Now don't get me wrong - I just love Chinese food. Normally that is. But in North West China it's a bit different from the stuff we get here at home - which people tell me is generally southern or Cantonese cooking.

Apart from aquariums all round the restaurants' walls containing the main course (but still alive!) the food is hugely spicy. So, I suppose if Mexican cooking is your thing, it's the very place for your next vacation, but for me, I find eating a breakfast which leaves your lips and mouth feeling as if you've just had a major session in the dentist's chair, a bit more problematic.

However, the place certainly has its compensations.

Xinjiang is the area which has hit the news recently for unrest - riots and killings between the ethnic Uygurs and the immigrant Han Chinese.There are also dozens of other ethnic groups, Kazakhs, Tajiks, Uzbeks,
Mongols - just the names for me summon up images of Marco Polo and the Silk Road.

And of course that means camels - Bactrian, two humped camels that have carried spices, silks and other treasures along that road for thousands of years. What amazing creatures! We work along the edge of the Taklamhan desert where there are still a few genuinely wild ones - though increasingly rare. They cope with a huge temperature range - 50 degrees in summer plunging to minus twenty or more in winter. No wonder their fur is so fine and thck - another valuable product for man.

Camels are incredibly tough, and problems are rare - though ticks can carry blood parasites. In general the search for food is the biggest problem, especially where large herds are kept near the towns for their milk - much prized by the local people.

There are still large numbers of working mules and donkeys - though apart from the riding horses of the nomadic herders, it is rare now to see horses working in harness. But donkeys and mules continue to provide motive power, pulling carts in towns and villages, as well as light agricultural work. It is common to see them pulling a roller across newly sown fields, as well as carrying the harvest back to the farmstead.
We have been pleasantly surprised by the condition of most of these animals - thay are generally well fed and I have never seen an obvious case of gratuitous cruelty.

Though that doesn't mean that strange practices don't occur. As in many parts of Africa, there is a belief that slitting the nostril, and even removing the nasal cartilage, makes it easier for the animal to breathe when working hard. How on earth did that happen? It's so wide-spread in many of the countries where we work, there must be some kind of indication, instinct, if you like, that this is going to help the animal. Does this happen anywhere on the American continent?

In fact of course, it is no help at all - and can be disastrous. Imagine where tetanus is common in the soil (and of course the animals are unvaccinated) having open wounds around the mouth and nose as the poor creature is grazing. So, not surprisingly, tetanus is a common problem. But being mules and donkeys, and tough old things, if we get to them fairly early, we can get a pretty good recovery rate.

One of the other common problems is the misdiagnosis of skin diseases. When we first started, all the local vets just used to say "mange" when anyone brought in an animal with a skin problem. So it has been a considerable victory (after all one of the major objectives of the project is vet and vet student training) to get them to take a little closer look. Of course mange does exist, but often the skin-scraping we've taught them to make show that it's lice that are the problem, or perhaps biting flies. Though of course that's another problem - is there any really effective fly repellent in hot country districts where sanitation and garbage removal is pretty basic?

So, as I said, there are compensations. Wherever we have been , we have met nothing but a warm welcome and generous hospitality - and perhaps even more importantly, the attitude of the local veterinarians - "Help me please. Teach me more skills. Help me to be a better vet".

Working with these amazing people and their animals, in the fabulous surroundings of the Tianshan Mountains and Taklamahan Desert - how can a little problem like breakfast spoil the day ?