A fortuitous trip into “town” (in this case Zhongdian) means a quick stop in a local Internet Cafe. We’ve been spending the last few days in Napa Village, a small Tibetan (with a dash of Naxi) settlement not too far outside of Zhongdian. The village is on the edge of Napa Hai which in wetter weather is a large, shallow lake but at this time of the year transforms into a broad, green expanse of pasture land dotted with more yak than one would think possible.
The villagers of Napa have made several transformations themselves in the last few years, shifting their economy from pastoral agriculture supplemented by quasi-legal logging to ecotourism supplemented by a quasi-legal toll booth blocking the new highway which runs through the area. In fact those traveling in Northwest Yunnan should be prepared for several of these make-shift money-making roadblocks. All over the Zhongdian area local villagers are whacking passing vehicles (even bicycles, one villager proudly announced at dinner) for 30 RMB a pop. My students were a bit perplexed until I reminded them that highway brigandry has long been a staple of the local economy and the new toll both minders are far more polite than their 19th-century