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AsiaTravel recently embarked on a series of initiatives to improve local practices in rural areas in southwest China. This is the final section of the three part series examining efforts to improve life for those in rural areas and the technologies that enable a better standard of living.

Jiuzhaigou National Park sits in the rugged West of Sichuan at 2000 meters elevation on the edge of Tibet. This cluster of virgin mixed forests is home to several endangered animals; giant pandas and golden snub-nosed monkeys traverse amongst the limestone cliffs and the effervescent blue lakes. Despite its natural beauty, Jiuzhaigou has had a tenuous history. It was discovered in the early 1970s, and hurt by large-scale logging efforts. Jiuzhaigou was declared a national park in 1978, and the park’s ecological restoration began.

 

Jiuzhaigou established a formal relationship with Yosemite National Park in 2006 to promote international cooperation that benefits both parks.

AsiaTravel accompanied the Yosemite team on their first official sister park visit to Jiuzhaigou in 2009. On this trip, Yosemite preservationists completed a four day survey trek through Jiuzhaigou valley. Through these trips and related efforts, the sister parks aim to share resource management techniques and cooperate to preserve natural biodiversity.

Jiuzhaigou and Yosemite share a similar history. Jiuzhaigou valley has been home to Tibetan natives for thousands of years. When Jiuzhaigou was declared a national park, these natives were no longer allowed to farm in their local villages. Yosemite park has experienced similar cultural issues; Native Americans were no longer allowed to plant crops in the parks area of Northern California when Yosemite was declared a national park in 1890. The parks have already benefited from communication on several topics, including the construction of wooden walkways to limit the impact of foot traffic on the surrounding environment.

 

Hopefully, interpark cooperation will lead to preservation of the endangered animals that reside in Jiuzhaigou and the mythical environment that supports them.

A leading expert on the ancient Nanzhao Kingdom and a distinguished leader in the intellectual community in Dali, Yunnan Province, Zhang Xilu is an invaluable resource for any traveler interested in Dali culture and the ancient Tea and Horse Caravan Trail. A native of Xizhou, Dali, Mr. Zhang’s numerous published books on historical and contemporary Bai daily life, including one focusing on a school of Buddhism unique to the Bai culture, speak to his passion for learning and sharing knowledge with others. His primary research interests are the history of the Nanzhao Kingdom, which emerged in the 7th century and rebelled against the Chinese Tang Dynasty, and the culture of the modern Bai people.

 

AsiaTravel: When did you start teaching people about Dali culture and the Tea and Horse Caravan trail?

Zhang Xilu: I started teaching Dali culture and the Tea and Horse Caravan trail some 10 years ago. My first formal teaching of the subject was in 2003, when I began to teach the students at Dali Academy. In 2005, I was invited by Beijing University and Minzhu University to Beijing to give a lecture, last year I visited Guangzhou Sun Yat-sen University to lecture. I first published “The Culture of the Horse Caravan” with Mr. Wang Mingda in 1993, which is quite popular and was just republished last year.

WC: What made you interested in this subject in the first place?

ZX: First, the most attracting thing are the folktales of the Dali Bai people. And later I came to find the religion and history also quite interesting

WC: What is special about Dali culture?

ZX: Dali culture is a kind of territorial culture of China. To be more specific, it is South-west Bai People Culture, so it differs from the culture of other areas and the culture of other people. It has a history of 4000 years, and beautiful landscapes of Mt. Cangshan and Ehai Lake, unique Bai people costumes and the ancient religion, the heritage of the Bai people revolves around Buddhism, religious festivals, and the history and folktale story of Nanzhao Dali Kingdom. All of these are special elements of Dali Bai People culture.

WC: What is your favorite story to tell about Dali and the Bai people?

ZX: Since I have been studying Dali folklore and history for a long time, there are lots of stories to tell for me. The stories I tell most are of the Tea and Horse Caravan trail from Yunnan to Tibet, the history and culture of the Bai people, about the old religion of Bai people, the rise and fall of the Nanzhao Dali kingdom, and so on. There’s really so much – about art, history , architecture – it’s hard to pick a favorite!

WC: Why should guests come to Dali?

ZX: As in Dali, here you can find a rare but nice combination of the beautiful landscape (Mt.Cangshan and Erhai Lake), Unique Bai people culture and the history of Dali Nanzhao Kingdom

WC: What is your favorite thing to do with visitors in Dali?

ZX: Because I am busy with teaching and study, I seldom guide clients. I reall only do it sometimes based on friends’ requests. For travel groups, I am a good friend of Mei (AsiaTravel’s founder), so I only tour your groups as an expert to offer explanations and lectures. And I enjoy it, as it is a good way to promote local culture through tourism.

WC: Is Bai culture remaining strong or is it dying out? What is being done to preserve it?

ZX: Today, the Bai culture also faces the challenge of how to adapt and apply to the current society: some areas, which do not apply to the present society, are declining. However, others, which can fit in to modern society, remain strong, for example, the local religion is strong, and getting stronger and stronger.

One of the first 8 Americans who came over to study in China in the late 1970’s, Frank Hawke is a well-known figure in Beijing. Currently, Frank is the Chairman of Greater China for Kroll, the world’s leading risk consulting company, and has also held teaching positions in prestigious universities such as Beijing University and the University of International Business and Economics. Frank has been traveling around China for more than 30 years, and took a moment to tell us about his favorite places in the Middle Kingdom.

AsiaTravel: Why did you decide to come to Beijing in the 70’s?

Frank Hawke: I was invited by the Chinese government to pursue studies in China in 1979 and wanted to engage in language work and Chinese politics.

WC: What is the main reason people should come to China NOW (as opposed to before)?

FH: First of all, the amenities are a lot nice than before in terms of hotel accommodations. It is easier to get around in terms of transportation (just look at the new subway system!) and the infrastructure maintenance in China is increasing.

WC: Do you feel travel in China is foreigner-friendly?

FH: If you mean Westerner friendly, yes. Even though it isn’t as convenient as Europe or other parts of the West, people here are very friendly and willing to engage in conversation with you (especially if they want to practice their English!) That is another thing, more and more people are starting to learn English in China and getting around the airports is extremely easy considering the signs are in English and Chinese.

WC: What is the best place you have visited in China?

FH: Xinjiang. (Click here to see our Xinjiang journeys )

WC: Why is Xinjiang your favorite?

FH: The people and the food are amazing, especially because the Muslim culture there is pretty large. I also love the geological aspects of it. The scenery is beautiful and the mountains remind me a lot of back home.

WC: Where is home?

FH: Tucson, Arizona.

WC: What is the most beautiful sight you have ever seen?

FH: Other than my son being born, the sparkling night sky in Tibet.

WC: What is the main piece of advice you would give a first-time traveler in China?

FH: Get out of the real big cities! The cities here are starting to resemble New York, just because of all the new infrastructure, construction, and modernization. Go to small towns, get off the beaten path, and work hard!

WC: What is your favorite restaurant in Beijing?

FH: Well… I love Sichuan Food, so Sichuan Ban Ji Ju is great, but I am also a big fan of some good Peking Roast Duck.

WC: If you had to pick a Chinese personality to admire, who would it be and why?

FH: To tell you the truth, I choose to admire people I know, not people I don’t. A person, like a TV star or singer, can be good at what they do, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I admire them.

WC: What do you think are 3 important changes China has gone through in terms of transportation, getting around, and travel from 1979 to now?

FH: I would have to focus on the access of transportation to the Chinese masses. I remember when people had to be politicians when they wanted to buy plane or train tickets. All of that has changed now, though. People are on the move everyday, using the new subway system, cheap and clean taxis, technologically advanced bus systems, and more. Back in the 70’s and 80’s, people were confined politically and logistically, this is really not the case anymore, people have the means and the freedom to move around.

For those of us who’ve spent years studying China, Orville Schell is a very familiar name. His books, like The China Reader: The Reform Era, are widely read by students and policymakers alike, and his talks on behalf of the Asia Society’s China Green project are attended by many with an interest in China’s environmental issues.

So we were all thrilled when Orville, who has been to China countless times, not only chose to travel with AsiaTravel to study the effect of climate change on glaciers, but also provided us with rave reviews about his trip to Lijiang and Shangri-La.

Here, in his own words, Orville explains what he sees as the AsiaTravel difference:

“Why choose AsiaTravel? Well, I think AsiaTravel is quite skilled at sculpting trips for people who have specific interests. So, if in fact you’re a bird watcher, a glacier watcher, a river watcher, a minorities watcher – whatever your poison is, they seem to have the ability to highlight that.

I haven’t done many trips like this – but to go to a place like Yunnan and in a week to see a lot, you really do need someone to organize it. You need drivers who know what they’re doing, and cars and land rovers that can go on very rough roads and over landslides.

You want to be with people who you trust, not some crazy cab driver you’ve never met. So it was reassuring to have good drivers, good guides, and to be able to stop in at local people’s houses that these guides knew…and we had a Tibetan guide and a Chinese guide – both very familiar with the area and extremely fun to be around and very much a part of our group – not bored people who couldn’t wait to get off the bus and get everybody back on the plane…and that, I think, made the trip incomparably more meaningful and interesting for us.

I’m not a big tour joiner, frankly, and that would probably be a good reason to have AsiaTravel organize your trips so that it wouldn’t be like a tour. It would be more things you wanted to do, not you fitting into their tour—but them making the tour fit your needs.”

Many thanks to Orville for these kind words! Be sure to view the video on our home page for stunning footage captured during Orville’s trip to Yunnan.

For those of us with cross-border marriages, it often involves two weddings to cater to family and friends on each side. My husband and I had gotten married a year earlier in the States, but my grandma wouldn’t take the paper issued by some foreign government as my marriage certificate. It had to be done properly. Her granddaughter had to be married out respectably.

 

So, it was time to plan a wedding in Yunnan.

The logistical challenges of organizing a wedding are many. Starting from the simple most, flowers and wines. I have always had a preference for a western floral arrangement rather than a rigid Chinese bouquet; same with wines. I’d pick a glass of red wine over Maotai (the fancy Chinese white spirit). So I ended up cutting out pictures from wedding magazines, and taking them to the flower market to find a talented florist to do them. Fortunately, Kunming is China’s cut-flower center.

Then it was the wines. It’s no longer an issue today, as you can find many Western wines in Chinese supermarkets. But back then, the only wine import channels were 5-star hotels. So I used them.

The most fun part was designing activities so that my Chinese relatives and our western friends could mingle. We decided to invite our wedding party on a 9 day journey from theSalween River valley across the snow mountains to the Mekong River valley. My husband’s best man probably didn’t quite expect the hike to be so rigorous at such high altitude (10,000 feet), so he didn’t waste his precious hours to prepare for it. He eventually make it up the mountain top with the help of two Tibetan guide and a donkey.

 

This wedding hike was the first trip organized under AsiaTravel’s brand name. The images from this adventure accompanied me through the first year of AsiaTravel’s creation, as sales aid. It is now one of AsiaTravel’s signature adventure travel to China product: Hiking the 19th Century French Explorer’s Route. It launched our local Tibetan guide into a successful lodge business in Dimaluo village near one of the most beautiful Catholic Tibetan Churches.

The wedding after the hike was probably the best party in my life. Also made my grandma happy.

Nowadays, I go back to Harvard Business School every year to discuss the case study on AsiaTravel, and they ask me if I had any advice for future entrepreneurs. I always say, “Leverage whatever you can, your friends and family as your first clients, and your own wedding as your first product!”

Proof? AsiaTravel now helps other people with their weddings at the beautiful Aman at the Summer Palace! This photo at the top is from a beautiful couple who are AsiaTravel clients.

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For more of their photos visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30359491@N08/sets/72157624138596972/

You know what I am talking about – that brick or disc of tea in the velvet box! What do you do with it?

A few years ago, we were living in LA. My dear father came from Yunnan to stay with us in America for the first time. He brought a few bricks of Yunnan Pu’er tea (普洱沱茶) as gifts for people. Literally, they look like a solid disc or brick that if you get wacked on the head, you’d bleed.

I held him back, telling him that Laowai (Chinese endearment for “foreigners”) really didn’t know how to appreciate tea, and they wouldn’t know what to do with the brick.  Finally, we were going to dinner at this famous screen playwright’s house for dinner, my dad insisted in bringing one brick and presented it to the writer. The writer was very polite and thanked my father. I never went back to ask what he did with it.

Let’s face it, the brick of tea is packed so dense, that I wouldn’t know what to do with it. It’s too big to boil as one serving of tea; it’s so hard that you need a hammer to break it; it makes a huge mess if you do that! So, all the bricks I have collected still mostly sit on my bookshelf, until yesterday.

A big background on Pu’er tea, this is one type of tea that Yunnan Province in Southwest China is known for. They brew into a strong dark brown colored tea. But, historically, this tea was always packed on horse backs and carried by caravan trademen over dare-devil terrain onto the Tibetan Plateau. There, they transfer into the famed Tibetan Yak Butter Tea.  Honestly, I prefer drinking Pu’er tea by itself without the yak butter part.  Nevermind my personal taste, Yak butter tea is an essential form of calorie for Tibetans. The transportation route became known as the ancient Tea and Horse Caravan Road. National Geographic magazine ran a beautiful article on this road, but I was hugely offended by the article left out Yunnan.

People from Yunnan still prefer to store tea in the same condensed brick form. In fact, it is said that the older the tea, the more valuable it is. So, many collectors are in search for decade old tea. There are tea connoisseurs in China, as there are wine connoisseurs in the west.

Back in May, I walked into a tiny tea store in Heshun Old town in Tengchong, Yunnan. A young tea salesman told me that I needed a 解茶针，(needle for separating the tea). I had no idea that special equipment was available to do this job. He also explained that the tea brick was pressed together one layer at a time. So, adjust natural tendency to break off a chunk, one should carefully peel layers of tea horizontally.

I took the needle as a treasure and tucked into my purse. Hello?? How stupid is that!! I was caught at the airport security in Tengchong. To my amazement, the airport staff saw it on the imaging screen, and said, “Take the TEA NEEDLE out! It has to go in checked luggage. “Oh, no!” I groaned, knowing very well that I’d loose the needle, as no one had ever bothered to retrieve my check luggage for something like this.

Well, I was in for a surprise. People there knew that I couldn’t do anything with the tea if I didn’t have the proper instrument. So, they found my luggage, and now I have the tea needle in DC!

With tool in hand, I gave it a try yesterday, and was delighted with the result- now in a glass jar for future use. My son was busy playing with my iphone next to me. I tried to explain to him what I was doing, telling him about tea from mom’s hometown.  He simply ignored me. Never mind.

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Photo credit: The Half-Dipper

If anyone’s listening, AsiaTravel’s tea journey with Jeff Fuchs is worth the experience.

As someone whose first job out of college involved writing for a China-related website, I have a soft spot for writers interested in China. In many ways, China remains a misunderstood place, one whose complexities can only be truly understood and conveyed by those who have  been there. In that spirit, AsiaTravel is excited to officially invite international writers, bloggers and radio / TV hosts to apply to participate in hosted press trips to China this fall.

We’re looking for unique voices that are in sync with the AsiaTravel brand image: premium quality, attentive service and an adventurous spirit. If you produce multimedia content for a luxury adventure travel audience, all the better.

On these press trips, we invite you to experience China the way that our guests do: sipping tea with village elders or shooting hoops with local school kids on a dirt court. This fall, we’ll focus on two trips to southwest China’s Guizhou and Yunnan provinces (you may join just the Guizhou portion, just the Yunnan portion, or both):

1) The Richest Mosaic: Discovering Hidden Minorities of Guizhou (Nov. 6-9, 2010)

We like to think of Guizhou as China’s best-kept secret. A remote province that is still relatively untouched by modern tourism, Guizhou is a must if you want to experience rich ethnic minority culture. On this trip, you’ll hike along ridges of terraced rice paddies from village to village and learn ethnic traditions and craftsmanship.

Curious what Guizhou is like? See for yourself — two of AsiaTravel’s best guides, Billy and Xiao, are featured on our new Vimeo channel, showing what they love most about their home province.

For this press trip, AsiaTravel will provide a car, driver and services of local, English-speaking guides; hotel accommodations; admission fees and activity expenses; meals and drinking water; opportunities to interview village heads and local craftsmen; and free time to explore and conduct interviews on your own.  Please note: you will need to arrange your own international / domestic air to the starting point (Guiyang) and from the ending point (Guiyang).

2) The Ancient Tea & Horse Caravan Road: An Expedition with Jeff Fuchs (Nov. 10-16, 2010) 

Yunnan is another one of our favorites, given its stunning natural landscapes and cultural diversity. We’re particularly excited to offer a press trip for our newest journey, one that retraces part of a legendary trade route that remains little known to Western audiences. The Ancient Tea & Horse Caravan Road was a vital route along which Chinese tea was traded for Tibetan horses. On this trip, you’ll travel from Yunnan’s subtropical south in Xishuangbanna, the source of all tea, before heading north up the Road to a former trading post, Shaxi, and further north to Lijiang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, finally ending in the mountainous Tibetan region of Shangri-La. Along the way, you’ll sample teas at their origin and study the trail’s impact on ethnic minority villagers.

What makes this trip particularly special is the access you’ll have to Jeff Fuchs, the first Westerner to have ever traveled the entire 5,000-kilometer (3,100-mile) route and author of The Ancient Tea Horse Road. Jeff’s passion for exploring off-the-beaten-path locales and local culture is right up our alley, and we’re pleased that he will lead this press trip in addition to the journeys we’re offering our guests.

For this press trip, AsiaTravel will provide an economy-class air ticket from Xishuangbanna to Dali; a car, driver and services of Jeff Fuchs and local English-speaking guides; hotel accommodations; admission fees, activity expenses and presentations; meals and drinking water; opportunities to interview Jeff; and free time to explore and conduct interviews on your own. Please note: you will need to arrange your own international / domestic air to the starting point (Xishuangbanna) and from the ending point (Shangri-La).

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For more information on either trip, see AsiaTravel’s Press Trips page. To apply, please submit samples of your recent clips (within the past 6 months) and information about your outlet to Anita Narayan at anita.narayan@wildchina.com.

I was munching on my chicken salad sandwich when my colleague popped into my office, “ Oh, sorry. Here you go. Conde Nast Traveler Magazine issue you’ve been waiting for!”.

I probably didn’t look my best in my small office in an old house on East West Highway.  At least, the munching image didn’t quite live up to the dream brought alive on the cover of the magazine:

“135 Travel Experts who can change your life (Trust Us!)”

“FANTASTIC GETAWAYS! Living the Dream in Italy, India, Kenya, Eypt….”

I wiped away the crumbs, and turned the magazine to page 120.  Yes, there I was, for the first time, chosen by Conde Nast’s Wendy Perrin as one of the travel experts for China.

“Zhang wants to show you the “authentic China” beyond anything you’ll read about in guidebooks, and—as a Yunnan Province native, Harvard MBA, and former consultant for The Nature Conservancy—her vast Rolodex of in-country experts in nearly every field can make this happen…and get you farther off the beaten path than any other company can. Her cultural connections run deepest in Southwest China—Yunnan, Szechuan, and Guizhou provinces—where you might find yourself having tea with a practicing shaman, catching a private Naxi music concert at the home of the village head, or camping in luxury mobile tents on the Tibetan Plateau ”

This news reached me last week by email. So, the initial excitement has since settled, but never the less, the pride brought by this listing is still ringing.

It was exactly, almost to the date, 10 years ago that I started AsiaTravel. At that time, I was a couple years out of business school, still owning a couple of black suits that I wore to glassy office buildings in Hong Kong, New York and Beijing. Still was quite used to flying business class.

Somehow, Travel changed my life. I took some time off McKinsey to travel around the world. Puff, 4 months was gone without a blink. I was sitting in the cabin of an oil tanker truck (only choice for a hitchhiker), rocking my way up to the Tibetan Plateau from Kashgar. We rocked and rocked, I fell asleep and woke up. Wow, a whole night was gone. The snow-covered landscape replaced the desert where we started. But the milestones said, 125 km!! A whole night, we covered 80 miles in distanced, but close to 15,000 feet in elevation.

My heart started to beat faster, breathing became more labored, the landscape increasingly looking austere and moonish. The Tibetan antelopes galloped in the distance. I started to cry, for no reason. One was just touched by being so close to pristine nature. I knew there were risks, for me, being the solo woman traveler on that route. But I knew I was one of the lucky few, who had the money, the time, and the right passport (Chinese) to travel to these remote corners of Tibet.

Sometimes, I, woke from sleep in that rocking truck, stared out the window, and asked myself, “What if the truck tumbled over the edge? Is there one thing I would regret for not doing?”

The answer came back loud and clear, “Building my own business”.  That was the beginning of AsiaTravel.

Travel, somehow, has had magic powers over me. I met my husband hiking the sacred pilgrimage trail around Mt. Kawagebo in Yunnan, I took my wedding party to hike from Salween River to the Mekong.

Then travel helped to change other people’s lives.  Recently, two clients got married on a AsiaTravel trip. Two clients got engaged on a AsiaTravel trip. We’ve helped families retrace the Burma Road commemorating their father’s journey in WWII.

After all the years of traveling, I think I am starting to understand the magic of travels. Somehow, when one’s on the road, one’s attention is so outwardly focused, that all you notice are people and things around you. After the outward focus, the inward reflection of oneself is much gentler, and not so judgmental of whether my office is in an old house or a shishi building downtown, or whether my munching is embarrassing.

Travel elevates one above the daily routine, and allows one to see the beauty of other people’s daily routine. One of my favorite moment recently was jogging in front of Shangrila’s Songtsam Lodge, while watching the Tibetan farmers shepherding their cattle to the fields. I am sure they didn’t think of their life was poetic and charming, as it was just hard work. But as a traveler watching them, I was loving that moment. That’s the illusion of distance- distance of reality, distance of geography, and distance of time. That’s probably the art of travel.

Anyway, back to my sandwich. I didn’t think my munching a sandwich at desk was any bit poetic, but more embarrassing. But, I know, give it another 10 years, I will reflect back on this moment, as one of the defining moment of launching AsiaTravel in America.

A twitter post responding to a AsiaTravel tweet prompted this blog piece:

@Chinaandbeyond said: “I would trade Yunnan for Gansu or Sichuan, personally RT @AsiaTravel: First and only time to China?”

 

Let me decipher this for those who don’t tweet: AsiaTravel recommended a trip that goes to Beijing, Xi’an, Yunnan and Shanghai for those who are traveling to China for the first and only time. That link is a condensed link that goes to our website with the trip details.

Then @Chinaandbeyond account owner Ms. Jessica Marsden shared AsiaTravel’s recommendation to her followers. And she also added her own commentary that she would trade Gansu or Sichuan for Yunnan.

 

What can I say? I am biased! I am from Yunnan, with a virtual identity called @yunnangirl! Everytime when a client calls me, I talk about Yunnan. That’s home to me. I can smell Yunnan if farmers burn the remaining rice stocks in their fields; I can hear Yunnan, even when I overhear visitors at the Smithsonian speak the local dialet; I can taste Yunnan, when I cut up mustard greens to make a jar of Yunnan Suancai pickles. It is in my blood.

And, I happen to be a lucky Wendy Perrin China Specialist, so I get to advise people who are interested in seeing China. Naturally, carrying the tradition of Yunnan hospitality, I want people to visit my home town, visit those villages where I grew up, and taste the spicy and sour cuisine, hike the mountains that I still dream about. More importantly, I want them to meet people of Yunnan.

How would I describe people of Yunnan? 纯朴，勤劳，善良。I am struggling with English equivalents here.  Down to earth, hard working, and kind. The word has a 纯朴 connotation of being on the simple side in Chinese. But, I don’t take offense to that.

 

People in Yunnan grow up land locked. Generations of locals from various ethnicity carve out their living in small patches of land in between mountains and rivers.  So, either they farm, bent over their knees in the watery rice paddy fields, or they tilt the corn and potato fields on the steep mountains sides. Life in Yunnan has always been hard. The only wealth accumulated there is from trading, with Tibet, with Myanmar, Laos, and Viet Nam. This goes back hundreds of year, and the horse caravan trails bear witness to that.

For some reason though, in places so poor, the locals learned to cook these incrediblely tasty meals. Since the province is tucked between Sichuan to the North, and Laos/Thailand to the South, its cuisine is a lovely blend of those two. Spicy, but not numbing; sour, but without making your mouth pucker. Fresh vegetables and wild mushrooms are blessings.

Hospitality is another side of the Yunnanese that I love. Just recently, I traveled to a small town in Henan Province as a guest of the local government. Upon checking in, the hotel staff said that my ID wasn’t enough but insisted on me identifying the organization that invited me. I didn’t get the full name right, and she wouldn’t check me in. This was 2010? The concept of party/government affiliation trumping personal identity is still in practice in northern China.

 

While in Yunnan, they hear my dialect, they’ll watch my luggage for me while I go out to pay the taxi; they’ll fish out my luggage from the behind the conveyer belt so that I can put my tea needle in checked luggage (I talked about this in my earlier blog).

The local villagers in Yunnan still greet you with this, “ 吃了吗？来家里坐！“ “Have you eaten yet? Come visit my house!”

I know — sadly, Lijiang is changing (see our AsiaTravel blog piece on this). That’s all the more reason to visit the hidden treasures of China before they disappear.

AsiaTravel wishes to send our deepest condolences to the victims of Wednesday morning’s 7.1-magnitude earthquake in Yushu, Qinghai province (northwestern China, bordering Tibet). Our thoughts are with our local Qinghai partner and his staff as they and their families deal with the aftermaths of this tragedy.

China’s official news service, Xinhua, is currently reporting a death toll of 617, with 313 people missing and 9,110 injured.  A  search and rescue operation is currently underway, with the central government allocating $29.3 million for disaster relief.

AsiaTravel is also taking action: our eco-friendly camping tents used for our signature Tibetan Yushu Horse Festival journey are now being used in Yushu to house earthquake victims. Our team in China will continue to monitor the situation on the ground and provide updates.