China. The Taklamakan Desert. 2009

The ‘Sea of Death’ is the not-so affectionate name that has been given by the Chinese people to the Taklamakan desert, a desert of such epic proportions and intimidating size, that its name in the local Uygur language translates as ‘You can go in, but you will never come out’.

I visited the Taklamakan desert as part of my work on the issue of desertification in China for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting in April of this year and this is one of my favourote images, that I’d like to share with you as this week’s ‘Photo of the Week’.

Photographing in the Taklamakan

The trees in the images are dead poplar trees, on the edges of the Taklamakan. As the desert moves, whole forests of trees are engulfed by the sand and huge swathes of land are reduced to no more than forest graveyards. It is an eerie and unnerving place, conjuring up the image of the aftermath of some epic disaster. Well, this is a disaster, an environmental disaster in China on the grandest scale. The significance of which is slowly dawning on people. This is where I have tried to come in by visually communicating the scale of this under-reported issue.

There are some interesting and exciting developments happening for this work at the moment that I’d love to share with you but I dare not talk about it, in case I jinx it. If and when these developments happen, the news will be out here on my blog first, so stay tuned. In the meantime, please spread the word about this issue.

*Update* – P.M. Wed 8th July 2009 – A friend has recommended a proxy-server which means I can temporarily circumvent the great firewall of China. Let’s hope this last until things return to normal. Spread the word on this site, which keeps the information flowing. See you on Twiiter and FB, for now!

*Update* – A.M. Wed 8th July 2009 – Twitter continues to be blocked and now FACEBOOK is also inaccessible. To those who follow my updates through Facebook, please do not think I have disappeared. It’s just my outlets for contact are decreasing by the day! Can’t help but feel all of this just makes the ‘powers that be’ look more and more silly. A little like this.

————————————————————————————————————————-

So, another day, another website is blocked in China.

Anyone who has spent any length of time here will know of the restrictions that are levied against the internet on a fairly regular basis. For years the BBC was well and truly blocked, rumoured to be because a BBC article made insinuations about the nocturnal private life of  a very famous former Chinese leader. Blogs are a frequent target of blocking, as they provide a venue for their users to express opinions on anything they want. Not something which is exactly encouraged here.

Twitter seems to be the new enemy here in China and one which has been noticed quickly and has become a favourite for the ‘blockers’. The ability for the instant spreading of information is quite remarkable and the evidence for which appeared on Sunday night when the events in Xinjiang took place.

Continue Reading »

China. Hetian. The uncomfortable co-existence of Han and Uyghurs in Xinjiang Province. May 2009

This week’s photo comes from a region of China that has shot straight into the headlines over the past 24 hours. The region is Xinjiang, China’s westernmost province . In Chinese, its name means “new land” or “new frontier” and it is one of the most exciting, beautiful and interesting provinces in the whole of the country, however it is also one of the country’s most volatile.

Continue Reading »