At last I had arrived, as I stepped off the bus the desolate village looked like so many that I had just passed through in Cang County.

No one was about and we wandered into the first yard of the nearest house, almost right, as the house we wanted was next door.

As I walked into their yard I knew we were at the house of a hunting man. Two hard muscled sighthounds greeted us and I was sure these where hare hounds.
Mrs Shi ushered us inside and checked me out, she had not been so open when we first contacted her by telephone, she could not understand why a foreigner would want to travel so far to see her husband. She soon relaxed as she learned of my life long love of hawks and eagles from the photographs I brought with me.

A little later Mr. Shi arrived from the fields from where the family earned their living. This whole area was a vast agricultural land of peasant farmers, who strip planted crops of maize, cotton, tobacco, wheat, sunflowers and vegetables.
It was a hard life with little reward, the dogs and the falcons we their relaxation and they also helped to add some game for the table.