Field notes
The journal
What we've learned walking this city — written when there's something worth saying, not on a schedule.
Sichuan2 min read
The Panda Express — China's Luxury Sleeper Train
China has quietly built a proper luxury train. Twelve passenger carriages, private cabins with real bathrooms, an assigned butler, and a karaoke car — leaving from the city with the pandas.
Sichuan2 min read
Garzê — Grassland, Monasteries and Horses
Garzê is where the Sichuan basin gives up and the Tibetan plateau begins. Yak on open grassland, monasteries on every rise, horse festivals in summer — and no permit needed to see any of it.
Sichuan2 min read
Ngawa — Grassland, Wetland and the Yellow River's First Bend
Ngawa is the other half of Tibetan Sichuan — flatter, wetter and greener than Garzê, with the Zoige wetlands, the Yellow River's first great turn, and Jiuzhaigou at its edge.
Sichuan2 min read
Muli — The Kingdom That Inspired Shangri-La
Muli was a small state ruled by a lama-king until the mid-20th century. Joseph Rock's accounts of it fed the myth of Shangri-La — and the valleys are almost as hard to reach now as they were then.
Sichuan2 min read
Litang — A Town at 4,000 Metres, No Permit Required
Litang sits above 4,000 metres in western Sichuan — as high as most of Tibet, culturally Tibetan, and reachable without any permit at all. It is the best value in high-plateau travel in China.
Sichuan2 min read
Eya — The Last Village With a Different Idea of Marriage
Eya is a stacked stone-and-timber Naxi village so remote that its family structures outlasted every campaign to standardise them. Getting there is two days from the nearest city.
Sichuan2 min read
Butuo — Where the Yi Still Dress Like the Yi
In Butuo, traditional Yi dress isn't festival costume — it's what people wear to the market. Add the Torch Festival in summer and the county becomes one of the most visually extraordinary places in China.