Shifting focus

After the culture week and the festival — jointly organized by the government of Hami prefecture, China Image Group, Economic Observer News and China National Travel magazine — kicked off on Sept 20 at Hami city's Zuo Zongtang Fenghuangtai Historical and Cultural Park, the organizers had to inform over a dozen participating professional and amateur drone aerial photographers that drone flights would be prohibited for the following week. This temporary ban was implemented due to security concerns related to the celebration of the 70th anniversary of Xinjiang's founding.

The organizers quickly decided to shift the event's focus to astrophotography and photography cultural exchange, a change that all participants embraced without difficulty.

"We are all photographers," Li remarked. "Even without our drones, we can still capture images with our cameras or even our mobile phones."

On the morning of Sept 21, Hei Ming, a renowned documentary photographer, delivered a lecture on humanist photography to Hami's photography enthusiasts in the local converged media center. Cui Yong, a senior photographer from Hebei province, presented a lecture on landscape photography using drones.

The group headed to Xishan township in the city's Yizhou district and checked into a resort in a quiet village. About an hour's drive from downtown Hami, the village is hidden in a valley in the eastern Tianshan Mountains and offers a view of rolling mountains tinged by autumn leaves and a vast plain stretching to the city.

Zhou and his colleagues initially planned to livestream their night watch at the resort. However, a thunderstorm dampened their enthusiasm, forcing them to abandon the plan.

Wang, undeterred by the sudden weather change, set up his mobile phones and cameras in a corridor of the resort to document the rainy night sky.

Midway through his recording, he heard thunder and lightning and went outside to check on his equipment. To his surprise, one of his mobile phones had captured a spectacular scene: a lightning bolt streaking across the skyline of Hami city, resembling a dragon swimming on the horizon. On Sept 22, the short video of the dragon-shaped lightning quickly went viral on the Chinese internet, captivating viewers with its dramatic imagery.

Hami's surprise for him had arrived swiftly, but not unexpectedly.