A mother holds her son up on a wall in Xuelin (雪林鄉). Our rides through these forested mountains on the Burma border have been plagued by ominous clouds and on-and-off rain, an unwelcome departure from the predictability of the once-daily monsoons we've had since a few days after entering the province.

A Han Chinese toddler runs through the streets of Xuelin (雪林鄉), a Wa (佤族) township atop a mountain 12 kilometers from the Burmese border in western Yunnan. The boy is the son of one of a handful of Han families. The two we met were from Hunan and running small convenience stores in the town.

A little boy stares at the three goofy looking foreigners walking around town in spandex shorts and bike jerseys.