New Chinese Landscape

Huang GongWang  DWELLING IN THE FUCHUN MOUNTAINS  ca 1350

The province of Zhejiang has always been prized for its natural beauty, its landscape immortalized in classic Chinese paintings.  Those lonely ethereal mountains rising up out of the mists appearing and disappearing seemingly at whim have much company these days.  The breakneck pace of urbanization has swarmed into these valleys and chewed away at the mountains and hillocks themselves. The small CUN, or villages with their winding lanes are being leveled and an unforgiving grid pattern is taking hold of the countryside. In the scant month that I was living in that intermediate zone between HangZhou and FuYang, I watched streams channeled into culverts and a valley covered with multiple meters of fill, mid rise complexes following in their wake.  I began looking down more and more, and up less and less.  At my feet lay the New Chinese Landscape.

Pelley  NEW CHINESE LANDSCAPE #1

Pelley  NEW CHINESE LANDSCAPE #2

Pelley  NEW CHINESE LANDSCAPE #3

Pelley  NEW CHINESE LANDSCAPE #4

Pelley  NEW CHINESE LANDSCAPE #5

Pelley  NEW CHINESE LANDSCAPE #6

Pelley  NEW CHINESE LANDSCAPE #7

As I photographed what lay at my feet, a Chinese professional walked by and asked "why?" in perfect English before jumping on his motorcycle and zipping away.