Themes
Four ways through the country
Most people arrive with a list of cities. It is usually more rewarding to arrive with an interest and let that decide the cities.
- Bamboo steamer baskets stacked above a wok
Culinary China
4 days
Hands-on cooking days across five Chinese cities — market to kitchen to table, taught by working chefs and home cooks.
- Hand tools laid out on a worn wooden workbench
Makers and Studios
5 days
Full days at the bench with people who do one thing — enamel, clay, silk, indigo, brocade — in working studios rather than demonstration rooms.
- Silver ornaments and embroidered cloth laid out together on dark fabric
Song, Silver and Thread
4 days
Days with Dong singers, Miao silversmiths and embroiderers, and Tujia weavers — living practices in the valleys where they are still used daily.
- A wall of small labelled pharmacy drawers
Wellness and Living Philosophy
4 days
Chinese medicine, qigong, monastic cooking and teahouse pace — days built around a very old argument about how to live well.