Interesting article about a trip to the Yunnan province in China:

"Fragrant smoke billows from the altar, a wizened monk beckons me into a tiny rock-hewn temple and thrusts a container of bamboo into my hand. I kneel before a row of gaudily-painted deities - Buddhist, Daoist and Confuscian - while the monk strikes a pottery gong and clangs a bell. Encouraged by nods from our guide, I shake the cone until one bamboo tumbles to the floor. Suddenly the cacophony of gong and bell stops. The monk eyes the hieroglyphs on my bamboo, peers at my palms, and foretells my future in rambling chants, which our guide translates into short soundbites: "Happy life. Good health. Next three days, very auspicious."

Guy and I are in the province of Yunnan - the "land beyond the clouds". In this wild, rugged corner of south-west China, Mao's edicts did little to dent the traditions of religion, language or dress of the region's minority groups, many of which straddle the borders with Tibet, Burma, Laos and Vietnam."