Osmica, or wine needs bush
A wine tavern but without neither a restaurant concession nor a licence to sell alcohol? Don’t worry, osmice are absolutely legal. In fact, their existance owes to a “legal need.” Namely, the winemakers’ need to sell surplus wine. You will find them in the region …
Guitar clangs, Beggar’s Chicken
Beggar’s Chicken 叫化鸡 is a simple yet brilliant concept: a whole chicken is covered in clay and baked, resulting in utterly succulent and fragrant meat. Today, clay is often replaced with dough or oven bags. We prepared it with friends beside a small stream that …
Donglianhua 东莲花
An old Muslim settlement in central Yunnan. Here are some photographs from Donglianhua 东莲花, an ancient village near Weishan. It is inhabited by people of the Islam-adhering Hui minority (回族). The name of the village literally translates as “East Lotus Flower”. Historians generally assume that …