In late March, WildChina founder Mei Zhang blogged
about colleague Sunshine’s trip to and future work with an elementary school in Yubeng, a Tibetan village in Yunnan province.

Recently, Sunshine gave us an update on the status of WildChina’s aid to Yubeng.

The valley near Yubeng Village

“The books on plants and stones have been just sent out. Thanks to [WildChina colleague] Li Ling’s help, the teachers and kids will have books to learn about different kinds of fish, amphibians, and invertebrates. [WildChina colleague] Catherine also helped to get stone samples – this is wonderful for the kids to tell different stones apart.”

WildChina looks forward to continued support of schools like Yubeng Primary School.

New York Times reporter Edward Wong unknowingly traced WildChina’s first-ever trip in the piece he recently wrote for the Sunday Travel section. Edward travels throughout Yunnan, from the valley of the Mekong River, (called the Lancang in Yunnan), to the secluded Tibetan village of Lower Yubeng, then to several sacred sites including Mystic Lake and Mystic Waterfall.

Mt. Yubeng in Yunnan

The journey he takes is a beautiful one that visits sites sacred to Tibetans. Buddhists arriving at the Mystical Falls  circumambulate them 13 times with the belief that this act will accumulate merit.

In WildChina’s early years we ran this trip quite often, and promoted it heavily to guests interested in hiking, nature and Tibetan culture. In the past few years we’ve stopped visiting so much because the region has become quite touristy and lost some of its natural charm and secluded appeal. Read the rest of this entry »