People on the Silk Road

The Silk Road is a millennia-old bond connecting Eastern and Western civilizations. In 2025, I traveled multiple times along China's ancient Silk Road, a long route from Xi'an to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, using my camera to document the people

The Silk Road is a millennia-old bond connecting Eastern and Western civilizations. In 2025, I traveled multiple times along China's ancient Silk Road, a long route from Xi'an to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, using my camera to document the people and stories along the way.

The Silk Road served not only as an important trade artery but also carried the profound mission of cultural integration and mutual learning between civilizations. It has forged a spiritual monument of exchanges between China and foreign countries, deeply influencing the development trajectory of cultures along its path. Every person I encountered on the Silk Road continues to write the daily chapters of this ancient route on their land. They are the most vivid witnesses of the contemporary Silk Road, guarding the historical heritage of this thousand-year-old trade route, and more importantly, they are the shapers of today's Silk Road. Through their everyday lives, they perpetuate the spirit of commercial interaction and cultural connectivity that defines the Silk Road. The portraits I took of them are not just individual moments but living legacies of millennia of history and culture. They allow the spirit of the Silk Road to continue growing in the present, breathing new life into this ancient trade route in the new era.