From the misty, matsutake-rich mountains of Ma Pin Guan to the hidden Bai enclaves of ancient Silk Road towns, this is a journey through China’s most varied province, a biodiversity hotspot home to more ethnic groups than any other. Yunnan: land of mushrooms, birthplace of tea. Here in the country’s mineral-dense, subtropical southwest bordered by Szechuan, Tibet, Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar, a phenomenal cuisine reflects Yunnan’s dazzling diversity—rich in flavor and wild ingredients, spicy and sour, multiethnic and complex.
Led by the Chinese writer Jane Yang and former Bourdain fixer Alejo Sabugo, we begin in Shanghai and end in Dali, traversing four ancient towns that ring the storied Lake of Erhai. We will meet Daoist tea-readers and Kung Fu doctors, masters of sour fish and bao, of rice noodle and hotpot, royal-descended defenders of ancient intellectual traditions and big-city transplants reimagining the countryside—all culminating in an extraordinary multi-course dinner in a secret restaurant for Chinese chefs. Light activity level. Vegetarian-friendly itinerary.
