Traveling Down the Mekong River: Recent Episodes
Radio Free Asia
The Mekong River is the longest river in Southeast Asia and supports the lives of 70 million people from Tibet to Vietnam. Our reporters undertook the journey to tell their stories in blog posts, video diaries and images.
Our team goes into Cambodia to visit villages wrecked by floods and see the famous and endangered Mekong dolphins.
RFA's camera team follows the Mekong through Vietnam to its end in the South China Sea.
RFA's cameraman and his crew enter Laos and visit villages along the river to assess the impact of dams and relocation schemes.
The team hops on the bus to cross Laos and reach a spot on the river where a Burmese ethnic minority, the Lahu, took refuge from the Burmese army..
Our cameraman and his crew get tips on how to get "off the beaten tracks" and come close to the great glaciers melting into the Mekong.
At the start of a journey down the Mekong River, Radio Free Asia's cameraman discovers Tibet, its ancient traditions and its stunning sites.
Upstream Dams Cause Downstream Concerns: Chinese dams on the Upper Mekong River are creating erratic fluctuations on water flow. Yet, people living off the river downstream are neither consulted nor informed of changes affecting their livelihood.
The Mekong River basin currently provides 1,600 megawatts of electricity and has potential for 30,000 megawatts,. But is the cost of modernization too high?
The Mekong River is the world's most productive fishery – supplying critical food security for the region. But experts cite declining animal protein and edible oils in the local diet. Why?
The Mekong Basin is home to 100 languages and 70 million of the world's poorest people, for whom any ecological change—man-made or natural—could drastically alter how they live.
Seasonal rice harvests in the Mekong River Delta are threatened by the rise of sea tides due to climate change.
At the mouth of the Mekong River, climate change is affecting the livelihoods of both those who fish the river and those who fish the sea.
The Mekong Delta has traditionally served as a nexus of commerce to the people of southern Vietnam, but development is threatening the livelihood of area residents.
Rising Mekong waters also expand the Tonle Sap, giving Cambodians a steady fishing income, for a time.
Cambodians gather in the capital, Phnom Penh, to witness annual boat races and fireworks.
Overfishing, pollution, and development of the Mekong River in Cambodia could kill off a rare species.
The Nam Theun 2 dam in Laos aims to turn the Mekong and its tributaries into a major new regional power source, but at what cost?
A look at the intimate connection between the Mekong River and the daily lives of the Laotian people.
The release of excess rainwater from overburdened dams in Vietnam has catastrophic results on river communities downstream in Cambodia.
Planned dam infrastructure threatens the Khone Falls, the only major drop in elevation along the Mekong River and a traditionally important center for the fishing industry in Laos.
A poor rice farmer in Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand, wins a 32-year battle over a dam that flooded her land. Grandma Hai tells all.
In Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand, construction of the Pak Mun dam was so disastrous for the local economy that it stalled all new dam projects across the country.
A fishing community in Chiang Khong, Thailand, talks about changes in the ecology of the river that make it difficult to continue the traditions of their trade.
In northeastern Burma's Shan state, our Mekong team speaks with the Lahu minority people about being forced into difficult, often deadly service to the Burmese army.
Experts say two-thirds of Himalayan glaciers could melt over the next 40 years. The Mekong team treks to the Mingyong Glacier in northern Yunnan, China, a 12-km sheet of ice.
Flowing for the first time through this regional capital in Yunnan province, China, the Lancang provides electricity to neighboring Thailand while an ethnic minority produces rubber.
As the Mekong changes its name and wends through the highlands of Yunnan province, the massive scale of China's plans to dam the mighty river are readily apparent.
Officially, the military regime fights drug production in Shan State, Burma, but our reporters meet with local residents who expose the army as a main participant in the manufacturing process.
Nomads describe the ancient practices of water burial and sky burial, threatened by China's policies in Tibet.
The ancestral lifestyle of the Khampa nomads in Tibet is threatened by a forced modernization.
Dzachu, Tibetan for the Mekong River, is said to be sacred by nomads living on the Qinghai plateau.
We invite you to travel with RFA down the least developed of the world's major rivers—the Mekong: fragile, beautiful, and threatened as never before.