Experiences & Programs

Journeys built around a question

Not itineraries. Each programme takes a small group into one landscape with a specific problem to work on — trade, sanctity, water, labour — and leaves them with something written.

Coming

A courtyard table set with mapo tofu, minced pork with herbs, cold soy-braised chicken and a bowl of noodles.

Sliced soy-braised chicken with sesame seeds, dried chillies and Sichuan pepper on a white platter.

A bowl of cold rice noodles with potato slices, crushed peanuts, chilli flakes and coriander.

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Study Journey

Yunnan Culinary Cultures 2027

Kitchens, markets and mountain agriculture in southwest China

Yunnan · Southwest China · 2027 · In planning

Full programme

A monk in a red robe walking past an ochre monastery wall in west China.

Study Journey

Buddhist Roads — West China 2026

A traveling seminar between text and place in the making of Mahayana Buddhism

Beijing to Dunhuang · West China · Spring 2026 · 8–12 participants · Open

A traveling seminar between text and place in the making of Mahayana Buddhism.

Full programme

Where we go

The map behind the programmes

Cities, caves, pastures and passes that appear in the journeys and the writing.

Past experiences

The 2025 group standing beneath a colossal seated Buddha and its attendant figures carved in a cave niche.

A cave wall painted with a central Buddha on a lotus throne surrounded by rows of haloed attendants.

A ruined mudbrick watchtower on a low hill above open gravel desert under a deep blue sky.

Sandstone pinnacles rising above the green water of the Yellow River at Bingling Temple.

A noodle master in a white cap pulling dough by hand in a small roadside kitchen, a child watching from a pram.

Crescent Lake at Dunhuang: a timber pavilion and a green reed bank held between high sand dunes.

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Study Journey

Silk Road Tour 2025

Lanzhou to Dunhuang along the Gansu corridor, in the company of caves, deserts and kitchens

Gansu corridor · Northwest China · Spring 2025 · 8–12 participants · Completed

Full programme

A compressed cake of Pu'er tea resting in its opened paper wrapper.

A small porcelain cup of flower infusion beside a bowl of dark dried leaves on a lacquer tray.

A blue-and-white bowl of Yunnan rice noodles topped with shredded chicken, chilli oil and herbs.

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Study Journey

Tea Roads — Yunnan 2025

Leaf, kettle and market along the old tea routes of Yunnan

Yunnan · Southwest China · 2025 · Small group · Completed

Full programme

The ruined stone walls and towers of a Pamir hilltop fortress above the Wakhan valley.

A high Pamir valley seen from a ridge: an irrigated green village on the river flats beneath bare brown slopes and snow peaks.

An elderly Pamiri man in an embroidered skullcap sitting beside a window in a carpeted room, lit from one side.

An elderly Pamiri woman in a purple headscarf and beaded cap seated in a village house.

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Expedition

Pamir Highway 2022

The high road through Badakhshan: fortresses, Wakhani villages and the roof of the world

Pamir · Tajikistan · Badakhshan · Summer 2022 · Small group · Completed

Full programme

Enquiries

Groups are small and fill by conversation rather than checkout. Write with a sentence or two about what you read and why this region, and I will reply with dates, costs and the reading pack.

Write to me noback.travels@gmail.com