Unique screen wall of the ethnic Bai people, at the entrance to the Butterfly Spring in Dali.

The Butterfly Spring is a famous local attraction in Dali. The clean spring water squeezes its way out of sand and pebbles at the bottom of a 50m2 pond. Around the pond are tall trees which bloom every year in the short interval of time as spring turns into summer during the fourth lunar month, attracting thousands of multi-colored butterlies which fly around the pond and settle on the trees in great clusters as they sip the nectar from their bloom. Hence the name of the place Butterly Spring.

The local ethnic Bai people hold the Butterfly Spring Festival here on the 15th day of the fourth lunar month every year. The inevitable legend associated with the spring is that two lovers committed suicide here to escape a cruel king. After jumping into the bottomless pond, they turned into two of the butterflies which gather here in the fourth lunar month each year.