Our house in the pump station on Er Hai lake, Dali

Valorie, Daisy, Broian, XiaoZhu and XiaoJie in front of our house at ShaXi

ShaXi Market on the thousand year old Tea Horse Trail which runs through the three parallel gorges between China and Tibet and historically supported heavy trade in tea, horses and salt and surely a lot more.

The old letters on the wall say; "China must advance, Minorities must prosper, population must be controlled". ShaXi is a city where the population is 90% Bai Minority.

Until about 960 AD people bought horses here with copper coins made in central China. The herdsman, however, used the coins to make weapons and fought with the Han people. This was an unexpected consequence of the border trade. In 983 CE trading with coins was forbidden.

Brian riding the white dragon horse

Brian and Valorie playing along the HeiHui river, ShaXi

Brian and Valorie playing along the HeiHui river, ShaXi

Brian and Valorie playing along the HeiHui river, ShaXi

YuLongXueShan where we extended our holiday for a day to find snow and build a man

YuLongXueShan where we extended our holiday for a day to find snow and build a man