Mojiang Black-Face Festival and Twins Festival

The first spring flush is the most prized tea of the year in Yunnan's Pu'er country. In the UNESCO-listed old tea forests of Jingmai Mountain 景迈山, around Menghai in Xishuangbanna and at Bingdao 冰岛 in Lincang, families pick from old trees in the morning, then wilt, pan-fire, roll and sun-dry the leaves by hand.

How to join: Stay in a Jingmai village such as Wengji 翁基 (Bulang) or Nuogan 糯干 (Dai) and ask your host whether you can join a morning's picking and watch the leaves being processed.

Etiquette: Only pick where your host shows you, since every tree belongs to a family. Tasting is part of any visit; buying is never obligatory.

In Cangyuan, the Wa heartland on the Myanmar border, hosts and visitors smear each other with a black paste made from natural ingredients, as a blessing. The smearing sessions run to the beat of drums, with Wa rituals, a parade, bonfire singing and concerts around them.

How to join: The sessions take place on the festival square in Cangyuan town 沧源县城; walk in and you'll be painted within minutes. Cangyuan has its own airport, and rooms fill early.

Etiquette: Wear old dark clothes, keep the paste away from eyes and cameras, and smear gently. Ask before photographing people during rituals.

For three days, groups of Bai villagers in their best clothes, many of them older women, walk between temples along the west shore of Erhai, singing, dancing and playing drums and the bawang whip as they go. It is a pilgrimage and a spring outing in one, and one of the Bai customs least changed for tourism.

How to join: Watch from the villages along the road north of Dali Old Town, especially around Qingdong 庆洞 near Xizhou, where the groups gather at the Shengyuan Temple 圣源寺 on the first day. With a local guide you can walk a stretch with a group.

Etiquette: It's a religious event: ask before photographing, don't push into the dance circles, and dress modestly at the temples.