Mangshi Mengbanaxi Rare Garden and Dai Ancient Town

Mengbanaxi Rare Garden is a city park in Mangshi, only 3 kilometers away from the Menghuan Golden Pagoda. The garden is filled with towering bamboo, ancient trees, vibrant flowers, and numerous rare and endangered plants. The lifelike stones and blue peacocks wandering among the flowers add to its charm. The garden is both a living museum of plants and a delightful place to relax. Inside, there are exhibition rooms that are eye-opening, showcasing large and numerous items such as rosewood, petrified wood, jade wood, wood carvings, and stone carvings. These natural wonders, combined with human craftsmanship, are difficult to describe in words. There are many attractions around Mangshi, such as Zhado Waterfall, Xianfo Cave, Sanxian Cave, Peacock Lake, Peacock Valley, Dai Ancient Town, and Huixian Ancient Village. After lunch, we decided to experience the charm of the Dai Ancient Town. Not far from the Rare Garden, there is a food city, mostly consisting of barbecue restaurants. It was lunchtime, but all the restaurants were quite empty, perhaps it would be different in the evening. We chose a relatively busy Dai restaurant and, to avoid the spiciness, we opted for a children's meal, which was tasty and affordable. The Dai Ancient Town is located 3 kilometers away, with a grand Dai-style archway inscribed with 'Dai Ancient Town'. Next to the archway stands the majestic 'Menghuan Palace'. Upon entering the 'Palace', we were greeted by beautiful ladies, as this is the showroom of the Dai Ancient Town developer. The so-called ancient town is actually a residential and commercial area in Dai style. A large sand table displays the current construction and future plans, with all the units for sale being over 200 square meters. The commercial street is lined with shops selling food, clothing, daily necessities, and souvenirs, but few things caught our interest. However, the Dai-style architecture is quite remarkable.