When I told my Chinese friends I was heading to Yunnan Province for a two week class trip, they all gave me pretty much the same response: I was going to see beautiful scenery, and beautiful girls. While that ended up being true, they forgot to tell me about the best part: the yaks!

Back when I was growing up in the U.S., yaks were the shaggy beasts you saw when you were learning the alphabet ("Y stands for Yak"). I'd never encountered one in real life, and nobody told me they would have them in Yunnan.

Well, I'm pleased to say, they did. In abundance. I can now say I've seen more yaks than I ever wanted to. And for good measure, I even saw a couple of water buffalo.

That's right, Yunnan Province is natural playground, where the pollution and incessant traffic of the big city are a distant memory. I enjoyed my trip immensely, and throughout, I kept a journal of my experiences, which I'm pleased to share.