Into the Valley

One of China's most remote ethnic groups, the Dulong, has just got a shortcut to the rest of the world. Numbering about 6,000, the Dulong were once known for tattooing the faces of their womenfolk (a custom designed to discourage neighboring Tibetans from kidnapping them as slaves). That practice has long ceased — there is only a handful of tattooed women left — but other aspects of their way

of life survive unmolested in the pristine Dulong Valley in northwestern Yunnan province.

You can now see for yourself, thanks to a new dirt road connecting the valley to the nearest town, Gongshan. Anthropologists need not be worried about a tourist invasion: it takes nine hours to drive this precarious 90-km track, followed by several hours of trekking, before you reach the area where the Dulong live. That means only the most committed travelers will likely make the journey. If you want to spice up the adventure further, local tour operators offer alternative routes.

The seven-day trek organized by Haiwei Trails, tel: (86-887) 828 9239, starts on the banks of the Mekong River, before circumnavigating the sacred Meili mountain and following old horse trails into Dulong territory. Once you arrive, one of the tribe's remaining tattooed women will welcome you with a steaming cup of tea — and a face straight out of the past.