Roam in China
25th Aug 2009, morning, an ordinary summer day, wet, hot and blurry. Changing gear, speeded up, overtook; a blurry image of a city was getting clear and clear in my windshield, Chengdu, a destination of my 6 months journey. Chengdu was getting blurrier again because of my tear was coming unconsciously.
Backed home, I didn’t step out of my original home for a week, more than a hundred rolls of film hanged in my room. All my memories in this 6 months, was fixed in those little frames. When I reviewed it from an enlarger, a journey of roam in China was started again.
I started from Chengdu, passed through Szechwan, Chongqing, Hubei, Anhwei, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, Shanghai and returned to Chengdu.
21st Feb 2009, morning, a cold and wet spring morning, it was a growing seasons, also a beginning of my car trip in China. I had a Chinese tea breakfast with my friends, after that, they helped me to pack up all necessaries they prepared and put them into my jeep. Said goodbye to my friends and then I pressed the throttle slightly, left Chengdu and started my first Roam in China. Things always didn’t go easily from the beginning; when I stopped my car on roadside prepared for my first shooting of my trip, suddenly, I heard of a screaming from tires and road against each other. My car was almost crashed with a taxi! Fortunately, the taxi driver braked immediately. If not, my trip would be finished in this 3 inch gap, and back to restaurant continue the tea breakfast.
A China made second hand front-wheel-drive “jeep” was not only my transportation, but also my mobile home I lived for 6 months. I bided it from web by $20,000 only, I put a standard bed and a compact cabinet to replaced the back seat that supposed to be seldom used, the seat next to driver was added a table and a small refrigerator that a storage for food and films, every articles for daily use can be found in the jeep, it was more than enough to live 6 months. It was a reliable partner; it never stopped on roadside suddenly. However, I was unaccustomed to drive alone for a long time in the first week. But, I got use to it, and found out the best methodology of self-drive- photography journey. I kept the speed at around 60km/h, not only driving, but also to keep my eyes on everything around me. If there was something special happened or an interesting guy was doing amazing thing, I can easily stop and picked up my camera to photograph the moment. Everyday, I spent all daytime on driving and photography. When about evening, I would start to find a place for parking, safety first, the area near hotel, hospital and police station, were my preferable location. After dinner, I got into “home” and wrote journal, normally, that was nothing special I could write about what happened that day, drive, photo, drive and photo, but someday, something unforgettable happened.
21th Apr 2009, two months after I left Chengdu, I was arrived a boundary between Hubei and Anhwei, a big slogan “Welcome to Anhwei” was written on the boundary tablet. Two tractors was coming behind me when I was taking rest near the tablet, one of them stopped next to me, a blowsy dirty man who drove the tractor said “where are you from? Where are you going?” “From Hubei to Zhejiang!” I answered him. His tractor was not a normal tractor, like my jeep as home. A nylon cloth was covering the shed which was “built” on the tractor, there was blanket and full of necessaries inside the shed, and I saw his wife and children were living in it. The man said “Anything needs to be repaired? Tire? Blank?” “No, you can help me nothing.” The man restarted the engine, left me away. At that moment, I realized that they were the men who really live on the road.
After a short break, I drove down hill, left car and picked camera. I photographed a woman coming out from a house that was holding a child; she was amazed about my Szechwan car license plate and said “You should come from very far away!” Her house was just built, bricks and cements only, no windows and decoration. “It’s a new house, but why did not embellish it?” “We have money, we will decorate t next month, and open a motel here, and people from Hubei will come to visit here.” “HAHA, you can build one more motel in Hubei later, you can earn both at that moment.” She smiled, and looked at the house seemed looked at her bright future.
On the days in Anhwei, I no longer endured the poor Hi-Fi in my car, the sound was cracked, and CD player did not work. It was not that easy to find an audio shop in Anhwei, farms everywhere, but not the shop I needed. I was searching the audio shop for two hours, when I was going to give up; a shop which sells used car was about 200m in front of me. That was not a bad place, the Salesman had a very good service that he treated me like a customer who wanted to buy a car, and he let me tried Hi-Fi in different cars. “Are you from Szechwan? Your car license is Szechwan.” “Yes, I from Chengdu, It took me two months to drive here. The Hi-Fi sucks, I couldn’t endured it anymore. ” We talked many about my journey. Finally, I spent $200 for a second-hand CD-play and speakers in that shop also gave him a post card of Chengdu, and he gave me a record of “Motor dairy” as a gift.
15th Jun 2009, Shanghai, a return point of my journey, also the highest land price in China. A golf driving range as bigger as ten farms in Anhwei, I captured a man who totally concentrated on the ball, turned his head and looked as far as possible. And then adjusted his body a little bit, hit the golf fiercely like a farmer tilling. The ball flied in a perfect curve and finally landed on the grassplot few hundred meters far away. He was not the only golf player; a hundred of people were assigned in different location in different levels of the golf driving range. Nearly a hundred balls flied to the same direction at the same time. They played like a machine with goal, but without idea. Shanghai confused me, it liked a machine, cold, but shining. People crowded the subway platforms, streets and buses. People didn’t know each other, but kept in a very close distance. The night was as bright as daytime, like a day never end. I spent two day in this typical big city, I left Shanghai when all necessaries were refilled.
23rd July 2009, I was in a serious situation that I had ever come across. Two left wheels fell into a vegetable farm next to a dirt road, my jeep could not move because it was totally jammed in mud. That was my faults because I was trippy after I just waked up. And the dirt road was too narrow, when I passed through a corner, my car was sliding into the farm at a 45 degree angle. I was too far from the main road, there would not be any driver came to help me.
There was a woman farming, I went to she and asked for help. “We can help you of you have money.” “No problem! Let’s find more help.” A few minutes later, 5 famers surrounded my jeep to see how worse was my situation. “$400” “Come on brothers, too expensive” “at least $300 if you find a vehicle to pull it. But, you still have to pay the loss of vegetable. We are giving you a reasonable offer.” At the same time, more and more people surrounded me, that might be a chance to save money. I said “For all people here, $10 each person.” In just a minute, my car was pulled back on road. They came to me immediately, I gave them money one by one. Finally and luckily, $180 was spent on this unexpected payout which was much cheaper than the first offer. In fact, I had no more money in my pocket, and had given them all I had. Back on the road, I did not drive too fast and always kept high concentration on the road, I could not afford anymore unexpected happen until I found an ATM.
8th Aug 2009, almost six months from I left Chengdu. Lhasa, the last check point of my car journey, rain didn’t stop since I was on the way to Lhasa, sometime, scary thunder came with the lightning. Rain stopped when I arrived the mark of 4412m on Gaoyeshi Hill. Three Tibetan girls ran towards me, I couldn’t see their face clearly because of the strong wind blew up their scarves. My mind was full of imagination and curiosity about these girls because I could only see their beautiful eyes, I was willing to watch their beautiful face. “Where are you going?” “I’m on my way to Lhasa, how about you?” “We already plucked many yams, but got wet, we just live down there, can you drive us?” They took off their scarves and got into my car. They were really beautiful, pure eyes, delicate and pretty face, and soft voices. It was the only non-lonely moment, and I did enjoy the 15 minutes journey with them. I could not remember more about Lhasa, perhaps, this 15 minutes was already an important part in Lhasa.
24th Aug 2009, way back to Chengdu, my hair was 15cm longer than 6 months before, my car was full of dust and mud, 2 rolls of film remained in refrigerator, a piece of $100 paper in pocket, 1000km far from Chengdu.
25th Aug 2009, morning, the same man and the same car and the same camera were carrying six months of memories and experience to Chengdu.
