In April 2013, photographer Grant Harder traveled to China’s ancient, mountainous Yunnan province on assignment for enRoute, Air Canada’s in-flight magazine. Already 6,000 miles from his Vancouver home, Grant decided after finishing his work in Yunnan to stay in China and see what else the country had to offer. But he wouldn’t go anywhere nearby. Instead, he took two plane trips and a 36-hour train ride to the westernmost area in China: Kashgar in XinJiang province, a place that couldn’t be more geographically and ethnically different han Yunnan.
“I didn’t know exactly what I was searching for, but that’s a big part of the enjoyment,” he said. “On my own, I got by with an ever-increasing repertoire of hand gestures and an appetite for adventure. A highlight was staying with a Kyrgyz family in the mountains off of the Karakoram Highway, all of us sleeping in the same unheated room, side by side by side by side.”
From dramatic mountain landscapes to intimate portraits of locals, Grant’s images from his Chinese travels capture the sharp sense of excitement and adventure that comes with traveling afar.
(h/t It’s Nice That)