ARCHIVE FOR August, 2009
夏 河 。XIAHE | GANSU PROVINCE
After I spent a week in Xiahe, Gansu Province in China, I would like to introduce you to a new series of landscape pictures. Xiahe is on an altitude about 2900m and one of the Tibetan remote areas outside of the actual Province Tibet.
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Xiahe (Chinese: 夏河; pinyin: Xiàhé; Tibetan: བསང་ཆུ་; Wylie: bsang chu; English: Sangchu) is a county in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu province, the People’s Republic of China. It is home to the famed Labrang Tibetan Buddhist monastery, one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist monasteries outside of the Tibet Autonomous Region. The town is populated largely by ethnic Tibetans, as well as some Hui and Han Chinese. The area is highly rural and pastoral (including yak and other animal rearing). The geography is mountainous. In recent years it has become a tourist attraction. The town was named Xiahe in 1928.
Xiahe is found in the southern portion of Gansu province, along the western border with Qinghai province. It lies along the Daxia and Zhao rivers. It is on the northeast edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The average elevation is 2900 – 3100m with the highest being 4636m and lowest 2160m. (source: wikipedia.org)
张 家 界。ZHANG JIA JIE FOREST PARK
THANK YOU HARUKI
Today on my bus ride from Guilin to Liuzhou I realized again that many Chinese people don’t read books. Newspaper they do and anything that contains information. But romances, love stories, travel stories, thrillers, fantasy and anything that gives your mind the chance to be reminded of your own life, a chance to dream, to be afraid, to think beyond your daily life, to get ideas, to be sad, to be happy or amused people don’t read about. Of course that’s what I assume. Maybe they read all at home, because the day should be there to work and not to read. I’m sure it has to do with the restriction in publishing books in China, too. While reading a book from Murakami, what makes me think a lot, I asked myself if reading books (as well as watching movies) is one of the reasons, I keep on thinking about my own way in life more. Its for sure not the only trigger for thinking about more abstract stuff, but it keeps your creativity and ability to imagine on a constant level. One of my wishes though I have in life is to live more simple: Don’t think too much about the dos and the donts. Don’t break my head in two parts when thinking about photography and stories I want to shoot. I want to go out and take a picture, whenever something appears to me, to talk to people, whenever i need to would be the ideal state of being. So far, to be thoughtful means to stop myself from transforming my ideas into pictures. To doubt if I am doing the right thing doesn’t transform anything, only the transformation from a full to an empty bottle of beer is for sure. Therefore it would be great to do something, because somebody told me to do so. Because its more simple to create something wonderful out of a small idea than creating something from scratch. Although this way seems to be the best, I can’t deal with it. That’s why I quit working in advertising and online design. I said good bye to this kind of life and welcomed the free spirit in my heart and head. The free spirit though doesn’t have any boundaries and you are able to do whatever your want to. And that’s exactly what stops me from growing: no tasks, no challenges, no problems to solve.
Its time to set my own boundaries to widen them from time to time. Somehow I learned today that its so convinient to do little steps and to go wild within the little frame you set yourself. In the end I am happy the way I am. To be insecure, doubtful and directionless actually goes along pretty well with my passion for photography and ensures me a special and great life. Hopefully interesting pictures as well. A life which is worth to tell others and great to think back. Thank you Haruki.
FITNESS IN CHINA
I want to start a new series and the picture above is the first one of it. About the idea: small and simple. Many people in the west wonder how chinese people can have such a long life. We mostly think about their food and chinese tea. Also chinese medicine is definetely a good reason for their high age. Who has been to China already, noticed people do the strangest thing where ever they are: Lifting Arms, circle their knees, dance, walk the stairs up and down and so on. In chinese cities you’ll find exercise places with many different kinds of equipment. Its free to use and people at any age are found at those places. This photo series will show the different kind of people who do their work out and introduces the equipment you’ll find.
我 回 来 南京 了。I AM BACK IN NANJING.
After climbing the chinese Wall up and down we stayed another night in Beijing before taking the train to Nanjing. Now I am back in the city where stayed 3 months, a year ago. Funny to see that a random city in this world can look like home, because of your memories.