A new train line from Dali to Lincang has opened already.

Kunming-Lincang in 3h37min (2 trains a day)

Some trains from Dali to Lincang stops in Weishan after a 22 minutes ride.

more details here: baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%A4%A7%E4%B8%B4%E9%93%81%E8%B7%AF

All train schedules on www.12306.cn/en/index.html
btw, the official booking website of China Railway has finally launched an English version

Thanks for the update and the link to the website but when I use it I al the time get the message "System is busy. Please try again later.".

presumably a non gaotie line as the journey time is relatively long? Does it go from the same station that the high speed train stop at?

I think it is gaotie. It's just it goes to Dali first. Lijiang is about 3 hrs by gaotie. And if you look at a map, Lincang is further from Dali than Lijiang is.

oh sorry I misread the first message, I thought it said 3.5 hours from Dali

Kunming-Lincang, 4 trains per day from January 20th.

I also get some error messages on the english version. chinese version seems more stable...