Air-dried mutton is very common in Dali and Lijian (Yunnan province). It's a special kind of rank smell! If you won't eat "normal" mutton then you'd run away from mutton in this part of China.
My plate of air-dried mutton. A bit chewy, like beef jerky, probably. It's not so "bad", actually.
You see this everywhere in town. Pic above right is the restaurant where I ate the mutton. The restaurant probably didn't see foreigners that often, we could hear a pin drop as we entered the place. Everyone seemed to stop eating at the same time. I pointed at the hanging meat and it was understood.
