After five and a half days walking the trail peters out is a project about hiking journeys in steppe and desert areas of Qhinghai and Gansu Provinces in Western China. In winter 2010/11 I started to follow roads and tracks on foot to what was depicted as nomad camps on maps. Instead I ran into new mining areas and development zones in the middle of nowhere – once mystical nature was taken over by the brutal interests of a new time.
As I carry all my belongings I am working rather minimal. In black and white photos and notes in travel-diaries I try to document my silent approach to these landscapes and its people.
After five and a half days the trail peters out (between here and there and now and then) shows a religious place where pilgrims leave clothing like a t-shirt, a pullover, shoes on this particular hill as a symbol to leave the past behind and step down into a new time.
After five and a half days walking the trail peters out is an ongoing project - I am planning the next trip end of March 2012.
Michael Höpfner, Berlin, March 2012
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