Portrait of an LBX

Hats were pretty popular at this market on our way out of Yunnan.

A nice hat/head-wrap combination spotted in a market in a little town on our way out of Yunnan.

Watching life go by.

A farmer at a little market on our way out of Yunnan. Yunnan has been great for markets.

An ethnic Dai man on the streets of Gengma (耿马县城). Like every other ethnic group in China, the women have all the fun with the traditional clothing while the men are basically westernized. At least this guy has a cool hat.

An ethnic Bulang (布朗族) girl walks through a village on Bulang Mountain (布朗山).

Finally, we come across a man wearing something besides Western-style clothes! Although, having no other reference points, I have no idea whether he is Hani (哈尼族), Yi (彝族) or Yao (瑤族). Given that I saw him in the Lvchun (綠春) market, I'd bet Hani though.

A more modern take on the traditional Yi patterns.

I think this woman had the most elegant outfit in the market, even if her pose in this picture isn't. I'd be interested to know what ethnic group she belongs to.

We have ventured into the hills of Zhejiang, which are truly the most beautiful place we have discovered thus far. The area we are traveling through, within and surrounding the country of Anji (安吉), is known for its bamboo and white tea, and as we expected, the mountains are providing us with a picturesque and serene respite from the chaos of development in the valley. We were surrounded today by a sea of bamboo, undulating like waves up and down the green hills, broken only by the occasional tea farm etched into the side of the slope. This morning, we came across a crew of about five workers making bamboo brooms by the side of the road. They take bamboo branches of equal length and bind them together, then dry them over a fire, the smoke of which is reminiscent of incense burned at a Buddhist temple. After drying the bundles, each is put through a strange machine of whirring metal bars, which strips off the weakest of the bamboo leaves. Affix a handle, and you've got yourself a Chinese-style broom, which is quite unlike those of the West.