Portrait of an LBX

An ethnic Qiang (羌族) survivor of the May 12, 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, which killed some 68,000 people, sits alone outside her husband's convenience store. The couple's home, originally on the slope of a nearby mountain, slid into the canyon during the earthquake. Fortunately, neither husband nor wife was home, although the wife was injured and now walks with a cane. The couple is awaiting the completion of their new home in the reconstructed village in the background. For now, they are just "maintaining the situation (維持狀態)" by running the convenience store/wholesale rice warehouse, now the focal point of what remains of the original town. The woman was still shaken and wouldn't talk to us, but her husband described "thinking the world was ending" as he collapsed on the convulsing earth, vision obscured by thick clouds of dust and deafened by the clamor of the mountains collapsing around him.

Spotted in a small-town 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.

Seen in a small market on our way out of Yunnan.

An ethnic Dai (傣族) woman dishes out a meat-filled meal at the Gengma (耿马县城) Buddhist monastery.

An elderly Wa (佤族) woman watches the evening goings-on in Xuelin (雪林鄉). A wedding was being held in the house across the street. We passed by three times and lingered but failed to garner an invitation.

An ethnic Bulang (布朗族) woman descends from her home on Bulang Mountain (布朗山) on the Burma border. The village derives most of its income from the cultivation and sale of pu'er tea leaves (普洱茶葉), the trees of which line the path to the home in this photo.

I said previously that Yunnan is my favorite Chinese province in part because it is so colorful. Despite the drought and the relatively subdued colors of the landscape, the people are as colorful as ever! I'm not versed enough to say I can accurately differentiate between the clothing styles, but I think this is a Zhuang woman, seen in a market in Laojie Village (老街村).

An old woman in the Xiazhai, Fujian street market looks away from a conversation with a friend.

Kaifeng has a massive and lively night market, consisting of dozens of stands selling street food of all varieties. Here, two chuanr (seasoned lamb on a stick) vendors share a laugh as they roast part of our meal.