China’s Santorini Resembles the Greek Cosmopolitan Island

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The real Santorini Island in Greece. Credit: Dimitra Damian/Greek Reporter

Dream Land in Dali, in Southwest China’s Yunnan province, resembles Greece’s Santorini.

The resort is built on the side of the Cangshan mountain range, which overlooks a lake and consists of tourist inns, boutique hotels, cultural businesses, holiday apartments, and small winding streets planted with flowers and plants.

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It covers an area of 3700 acres, with a construction area of about one million square meters and a total investment of 8 billion yuan.

It is loosely based on Greece’s Santorini – those Chinese who loathe it call it ‘Fake Santorini’. But anyone who has visited Greece’s Santorini knows it is far from authentic.

Not surprisingly, Dali is the focus and destination for a lot of social media influencers as well as for those in search of iconic wedding photographs.

Tourists from China love Santorini

Thousands of tourists from China make their way to Santorini each year to admire the island’s natural beauty and its ancient treasures or for …a dream wedding.

China Santorini
A dream wedding on Santorini. Credit: Rivios Thanos Photography

As couples tie the knot overlooking the traditional style houses of the famous island and the sparkling blue waters of the sea below, they have found that their destination weddings are a dream come true.

The island provides a vast variety of options for couples with different types of ceremonies, both civil and religious.

Recent research showed that Santorini is the second-best honeymoon destination worldwide, after Bali, considering factors such as affordability and romantic dining options.

Santorini’s enduring popularity

Santorini is an immensely popular tourist destination, and not without good reason. The island offers visitors a fantastic range of beaches, excellent cuisine, and of course, stunning views.

After centuries of volcanic activity, the island has beaches with red sand, others with black sand, and others with pebbles. In fact, Santorini has the most atypical Greek beaches because of its geology.

Red Beach is the island’s most famous, with red sand and a huge, imposing red hill in the background. Then there is the pebbled Kamari Beach and Perissa Beach with black sands and calm waters. However, due to the mountainous terrain, access to the Santorini beaches is not as easy as it is on Mykonos.

Visitors to Santorini can also expect great cuisine. Locals grow many vegetables, and the island is known for its great wines. The rocky, sloped, volcanic terrain is ideal for vineyards and local wines are famous the world over. So, the food in Santorini is fresh and light Mediterranean, overall. And the service is warm and friendly.