pagodas of the Chongsheng Temple seem to sparkle in the golden light with the gray mountains in the background. The Mahavira Hall (Daxiongbaodian) at the temple houses one of the biggest collections of Buddhist figures in China, as well as the delicate wood carvings of Buddha on the walls.

Over 112 million tourists visited Dali over 2011-15 and revenue from tourism stood at 126 billion yuan ($19 billion).

Of the visitors, those from outside the mainland were 3.4 million, contributing $1.4 billion in income.

In 2015, major scenic spots in the prefecture saw a more than 60 percent increase in the numbers of visitors over the previous year. More than 29 million visitors from home and abroad came to the region.

Tourists from Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as foreign tourists from Japan and South Korea, are a major force, says Ma.

Meanwhile, more development has been planned to boost tourism.

Transportation will also be improved to woo more tourists from outside.

The local government plans to increase the number of chartered flights to Dali from Myanmar, Thailand, and Taiwan over July-September this year.

Dali airport handled 1.26 million travelers in 2015 and this is expected to hit 1.6 million in 2016, says Ma.

So far, there are 15 domestic air routes which connect Dali with major cities, such as Chengdu in Sichuan province, Chongqing, Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing in Jiangsu province, and Wuhan in Hubei province.

A two-hour high-speed rail link between Kunming and Dali is expected to begin operations in 2017.