Travel Tape   /     Ep 9. A Fluid Frontier

Description

Some borders are walls; others are just lines on a map. In the Xishuangbanna region of Yunnan Province, China, it's the latter. Burma's to the south, and about the only things demarcating the boundary are forests and jungle rivers, which the locals on either side cross whenever they want. In this episode of Travel Tape, journalist David Eimer looks at how Xishuangbanna's fluid border affects its minority culture, famed throughout China. And he doesn't just look. He settles into the region's capital, witnesses how genuine ethnic culture is preserved in the shadows of mass tourism, and in a superb example of participatory journalism, imitates his neighbors in an illegal river crossing into Burma. Smuggling is one of the major economic activities in Banna, and David's destination is the notorious Golden Triangle, one of the world's centers of opium and methamphetamine production.

Subtitle
Some borders are walls; others are just lines on a map. In the Xishuangbanna region of Yunnan Province, China, it's the latter. Burma's to the south, and about the only things demarcating the boundary are forests and jungle rivers, which the locals on...
Duration
28:54
Publishing date
2017-03-24 07:55
Link
http://traveltapethepodcast.com/ep-9-a-fluid-frontier
Contributors
Enclosures
http://traffic.libsyn.com/traveltape/a-fluid-frontier.mp3?dest-id=313636
audio/mpeg