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On AsiaTravel journeys in Tibet and Tibetan areas of Qinghai, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, many of our clients experience foods and beverages made from yak meat and yak milk for the first time in their lives.

Reactions vary to such fare as sour yak milk cheese, salty yak butter tea and fried yak jerky, but are generally positive. Regardless of  your palate’s reaction to yak products, it is not difficult to see why such hearty foods are suited to the region’s high-altitude conditions, where few other animals can thrive.

The yak plays a vital role for many Tibetan communities living high in the Himalayas because growing seasons are too short for most crops and the weather too harsh for many other domestic animals. Shaggy yaks graze on alpine grasses throughout the warmer times of the year to prepare for the region’s long, cold winters.

Though we enjoy classic yak dishes we were also pleasantly surprised last year when we learned about an ethnic Tibetan family in northern Yunnan that is putting yak milk to innovative use and boosting local herders’ incomes in the process by making Western-style artisan cheeses and butter with yak milk.

Qizhu Qilin and Wang Zhenying founded the Meixiang Cheese Company in 2003 in Langdu Village, Yunnan, which lies tucked amid remote 4,000-meter peaks near the Sichuan border, a three-hour drive north of the Shangri-La old town.

The village’s economy has historically been mostly subsistence-based, and centered around yak herding. Villagers did venture out of the mountains to sell local styles of butter and cheese at market, but they weren’t able to fetch very good prices.

“The herders lived a life of great hardship,” says Zhuoma Yangzong, the founding couples’ daughter and director of marketing for Meixiang, which brought on a technical advisor from Wisconsin to train employees in the science of cheesemaking.

“The Geza rural area, in which Langdu is located, has more yaks than anywhere else in Yunnan—about 14,000 in total,” she said. “The idea of our company was to use yak milk—which has better nutritional value than cow milk and comes from yaks that are grazed the traditional way on pristine 4,000 meter plateaus—to bring greater economic benefits to the local herders and raise their standard of living.”

Today the company produces yak butter and a line of cheeses and sells them in specialty stores in Shangri-la, Dali, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Meixiang buys the milk directly from local herders and make the cheese at a production facility in Langdu Village. The cheese is free of preservatives, artificial flavoring, hormones and antibiotics. It is processed with salt and aged in local red tree bark for two months.

We tried the company’s Geza Gold brand of cheese and were very impressed. The hard and salty cheese is very aromatic, with a flavor reminiscent of Italian Asiago—and a slight but not unwelcome hint of, um, yakiness. The cheese’s complex flavor is good  by itself but also goes well with apples, pears or grapes… or your favorite red wine.

As environmental sustainability and social responsibility are two of AsiaTravel’s core principles, we admire Meixiang’s vision to create environmentally sustainable business practices aimed at raising income for local people.

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Photo credit: Tibet and Beijing

Finding unique clothing that satisfies the needs of AsiaTravel guides in China’s coldest areas, while allowing them to look the part when in remote boutique hotels, is not an easy task. When leading off-the-beaten-path tours to China’s most remote regions, how does a rugged, adventurous guide maintain a clean, professional look? Khunu to the rescue.

 

We at AsiaTravel are delighted to announce our partnership with Khunu, a premium clothing company focused on producing high-quality adventure wear from Tibetan and Mongolian yak wool. This season, Khunu will be clothing our Shangri-La region guides in Khunu Chimera tops – soft, lightweight and warm garments that are perfect for guiding bespoke trips with sophistication in colder weather. These guides are the perfect adventurers to sport the socially-conscious brand, as Shangri-La is known for its rich cultural diversity and notable population of yaks.

AsiaTravel founder Mei Zhang is impressed by both quality and cultural significance of Khunu garments. “When I first heard about what Khunu was doing,” she says, “I was intrigued by the concept but unsure about what the products would be like. It was something of a surprise to feel how warm and soft their garments are.”  (Yak wool has a luxurious feel that can often be mistaken for cashmere, though it is warmer and notably more durable.) In addition to Khunu’s high level of quality, Mei notes, “the unique link [the garments] have to the regions to which we travel gives them additional relevance” to AsiaTravel’s mission of enabling travelers to experience China differently.

To celebrate the AsiaTravel-Khunu alliance, as well as a new womens line for the Autumn/Winter Collection, Khunu is offering AsiaTravel supporters a limited time 15% discount on all new Khunu sweaters through November 11, 2010. Customers can use the code “wildchina” during checkout at the Khunu online store.

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Visit the Khunu website for more information on their story, products, and adventurous ambassadors.

It’s been almost a year since we first spoke with Portrait of an LBX bikers and writers Andy Keller and Evan Villarrubia. We caught up with them this week to talk about their reflections on their trip, which ended on September 13, 2010.

 

AsiaTravel Travel (WCT) : Now that you’ve finished with the trip, how can you define laobaixing? How has your understanding of the term, and the people that define it, expanded, been flipped on its head, morphed, etc.?

Andy Keller (AK): I think laobaixing boils down to a political term, as politics controls so much in China, although it has an economic aspect as well, since politics is so tied to money in China (as with anywhere else). China’s laobaixing make up the vast majority of Chinese people. It’s not just a synonym for “peasant” or “farmer” because it’s not just the people out in the countryside who are laobaixing. Basically, they are the people who have less power in the face of the government.

Evan Villarrubia (EV): All the charm of China has come from individual people, the ones “doing their own thing” in accordance with traditions and their own values — the laobaixing. “New China” has come from outside of the laobaixing.

WCT: Do you still believe that the term laobaixing can define and encompass the people / socioeconomic group that you encountered and interacted with on your trip? Why or why not?

AK: Absolutely. With very few exceptions when we met relatives of friends working in the government or party or big business people, the people we interacted with on the trip were all laobaixing. The number of people without government connections in China is so large that really there’s no way the group of people we interacted with could not almost all be laobaixing.

WCT: What was your greatest surprise on the trip? Your biggest regret?

EV: For me, the biggest surprise was the Tibetan plateau. I had never seen skies like that before, and we never expected how different the people were from anything else we’d encountered. The biggest regret of the trip was not making it to either Hubei or Hunan, two quintessentially Chinese places right in the middle of the country, which our big loop didn’t permit time to visit. This will have to be rectified later.

AK: The biggest surprise for me was discovering just how development and modernity almost always trumped concern for culture, the environment, traditional society, etc. We went into the trip with the impression that with so much good stuff disappearing everyday, people would have to be up in arms about it once we sat down and had honest conversations. By and large though, the people we met were as single-mindedly focused on “development” as the government and were happy to leave tradition, culture and even the natural environment behind for the sake of their concept of modernity.

Despite what you see in the media, most laobaixing are not dowsing themselves in gasoline and lighting themselves on fire on the roofs of their homes as the demolition cranes move in. Most are content to take compensation and move out of their homes, away from the fields, away from their communities and into apartment complexes outside of the city, where the communities and social networks that made traditional China so unique no longer exist.

My biggest regret was definitely the places we didn’t get to see – Hubei, Hunan, Xinjiang, Tibet and pretty much all of Dongbei.

WCT: Which area(s) of China ended up being your favorite? Why?

EV: Yunnan, for natural beauty, colors, extreme cultural variations, food, and tea. You can spend days cruising chilly mountaintop villages above endless rice terraces with the Yi and Hani, and the next day drop into the Dai valleys full of pineapples, coconuts, and wooden stilt homes. As long as you stay off the tourist trail, there’s no end to the surprises.

AK: Ditto.

WCT: What is one piece of advice you would give to travelers who want to experience the ‘real’ side of China?

EV: Stick to the mountains, small roads, and small villages where real culture, real beauty and real people still exist.

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Photo credit: Portrait of an LBX

Read more of Andy and Evan’s reflections and trip accounts at Portrait of an LBX.

Teeming with geographical, ethnic and biological diversity – plus some of the best food in China – Yunnan has always been one of our most popular destinations.

The charming small towns of Lijiang, Dali, Jinghong and Shangri-la and the Naxi, Bai, Yi, Dai, Hani and Tibetans who live there have provided our clients with unforgettable travel experiences and new insights into China.

These popular places aside, Yunnan is brimming with countless lesser-known destinations that are also well worth a visit. One of our favorites is the former trading outpost of Shaxi in Yunnan’s northwest.

Blessed with blue skies, sunshine and cool breezes year-round and located in a verdant mountain valley with no airport, tall buildings, car traffic or noticeable pollution, Shaxi is almost too good to be true.

For centuries Shaxi was a busy trade hub linking the Yunnan and Tibet portions of the Ancient Tea and Horse Caravan route. Traders coming up from the south on the route would bring tea, cloth, alkali and daily necessities, while Tibetans would bring yak furs and traditional medicines.

In addition to being a convenient halfway point for Yunnanese and Tibetan traders, Shaxi also had an important commodity of its own: salt from the nearby Misha salt wells.

The majority of Shaxi’s residents belong to the Bai ethnic group, who are known for their hospitality and their green thumbs. When the caravans were passing through town, it was not uncommon to see the different faces and costumes of the Yi, Lisu, Han, Naxi, Hui and Tibetan ethnic groups, especially in Shaxi’s main square, where goods were sold.

The caravans could have as many as 40 or 50 animals, mostly mules with some horses. Just as important were the muleteers, who were usually responsible for 10 animals.

The caravan routes died out around 60 years ago, eliminating the main source of revenue for the economy that had thrived in Shaxi. The town reverted to reliance upon agrarianism and has passed the decades quietly, missing out on benefits – and drawbacks – that other Chinese cities have experienced since the late 1970s.

Now, just as quietly, Shaxi is experiencing a renaissance of sorts through tourism. The local government has spent quite a bit of funds on cleaning up the old town for visitors and has done a surprisingly good job of it.

Without any advertisements, few shops and no cars, plus several dozen well-preserved old Bai homes, in many ways Shaxi feels frozen in time.

That’s not to say that there’s nothing in the old town, there is a small handful of cafes and restaurants there, as well as one of our favorite new boutique hotels in Yunnan, Laomadian.

Laomadian is a compound of several old Bai homes that has been tastefully renovated by A Fang, an extremely welcoming Taiwanese woman who has long been interested in the history and cultures of northwest Yunnan.

Just a few doors up from Laomadian is the courtyard home of Ouyang Shengxian, a 70-year-old Bai man whose father and grandfather were some of the last of the muleteers.

We spoke with Ouyang on a recent sunny Shaxi morning in his 100-year-old home, where he recalled the days of visiting caravans for us. As he told us stories of the old days, with visitors from afar and banditry, we felt extremely fortunate to be able to sit down with a man who is truly a link to a bygone era.

The history and people of Shaxi alone make a visit worthwhile, but there are also plenty of natural attractions.

The crystal-clear Heihui River flows just outside the old town, with paths on both sides that are ideal for strolls in the sunshine. There are several photogenic bridges along the river and several small towns dotting the valley.

Up in the hills surrounding the valley, there are plentiful hiking options. If you have the time, we highly recommend any of the two- or three-day treks in the hills, which will take you through several Yi villages.

If you’re shorter on time, Shibao Mountain is a great place to spend a morning or afternoon before hiking back downhill to Shaxi. The mountain is home to Buddhist grottoes that miraculously survived the destruction of the Cultural Revolution and are some of the most important artifacts connected to the spread of Buddhism into China from India via Tibet. These grottoes are highly treasured – visitors are not allowed to take any photos of them.

Interestingly, there is also a large indentation in the stone near the grottoes that locals say resembles a human vagina. It is a tradition for pregnant women from around the valley to pray to it with the hope that they have a smooth delivery.

After checking out the grottoes on Shibao Mountain, we hit one of the trails that leads back down to Shaxi and the surrounding valley. We scanned from one end of the valley to the other and were unable to see a crane or any other construction – this is nearly impossible in today’s China.

Work is underway on a new highway that will make Shaxi more accessible to the outside world – all the reason to visit Shaxi sooner rather than later. The local government has declared its dedication to sustainable development and is working with international NGOs to that end. We hope that for their sake, and the world’s, they can manage to preserve Shaxi’s pristine beauty for generations to come.

Our journeys are great ways to enjoy the beauty of China’s countryside as well as the dynamism and history of its cities, but they are also unique opportunities to meet inspiring and unforgettable people.

During a recent visit to Shangri-la, we were honored to meet Lobsang Khedup, a Tibetan monk who is not only working to help impoverished youth from the Tibetan regions of Yunnan, but who is also helping preserve the 1,800-year-old tradition of thangka painting.

Thangka painting is the traditional Tibetan style of painting deities using paint made from local minerals. Deeply imbued with the ethos of Tibetan Buddhism, this painting style focuses on the facial expression of the subject. Ideally, the longer one looks at a thangka painting, the more subtleties emerge from the deity’s facial expression.

A native of Shangri-la, Lobsang is a thangka painting master. An average painting takes him around a year to complete. The high degree of detail and difficulty of thangka painting combined with advancements in printing and copying over the last century have resulted in a dwindling number of thangka masters.

Lobsang started the Tibetan Thangka Academy in 2008 and now has 16 students from the countryside who are studying under him and another master.

Students at the academy not only study the art of thangka painting, they also take classes in Buddhism and English. Their education is provided free of charge, with funds provided by the Shangrila Association.

“When painting, your feelings are the most important,” Lobsang told us in his study. “But you also need knowledge and wisdom – without education you cannot paint.”

In addition to teaching its Tibetan students the art of thangka painting, the academy offers classes to the general public in both thangka and traditional Chinese painting styles.

Lobsang has done such a good job of preserving the dying thangka art that the Shangri-la government has commended and supported the academy. We admire Lobsang not just as an amazing painter and socially minded individual, but as someone savvy enough to navigate the difficult political landscape in his home.

The following post is an excerpt from Catherine Bodry, a writer for AOL’s Gadling Travel Blog.

Once an important market town on China’s ancient tea-horse road, Shaxi is one of seemingly very few Chinese villages that have retained their original feel. Quiet, with cobblestone lanes and courtyard homes, Shaxi is currently undergoing a “remodel” to restore and preserve its historical market square, inner village, and, eventually, ready the entire Shaxi Valley for tourism. Though only a few hotels and shops currently smatter the tiny village, there’s no way a town like this will stay this quiet for long. You’ll be rewarded by visiting soon, as the vibe is sure to change after the completion of a new highway nearby.

Gadling was lucky enough to visit Shaxi in November on a trip with AsiaTravel, during which we traced parts of China’s tea-horse caravan route.

Shaxi sits roughly between Lijiang and Dali, and was a halfway point for tea and horse traders traveling between southern Yunnan and Tibet. The town experienced its prime from 1368-1911, when it flourished as a way station along the tea-horse trading route. When the last of the caravans passed through in 1949, Shaxi settled into relative isolation. In 2001, the World Monument Fund added Shaxi’s market square to its Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites, as the square had its original theater, temple, and guesthouses. All, however, were in danger from neglect and the potential of shoddy restoration. In partnership between the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and the People’s Government of Jianchuan County, the first phase of the Shaxi Restoration Project began in 2006, and the village is readying itself for more visitors.

To read full posts from Gadling’s trip to Yunnan, click here.

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Contact Catherine Bodry at catherine.bodry@weblogsinc.com. Photo by Gadling.

We would like to introduce Zhao Bei as AsiaTravel’s new Assisting General Manager:

Zhao Bei joined AsiaTravel in 2004 and has seen the company grow almost since its very beginnings. A Beijing native, he has been very passionate about travel. Having graduated from Beijing’s University of International Relations with a degree in International Politics and Law, Zhao Bei was set to enter the local government. He decided, however, to diverge quite literally to an off-the-beaten path instead.

During his time at AsiaTravel, Zhao Bei has had the opportunity to travel to almost every corner of China, including overland journeys from Tibet into Sichuan and camping in the Taklamakan Desert. He helped develop innovative trips, including journeys examining China’s environment and its economic realities. Prior to his current position, he served as the Director of Travel Partners and most recently, Manager of AsiaTravel’s IT initiatives.

As he translates this knowledge into his new role, he was asked, “What are you most excited about? What motivates you the most? What’s your biggest challenge?”

He answers, “As cliche as it may sound, we truly are trying to shape the way people travel.  People all over the world are interested in China now. They want to come to China, and AsiaTravel strives to provide them with not only a unique experience but a unique insight. Stories exchanged between our guides and our clients discuss what this country was, what it is to them presently, and what it might be in the future. For me, the different perspectives about China create an interesting and multi-dimensional window through which I can process the world.  This is why AsiaTravel motivates me. Of late, I’m reflecting a lot about what our business means to everyone else involved – our clients, our partners, our teams. I’m considering their goals and wrapping my head around our shared core values so that AsiaTravel can help more people Experience China Differently.”

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The following is an excerpt taken from The World of Chinese.  The author LeeAnn Deemer and her family traveled with AsiaTravel in August of 2010. Here is their story:

When we get off the plane in Lhasa, we can’t quite believe we are really in Tibet. This may have been partly due to the unscheduled stop in Chengdu which meant that we arrived hours later than we’d planned, but that was only part of it. The approach to Lhasa is vertiginous, as the plane banks left and right, dipping down below the peaks of the maze of mountains we are navigating. The runway is tucked into a narrow valley with mountains on either side.  Yet in retrospect the sensation of unreality upon leaving the airport in Lhasa is probably mostly caused by the altitude. I feel odd and slightly light-headed, and the colors around me all seem much brighter than usual.  The sunlight is intense and our surroundings look as sharp as cut glass. Lhasa itself lies about a 90-minute drive from its airport, hidden behind a chain of mountains, but Lhasa will have to wait. Excited to salvage what we can of the day, we head west, away from the capital towards the first stop on our seven-day itinerary, Tsedang.

We have brought three generations of the family on this trip—my husband’s parents who are long-time expats in Beijing and our two older children who are nine and six. We’ve left the three-year old in Singapore, where we live, as the altitude change is not recommended for children under five. The six of us bounce along the road with driver and guide, unable to tear ourselves away from the sights out the window. The town around the airport is so small that we are almost immediately in the countryside, passing farmhouses and fields. We see children playing, old women threshing on the side of the road, goats, sheep, pigs, dogs.

Tsedang lies in the Yarlung Valley, considered to be the cradle of the first Tibetan kingdom in the seventh century. We head directly to Yumbulagang, a fortress cum chapel which is said to be the oldest building in Tibet, although much of what one sees today is recent reconstruction. We only arrive about an hour or two before sunset, the last visitors of the day. Yumbulagang perches on the tip of a ridge, overlooking the flat green valley below. We are intimidated by the steep path and even steeper steps, as we’ve been warned not to exert ourselves for the first few days at this altitude. Any other visitors seem to have left hours ago, and we have our pick of the ponies, yaks, and one lone camel loitering in the parking lot with their owners, waiting to carry visitors up to side of the cliff. The view over the valley is spectacular, revealing neat green fields in the golden light of the setting sun. We have the place entirely to ourselves, and the only sound apart from the children frolicking in the distance is the flapping of the enormous tangle of prayer flags in the wind above the Yumbulagang.  The setting and the solitude conspire to fulfill every fantasy that I had ever had about Tibet—here I am in one of the most spiritually profound places in the world and I drink in the moment.

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Photo by Pete Deemer.

Today marks the beginning of the busiest travel season in China: from January 21 to February 27, China’s skies, roads, and rails will be inundated as an expected 640 million people, from every corner of the country, go on the move. What destinations could possibly be so compelling as to temporarily shift more than 9% of the world’s entire population? Home, of course.

The impetus is the Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival (chun jie). Far and away the most important festival on the Chinese calendar, the Spring Festival has always been a traditional time of homecoming and renewal. As such, this deluge occurs every winter, but the Ministry of Transport in China has predicted that this year’s will be the worst yet. One explanation is that many Chinese, in addition to returning home for the holidays, will also take advantage of the time off for domestic and international tourism.

With so many people competing for tickets, the rush has resulted in some amusing local news items. One story details the rising trade in fake student IDs as travelers get more innovative in their search for a cheap ticket home. A well-humored Beijing man named Chi Dongting, frustrated with long wait times at railway offices in freezing temperatures, successfully used a stylishly-dressed mannequin to hold his place in line – while he huddled in his car for warmth.

Far from being intimidated by the crowds, AsiaTravel believes there are some not-so-packed spots in China that truly shine during the holiday period. Yunnan province is a popular destination with our clients this time of year for a variety of reasons; the subtropical climate of verdant Xishuangbanna is an obvious draw, while up north the old cities of Dali and Lijiang take on a more peaceful personality with high season still months away.

And if you own a good jacket, Tibet awaits. With many annual pilgrimages underway, February represents an ideal opportunity to see local Tibetans in their colorful traditional dress – and there’s plenty of yak butter tea to keep you warm!

We always promote going off-the-beaten-path for travel in China; but with the beaten path about to fill up with home-bound travelers and domestic vacationers, there’s perhaps no better time to do so than during the Spring Festival.

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Image: Birmingham Post

As noted earlier, China is already the world’s number-three destination for international travel. Many travelers nowadays have already made one or two trips to China, but more often than not, they’re visiting the coast, possibly venturing inward to check out the Terracotta Army in Xi’an.

But China is more than just a handful of sites in the country’s east. In fact, western China has just as much – if not more – to offer travelers who are looking for unforgettable experiences.

If you’re planning a China trip this year, we encourage you to look beyond the traditional travel destinations to China’s wild west. Here are some of our picks for places to visit in China’s west in 2011:

Yunnan: Land of diversity

Few places in the world pack as much variety into one area as the province of Yunnan, which offers a mind-bog

gling variety of landscapes ranging from jungle lowlands in the south to Tibetan highlands in the northwest.

Yunnan’s ubiquitous mountains have historically isolated groups of people from one another, which is one of the main reasons that the province has China’s highest number of ethnic groups. With 26 ethnic groups including Han, Tibetan, Dai, Bai, Yi, Hani, Hui, Mongol, Naxi, Lisu, Yao, Lahu and countless subgroups, Yunnan is a rainbow of different ethnic traditions, clothing and cuisine.

The mountain towns of Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-la are home to unique cultures whose lives are still steeped in ancient traditions. Down south in Xishuangbanna, tropical weather, tea plantations, spicy food and the lazy Mekong River await.

Guizhou: Still undiscovered

Guizhou Province may not attract as many

visitors as its neighbors Sichuan, Yunnan and Guangxi, but it certainly deserves consideration when making plans to travel to western China. Beautiful mountain scenery and a distinctive spicy and sour cuisine are some of th

e highlights of a trip to Guizhou. But as in many other parts of China, the big draw for us is the people.

The Miao, Gejia, Dong and Yao villages in Guizhou’s mountains are home to some of Asia’s most unique cultures and friendliest, most welcoming communities. Many of our clients rank our Guizhou village immersions among their top China travel experiences.

Sichuan: More than pandas

Sichuan is one of China’s most distinctive provinces, known for its spicy food, stunning mountain scenery, beautiful women and China’s ‘national treasure’ – the giant panda.

Sichuan’s capital Chengdu is a modern metropolis set on the west end of the fertile Sichuan Basin, a region that kingdoms battled for in ancient times. Chengdu is considered the capital of Sichuan cuisine, one of the most famous and flavorful of China’s culinary traditions.

The historical importance of Buddhism to Sichuan is evident in Chengdu at the Wenshu Monastery, located in the city’s center. Not far from Chengdu lie the Buddhist holy mountain of Emei Shan and the world’s largest seated Buddha at Leshan.

Sichuan has fantastic natural beauty as well, with the mountain forests and fantastic aquamarine lakes of Jiuzhaigou in the north and gorgeous mountain scenery at Minya Gongga in the province’s west.

Xinjiang: Silk Road echoes

Xinjiang is simply massive. It comprises roughly one-sixth of China’s total territory and boasts some of the country’s most stunning mountains and deserts.

At the crossroads of Asia, Xinjiang has been home to many different ethnic groups, from the caucasoid peoples whose mummies date back to more than 3,800 years ago to the Turkic Uighurs who moved into the region from present-day Mongolia 1,100 years ago to today’s growing Han population.

Islam is the dominant religion in Xinjiang, where extremism is rare and moderation is the norm. Due to its location on the old Silk Road, Xinjiang has also been influenced by Buddhism.

For visitors to Xinjiang, the local cuisine is often one of most pleasant surprises. Featuring rich stews, tasty breads, a large variety of noodles from flat and wide to easily spoonable diced noodles and even salads, Xinjiang cuisine is a delicious world away from typical Chinese fare.