In the summer vacation of 2000, my family went on a trip by train to Xinjiang, a province in northwest China. It was a long trip lasting five days to get across China from the east to the west. This picture shows me on the sleeper. It may look a bit messy, but at least I did survive the boring days on the sleeper when we had nowhere to go. I watched the scenery along the railway, which changed dramatically from plain to mountains to desert. That was typical of the geographical features of China from the east to the west.

In the evening when we were in Wulumuqi, the capital city of Xinjiang, we went to a market where we enjoyed the typical food of Xinjiang, mutton. In the middle of the picture sits the chef with members of our group. Xinjiang is an autonomous region where live the Weiwuer people, a minority group in China. The Weiwuer people are good at singing and dancing and cooking mutton as well. Besides mutton, Xinjiang is also famous for its fruit, especially grapes which grow very well in the hot and arid climate in northwest China. We brought back one cardboard box of grapes to Nanjing. Though part of it went bad after the long trip, we enjoyed it very much.

In 1998 I went to Sichuan province in the southwest of China with my father. This picture shows me riding a horse on grassland. This was the first time I had a ride on a horse and I was a little afraid, but the horse was well-trained for travelers like me: it didn't run unless the master told it to do so. It was so cold while riding; I didn't prepare for that, but fortunately there were heavy clothes to rent, like those shown. The owner of the horse asked my father to take a picture of him and send it to him after it was printed. I think maybe he had never had the chance to be photographed. We followed his request and I hope the mail was at last received.

The picture above shows my mother in front of the Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang, a famous resort in Gansu Province, also in northwest China. There were thousands of grottoes with religious statues and grandiose frescos inside. As it is situated on the path along which the ancient Chinese people travel to the Middle East, different civilizations were mixed.

Here are shown different types of art. As it is not allowed to take pictures inside the grottoes to protect the frescoes (there are no lights and we had to use a torch to see), we could only take photos outside. Behind my mother is the biggest statue in the grottoes. You can imagine how great they are.