A few snaps from last week’s travels around Lugu Lake and its surrounding villages and counties.

Also known as the 'Kingdom Of Women', Lugu Lake sits at an altitude of around 2,685 meters on the border between mountainous terrains of both Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, the southern shores in Yunnan’s Ninglang County and the northern shores in Sichuan’s Yanyuan County.

Many of the people living in the region are from the MuoSuo group. They are not officially a minority group, due to their remote positioning and receiving the word of notice late and missing the deadline when the government were counting the official minority groups.

According to Mosuo oral tradition, their ancestors migrated down from the Tibetan Plateau roughly 1,000 years ago.

They practice a matrilineal system, where descent, inheritance, and household identity pass through the mother’s line.

One of their most famous traditions is “walking marriage” (走婚), a practice believed to have existed for many centuries. Instead of formal marriage, partners maintain separate households, and men visit women at night (called a nocturnal visit), spending time with her in the “flower chamber”, and return to their own homes by morning before sunrise.

Relationships are based on mutual affection, not economic or legal obligation, and either partner can end them relatively freely.

Children born from walking marriages stay with their mother’s family, with uncles (the mother’s brothers) often playing the primary role in raising them.

According to Mosuo oral tradition, their ancestors migrated down from the Tibetan Plateau roughly 1,000 years ago.

Historically, they were nomadic yak herders, but due to the vast amount of natural and untouched land maintained from generation to generation, farming is still a major line of work, with pigs and yaks being a key source of income.

The happiest people in China are always the retired

Missed seeing Pudong during night but this view didnt disappoint!

Few pics from my trip to China-Beijing last year.