Breakfast in Dali & a Congee Recipe
A few years ago, while working as a tour guide in Yunnan, I had a guest who – every morning – insisted on “not eating lunch for breakfast”. She had […]
Author Archives: Joanna James
Kids with Guns*
Over the past few trips, I have been collecting pictures of Chinese children with the things they spend their pocket money on. From my entirely unscientific observations, these seem to […]
Vegetable Porn & Chinese Cheese
Dali in Yunnan is home to some of China’s best-looking vegetables. The Bai people who live in and around Dali have been blessed with a lush, fertile strip of homeland, […]
Lonely Hearts in Lijiang
On last week’s trip to Yunnan we visited Tiger Leaping Gorge near Lijiang. We drove through the gorge and stopped at a viewing platform where – as I know from […]
Little Yak is travelling…
I’m in Yunnan at the moment, doing a mini road-trip and visiting old haunts and friends en route – lots of fun, but very little time to write anything. So, […]
Learning to Cook & Garlicky Greens
While I’ve been living in China and Hong Kong for almost seven years, I still can’t really cook Chinese food. Earlier this month, while trawling Hong Kong’s supermarkets for pickled […]
Dong Life: The Movie
After two weeks of thinking about editing my Guizhou videos, I finally sat down and muscled through them this afternoon. And you know what? I really enjoyed putting it all […]
Tourism, Slow Travel & Little Yak
I haven’t written about this before, but my trip to Guizhou earlier this month did not turn out as expected. On my previous two trips to Zhaoxing, I had seen […]
Mrs Lu’s Story
Mrs Lu still wears a traditional topknot, which she winds up on top of her head in elaborate loops. “I never wear a hat, like some of the other women […]
Photos for a Friday Afternoon…
Unconsciously, I always leave my biggest, least pleasant jobs until Friday afternoons, usually sometime after 4pm. It’s only then that I realise that a whole, lovely weekend stretches ahead of […]
Village Food and a Recipe
I was in Guizhou around the time that the Great British Horsemeat Scandal kicked off. On my first afternoon in the countryside, I came across a group of men butchering […]
Survival Guide to Chinese New Year in a Village in Guizhou
1) Forget everything your parents ever told you about staying away from explosives As a child, I was subjected to annual Guy Fawkes’ Night warnings about the perils of touching […]
Friday Night in Zhaoxing
I made it! After an unplanned two-night stopover in Guiyang, I arrived in Zhaoxing this afternoon. The incredible Chunyun experience was a little less exciting than I had anticipated, but a […]
One in two billion – Joining the Chunyun
Tomorrow, I’ll be joining the largest annual human migration on the planet as I travel to Guiyang in Guizhou. It is estimated that over two billion journeys will be made […]
Hong Kong Scenes: A Lion comes to Cheung Chau!
On a recent visit to Cheung Chau Island in Hong Kong, we were lucky to catch the opening party for a friend’s shop. The friend, Ah Kei, makes papier mâché heads for […]
Little Yak 