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May 13. Kunming spirit.
Kunming is just another metropole, yet decidedly less intense and crowded than Chengdu and, from what we've heard, Chongqing. We do what we are good at and sit down in a dark coffee place, waiting for our couchsurfing host, slurping black coffee as we bend over our tiny computer screens.

Julia, our host, works ...
May 12. We live in a beautiful cartoon.

I buy train tickets, then ride the tricycle to a village, a couple of miles north of Lijang. The thing has only one gear, but works well. It is tough to ride uphill, wind from the front, Yeon in the back, but also great fun. In the village, we can't find anyone in need ...
May 11. The TRIKE.
Lijang offers what we need the next morning. We walk to a grand hotel and feel grand as well, when several employees do their best not only to seat us and offer us a Western breakfast, but also to call a taxis that can take us to a tricycle store. We use their internet for ...
May 10. Very scenic busride.
The busride through the countryside of southern Sichuan and northern Yunnan, connecting Xichang and Lijang via the Lugu Hu lake, is long but extremely scenic. It takes from 7:40 in the morning until about 10pm to cover the distance of about 300 miles through beautiful hills,  mountain passes, and alongside the majestic Lugu Hu. Sitting ...
May 9. Xichang.
We are stuck in Xichang and tackle a rainy afternoon writing in a strange upper class restaurant, taking in only one shared latte for economical reasons. It's a strange place and we can imagine many a Chinese businessman coming here to show off his spendthrift to the members of his class. It stops raining later ...
May 8. Summit Superlatives.


We take the stairs.
Mount Emei treats us well. We intend to get up early and have breakfast with the monks, but I overhear the six am alarm and we don't make it to the porridge. We take in some breadlike buns and eggs salty like they were boiled in the Dead Sea. ...
May 7. Templestay.
I first heard of the concept of templestay on a visit to Korea in 2005, and found the concept tempting ever since. I had never actually done it though, allowing it to grow into something very romantic in my mind. In wooden barracks I would sleep, in between monks in orange robes who would wake ...
May 6. Quake Relieve and One kg more
We are still in Chengdu, but we don't want to leave without a Cause for our project. And that is where Peter Coff comes in. He explains us a lot about his Hong Kong based NGO Sichuan Quake Relief and we decide to wire our donation to him. He has gone through all the paperwork ...
May 5. Please do NOT give.
We haven't given up our quest for Chinese ngo's, not yet. I make phone calls: they hang up on me. Jane Goodall foundation? Winrock foundation? PLAN China? Forget it. But Dhane tells us he knows that some poor earthquake victims have been relocated to a Chengdu hospital and if we could find out where they ...