Month: June 2012
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Day 21~ June 21st~ Xinjiang
More than two thirds of the old city of Kashgar has been demolished and the rest doomed to follow shortly… I met this girl in one of the narrow alleys of what is left of the old city as she stood framed by her old family door. Old decorated wooden doors are considered a family…
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Day 20~ June 20th~ Xinjiang
In some parts of the world and with the older generations, being photographed is taken quite seriously. The pose and expression are premeditated in a way that wants to show the world that they are proud of who they are, and I just love that. I remember finding old portraits of my grandmother in shoeboxes…
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Day 19~ June 19th~ Xinjiang
A dew drop on a fresh flower petal at dawn radiates a beauty beyond anything we humans can create… The concept of beauty is a funny one. What is considered beautiful in one culture can be completely unattractive in another. In China where we live, big noses are considered attractive, while tan skin is not,…
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Day 18~ June 18th~ Xinjiang
Houses were built so that we may hide behind their windows and doors… The old city of Kashgar is a maze of old narrow alleys, meandering around and around, some leading to the city center, others ending with stone walls that bar your entry. I was told that the cobble stones in the alley are…
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Day 17~ June 17th~ Xinjiang
In the streets of old Kashgar I met so many children, playful, joyful, running here and there, but not this little boy. I had some candy in my pocket that I offered him and he just stood there looking at me then down at his shoes, then at me again until he summoned the courage…
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Day 16~ June 16th~Xinjiang
One of the wildest things to witness in Kashgar is the livestock market. Animals are brought in early in the morning by local salesmen on trucks, horseback carriages, and other vehicles and are lined up together for merchants from all over China to bargain for and buy. The condition of the animals and the handling…
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Day 15~ June 15th~ Xinjiang
To play where only earth, air, water and fire are your toys, to be chased by the wind, to chase the butterflies, to be tickled by the rays of the sun, and to become best friends with the planet you live on… There could be no playground more ideal, and there could be no…
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Day 14~ June 14th~ Xinjiang
Dignity, the respect of self, living with total agreement and settlement to one’s self selected principles… These are some of the impressions I took with me from Xinjiang and its people. They are custodians of some qualities that are very rapidly becoming lost to our modern world. To be able to go back to basics,…
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Day 13~ June 13th~ Xinjiang
On the high mountains, you become an intimate friend of suns, stars and planets… Up there in towns like Tashkurgan, people know what stars move in the night sky, what the sun is up to in his travels during the day and what kind of weather that will bring the next days and weeks. The…
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Day 12~ June 12th~ Xinjiang
As children run wild, they carry with them the giggling essences of the land, rivers and mountains… Tashkurgan, a gem of a city, surrounded by golden grasslands, snow capped Pamir mountains, streams, expansive skies and filled with friendly Tajik people who welcome a traveler with bright smiles as they always have when their city was…