Rave Reviews for CHINA Portrait Book!!!

As Thomas Carter's new photobook CHINA: Portrait of a People makes its debut as the most comprehensive book of photography on modern China ever published by a single author, literati and the press are unable to hold back their acclaim. Following are excerpts from the praise CHINA: Portrait of a People continues to receive from readers and media reviewers:

"Unless you want to undertake your own two-year trek through some of the mainland's most difficult terrain to take your own shots, this is a study well worth having on your bookshelf." - South China Morning Post

"CHINA: Portrait of a People is not just an idyllic souvenir for Sinophiles, but a timeless piece of literature that...can be passed down through the dynasties as one of the most honest and educational illustrated books on contemporary China ever published." - New Asia Books (read the entire China Portrait review here)

"The pictures are evocative, although not works of art. Instead, the systematic classification of images is almost anthropological." - China Review

"The collection of 800 photos paints a beautiful, comprehensive portrait of China and its people in a way that words never could." - the Beijinger (read the entire China Portrait review here)

"China: Portrait of a People is a snapshot of an entire country in a time of great change; a truthful and touching portrayal of the Chinese people in all their variety, charm and earthiness. As such, even if it does not turn out a best-seller, it will have lasting value as a social document. This isn't a coffee table book of the Great Wall or the quintessentially Chinese landscapes of Guilin. It isn't a travel book either, although it may well inspire many to come see China for themselves." - China.Org (read the entire China Portrait review here)

"Instead of similar photo books, China: Portrait of a People (published by Blacksmith Books, 635 pages, 280 yuan) is a more portable volume. Rather than focus on geographic, landscape or sight-seeing photos, Carter focuses on the distinct features and lifestyles that define the nation’s 56 ethnic groups collected in 33 provinces." - Beijing Today (read the entire China Portrait review here)

"CHINA: Portrait of a People is not to be dismissed as another light-hearted snapshot collection. But neither is it heavy socio-political commentary. Photojournalist-cum-travel writer Tom Carter has successfully struck a fine balance between the two, dividing the 600-plus pages of annotated photography into 33 chapters, a document of the two years he spent travelling in different Chinese provinces." - HK Magazine (read the entire China Portrait review here)

"Tom Carter gets around. Thirty three provinces, 56 ethnic cultures, 10,000 portraits. The 35-year-old American spent two years on the road photographing people from every nook and cranny in China for his ambitious 640-page coffee-table book, CHINA: Portrait of a People. His stated mission: To dispel the stereotype of the Chinese as a homogeneous single nationality." - Urbanatomy Shanghai (read the entire China Portrait review here)

"For those who read more in a twinkling eye or a lined brow than in a slate roof, (CHINA: Portrait of a People) is a revelation, providing a more honest picture of this turbulent land than a rack of China travel books pre-approved by the Ministry of Information." - China Expat (read the entire China Portrait review here)

"Tom gives us an incredible insight to the people of China, from poor to wealthy, young to old. You can see he gets into their culture and delivers a fabulous insider view, capturing emotions through the lens. Each region has a selection of Tom's photos with brief, but informative captions. It's not a travel guide or a photography technique guide but it will keep you enthralled for hours at a time." - ePhotozine (read the entire China Portrait review here)

"Doing business in China is all about getting to know the Chinese people and their culture. Precisely what this stunning book by Tom Carter has to offer. Eye opener!" - China Success Stories (read the entire China Portrait review here)

"Travel photos taken by a stranger seldom fascinate. But 800 color images captured by Tom Carter as he spent two years on the road, traveling 56,000 kilometers through all of China's 33 provinces, make a dramatic exception... Carter's weighty book takes an effort to carry home from a store. But anyone interested in China should love owning it." - Cairns Media Magazine (read the entire China Portrait review here)

"The images veer between the light-hearted (laughing children playing on a sand dune in Gansu), titillating (a pair of female KTV hostesses in Shandong lean in for a kiss), appalling (a mentally ill girl lies in the middle of the road as cars just pass her by), and thought provoking (the worn and sunburned face of a destitute old Tibetan lady). But there is a constant - the peering visages of all ethnicities, of all China. Through Carter's journey of self-discovery, we end up discovering a little more about ourselves - and a land so vast, so disparate, that 638 pages of photos barely manage to scratch the surface. Still, Portrait of a People is a very good place to start peeling back the layers." - Time Out (read the entire China Portrait review here)

"In these 900 images, Carter shows just how diverse the Chinese really are..." - Asian Geographic

"Tom Carter is an extraordinary photographer whose powerful work captures the heart and soul of the Chinese people." - Anchee Min, author of Red Azalea and Empress Orchid (read the entire China Portrait review here)

"Tom Carter's photo book is an honest and objective record of the Chinese and our way of life- his camera leads us through 33 wide-sweeping scenes of the real and the surreal." - Mian Mian, author of Candy (read the entire China Portrait review here)

"It takes a great boldness of spirit to set out to capture the essence of so diverse a people as the Chinese in a single volume of photography. The thrill is to discover that Tom Carter has achieved just that." - Asia Literary Review (read the entire China Portrait review here)

"As photojournalist Tom Carter discovered on his journey across China, to know the true spirit and culture of a place, you must look into the faces of its people." - MiNDFOOD magazine (read the entire China Portrait review here)

"Tom Carter is a guerrilla hit-and-run photojournalist with a camera instead of a grenade launcher. To take the up-close and personal pictures in Portrait of a People, Carter risked jail; almost froze on the way to Tibet; faced exhaustion and hunger; was beaten by drunks; plagued by viral infections; and risked being shot by North Korean border guards. The hundreds of photos in Portrait are priceless. I doubt if there will ever be another book about China like this one." - Lloyd Lofthouse, author of My Splendid Concubine (read the entire China Portrait review here)

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中国 旅游 背包 博客 可爱小淘气旅行者的博客

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China's Architecture Explored in New Photo Book

1 country, 1.3 billion people, 33 provinces, 56 ethnicities, 2 years, 56,000 kilometers.

The most comprehensive book of photography on modern China ever published by a single author? Decidedly so. But what the title of Tom Carter's new book doesn't suggest is that Chinese architecture also plays a role throughout CHINA: Portrait of a People's 640 pages.

The American photojournalist's critically acclaimed book, recently published in Hong Kong by Blacksmith Books, focuses heavily on Chinese people, life and humanity. However, during the author's 2 year backpacking sojourn across the 33 provinces of China, Carter surveyed China's structural side as well - those ancient villages and modern cities where the people of his eponymous book dwell.

In a recent interview with Rebekah Pothaar of ChinaTravel.Net, Carter had this to say:

'I was truly surprised to find that every Chinese province has distinct terrain and architecture as well as unique culture. China is like 33 siblings, sharing the same blood yet each with their own personalities and appearance.'

'For a glimpse into ancient China minus the souvenir stands, go backpacking around the Miao-Dong Autonomous Region in East Guizhou, the tulou Hakka earth buildings in southern Fujian, the Tibetan shanties of Langmusi in South Gansu, or the stunning Qing dynasty villages that dot southern Anhui/northern Jiangxi provinces. It's like a living, breathing scroll painting.'

'You need to move fast, though; there's an old Chinese saying I made up that goes 'village China does not commercialize is village China will bulldoze'

Read the entire insightful interview here:

http://www.chinatravel.net/feature/Tom-Carter-on-Photographing-China-for-Two-Years/1233.html

For a striking sampling of Tom Carter's China landscape photography, view the exciting new CPOP book trailer on YouTube.

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Available online and in all fine Asian bookshops.

www.blacksmithbooks.com/9789889979942.htm

CHINA: Portrait of a People, by Tom Carter
Genre: Travel / Photography / Art / China
ISBN: 9-789889-979942
Size: 15cm x 15cm, soft cover, 640 pages, 800 full color images, with maps of each province
Published: Summer 2008 by Blacksmith Books, Hong Kong, in association with Haven Books

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中国最美丽的乡村城市--China：Portrait of A People

谢谢大家支持摄影记者Tom Carter的摄影书籍《中国人物》，Portrait of a People，此书是迄今为止表现当代中国最全面的一本摄影书籍，由Tom Carter一个人倾力拍摄而成。现已有香港Blacksmith Books出版上市了！ Tom Carter 作为一名摄影记者，在中国生活已有四年，用了两年的时间走遍中国的每一个省份，足迹遍及中国两百多个城市，探寻着遥远的乡村及古老余韵。Tom Carter 用其特有的视觉敏锐，从一个外国人的角度在我们面前展示了绚烂美丽的祖国各地，以其特有的风格手法诉说着我们曾经忽略的那份简单原始和美丽。 精彩瞬间不容错过！其书已出版，近期上市！ 喜欢摄影的朋友一定要关注了！！！

书名：CHINA: Portrait of a People,
作者：Tom Carter
类别：旅游 / 摄影 / 艺术 / 中国
ISBN: 9-789889-979942
尺寸: 15cm x 15cm, 软皮, 640页, 800张彩图, 附33个省地图
出版：2008年夏，由香港Blacksmith Books和Haven共同出版

www.tomcarter.org

http://www.blacksmithbooks.com/9789889979942.htm

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5 Most Lovely Chinese Villages

The Five Most Beautiful Villages in China

by Tom Carter, author of CHINA: Portrait of a People

China, the mystery of the Orient, and also its greatest paradox. The fastest growing economy in the world from history’s oldest civilization, whence steel and glass skylines are haloed by crumbling walls and well-heeled bankers rub shoulders with barefooted ethnic minorities.

The country is amidst one of the most rapid transformations in its vast history, what this author calls the Dynasty of Change, yet also remains a veritable kingdom of the ancients.

During my two-year journey to every province and autonomous region in the People’s Republic, I have been blessed to visit both the gleaming metropolises of China’s future and the sepia toned remnants of its past.

The following series of photos, taken from my new book of photography ‘CHINA: Portrait of a People,’ are what I personally consider the most beautiful sites of Old China; those remote villages that have yet to meet China’s wrecking ball, and a proud people contented to proceed with their antediluvian customs as they have for five thousand years.

To be sure, villages such as Lijiang in Yunnan and Jiangsu’s Zhouzhuang are at once protected heritage sites and popular tour group destinations offering an accessible and attractive albeit faux look at traditional village life.

But for a glimpse into China’s true history, an excursion in the opposite direction from the crowds, off the proverbial beaten path, will reward the intrepid traveler with sites and experiences incomparable.

5) QIAN NIAN YAO ZHAI, Liannan Yao Autonomous County, Guangdong

Overshadowed by the neon glare of Guangzhou, South China’s notorious capital city of concrete, crowds and crime, and lost in the karst peaks of North Guangdong, 1,000 year-old Qian Nian Yao Zhai is the largest and oldest Yao minority village in the country. Over 7,000 red-turbaned Yao tribespeople once occupied the sloping stone and slate homes. However poverty and generational differences have dramatically reduced the population to less than 200 residents, leaving the mountain village a perfectly preserved portrait of traditional Yao culture.

4) GONGTAN, Youyang Tujia-Miao Autonomous County, Chongqing

Nestled beneath the Wuling Mountains and overlooking the jade shoals of the Wu Jiang River, rustic Gongtan was founded in 200AD and is home to the region’s Tujia minority people. For centuries accessible only by boat, the Ming Dynasty-era estates are constructed entirely out of wood and perched on stilts against the steep palisades. Unfortunately, the 2,000 year-old architecture is fated for the pyres of modernization when the municipality’s local government will bulldoze the village this fall to build the Pengshui Hydro Power Plant. Visit while you can!

3) LANGMUSI, Gansu-Sichuan border

Historically, Sichuan used to be part of Kham Tibet and it wouldn’t be inconceivable to think that most Tibetans do not recognize the provincial boundaries of government-drawn maps nor the ethnic divisions of census bureaus. Located 3,000 meters atop the mountains of West China and directly on the Gansu-Sichuan border, Langmusi is a slat-board settlement and spiritual stopover for resplendent Tibetan Buddhist pilgrims come to worship at the Sezhi and Geerdeng monasteries. Despite the recent earthquakes in northern Sichuan province, Langmusi was blessed to remain unscathed and thusly one of the region's last standing traditional villages.

2) TIANLUOKENG, Fujian

West Fujian’s Hakka people, a subgroup of the Han, migrated to South China during the Qin Dynasty and, to protect themselves from hostile locals, ingeniously constructed clusters of circular, fortress-like homes directly out of the elements. The Tulou rammed-earth structures of Nanjing County span 4 stories and up to 40,000 square meters, housing up to one hundred residents apiece - the epitome of Chinese communal living.

1) ZENGCHONG, Miao-Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou

With ethnic minorities maintaining over 40% of the provincial population, Guizhou is China’s least developed but arguable most attractive region. A constellation of uncharted settlements populate the mountains of South-East Guizhou, most notably the secluded Dong village of Zengchong. Surrounded by pyramid-like rice terraces and protected by a crystalline moat, the small islet supports 100 tightly-packed slat board residences and a three hundred year-old wooden drum tower. Master carpenters for centuries, the Dong have beyond a doubt constructed the most beautiful village in China.

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Thank you for supporting photojournalist Tom Carter's CHINA: Portrait of a People, the most comprehensive book of photography on modern China ever published by a single author. Available now from Blacksmith Books.
http://www.tomcarter.org/
http://www.blacksmithbooks.com/9789889979942.htm

Also on sale: Tom's cool postcards from China

Read all the CPOP reviews: China Portrait of a People China Portrait of a People China Portrait of a People China Portrait of a People China Portrait of a People China Portrait of a People China Portrait of a People China Portrait of a People China Portrait of a People China Portrait of a People China Portrait of a People China Portrait of a People China Portrait of a People China Portrait of a People China Portrait of a People

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我们的摄影书已经出版上市了，希望大家关注！

谢谢大家支持摄影记者Tom Carter的摄影书籍《中国人物》，Portrait of a People，此书是迄今为止表现当代中国最全面的一本摄影书籍，由Tom Carter一个人倾力拍摄而成。现已有香港Blacksmith Books出版上市了！

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Portrait of a People

Purchase CHINA: Portrait of a People online
View the China portraits video on YouTube
Also check out Tom Carter's super-cool China postcards

Add Tom Carter to your Facebook

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China Picture Book Builds Bridge of Healing

Thank you for supporting CHINA: Portrait of a People

August 8, 2008 – For Immediate Release

CHINA PHOTO BOOK BUILDS BRIDGE OF HEALING
Tom Carter’s CHINA: Portrait of a People captures diversity of 33 Chinese provinces

Beijing, China – As the 2008 Summer Olympics commence, all eyes are on China. But far from being the celebration envisaged by Chinese leaders, the first six months of 2008 have seen unrest in Tibet, worldwide protests against the Olympic torch and the devastating earthquake in Sichuan.

This attention has raised new curiosity: Who are the Chinese? How do they live, work and play? How much do we really know about the 1.3 billion people who inhabit this vast country?

These questions are visually answered in Tom Carter’s CHINA: Portrait of a People, the most comprehensive book of photography on modern China ever published by a single author.

Carter, a San Francisco City native, spent 2 years backpacking 56,000 kilometers (35,000 miles) across the vast Middle Kingdom to visit over 200 cities and villages, including some of the most remote locations in the country: from the steaming jungles of Xishuangbanna in Yunnan to the frozen banks of the Amur River in Manchuria. En route, he discovered and photographed immense geographic and ethnic diversity.

“What the photographs herein reveal is that China is not just one place, one people, but 33 distinct regions populated by 56 different ethnicities, each with their own languages, customs and lifestyles,” writes Carter in his introduction. “It is my most sincere hope that this book unites the people immortalized in its pages – Tibetan pilgrims and Beijing scholars, Uyghur Muslims and Shanghai bankers, Hong Kong millionaires and Shanxi miners – in celebration of their glorious cultures.

Publisher Pete Spurrier of Blacksmith Books remarked: There are several books of photography already on the market that focus on China’s history or famous sites, but CHINA: Portrait of a People is the first of this scope by a single author devoted to Chinese PEOPLE! Tom Carter has single-handedly photographed almost every aspect of life humanity across the PRC.”

CHINA: Portrait of a People includes a forward by celebrated Chinese authoress Anchee Min (Red Azalea, Empress Orchid) who says “Tom Carter is an extraordinary photographer whose powerful work captures the heart and soul of the Chinese people.” Shanghai rebel writer Mian Mian (Candy, La la la) writes the epilogue: “Tom Carter’s photo book is an honest and objective record of the Chinese and our way of life...”

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CHINA: Portrait of a People, by Tom Carter
Genre: Travel / Photography / Art / China
ISBN-13: 978-988-99799-42
Size: 15cm x 15cm, soft cover, 640 pages, 800 full color images, with maps of each province
Published: Summer 2008 by Blacksmith Books, Hong Kong, in association with Haven Books
Price: HK$280 / US$35.95

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An Interview With China Photojournalist Tom Carter

An Interview With China Photojournalist Tom Carter

American photo-journalist Tom Carter has spent the past four years in the People’s Republic of China, traversing all 33 provinces and autonomous regions not just once but twice. The San Francisco native’s hardback book, a definitive 800-image volume aptly entitled CHINA: Portrait of a People, is due out this winter from Hong Kong publisher Blacksmith Books. Tom took a day off from travelling to discuss the challenges of taking pictures in China, how he evaded censorship in the tightly-controlled republic, and to share a few insider tips on visiting what is to become the world’s largest tourism market.

Your upcoming book focuses heavily on photographs of people, from peasants to punk rockers, ethnic groups to entrepreneurs. As a lone foreigner in a faraway country, how did you approach so many strangers, let alone become intimate enough with them to take their portraits?

Most of my photos came about as a natural result of my curiosity and interaction with Chinese people during my travels. It wasn't until the end of my trip that I thought about compiling them into a book. This is a tribute to all the people I met along the way. For the portraits, it just takes a sincere interest in your subjects to get that close. I don't believe in hiding behind a zoom lens; I was actually as near to all those people as you see in the pictures, sometimes just inches away. The candid life shots, which comprise a good third of the book, were actually more of a challenge. As a foreigner walking down the street in China, all activity stops the moment you are seen, so it’s tricky to photograph life before life stops to stare at you. I don’t believe any book can capture the true spirit of a country with only pictures of places. Sure, a photo of a sunset over the Great Wall is nice, but what do you really learn from it? I wanted to show the people, and dispel the stereotype of the Chinese as a homogeneous single nationality.

You must speak the language pretty well.

That's the very first question I always get from other expats I meet in China! It humbles me to admit that my Putonghua borders on offensively poor. I taught English when I first arrived in China, which left me no time to formally study Mandarin. I picked up my entire vocabulary while travelling. I call it Survival Chinese. I can communicate, but I'm usually left out of the gossiping granny circles. A friendly smile works well when all else fails. I might add, though, that Chinese dialects vary widely by province, so even most nationals have trouble understanding other Chinese outside their own hometowns.

You say you came to China as an English teacher, but four years later you’re a published photojournalist and author. Did you plan this career move?

Never, but that’s China for you, a real land of opportunity. Teaching was just a means to an end, which was travelling. Out of that first long year on the road sprung my collection of photos, which resulted in a book contract and travel assignments from various periodicals, which brought me full circle back to my second spin around China. I believe I stand apart from my contemporaries in that I'm not sitting around a cushy foreign correspondents’ club “networking” [makes mock quotes with his fingers] and waiting for my next assignment; I'm out on the road finding my own. But maybe that’s why Reuters still hasn’t called me.

You’ve had a few run-ins with Chinese censorship of your images and articles. Care to share?

The concept of Freedom of the Press, something the west takes for granted, is still entirely alien in Communist China. The media is state-run and every single word and image that comes in and out of the country needs to be approved by the Ministry of Information. Crazy, huh? But since I’m an independent freelancer without the backing of any news agency, I lack official journalist credentials. Most of my images I've had to get the hard way, which has often resulted in confrontations with local authorities who view foreign correspondents as a threat. For example, for the three single frames of coal miners with soot-covered faces that appear in this book, I and my Chinese travelling companion had to spend several days in the mountains of South Shanxi before we were able to sneak into a coal mine, grab a few shots then get the hell out before being caught. Mining is one of the most dangerous and controversial occupations in China, and is entirely off limits to journalists. Some of my best photos are hit-and-run like that.

There’s one incident in particular I want to hear about: a peasant riot that you photographed and which almost got you arrested. Tell us about that.

To be caught up in a proletarian uprising – something both foreign and Chinese reporters in China rarely even hear about, due to rapid suppression of information, let alone eye-witness – was extremely frightening but probably one of the book’s most powerful images. I was subsequently “implored” by the local police to hand over all my photos, under penalty of incarceration, but a couple have managed to slip into the book [winks mischievously]. I'm still in China and would like to be able to leave without a trip to the clink, so it’s not something I can talk about in further detail, nor can we make the photo public until the book is on the shelves.

Guerilla-style documentary photography is something you are obviously proud of. Someone said you have “turned mundane daily life in China into a work of art” but one reviewer wrote that your photographs are “an assault on ordinary people who should be left alone.” What's your take on such extreme responses?

Which one was the criticism? [Laughs] Actually, I prefer the term ‘street photography’, because that's exactly what I do. I'm out pounding the pavement from 6am to 6pm every day, learning about the culture through observation and interaction. Many photojournalists cover their assignments as quickly as possible so they can remove themselves from the elements, but I revel in the elements. I don’t have any technical or artistic preconceptions to my photos. The whole idea of spending an hour setting up a shot and then photoshopping it to death afterwards is not what I'm about. I just capture life as it is, then move on. If the picture turns out crooked, so what! Life is crooked! I have no desire to make something palatable, even if it means not getting on Getty. On the other hand, any of my photos that are considered beautiful I credit entirely to my subjects. They are the ones who deserve the compliments.

China really is a vast country to explore, and you have been to every corner of it – 33 provinces and over 200 cities and villages. Travelling for a living sounds like a life of leisure, but what’s the reality?

You know, for all the tourism I’ve promoted for China with my photos and travel articles, you’d think the CNTA [China National Tourism Administration] could at least have comped my hotels. But the truth is I’ve never received a cent in financial backing. During the two years I spent travelling across China, I slept in 15 RMB [2 USD] flophouses with particleboard walls – which are illegal for foreigners to stay in – with the occasional youth hostel or night on a bus station floor. I taught English for two straight years beforehand so I could save up to travel, and I really had to pinch my pennies to make it last. The upside is that my insolvency resulted in experiences that staying at the Sheraton could never produce.

All travellers are running away from something. What's your excuse?

I come from a long line of nomads – my mother a Danish immigrant of good Viking stock and my father a hybrid Panamanian-Cuban-Italian – so drifting is in my blood. It’s my dream to travel the world, take pictures and write about it. I have no intention of succumbing to that thirtysomething syndrome of settling down. The world is my home.

So what day-to-day difficulties did you encounter during your marathon journey across China?

You mean hour-to-hour difficulties. My photos might excite a lot of potential tourists, but I'm not going to sugar-coat the reality of actually travelling in China. The consensus among backpackers is that China is probably the single most challenging country in the world to navigate. Aside from the obvious language barriers, you have 5,000-year old customs and extreme cultural differences that can be quite vexing for the typical westerner. Most of these nuances are not something that you can catch on film; travellers have to discover them for themselves, and that’s part of the fun.

What keeps you going?

I delight in the challenges that a country like China poses to westerners. Sure, I occasionally catch myself pounding the wall in frustration, but the thing about the PRC is that every turn is a new adventure. For me there’s nothing worse than being bored, and boredom is just not possible in China. See these lines on my face? They weren’t there before.

How did you plan your routes?

I haven’t planned a single route since I arrived in China four years ago. I just point myself in a direction, then let life carry me on its current. Not only does every Chinese person you ask where to go have an excitedly different opinion – even about which way is north – but there are so many undiscovered villages that are off the charts. Not to mention that the time it takes to get to these places is often days longer than how it appears on a map, making an itinerary kind of pointless.

Tell us more about surprises along the way, and any dangerous situations you’ve been in.

Surprises are the rule, not the exception. In addition to clashes with the authorities over my pictures, I’ve had everything from a near-lethal bout of encephalitis during my first year in China, to getting shanghaied by crooked English schools, which I wrote about for the Wall Street Journal. One of my favourites is the time I found myself at the business end of a North Korean machine gun when I accidentally crossed into the DPRK at Changbaishan. These are all stories I can laugh about now, though my mother doesn't think so.

It’s said that China is now undergoing the most prolonged period of sustained change in history. How has it changed since you have lived there, and how will it change in the near future?

I think China's most dramatic changes have been brought on by itself and that the now-clichéd term “New China” was something methodically planned out in their boardrooms. The Chinese government is addicted to what I call hyper-urbanization. You’ve got historic cities like Beijing, where they are bulldozing these ancient hutongs by the hour so they can build office towers, or the 2,000-year-old village of Gongtan in Chongqing that is going to be levelled this summer for a new power plant. I wrote an article about Gongtan for a local magazine but it was quickly quashed because the censorship bureau said “We don’t want to bring any attention to that place.” These contrasts in architecture appear in my book because I feel it is imperative to capture this last glimpse of China’s old slate rooftops before the skyline becomes pure steel and glass. CHINA: Portrait of a People will probably become a history book, something Chinese people will look at twenty years from now and say “Ah yes, I remember.”

It seems like everyone wants to know more about China these days. Do you see more people planning on visiting the country?

China will become the world’s largest tourism destination of the next decade, no doubt about it. The 2008 Beijing Olympics and Shanghai’s World Expo in 2010 are expected to attract between 50 to 100 million tourists annually. China’s doors were closed for so long that it’s only natural the world is curious about what’s behind them. What the pictures in Portrait of a People are doing is fuelling this curiosity by offering an intimate glimpse of humanity in China, and scenes of daily life that even publications like National Geographic overlook.

You’re something of an authority now on Chinese travel. Can you offer any tips for travellers?

Well, what China wants tourists to see is often at variance with what is actually marvellous about the country. You’ve got these highly-sheltered tour group packages that cover the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Terracotta Warriors in Shaanxi, a boat ride on the Yangtze and shopping in Shanghai [makes yawning noise]. Or you can remove yourself from the souvenir shops and luxury hotels, get a local street map and travel on word-of-mouth. Lonely Planet would go bankrupt if people actually took my travel advice, but you definitely see more of the real China my way.

Finally, what's next for someone who’s been everywhere in China?

My publisher and I have been talking about taking the "Portrait of a People" concept to other countries in the region. I would jump at the chance. So I have no idea where I’ll be this time next year.

Tom Carter’s travel articles and pictures have appeared in every major English-language periodical in China. He is available for interview by phone or email. Sample photos from CHINA: Portrait of a People can be viewed at TOM CARTER (Flash plugin required). High-resolution images for media use are available for immediate download at http://www.blacksmithbooks.com/China_portrait_preview.htm.
Further Information: Pete Spurrier at Blacksmith Books – (+852) 2877 7899 – pete@blacksmithbooks.com

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China To Bulldoze 1,700 Year-Old Gongtan

China To Bulldoze 1,700 Year-Old Gongtan
Ancient Tujia village along Chongqing's Wu River to meet watery grave
Photojournalist TOM CARTER reports

In four months or less, a 1,700-year-old village, and the mountain life it preserves, will see water seep through the ancient wood homes, rising higher and higher, until it is completely submerged beneath the jade shoals of the Wu River.

Gongtan of the Youyang Tujia-Miao Autonomous County in southeast Chongqing will unfortunately meet the same fate as countless other unprotected historical sites across China being leveled in the name of innovation.

In its place, the Pengshui Hydro Power Plant will be resurrected, not exactly an attractive replacement for the antiquated beauty of Gongtan, but nonetheless a much-needed jolt for a municipality suffering from regular power outages.

Controversial waterworks are nothing new to Chongqing, the largest inland river port in West China. The Three Gorges Dam project along the Yangtze, one of China's crucial transportation arteries linking the country's interior with coastal provinces, is essential to the region's freight and power industries, but as a result saw numerous small towns and nature reserves sacrificed to the river gods.

Now, one of the Yangtze's chief tributaries, the Wu River, has also been targeted for its hydro-electrical attributes, sparing neither nature nor culture to ensure that all of Chongqing's neon lights continue to glow brightly.

Ironically, Gongtan has never known neon and was only recently introduced to electricity. For centuries accessible only by boat, Gongtan is home to the Tujia people, one of China's more isolated ethnic minorities who hale from the surrounding Wuling Mountains.

Founded in 200 A.D., the rustic village is a living museum that might seem more destined as a World Heritage Site than a construction site. Designed entirely out of stone and wood in the diaojiaolou-style stilt architecture, the Ming dynasty-era homes are perched against the sloping gorge, facing the sheer, misty palisades which flank the Wu rapids.

Steep, mossy steps lead up from the rocky banks and a single, black flagstone path, polished from centuries of footsteps, traces the 2 kilometer length of the quiet village, a veritable portrait of mountain life as it has been for almost 2,000 years. The slat-wood buildings progress vertically, each offering an increasingly attractive panoramic vista of slate rooftops, the hallmark site of this ancient village.

Unfortunately, the intricately carved work of art that is Gongtan will soon be thrown together in a fateful pyre as the Tujia populous move several kilometers upriver to a white-tiled eyesore already suffering from the noise, pollution and congestion indicative of so many new side-of-the-road Chinese communities.

The land expropriation was in fact opposed by Gongtan residents, who successfully petitioned the central government in Beijing over the property confiscation and were awarded financial compensation for their centuries-old homes. Nonetheless, many Gongtan villagers still refuse to evacuate the aged neighborhood, thus delaying power plant construction until at least the fall of 2007.

This last-ditch effort to damn the dam is of course no match for the bulldozers, but it at least leaves an extended window of opportunity for travelers with an affinity for Chinese history to catch one last glimpse of the real deal before Gongtan is inevitably sent to its watery grave.


Travel Tips Getting there: From Chongqing, catch a morning coach from the east bus station to Pengshui (six hours, ¥90), then a taxi to the local ferry terminal for an upriver boat to Gongtan (five hours, ¥20).

Where to stay: There are several family-run guesthouses directly overlooking the Wu River with simple, creaky wood rooms wallpapered with old newspaper (¥30 per bed).

China photographer Tom Carter is the author of CHINA: Portrait of a People, 888 snapshots of life and humanity from the 33 provinces of the People's Republic of China, due out this winter from Hong Kong publisher Blacksmith Books.

This article was originally published in a July 2007 edition of City Weekend magazine.

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The Pilgrims of Langmusi - Portrait of a Sichuanese-Tibetan Family

The Pilgrims of Langmusi
Portrait of a Sichuanese-Tibetan Family
by Tom Carter

Murmuring an unbroken stream of prayers, and focused intently on a scarlet and silver monastery bathed in morning light and incense smoke, four Tibetan women fell to their hands and knees in succession. They laid face down before standing up to clasp their hands in prayer for their three hundredth prostrate atop the snow-dusted hilltop on the Sichuan side of Langmusi.

But the solemn chants of these devout Buddhists soon dissolved into the self-conscious giggles of young girls upon sensing the presence of a foreigner. Using the moment as an entertaining respite from their prayers, they beckoned to see the pictures I had just taken of them, the site of themselves on my digital camera bringing even louder laughter.

Located at an altitude of some 3,000 meters in the mountains of western China, and literally straddling the Gansu-Sichuan border, the rustic, plank-rooftop settlement of Langmusi, and the two glittering Buddhist temples of which the town architecturally and spiritually orbits, is one of those places that can best be described as heavenly.

Gansu itself is one of China's most dramatically varying regions both topographically and culturally, extending in a long, narrow arch from the mountain-sized sand dunes of Dunhuang in the northern Hexi corridor to the verdant Ganjia grasslands in the provincial interior.

South of the Muslim metropolises of Langzhou and Lingxia, gleaming mosques become sub-bleached stupas and the white-capped Hui people relinquish the landscape to prismatic Tibetans spinning prayer wheels beneath the surreal blue sky, living up to its provincial sobriquet, "Little Lhasa."

Following their morning prayers, the three pretty sisters and their mother, each regally draped in heavy, black cloaks and adorned with layers of florescent orange coral necklaces and hefty belts of silver, invited me back to their home.

It wasn't their real home, they explained, but temporary living quarters. Like so many of the Sichuanese-Tibetans who comprise the town's nomadic population, they were completing their pilgrimage to the Langmusi and Labuleng monasteries in nearby Xiahe before making their way back home to northern Sichuan.

Nestled within a small community of shanties, their humble clay dwelling was no larger than the sleeper cabin of a train and housed this family of six. Keeping the fire burning, preparing lunch and babysitting his baby granddaughter when we arrived, was the patriarch of the family.

His own three daughters ranged in age from 16 to 25 and received only basic schooling, preferring to raise families and follow their parents on their spiritual pilgrimages. Income, most which was spent on such journeys, is earned by the father and the elder sister's husband, who breed horses in the Sichuan highlands.

I asked the father and mother to which Tibetan ethnolinguistic category they belonged (i.e. Aba, Chabao-Jiarong, Zhugqu), but the father admitted he didn't know; he was, he said, simply Tibetan. Indeed, such classifications are made by a government on the other side of the country, not Tibetans themselves.

For Tibetans, family and faith, not politics and ethnic divisions, are the most important aspects of their lives. Unfortunately, only the family's father and mother have made the arduous and expensive pilgrimage to the holy capital city of Lhasa in the Tibet Autonomous Region, a journey that takes many Sichuanese- Tibetans years to save for, lest they must beg on the streets for alms to make their way west. But the three sisters are saving their jiao and listened in awe as I told of my own extensive travels the previous year across Tibet.

Promising to send them the family portraits I took, we professed our mutual thanks and respect and parted ways, they to spend the second half of their day making 400 koras (spiritual walking circuits) around Langmusi and me to watch, though now with a better understanding of who I was watching.

Travel Tips / How to get there: From the capital city of Langzhou in Gansu, buses for Hezuo leave the south bus station every half hour and take approximately five hours. An overnight stay in Hezuo is necessary as there is only one bus per day to Langmusi, departing at 7 a.m.

Where to stay: There are a growing number of inns and hotels on Langmusi's only thoroughfare, from ¥20 to ¥150 per night.

What to eat: Leisha's is a favorite with backpackers, boasting massive yak burgers and homemade apple pie.

Where to play: Pilgrim watching around the Sezhi Monastery on the Sichuan side or the Geerdeng Monastery on the Gansu side is always fun, along with a scenic walking trail and fairy caves to explore around the Namo Gorge.

China photographer Tom Carter is the author of CHINA: Portrait of a People, 888 snapshots of life and humanity from the 33 provinces of the People's Republic of China, due out this winter from Hong Kong publisher Blacksmith Books.

This article was originally published in a June 2007 edition of City Weekend magazine.

Purchase CHINA: Portrait of a People online
View the China portraits video on YouTube
Also check out Tom Carter's super-cool China postcards

Add Tom Carter to your Facebook

Watch Tom Carter on TV Watch Thomas Carter on TV Photography Book Video China Villages Video China Travel blog 中国 旅游 China Portrait of a Country China Portrait of a People reviews

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