https://www.scmp.com/rss/313429/feed Matteo Fagotto is an award-winning journalist and writer based in Milan, from where he frequently travels to Africa, Asia and the Middle East to cover social and human rights issues. His works have been published on more than one hundred media outlets worldwide, including TIME, Newsweek, The Guardian, The South China Morning Post, GQ, Wired and Vanity Fair. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com The wooden boards creak beneath our feet as we venture into the humid woods, with only a few flashlights to help navigate through the tropical night. Below, the mangrove forest is bursting with mud lobsters, tree-climbing crabs and water snakes, all searching for food now the scorching sun has sunk. A monitor lizard is sleeping on a nearby trunk while owls hoot from up in the tree canopy. Suddenly, illuminated in the beam of a flashlight is one of tonight’s most sought-after animals: a thin,... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3281831/why-singapore-has-devoted-decades-naturalising-city-it-prepared-changing-climate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3281831/why-singapore-has-devoted-decades-naturalising-city-it-prepared-changing-climate?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Oct 2024 11:15:09 +0000 The city centre is silent and dark as a small group of yoga practitioners enters the empty alleys of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, illuminated only by a few street lamps. After a short walk through a maze of historical residential buildings, they lay their mats in the square facing Santa Maria del Pi, a majestic 15th century Gothic church. Led by their instructor, 39-year-old Andrea Nutini, they practise for an hour enveloped in a surreal atmosphere, interrupted only by the chirping of birds and a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3108255/rethinking-barcelona-how-pandemic-reshaping-tourism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3108255/rethinking-barcelona-how-pandemic-reshaping-tourism?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Nov 2020 12:15:17 +0000 The district of Dzongu, in the Indian state of Sikkim, is slumbering in thick morning fog when the chirping of birds signals the start of a new day. The humidity slowly evaporates, exposing a blue sky and forested hills that resound with crashing waterfalls. The sun won’t rise above the steep slopes for hours; when it does, it will reveal the snow-topped silhouette of Mount Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest peak, in all its glory. “This mountain is sacred to all Lepchas. We believe we were... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3074689/sikkim-india-worlds-first-fully-organic-state-might?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3074689/sikkim-india-worlds-first-fully-organic-state-might?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 18 Mar 2020 07:00:07 +0000 Until three years ago, Tashkent, Central Asia’s largest city, was the heart of one of the world’s most secretive states. President Islam Karimov, a former Soviet apparatchik, was in power when Uzbekistan gained independence, in 1991, and remained so until his death, in 2016. Under his leadership, political opponents were tortured and religious figures jailed, citizens were not allowed to leave the country and hundreds of thousands, children included, were forced to work the cotton fields during... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3017209/once-silk-road-outpost-new-uzbekistan-takes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3017209/once-silk-road-outpost-new-uzbekistan-takes?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Jul 2019 03:15:08 +0000 An arid region on the edge of the Gobi Desert has become an uncanny home to some of China’s most active wine producers. Just 30 years ago, large swaths of land outside Yinchuan, the capital of China’s Ningxia region, were just forlorn stretches of sand inhabited by a smattering of subsistence farmers. “When I was a kid, I used to dig holes in the desert,” says 41-year-old Ren Yanling, the chief winemaker at the Helan Mountain winery. “I would hide there and play with my friends.” But starting in... https://www.scmp.com/food/desert-china-where-wine-made/article/3001146?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/desert-china-where-wine-made/article/3001146?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Mar 2019 12:26:58 +0000 The morning sun is high in a translucent sky and a gentle breeze sweeps the plains on the outskirts of Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui auto­nomous region in northwestern China. As the mist slowly evaporates to reveal the rugged Helan Mountains, scores of women begin to fill the surrounding vineyards. Dressed in jeans, light jumpers and colorful headscarves, they crouch along rows of vines, collecting ripe grapes in green plastic boxes. It is harvest time, the most important part of the year... https://www.scmp.com/food/female-winemakers-chinas-wine-capital-ningxia/article/2179825?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/female-winemakers-chinas-wine-capital-ningxia/article/2179825?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Dec 2018 09:45:45 +0000 The morning sun is high in a translucent sky and a gentle breeze sweeps the plains on the outskirts of Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui auto­nomous region. As the mist slowly evaporates to reveal the rugged Helan Mountains, scores of women begin to fill the surrounding vineyards. Dressed in jeans, light jumpers and colourful headscarves, they crouch along rows of vines, collecting ripe grapes in green plastic boxes. It is harvest time, the most important part of the year here on the edge of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2179256/women-leading-chinas-winemaking-revolution?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2179256/women-leading-chinas-winemaking-revolution?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Dec 2018 06:00:15 +0000 It’s mid-morning when Osama bin Laden finally leaves his dark, one-room home. Dressed as usual in a white robe, military jacket and white cap, he crosses the courtyard, leaving a few grains for the birds, before exiting his crumbling, mud-and-straw compound. “My dream would be to live and fly just like them,” he says, a broad smile lighting up his calm, wrinkled face. “At my age, there’s not much I can demand from this world.” His salt-and-pepper beard attracts so much attention from friends,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2094658/osama-bin-laden-and-moroccos-other-unsung-screen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2094658/osama-bin-laden-and-moroccos-other-unsung-screen?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 May 2017 04:47:25 +0000 At noon, when the siren signalling the end of the morning shift blows across the Mogulkata Tea Estate, 45-year-old Mina Sharma snatches up her umbrella and slippers and joins a lengthy queue of sweating, ragged women waiting for their leaves to be weighed. In front of them, dressed in sleek, impeccable shirts and shorts, two male managers check the weights and scribble numbers onto small pieces of paper, which they then hand over to the pluckers. As soon as she has dumped her load into the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/1995442/indian-tea-pluckers-caught-time-warp-misery-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/1995442/indian-tea-pluckers-caught-time-warp-misery-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Jul 2016 12:00:00 +0000 In an upscale residential area on the outskirts of Timisoara, Romania, close to the borders with Hungary and Serbia, stands a beautiful, three-storey house surrounded by a garden in which there is a swimming pool. At first sight, nothing distinguishes it from the neighbouring homes, but watch it for a while and you'll notice the windows and curtains are always shut. Silence shrouds it every morning. At midday, a BMW SUV pulls up in front of the gate and out clambers a group of beautiful young... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1865183/camgirls-how-pornography-pioneers-are-taking-control?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1865183/camgirls-how-pornography-pioneers-are-taking-control?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Oct 2015 15:00:15 +0000 It's 8am and in Rebo, a fishing village on the eastern coast of the Indonesian island of Bangka, dozens of ragtag, casually dressed young men are gathering around the small harbour, as they do every day, equipped only with a jerry can of fuel and a meagre lunch. Scorched by the white tropical sun filtering through the morning haze, they gaze silently at the horizon, waiting patiently for the small fishing boat that will take them to a series of wooden pontoons a few hundred metres offshore. The... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1473532/casualties-ore-tin-mining-devastating-indonesian-island?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1473532/casualties-ore-tin-mining-devastating-indonesian-island?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Apr 2014 15:15:15 +0000