A farmer at a little market on our way out of Yunnan. Yunnan has been great for markets.
Jun
09
2010
09
2010
Photo: Ready to Transplant
Mr. Song, a rice farmer, pauses from his work pulling densely planted rice stalks from a rice paddy where they have been growing for 45 days. The stalks will then be taken by motorcycle to the family's paddies elsewhere to be transplanted individually by hand and then harvested after another four months.
May
13
2010
13
2010
Photo: Mountain Tea Farmer
An ethnic Hani (哈尼族) tea farmer looks out over the terraced mountains on which his tea plants grow. While Yunnan is famous for its Pu'er tea (普洱茶), which sells for astronomical prices, this man sells his leaves unprocessed for 2 yuan (29 cents) per half kilo (1.1 lbs), or processed for 6 yuan (89 cents).
Apr
30
2010
30
2010
Apr
29
2010
29
2010
Photo: Old Man but No Sea
Once we left Guangxi and the misty/drizzly weather we had been experiencing for over a week, we immediately found ourselves in the midst of a severe drought in the mountains of Yunnan where it has not rained for six months. We met a local farmer on the road, who has little to do because he can't plant his fields. Judging by his friendliness, love of hand-holding and the alcohol on his breath, however, I'd say he's found a tolerable pastime until the rains come.
Jan
21
2010
21
2010
Video: Walking the Goats
On our way through the beautiful, mist-covered mountains of Fujian today we passed this man herding his goats, which he explained were a local Fujian breed. Smaller than usual (and tastier), he said he can sell a two-year-old for 800 yuan ($117). In 2008 I went with a group of friends for a weekend trip to some grasslands north of Beijing where we bought a goat kid from a local family for 600 yuan ($88). Considering that we were almost certainly getting the “foreigner price,” 800 yuan does seem like a very good price. But on the other hand, it takes a two-year investment for the goat herder to make it.
You should be able to see Alexis making his way through on the opposite side. Strangely enough, he blends in a little too well. Is it a coincidence that lamb is his favorite meat?
Jan
20
2010
20
2010
Photo: Hard on the Knees
A woman carries a load of firewood down a treacherous slope in two bamboo baskets hung from a bamboo pole across her back. While the U.N. says that China has brought more people out of poverty in the past forty years than in any other country in history, many among China's massive rural population of some 800 million are still struggling to survive.