Of course the Miao region of China is a poor region, and as we travelled on foot between villages, we saw people begging, but they do not beg for money. They beg for eyeglasses so that they can sew their beautiful garments. I brought lots of glasses with me so CONTINUE >

There is not much food in Miao country, so the local people eat everything they can, including ferns, which they soak for days and then boil and then pickle. I ate a lot of pickled fern whilst there, and it did my whole system in long after I got back CONTINUE >

One of the villages in Miao country where I visited I was warned I’d have to sing to be hosted. So we arrived at the elder’s house and the women were all lined up in chairs on one side of an upper room. The Miao live above their pigs, so CONTINUE >

In Miao country there are lots of camillia farms, and the women farmers are dressed in these gorgeous sequined, beaded dresses. They wear their long black hair in rolls, and a mother and daughter share hair, they use long cuttings of hair to make the roll. I was hosted in CONTINUE >

I was able to do research in a remote part of China where the Miao people live. The trip requires going into the region with a minder organization, and for me and for my assistant that was a French nonprofit. We were hosted in the little village that was reachable CONTINUE >