Dali has long been a regional centre of commerce, being located at a crossroads of trade routes between Tibet, China, Burma, and Southeast Asia.

Major sites of interest include the Three Pagodas, Dali Museum, the ancient city gates, an artificial town built as the set for Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, and the Cang Mountain Range to the west.

Highway 214 runs through the town, eventually connecting with Tibet Autonomous Region in the north and Xishuangbanna in the south.

Dali has been dramatically changed by tourism since the mid-2000s, when a number of bed-and-breakfast began to open to cater to domestic and foreign tourists.

Subsequent to the discovery of pollution in Erhai lake and a visit from Chinese President and General Secretary of the Communist Party Xi Jinping, inns within twenty meters of the lakeside were closed and in some cases demolished, in order to prevent sewage from leaking into the lake.