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“If you’ve had all the experiences I’ve had, you’d know that there are times in life when the most comfortable thing is to do nothing at all. Things happen to you and you just let them happen.” “Mystery lies at the core of all loveliness.”James Hilton from Lost Horizon I dreamed as a child of visiting some of the Earth’s great manmade and natural wonders, but I never fathomed I would be able to visit the world’s most beautiful spots as part of my job. This month I visited several spectacular locations in China. During my first trip, many years ago, I visited the “must see” places in the People’s Republic, even getting an image of the Great Wall that has been a very popular scene with editors and the public. This time, inspired by a New York Times article sent to me by my friend Lew, by the magnificent Chinese-made movies that show off the country’s amazing landscapes, and by some footage I saw during the Olympics, I decided to strike out to more of lesser known (at least by Westerners) wonders of China.A word about the Chinese movies I’ve loved so much. Modern American movie directors don’t make the American landscape much of “character” in their movies these days. I think back to what John Ford did with Monument Valley and the Moab area, and in recent years only a few American films have put our great scenery (unless you’re thinking of New York or some other city) to much use in their movies. A couple of exceptions come to mind: Terence Malich’s The New Land, and similarly, the stunning scenery in Michael Mann’s The Last of the Mohicans. Also, Robert Redford has often acted in or directed movies with a strong natural landscape component—witness Jeremiah Johnson (in my top ten), A River Runs Through It, and the MIlagro Beanfield War. When you look at a movie like The Searchers, you can see a love for the American West that is timeless and incredibly moving. Some recent Chinese-made films like Hero; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and House of Flying Daggers, and however, get my votes for being not only some of the most beautiful movies ever made, but the best landscape movies ever made. The visual poetry of these films is unmatched, probably because the time and effort and expense needed to get such amazing visuals without minimal computer technology is just too expensive to do here at home—or perhaps the people who make our movies are too far removed from landscape and nature to care. In all these films, the Chinese landscape becomes an integral part of the movie. In one scene in Hero, the producers waited a month for a lake to be absolutely still to stage a fight scene on its surfaces with a majestic mountain reflected perfectly beyond. In Crouching Tiger, the cast and crew ventured to the badlands of Western Yunnan Province for many scenes. An area that was a difficult to get to as Monument Valley in the 1930’s. One of the locations in Hero really excited me. It was a desert landscape unlike any I have ever seen. I was unable to discover its location until I mentioned the place to my Chinese guide, a wonderful woman named Jassie. She knew of the place, and has been there. It is called the “Mud Hills,” and requires a flight from Kunming, then travel by 4×4, horse, and finally by foot. To have gotten a movie crew into the spot is an amazing feat, but if I return to China, it will be top of my list on spots I’d like to photograph.I began this trip at the Wulingyuan National Park complex, near the town of Zhangjiajie. Very few westerners have heard of this park, and I was the only non-Asian visitor I saw while I was there. Access to this incredible place is mostly by cable car (a common situation in Asia), and I very soon realized I had stumbled upon a true gem, and a “secret” that hasn’t made much of a splash in the outside world. This park, with countless pinnacles, buttes, sculpted walls, caves, waterfalls, arches, and canyons, is every bit as amazing in its own way as Yosemite or Grand Canyon, and I do not make this statement lightly. I spent four days there (before succumbing to food poisoning), but a lifetime could be spent exploring this huge area. Weather is a great player in the drama of this park. Due to its unique location, it is constantly being attacked my moisture, mostly in the form of fog and low clouds. Although I had mostly good weather on my visit, which is an anomaly in itself, much of time the amazing formations are interacting with fog banks and cloud oceans, creating some stunning and very Asian tableaus. As usual in China, the authorities at this park welcome photographers and I was never hassled for a permit or for any other reason. Photographers who might want to visit Wulingyuan should be prepared for big crowds, however, especially on weekends and especially in the summer, when hordes of visitors descend on the place, making photography work difficult at the most popular viewpoints and most accessible attractions. After amazing Wulingyuan, I ventured south to visit the rice terraces of Yuanyang in Yunnan Province. I have photographed rice terraces on Bali and in the Philippines, but the amazing rice terraces here have to be the best in the world, and they make absolutely magnificent photographic subjects. The shear scale of the terraces is monumental, covering whole mountainsides with hectares of active rice growing ponds in every size and shape. Though they are photogenic year round, and like all great scenic wonders, constantly shift in color and mood as the day’s light progresses, I hit the jackpot with a few sunny days and water filling the thousands of rice ponds. The internet and some guidebooks make it sound like traveling to this region, which is close to Viet Nam, is a major expedition, but this is outdated. In the last few years the area has been recognized by photographers and tourists as a highlight of China, and people are starting to come en masse. Road improvements in the area also have made getting to the terraces much less of an ordeal and much less dangerous, as good highways now come very close. Hopefully, since most visitors simply view or photograph the terraces from a safe distance, the rice farmers can continue their over two thousand year old work without too much interference, plus reap some rewards from the visitors who only come to look. According to my guides, this is already happening. I found the terraces to be jaw-dropping spectacular, and getting good images was not hard. The days I spent in this area were great fun and very inspiring. The terraces are essentially a farming project that has turned into a massive work of art. Though there was no great architect overseeing the project, and it is still ongoing, I’m sure a peasant rice farmer a thousand years ago would have been amazed at the sight of over 200 photographers greeting the dawn at one of the prized locations above the fields.I do have a little photographic advice for anyone planning a trip to these terraces, or others. Timing is important, but I have seen and been given conflicting information about the best time to visit the fields. Most people will find the fields at their best when filled with water. I have photographed green paddies before, and while nice, I think the water-filled reservoirs are best. Now, the question is, when are they filled with water? According to Lonely Planet, the period extends from winter to early spring. According to my guide, March is the only time, and according to a book I bought there, the best time is in early winter and late spring. I can testify that the terraces were filled this year during mid-March, and seemed to be at their peak of beauty when I was there, which was pure luck, I have seen images of the terraces where they are a stunning red and gold, and my guess is this is sometime in the fall before or during the harvest. Also, I found that shooting the terraces filled with water is much more productive when they are backlit. Hiring a guide in Kunming or in the small town of Xinjie, would be a must, as I could not make sense of the many roads in the area and there are no signs. Any guide worth her/his salt should be familiar with where to be when, as photographers are bound to be a big part of their clientele. My next stop was the Stone Forest National Park, a fabulous karst landscape somewhat like a limestone version of the Needles in Canyonlands. This area, like Arhemland in Australia might give Arches National Park a run for its money in terms of sheer numbers of Arches in one area. Certainly the Arches are not nearly as large as those in our parks, but there a lot of them. I was lucky here too, to get a sunrise and sunset in between the high clouds and smog that seems to fill Eastern China during much of the spring. The Stone Forest is included in the UNESCO World Heritage Program and my exhibit of these world class scenic and cultural heritage places sponsored by the UN and the U.S. State Department will be traveling to Manila this spring and to Vladivostok, Russia, where I will be in attendance. This will be my first time in Russia and I’m looking forward to it.Now as I approach the and last days of my trip, I am surprised that I have seen no Americans since I left Beijing Airport 18 days ago. Sometimes the Chinese people I met in the parks took pictures of me and not the scenery. It made me feel a little like a wild animal on display at times, but they seemed to be dong it in a good-natured way, and they seemed proud than an American would come to see their fantastic landscapes. China is always surprising and I realize I’m just scratching the surface with my work. There are a lot of great Chinese photographers, and culturally, landscape painting and landscape photography are, I think, appreciated more here than at home. I was lucky to buy an original painting I found of a tiger—at a bargain price. It will have a treasured place in my home and be a reminder of this still exotic and fascinating country.