In August 2023, Dr. Emlyn Yang, Wenhan Feng and Christine Heinzel from LMU Munich visited the STORIES project partners in China to jointly conduct the first fieldwork phase of the project.

The trip started in Kunming, the province capital in Yunnan, where the research group from LMU met the partners from Yunnan University (YNU). During a full-day meeting on the first day together, the two teams from China and Germany got to know each other better, and the detailed plan for the fieldwork and the questionnaire were presented. Afterwards, the interviewers were trained for conducting the survey. The successful first day was ended with a joint dinner with other professors and researchers from YNU.

The next day, the group traveled to Dali, where they stayed for 1.5 weeks. Every day, the interviewers went into field and learned interesting and surprising new information about the local way of life and how they adapt to the frequent floods. The LMU team accompanied them to get to know the surrounding settings. When the interviewers were busy with the survey, the LMU team visited villages and heritage sites, that were important in the times of the ancient Tea-Horse Road era. In mid-August, the LMU team left Dali again, while the interviewers from YNU diligently continued to conduct the survey. After a day in Kunming and two joint dinners with the dean and researchers from YNU, the LMU team traveled to Chengdu, the province capital of Sichuan. In Chengdu, they met up with the partners from the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment (IMHE), Chinese Academy of Sciences. In a full-day meeting, where everybody got to know each other, the planned fieldwork and the questionnaire were discussed in detail. The day was ended by a joint team dinner and a nice walk around the newly build Science City.

The next day, both teams from China and Germany traveled to Ya’an, where the first phase of the survey started in Sichuan. The teams visited together small villages around Ya’an, and while the IMHE interviewers conducted the survey, the LMU team walked around the villages and the nearby fields and talked to the people living there. At the last day, the LMU team traveled around the region to visit small villages along the Tea-Horse Road and heritage sites. The team from IMHE continued the first phase of the survey in Sichuan, and the LMU team traveled back to Chengdu.

The field visit of the LMU team in China ended on the 21st of August with many new impressions in mind and exciting insights. The IMHE and YNU teams will finish the surveys in September and October 2023.