Even in the dry river valley, narrow fields were planted between rows of stones, which have been cleared from river beds. Farmers markets are very popular for direct sales, while supermarkets seem to be few and slow in coming. We looked for milk, cheese and dairy stores. Most people in China drink tea without milk. Restaurants do not offer milk as a beverage, and cheese on the menu is a rarity.
Some people drink yogurt as their only dairy food.
In the hotels, condensed milk is available for coffee, but not cream, and butter was contained in small packages and imported from New Zealand, and occasionally ice cream. By comparison, in India, we found people boil milk, which they add in large doses to their tea, and various fresh cheeses and cheese made into pastry are very popular dishes in that country. The latest USDA statistics reveal that while milk production for U.S. cows is 16,128 pounds annually, the average cow in China gives only 3,300 pounds. It's puzzling how the Chinese get their daily requirements of 800 milligram calcium. In China, we asked to see a dairy farm, but apparently there were none in the vicinity.