Xizhou has been historically important as a trading post along the Tea Horse Road, it was once home to a landing strip and radio station for the Flying Tigers during WWII, has been home to notable rulers and governors of local polities past and present, and has gained notoriety in modernity for its high concentration of preserved and restored traditional Bai architecture and protected heritage sites.

The Mongol Empire also brought the region their practice of making cheese from cow's milk and whey, a tradition originating in the grassland steppes of Mongolia but one that many families in Xizhou continues today.

[2] Xizhou again became a center of academia, gathering professors and intellectuals after Huazhong University relocated here from Wuhan, earning the nickname "Cambridge of the East."

Xizhou had a small base, airstrip, and radio station which was the first point of contact when planes carrying supplies from Burma first arrived over the Himalayan mountains.

It is located on a fertile plateau between the Cangshan mountain range to the west and Erhai lake to the east at an elevation of 2,000 m. Raosanling (绕三灵) is the most important religious festival in the calendar of the Bai people.

Although men have abandoned traditional Bai attire in recent decades, many women still wear a distinctive headdress whose shape, materials, and colors correspond to a short poem about the natural beauty of the Dali valley.

Under the eaves of many grand entranceways to homes and buildings, a golden phoenix (female) dominates a series of smaller dragons (male) from above, representing the higher social position of women in society.

Similar to Yunnan's Naxi and Tibetan matriarchal culture, Bai men traditionally were in charge of the home and raising children while women were the primary breadwinners for their families.

The history of world class engineering, architecture, and education Xizhou has enjoyed was combined with a period of great financial success in business during the 19th century, and resulted in hundreds of tastefully constructed Bai courtyard style homes that merge traditional local structures with styles imported from across Lijiang, eastern China, and abroad.

Usually made in small batches and stretched out like a fan over parallel bamboo poles to dry in the sunlight, this cheese is eaten like a snack or used in cooking.

There is a small mosque in Xizhou in the Northwest corner, but even this place of worship has evidence of cultural exchange in its traditionally Bai architecture, much of which bears heavy Benzhu influence.

[4] Like many other rural agricultural communities in Yunnan, some Xizhou farmers are starting to realize the potential of organic practices and the incorporation of green technology like solar and wind power to cut costs.

[2] Xizhou's history has a deep focus on academic success and has hosted temporary campuses for Huazhong University and Yale-in-China during the past century.