In Sichuan there are a lot of Hakka, a wandering tribe of Chinese spread all over the earth, in Chinatowns from the Bay to Mauritius. They came to Sichuan during the late Ming and Qing Dynasties to re-plenish a land devastated by repeated massacres and mass pillaging.

The Emperor at the time gave each...

The mighty Min flows down from the Tibetan Plateau, through Dujiangyan, passing by the birthplace of Daoism  -- Qingcheng Mountain. Here, the River meets the 2000 year old irrigation project that splits the river into two parts: one headed south to Chengdu and the other, which rushes along...

In Hanyuan County, just south of Yaan in the middle of the Tibetan foothills, there was once a great battle between the Taiping rebels and the Qing Imperial Troops. The rebels were routed by the Dadu river and fled into the hills. Many of them were gong fu masters from the eastern provinces. INstead...

In Litang, the spiritual heart of the Tibetan resistance in Kham, there are legends of Rara Gyata: the warrior who fought 500 battles against the Chinese only to be betrayed and murdered by the Nepalese while operating in and out of the border with Tibet.

Of all the resistance fighters from Kham -- the...

As the dragon of the Himalayas snakes its head down through Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces all the way down to Chiang Mai, it runs into the rolling green hills of Guizhou Province. The deep valleys and fertile uplands of this region nurtures and protects the last of China's ancient peoples. There are silversmithing...