I saw them in Yunnan. It’s very mountainous with searing sun even in march when I went. There are a lot of rice paddies where they grow this beautiful red rice. As with all the ethnicities in this part of China they have very colourful traditional dress. I might be getting confused with the Hani people but I think the Yi women wear these semi circular crest hats. I think it’s either the Yi or Hani or both that are a matriarchal society, which is really cool. And they have these large families where all the kids are brought up in the matriarchs household regardless of who the father is. They have this elaborate ritual where the guys sneak over at night to court the women.

Their food is amazing, with a good amount of vegetables when compared to the rest of China. They prefer garlic over chilli, so not very spicy but packed full of flavour. They drink a lot of tea which is great. Tea with meals is not hugely popular where I am at the moment (Guangxi) and I miss knocking back glass after glass of puerr tea.