It was quite a shock coming out of our hotel thinking about breakfast only to discover a whole market full of endangered animal parts. We knew this existed in China, but we did not realize Continue…

I am sitting in the hotel room watching “Legally Blond” in Chinese. I have seen that movie so many times that I can easily follow the storyline. What a bummer that I can’t understand a word. Before we started our trip, I had wanted to study Chinese. From the 90 lessons I had on tape, I ended up doing Continue…

After the somewhat commercial town of Baisha, we were looking for a more authentic experience. We had done some Internet research and came across Zengcong, a Dong village with the oldest drum tower in China (built in 1672) just half a days travel away from Baisha. The fact that this place was not in our guide book made it even more exciting. Arranging transportation to Zengcong, however, was quite a challenge Continue…

I was so into the Baisha that it turned into an article with more pictures. Here is the link.

The Basha Miao are a subgroup of the Miao tribe located in southeastern Guizhou. You may know the Miao by their other name, the Hmong.

The Basha Miao are well-known in China for… Continue to Full Article

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Quick Snacks

To help you whip up your own Chinese feast at home, I’m including some recipes we found written on a tourist leaflet we got in Zhaoxing in the Dong tribal regions of Guizhou province:

Pickled Fish

Collect fish from fields, kill and cut them open after washing clean, eliminate the internal organs, then salt it for 3 or 4 days. After the fish absorbing salinity into bodies, put them into a big wooden barrel with some of distiller’s sweet grains, condiments and an appropriate amount of chilli, weigh themdown with stones to keep it out of gas. The pickled fish can be eaten after 3 months Or more.

If you are not into pickled fish, try the following:

Purple-blood Meat

Collect fresh blood from the abdominal cavity of a newlykilled pig or ox, add any vinegar to pickle it for a while to make purple blood. Then slice the burnt of stir-flied liver, heart, stomach or meat, and mix them with the pickled blood, medicinal cornel fruit, chilli powder, prickly ash, tangerine peel, garlic, chopped green onion and salt thoroughly.

Enjoy the meals with a fine cup of traditional oil tea. Bon appetit!