January 1, 2022 - Xuhua Qin

January 31, 2022February 12, 2023

The grass pavilion in She Village

I have walked into She Village many times. She Village is located in the northeast corner of Jiangning District, Nanjing City, surrounded by mountains, like a basin. What impresses me the most is that this place is independent of the surrounding environment and is self-contained.

That day, I wandered alone in the streets, pavilions and pavilions of She Village, recording everything in front of me with a camera.

Most of the buildings here continue the architectural style of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with white walls and black tiles, especially the horse head wall has almost become the scenery line here. The Horse Head Wall originated from Hui-style architecture and can be traced back to the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty. Now, when talking about Hui-style architecture, the first thing that comes to mind is the Horse Head Wall.

The tourists who came with me, who seemed more interested in water parks, all dispersed. Only I seem to be interested in this ancient building. In fact, it is not entirely correct. It may be more because ancient architecture can give photography more meaning.

Just like this grass pavilion in front of me, it is the most characteristic one I have ever seen, quite Japanese style. The grass pavilion stands behind a clump of weeds, looking into the distance, it is an endless blue sky. However, the sight was quickly drawn to the grass pavilion again. Outside the long pavilion, along the ancient road, the grass is endless. Such verses can better reflect the life of the ancients full of melancholy parting. Dreaming of returning to the Tang Dynasty, Li Bai rode his horse on the ancient road, bid farewell to his friends, and looked back at the grass pavilion in the wind, and couldn’t help feeling filled with emotion.

When I was about to leave She Village, the sky darkened before I knew it.

January 31, 2022March 8, 2023

October night, urban street

Glazed city lights illuminate this ancient city.

The streets are full of traffic. In front of the huge neon lights, there are people returning home late.

An event that happened at a certain moment was captured by the evening wind and engraved into the memory of the city by radio waves.

The surging emotions, like bizarre lights, rush, spread, and disappear into the long dark night.

On the night of October, the ancient city walls of Ming Dynasty, brightly lit, cover up the traces of mottled and vicissitudes. The love words of urban men and women are chewing gum made of mint, sweet and fresh.

January 30, 2022March 8, 2023

Poetry and Distance – Walking Landscape

Travel is a spiritual movement, it abandons all complexity and noise, and allows spiritual purity and nature to become one. “Walk while you’re young,” despite the current pandemic that has blocked people from traveling everywhere, there are still people who are practicing this famous adage under extremely unfavorable conditions.

When people are trapped in a “small space” for a long time, people will gradually lose their perception and sensitivity to the outside world, and become insensitive. If a person loses his yearning for freedom and a better life, he is tantamount to walking dead. Industrialization-driven societies are trying to shape everyone into this. The mass assembly lines of factories, lattice-like office buildings… are different forms of “small spaces”, which are attached to the cities made of reinforced concrete and spread to the remote suburbs and villages at an alarming rate. So, those who yearn for freedom are taking their luggage and preparing to flee…

A long time ago, a literary radio station launched a program called “Walking Landscape”. This is a program narrated in the form of prose, which explores the emotional lives of young men and women by combining personal growth experiences with walking scenery. I even think that it first opened my desire to explore life and travel, which made me accustomed to pursuing the meaning of life, travel and freedom after many years.

Travel is a journey from the beginning to the end, and if we don’t fully realize this, we will gain very little from the journey. The process of travel requires us to devote ourselves, feel with our hearts, and even integrate ourselves with nature. This is a philosophical discussion of spiritual phenomena. In my opinion, seeing a mountain as a mountain and seeing a water as a water is only because of being attached to the ego; letting go of the attached ego, seeing that the mountain is not a mountain, and seeing that the water is not water is already a spiritual sublimation.

January 29, 2022March 8, 2023

Niushoushan Photography Diary

Niushou Mountain is located in the southeast corner of Jiangning District, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, which is a famous tourist attraction with convenient transportation and beautiful scenery. I went to browse Niushou Mountain in the late autumn season, although it is late autumn, but it is difficult to hide the gentle temperament of Jiangnan scenery – full of mountains, green trees, small bridges and flowing water, or a piece of red maple into the eyes, it is really refreshing.

Photo Gallery of Niushou Mountain — Arch bridge carved in marble

After walking across the marble arch bridge, there is a large open lawn and garden ahead. The sunlight through the treetops sprinkles light and dark light on this area, forming a rich visual layer with the distant mountains and blue sky. The lavender sprouts like purple flames as they try to engulf the lawn.

People are always trying to find the best viewing angle to better present the features of the object being viewed, which is crucial for photographers visiting the landscape. I walked back and forth in the area a few times and found a quiet spot. I was standing by the lake, surrounded by a swaying willow, if it was a summer night, the moon out of the eastern mountains, the fireflies flying, is a beautiful scenery; but now, only I am alone in the late autumn of the day gazing at the hazy mountains in front of me, it is inevitable that my thoughts wander.

The fusion of nature and humanity is the main feature that constitutes the aesthetics of Chinese landscapes. Liu Yuxi of the Tang Dynasty has a poem to prove it: A mountain is not high, but a fairy is famous; a water is not deep, but a dragon is spiritual. The mountain is embellished with temples to have some more spirituality. The aura of Niushou Mountain is undoubtedly due to the blessing of the ancient temple. You see, the pagoda of the temple and the hazy mountains cover each other, and the nearby river naturally constitutes a poetic landscape painting.

On the way back, I met a clump of withered cattail grass, which reminded me of the theme of the changing seasons and maturity and old age. At a certain critical moment, one can fall into a philosophical contemplation because of the discovery of an uncontrollable part of oneself. So, I took this photo.

January 26, 2022March 8, 2023

Walking in the slow time of Nanjing Laomendong

Laomendong is a relatively quiet corner. So you will find that there are not many tourists here, and most of the people who stay here for recreation are the indigenous people of this city.

I went to Laomendong alone on a relatively leisurely morning. The weather was very gloomy, but the late autumn season did not make me feel overly depressed, and there was a faint osmanthus fragrance floating in the air. Looking around, you can see the scenery of the south of the Yangtze River with small bridges and flowing water. Therefore, my interest is not totally absent.
In my impression, Laomendong is a place with twists and turns. I walked straight along a deep alley. I thought it was a dead end. I never wanted to turn around at the end of the alley, and it was another place. Antique street.

At the foot of the ancient city wall, there are a few green flowers and plants that accompany the stones, which adds a few charms. This stone, commonly known as “Taihu Stone”, is a famous ornamental stone in Chinese history and can be seen everywhere in the classical gardens in the south of the Yangtze River. The stone body is skinny, white as snow, and there are many natural round holes formed through the body. I am very curious about the appearance of the Taihu stone.
There was a faint singing from the coffee shop in the distance. They were all popular songs from the 1990s, which slowed my pace. When I passed by this coffee shop, it turned out that these songs were all from the old-fashioned tape recorder in front of me. It was placed on a round wooden table outside the house. It looked like an old antique and accidentally broke into the lives of modern people. No—suddenly I felt that my description was inappropriate—to be precise, it was us tourists who broke into their lives suddenly, and it was our dust and tackiness that disturbed them.

The sun gradually emerged from the thick clouds, and I was suddenly attracted by the bonsai in front of me-the tender green leaves showed its delicate posture in the sun, and the background was a blurred restaurant sign. The fusion of the bonsai with the background under the backlight presents a collision between the market and the poetry. In the end, its paintings touched on the most fundamental philosophical thinking: in the present moment of material desire, is poetry and life necessarily dualistic?

On the way back, I was still thinking about this question intermittently. But those quite classical-style buildings failed to make me resist the urge to press the shutter, just like this one before me.