June 1, Lunch and Wind Turbine

We stopped by Korla to have a lunch, a small local market, with busy vendors, running kids, it is just a perfect normal day for the local.

Some shots made in the market place, beautiful kids.....

Continue to move on, somehow, I spot a small shop and ask Neo to stop before moving on the highway. I was looking for some Coke Zero, and beleive it or not, even a city as large as Chengdu, I didn't find any. But I have my luck here! I spotted the all-too-familiar black PET bottles in a corner, grap 2 for Pook and myself, and Wanbing and Huangzhen followed, saw what I pick, with sign of curiosity, but did not pick any. The soft drink market in China is very highly diversified. Countless varieties, mostly heathy related, in one way or another. Coke is not nearly as popular as it is in most other countries, in China, it finaly met its rivals. Its rival is not other kids of soft drinks, it is simply not Chinese lifestyle to drink coke, not part of their digest.

Soon Neo is on the highway, he told us this is a route that is so boring, so many drivers tried to speeding to avoid asleeping, but then the government knew enough to place many speed detectors along the way to slow down the cars, resulting that we have to move through this section at a very control path - means slowly. We also started to feel the heat, it is after all June already, and it is also we are nearing Turpan, the hot zone. It is dried, hot, and among the hills and rocks we drove by, seldom we see any plants, it is other-worldly. But I found it to be quite interesting, like taking picture of an foreign planet, and it is so hot, most of the time I use the compact Sigma DP-1, take series exposures, and make them into larger panoramic pictures.

Moving on, the discussion started to focus the reality, how to manage the days left. And also, what will be the best location for the wind turbines.

And we are moving on a utterly dried, lifeless, boring landscape, this is nearby Turpan, one of the driest and hottest area of China. The following images were taken with Sigma DP-1, each of which was stitched of a small sequences of shots.

Boring as it is, we still stop too often to take pictures, and before we knew it, we finally arrive our destination today!

June 1, Lake Bosten

It is the beginning of a new month, unfortunately it is also toward the end of this great trip. After moving through the beautiful and majestic central Xinjiang landscapes, the snow mountain, the never disappearing TienShan, the lakes, the desert, diversified cultures and people, cold and hot, it is finally come to an end, not yet, and we have started to talk about the next trip already!

After a full night rest, I was into sleep and forgot to make a time-exposure of the lake under the moon light, or may be I skip it to make a reason to come back? Anyway, with a rich breakfast, we are on our way to Turpan area, the lowest and hottest area of China, and we are going to drive thru some of the more boring landscape of this trip, hopefully by sunset, we will be busy photographying the large array of wind turbines, the real green energy!
We quickly came to the lake side, saw some shepherd and the all too common sheep in Xinjiang, taken with Canon G10.This one with Nikon D3X + AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.A shot by the lake side. Also with D3X.Nearby the lake side is a rich wetland, with birds, ducks...... all shots by Nikon D3X and AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.

Pook, my lovely wife stand by Neo's Land Cruiser, by the lake.By the time we are about to leave the lake area, over the horizon, on the surface of the lake, a company of birds flying over, bidding goodbye. Nikon D3X and AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.Time to move on!