the calm before the Chinese new year spring festival
has descended on the French Confusion of Shanghai.
Tomorrow the roads will be red with innumerable
spent crackers, and the ghosts will all be banished
to paraphrase Omar the tentmaker…
- خيام اگر ز باده مستى خوش باش
- با ماه رخى اگر نشستى خوش باش
- چون عاقبت كار جهان نيستى است
- If wine-drunk – be happy
- If reclining with beauty – happy
- The final purpose of all is absence of self
among the descendents of the nine tribes
Iceblocks in Kashgaria
wearing their friday best
Hotan bazaar, Xinjiang, China.
Xinjiang teaser
Muztagh Ata – the Ice Father – on the Karakorum highway, Xinjiang province.
My first time in western China, and the fulfilment of a long-held desire.
thanks to john, paul, and to dan for the cipro.