As the November weather in the north turned decidedly wintery I headed south to the province of Yunan where the winter temperature was 70 F.

I came here to visit Mr. Li Shi and his wife Zhao Jiankun who are part of the Naxi community. The Naxi are the only people in China that are allowed to practise their tradition of falconry.

At last I was to find falconers and street traders openly displaying their hawks on the streets and markets.

The goshawk seemed to be the favourite by far and the pheasant was the prized quarry. A few traded in sparrow hawks and some of the older falconers talked of having flown them but I did not meet anyone who was flying a spar at quarry.

In this picture Mr. Li Shi is walking with his freshly trapped adult goshawk which is know as a Cang Ying or black hawk. The passage hawks are known as Huang Ying or yellow hawk.