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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.

It’s been another adventure-filled year at AsiaTravel – venturing to new destinations, revisiting preferred haunts for a second (or third, fourth) time, engaging in rugged hands-on activities, and relaxing in China’s finest luxury spots.

To pay homage to our favorite hotels, sites, and activities in China for the past year, we bring you our 2010 installment of AsiaTravel’s Best of China Awards – a small sampling of the finest that China has to offer, with many new additions (and a few return favorites).

 

Top 5 Hotels

Our top hotels for 2010 showcase China’s finest urban simplicity and rural grandeur. Chosen through an in-depth survey and client feedback process, these prime accommodations represent the best in service standards, environmental commitment, and unique design.

The Langham Hotel, Shanghai * – beautiful art deco style & a superb location

The Linden Centre, Dali – cultural heritage preservation through elegance and innovation

The Opposite House, Beijing * – sustainable modern luxury & unparalleled amenities

The Schoolhouse at Mutianyu, Mutianyu * – an incredibly eco-friendly home-away-from-home nestled near the Great Wall

Songtsam Retreat, Shangri-La – exceptional boutique accommodation in a distinctly Tibetan style

*These properties also won our Best of China Awards for 2009.

 

Top 5 Sites

We want our clients to experience China’s most incredible, unique, and unspoiled destinations. Below are our top picks for 2010 that allow for tucked-away adventures and peaceful exploration.

Longquanyu Wild Wall, Beijing – a remote section of the Wall that affords travelers a unique look at China’s most iconic monument

Xi’an Mosque and Snack Street, Xi’an – religious observation and bustling daily life intertwine in the city’s Muslim Quarter

Friday Market, Shaxi – Yunnan’s Yi and Bai minority peoples don their traditional best to trade hard-to-find goods in their mountainous village areas

Tea Plantation, Hangzhou [excursion upon request] – the home of Longjing (Dragon Well) tea in lush Zhejiang province

Wang’s Residence, Pingyao – A Qing Dynasty-era testament to ancient luxury and wealth in Shanxi Province’s ancient walled city

 

Top 5 Activities

Personal, once-in-a-lifetime, and hands-on: we love these activities because they bring our travelers closer to the people of China. These make for fun excursions that go far beyond the tour bus.

Pabongka hike to Chupsang Nunnery and Sera Monastery, Lhasa – a sun-filled, energizing hike is only the prelude to lively monk debates outside of the city

Update: The Pabongka hike has since been discontinued

Overnight in Miao villager’s home, Paika Village – enjoy a spicy home-cooked Guizhou meal and learn about daily minority life and culture in the village known for Lusheng, a traditional Guizhou instrument

Early morning kungfu lesson at the Temple of Heaven, Beijing – the traditional Temple sets the scene for travelers’ lesson from a master of the widely-practiced martial art

Sister’s Meal Festival, Kaili – young Miao women, dressed in colorful homemade embroidery and silver jewelry, sing and dance in this coming-of-age ritual and matchmaking ceremony

Visit with an Yi minority shaman, Lijiang/Wenhai Valley – learn from this well-respected traditional medicine man about the Yi minority’s animist tradition

 

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Miss our top picks from last year? Take a look at our Best of China Awards 2009.

Did we leave out your favorite hotel, site, or activity? Let us know! Send us an email or a tweet.

In recent days, AsiaTravel has been working with our local partners to get on-the-ground knowledge of the Yushu tragedy, and to provide needed supplies and aid.

Since our last post on Yushu, we have been notified of the following:
– AsiaTravel’s Europe Team Director, Veronique, hopes that the truck she helped coordinate to bring supplies to Yushu has arrived to the area. Since the road from Nansheng to Yushu was damaged by the earthquake, traffic has been slower.
– At this point, villages and other local areas outside of Yushu proper need the most aid.
– Volunteers are having some difficulty with relief efforts due to the language barrier and altitude sickness.
– One of our local Yushu partners, who was previously deemed unharmed but was unreachable, has been located and we are cooperating with him to distribute tents.

AsiaTravel has decided to take a three-fold approach to our aid for those suffering in Yushu, which includes two NGOs and aid for our local partners and friends affected by the earthquake.

1) Local partners: we are donating money to purchase medicine for our local partners’ families, in order to better facilitate their and their loved ones’ recovery from this tragedy.

2) Orphans: we are donating money to The Orphanage School, which is run by international NGO Rokpa, to help those children orphaned in the region.

3) Monks: we will also be donating to the Yushu chapter of Himalayan Consensus, an NGO dedicated to ethnic diversity and cultural sustainable development. The coordinator, Laurence Brahm, has sent goods to Damkar monastery where AsiaTravel visits during journeys for the Tibetan Yushu Horse Festival.

How can you get involved in these aid efforts?
– For The Orphanage School/Rokpa, please visit their website and scroll to the bottom of the page on how to give Single and Regular donations online and via mail.
– To donate to Himalayan Consensus or AsiaTravel’s local partners’ families, please email Alex at alex.grieves@wildchina.com with the subject line “Yushu donation.” Alex can provide you with contacts and donation information.

UPDATE: Follow Rokpa’s Yushu Relief blog for up-to-date information on developments in the area.

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Photo credit: Land of Snows

Have more questions about the situation in Yushu? Have other news from Qinghai, and ways to help? Please email Alex at alex.grieves@wildchina.com.

Michael Zhao, of New York-based Asia Society’s CHINA GREEN, has produced another incredible video on environmental change in China and its societal and cultural implications for the Chinese people. AsiaTravel was happy to contribute photos for such a meaningful video.

 

“Fading Shangri-La 失色中的香格里拉” highlights the rapid change of Mt. Khawa Karpo, or Meili Snow Mountain in Chinese, which is hailed as the most sacred mountain for Tibetans in Yunnan. The video is an important follow-up to Orville Schell’s (also of Asia Society) February 2010 article, “China’s Magic Melting Mountain,” about which we previously blogged.

Visually stunning and more relevant than ever, this video highlights the impending threat of a lost Tibetan religious figure, holy land, and spiritual community in Yunnan as Mt. Khawa Karpo’s glacial peaks continue to melt.

From the CHINA GREEN website:

Mt Khawa Karpo, known by Chinese as Meili Snow Mountain, is among the most sacred mountains in the Tibetan world. It is here in the steep valleys that novelist James Hilton set his Lost Horizon, describing the utopian wonderland of Shangri-La where time stands still. Tibetans have long worshiped this holy mountain, regarded as one of the highest spiritual gods in this mountainous region of China.

Yet as the earth warms, glacier retreat and ice loss here over the last decade have reached alarming levels and the melting is only accelerating. As a result, locals worry that the soul of this holy land – their Shangri-La – is slipping away. With it, a supernatural source of blessing for their people and communities is feared to be disappearing.

Watch a trailer of the video here (and for the full version, go to CHINA GREEN’s website): Fading Shangri-la trailer on YouTube

AsiaTravel deeply thanks our friends, partners, and clients for their continued interest in helping those in need in Yushu, Qinghai province, which was recently hit by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake.

As we have received many emails from past clients and friends asking about the situation, we wanted to provide further on-the-ground news from Yushu.

 

Our Europe Team Director, Veronique d’Antras, has been at the forefront of AsiaTravel’s efforts to help the people of Yushu. After coordinating a truckload of supplies to be sent to Yushu with Tashi, one of our Yushu partners and a Qinghai native, she hopes that it has arrived. The road from Xining to Yushu – a major route into the Yushu area – was damaged by the earthquake, and traffic has subsequently been delayed.

While there has been an incredible influx of volunteers into the region, there are a few setbacks that are making the distribution of aid more difficult. For one, areas outside of Yushu that were affected by the earthquake are incredibly remote, meaning that rural villagers are still in most need of aid. Furthermore, the Tibetan/Mandarin language barrier, altitude sickness, and cold weather, including snow and hail in the region, has slowed down volunteers. Because of the inclement weather, several aid trucks overturned on the road from Xining to Yushu. Several journalists noted that long lines were forming for food distribution.

A mass prayer ceremony for the victims was held by monks and others in Yushu on April 20th, following the cremation of around 1,000 bodies by the Yushu Tibetan monks on April 17th.

On a positive note, one of our Yushu partners, Samdeg, has been located. He was previously deemed unharmed, but was unreachable for a few days after the earthquake occurred. We are now working with him to set up AsiaTravel tents to provide those in the region with temporary housing

Furthermore, Xinhua reports that post-quake reconstruction has been on the agenda. A reporter learned on Monday, April 19 from the Government of Qinghai Province that the overall objective of reconstruction will be building a high-altitude ecotourism city. (Source: Xinhua, April 19, 2010)

The Chinese government declared a nationwide period of mourning with flags at half mast on Wednesday afternoon, April 21st (Beijing time), to express condolences to earthquake victims. All public entertainment was put on hold. (Source: Guardian UK, April 20, 2010)

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Photo credit: Land of Snows

Without the help of all our friends in Yushu, we would not have had the opportunity or the good fortune to successfully run trips in Qinghai province. They are like family to us, and there is much they can do to help the current situation in Yushu. We need to help them in the hope that they can then help others.

Tashi Maqu Dorje is originally from Yushu and is a former AsiaTravel colleague. At the end of 2006, Tashi left AsiaTravel to pursue a medical degree. One of his greatest attributes is his almost native command of the English language.

During the summer of 2007, he was our local trip planner for the Tibetan Grand Horse Racing Festival and luxury camp in Yushu. He worked closely with AsiaTravel Directors Veronique d’Antras, Sunshine Shang and Paul Moreno in making the trip a reality. He put AsiaTravel in touch with the many people, including his family who worked at our camp in Bartang (around 45 kilometers south of Yushu).

Samdeg is a schoolteacher who has been our camp manager in Yushu and helped in the trekking portion of our trip, setting up the remote camp. His relatives had grazing rights to the land where we set up camp, and our camp gear has been stored in his uncles’s house in Bartang for the past two years.

Samdeg’s family had a house in Yushu near the Rokpa-sponsored Orphanage School. He is a very kind, patient and diligent man, making the daily drive to the village school where he teaches. It was because of this that he was not home in the morning of the quake. His late mother and sister were tragically not as lucky, and he is suffering greatly as a result of these two losses.

Niyma Tenzing is the director and manager of the Rokpa Orphanage School in Yushu. He is instrumental in running and maintaining the orphanage, which cares for around 500 children. A number of graduates from the Orphanage School have attained a proficient degree of English at the University of Xining, and some become Tibetan doctors. A number have also returned to Yushu to further expand and run the orpanage’s activities and education.

In late March, AsiaTravel founder Mei Zhang blogged
about colleague Sunshine’s trip to and future work with an elementary school in Yubeng, a Tibetan village in Yunnan province.

Recently, Sunshine gave us an update on the status of AsiaTravel’s aid to Yubeng.

 

“The books on plants and stones have been just sent out. Thanks to [AsiaTravel colleague] Li Ling’s help, the teachers and kids will have books to learn about different kinds of fish, amphibians, and invertebrates. [AsiaTravel colleague] Catherine also helped to get stone samples – this is wonderful for the kids to tell different stones apart.”

AsiaTravel looks forward to continued support of schools like Yubeng Primary School.

AsiaTravel’s Alex Grieves recently interviewed Jeff Fuchs, the first westerner to traverse the historic Tea Horse Caravan Route, author of The Ancient Tea Horse Road: Travels with the Last of the Himalayan Muleteers, and AsiaTravel expert. The route, which spans from Nepal, through China’s Yunnan province, and finally into Tibet, has for centuries been mysterious to outsiders, at best, but is usually simply unknown.

Fuchs explains his collaboration with AsiaTravel on the series of unique, once-in-a-lifetime journeys on the Road; why this route is profoundly important, historically and culturally; and how Himalayan nomads may be the key to understanding climate change.

WCT: How and why did your interest in the Tea Horse Caravan Trail develop?

JF: I have always been an avid climber. In 2003, I went on an expedition with a Tibetan guide, Dakpa, from Yunnan who told me about his interest in and passion for the Tea Horse Road, which he knew by another name. Over the next year, we made the pact that we would travel it together. Initially, we found very little written documentation on the route. After completing more research, we realized that its significance likely surpassed that of the Silk Road. The Road linked Tibet to the Middle East and Persia, and within Tibetan tribes one can find Persian DNA as a result. Researching this route opened up new opportunities for me: after demonstrating the importance of the route, I also received a deal from Penguin Books and published a book on the Road, which was great for acknowledging and publicizing the importance of the route. I also later did consulting for National Geographic. The Road also further developed personal interests, primarily mountain climbing and tea.

WCT: Why is the Ancient Tea and Horse Caravan Road such an important route? What do people need to know about the culture and history surrounding this route?

JF: To know the significance of the Road is to understand the importance of tea to Chinese culture and by extension, Asia and the world as well. The origins of tea go back 2,000 years, to the base origins of ancient Chinese tea trees. Minority tribes worshiped tree forests; they had a very tangible identity in the lives of these people. At this time, money lacked any value – the currency of choice was tea.

As such, tea was the main export from Yunnan, which kept dynasties attempting to take over at bay, since the desire for tea was so incredibly strong. Tea was used as an herbal curative element, so it was incredibly important to all, regardless of which dynasty or power with which you were allied. Thus, the route was truly integral to people during the peak of its use.

Travelers to China need to experience the Road to see what one route could do for so many lives, communities, businesses, and alliances. Travelers just don’t see these regions, or these stories, on an average trip. The history, stories and challenges of the Road enable those who travel it to see something real.

 

WCT: Where did your interest in tea come from?

JF: Tea has always been part of my home life. When I was growing up in Switzerland, my father of Hungarian origins was always experimenting with foods and was a tea lover. He had me drinking Japanese and Taiwanese tea from the age of 12. When I moved to Taiwan in 1999, I became completely obsessed with tea, and began doing advertising and promotional work for a tea company to learn more about it. Later I discovered Banna [Yunnan] and Pu’er [also from Yunnan] tea. I’ve collected teapots and teas for quite some time now, and have expanded my collection to Oolong and other Green teas as well.

WCT: What were the challenges of this route? Surprises? Rewarding aspects?

JF: This route was full of surprises and unexpected challenges, and it was surely an incredible, life-changing experience.

I expected spectacular geography. What I didn’t expect was to discover the profound importance of the route, its legendary impact on cultures that developed alongside it, and how it functioned regularly from the 7th century until the 1950s.

The truly surprising aspect of the trip was the daily combination of intense, breathtaking beauty and imminent danger and hardship. Portions of the route were so simple and untouched, and also so treacherous – I couldn’t believe how arduous the trek must have been for mules carrying tea. Even in May and June, we often walked through meters of snow, so one can imagine how difficult it must have been for the tea horses. The physical danger of the journey was also unexpected. I’ve climbed all my life, but the daily beauty coupled with danger that I encountered on this trip was in a league of its own.

The journey was 5,000 kilometers, and took us 8 months in total. During these 8 months, there were many difficult times. We trekked through the Himalayas during a blizzard in June. We almost lost the youngest member of our group when he slipped and slid down a glacier, and just barely survived with enough friction from his equipment and clothing to stop him from falling to his death. We ended up with severe frostbite and skin problems. We almost lost another group member in a blizzard with 6-feet visibility to a snow tunnel in a crevasse, since we didn’t hear or see him fall. These hardships brought to light the physical dimension of the route, and made us realize how many lives must have been lost over 1,300 years of history.

The true beauty of the route, however, lies in the way in which it linked and unified people through common need – the need for tea. Despite strife and wars, trade never stopped along the route. It kept relationships open and communities sustained. Tea was the unifying element, and without it, the route would not have been as crucial, and would probably not still exist for us to explore.

WCT: It seems that you’ve traveled everywhere throughout your life. Why China, and why China now?

JF: I’ve lived in Yunnan since 2005. For me, China has always represented a mass of information that is only partially understood by the West. There is so much that isn’t promoted and isn’t known, and that doesn’t fall into the stereotypes of how China is perceived. China really has a bit of everything. It’s a massive geographical wonder; you can see every extreme, color and season here. Specifically, I have always been interested in the Himalayas. The eastern part of the range satisfies my passions for mountains and tea, so I am naturally drawn to the area.

It is important to remember that right now, China is continuously opening up and becoming increasing accessible. As it opens up, we can peer in more and see the various faces of China that exist within the country.

WCT: You’ve also spent time documenting a nomadic tribe at 5,000 meters in the Himalayas. Tell me more about that experience.

JF: My intention was to do story on a dying way of life, a cultural piece on nomadic culture and existence. For three weeks, I lived with a family in a community of 8 fierce Tibetan families who possessed Persian ancestry and DNA. These khampa, or eastern Tibetan, nomads are the most traveled of Tibetans.

In the middle of nowhere at 4,800 meters, I experienced every aspect of their lives: their daily rituals, strife, meals, their relationship to nature, everything. At that time, I only spoke minimal Tibetan, and very little in their own dialect. When you live at almost 5 kilometers in the sky, completely isolated, your life revolves around preset rituals. There is no technology; you are completely cut of from the trivia of modern life, and anything that isn’t crucial.

It was difficult at first – it took me a week and a half to get into the rhythm of this life – but it was one of the best experiences of my life. While it is a world of stress and hard work, it is also one of incredible joy. Relationships are very well defined according to natural elements because everything in their life has to do with the weather, including one’s health and the health of one’s yaks.

These nomads are such an enigma because they have chosen to remain so isolated. For this reason, they are, in fact, the true global warming experts. They don’t have terms for these environmental problems as we do, but they know and feel it because of their innate sense of nature. Their intuition allows them to know this. Before we created these terms to frame these issues, they talked about and felt these changes. Their oral histories tell stories of the landscapes as accurately as any historian would.

My experience with the nomads goes to show how important it is to understand people who live on and with the land – regardless of where they are from – and how their perspective can shed light on the state of affairs.

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Photo credit: Jeff Fuuchs

Travel along the Tea and Horse Road with Jeff.