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干巴菌 (Gan Ba Jun) Thelephora Vialis is one of the most sought after wild mushrooms in Yunnan. It usually grows in pine forest. Pine needles are often found in the cluster of the Gan Ba Jun. It is very time consuming to clean as the mushroom grows around dirt, rock, twigs. It has to be [...]

If I need to pick an absolute favorite among all the Yunnan wild mushrooms, it has to be 鸡纵菌 (Ji Zong Jun). Unlike other mushroom, one will only find it with certain local termite mounts. And if one pays attention not to destroy the mount while picking the mushroom, one can come back later to [...]

In a person’s lifetime, one witnesses regional and cultural changes. Often what was familiar become not recognizable. People change, places change, yet food seems to be more of a constant. Whether one is sick or homesick, one tends to look to the food in their childhood memory for comfort. Yunnan wild mushrooms are that comforting [...]

Sitting on the hardwood floor of a downtown posh apartment, it does not feel like home, I have to admit, not because the lack of furniture, I am used to that. Instead, I could not help but thinking of my favorite rock from Alaska, which I fished out of a ice-cold river recommended for gold [...]

Sitting alone in our aluminum tube, surrounded by drying laundary, history channel showing a search for the lost ark, I am sleepless. All curtains drawn, it does not matter where I am, Seattle, Washington or Deadhorse, Alaska.

When a bunch of fresh leafy rhubarbs and a pile of old Alaska magazines landed on our doorstep. We knew we had another friendly Alaskan encounter. In the beginning, I thought people were being extra nice to us because we were special. Two young PhD physicists from another continent, spending their summer in Alaska in [...]

The whole summer, we have read and heard bear stories almost every day. We have stopped to let grizzly sow and cub cross the road to graze. We have watched a black bear on a hill slope munching on grass while down below we were stuck in traffic. We have “stalked” a big grizzly on [...]

After staying in Alaska for the whole summer, I came to realize that “frontier” is not just about the gold rush, the prospectors, or the untamed nature. It is also about the old way of living, where people and the land could still co-exist in balance, where the life style could still be sustainable, where [...]

Picture this, clear sky with couple of clouds drifting, as far as your eyes can see, the dark blue ocean expands into horizon, and close by, waves are crashing, the mile long white sandy beach are only dotted by colorful seashells, clean and unbroken…

Traveling down in Alaska, we reached Seward, a charming little town 126 miles south of Anchorage. Known as the ‘Gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park’, the amazing view to us are just daily life to the locals. Glaciers and countless wildlife are just around the corner. We camped at the Seward Waterfront [...]