That night we sat in a local restaurant surrounded by falconers and their goshawks. These people were trappers as well as falconers and were very open about the prices their hawks fetched in the local market.

Falconry is hidden within China but once you gain the trust and confidence of the local community, then it is suddenly opened up and its as though you have stepped into a parallel universe.

Although it was late in the trapping season they talked about taking me on a trapping trip, unfortunately the weather turned nasty the very next day with quite heavy wet snow. Both hawking and trapping trips were cancelled.