NZPhotographer Issue 27, January 2020

On a day tiki-touring around Yangshuo province we
visited the gorgeously authentic old Fuli Town, and here
I captured more of the type of image that I personally
love. Wandering through the streets I was drawn to the
doorways, and the glimpses of life you could see within.
Without wanting to intrude, I tried to shoot unobtrusively.
At one doorway, just as I passed, an old woman
emerged and looked up and out at the perfect time.
When I looked more closely at the image later, I loved
that I could just see a picture of Chairman Mao behind
her, and other artefacts that told me more about who
she may be.
Another character in Fuli Town was a woman selling
dusty knick knacks - to enable the photo, I bought a
‘treasure’ off her. Generally I found the Chinese people
quite unwilling to engage with the camera without some
sort of trade off which is fair enough - I’m not fond of
being photographed myself!
We also visited Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. I do
not profess to be a landscape photographer, and this
is definitely an area of continued learning for me but
Zhangjiajie National Forest Park was the perfect canvas
for experimenting and honing my skills.
We visited three different areas of this massive park; Tianzi
Mountain on the first day, and Tianmenshan the next. To
get to Heaven’s Gate at the top of Tianmen mountain,
we rode the longest cable car ride in the world, looking
down on the famous 99 bend road (and trying to
photograph it from out the tiny cable car window!)
which we later bussed down on.
For me, the most spectacular views were from the
‘Avatar’ mountains as they are now often named,
having been the inspiration for the floating Hallelujah
mountains in the movie Avatar. From Wulingyuan, we
travelled to the base and ascended via the Bailong
elevator, the tallest outdoor elevator in the world, which
took us up the mountains in 2 minutes flat. It took us a lot
longer to get down, but that’s a whole other story!
The sandstone pillar like mountains that stretch for miles
are definitely ‘otherworldly’ and scream China to me.
The shot across the layered mountains was another I had
hoped to achieve, and it justified lugging the big lens.
YOU STOPPED BY HONG KONG ON THE WAY
HOME, TELL US ABOUT THAT EXPERIENCE...
Hong Kong was a three day stop over, apart from an
organised bus tour of Hong Kong Island, including Aberdeen
Fishing Village, I stayed on Kowloon. Because of the limited
time I had, and the protest activity (which I had no desire
to seek out or photograph) I elected to hire a photography
guide. Through a quick internet search a couple of days
before arriving in Hong Kong, I found William Banzai who
offers cultural/historic city tours as well as photography
tours. I’d mentioned the sort of photographic experience I
wanted, and through William’s knowledge of the area, I was
taken to all the right places.
TIANZI MOUNTAIN
F8, 1/500s, ISO250
January 2020 23