Arrived in Xi"an

Settling in at the Bodi School. It's lovely and quiet here.

Silk Route Blog -- More than Palladium Prints

For clarity's sake, I thought it would be best to have a separate Blog for the Xi'an and Silk Route portions of my trip to China this Fall. So I've created the Distant Past: Silk Route Blog for postings, photos, maps, Google kmz files and more. I'll be posting mostly color pictures, not just the ones that might be candidates for Palladium printing. In addition, I'll be posting videos, audio notes, GPS tracks and other travel-related information and interpretations on the new Blog. I would invite those who have followed this Blog, especially the "official" followers, to follow the Silk Route Blog as well. The first postings are of Silk Route maps and other materials that set out the scope of my destinations in western China. Later postings will show new possibilities about how the Blog might be used. Some of these are CPU-intensive, but are all worth at least a glance. I'll be posting in embedded windows not only photos but video and GPS routes as well. This is important because one can use many interactive features of applications like Google Earth and Everytrail, but all within the Blog itself!

Back to China; the Kind of Blog Postings to Come

I'll be bringing my Nikon D80 this time to Western China, including some of the sites along Marco Polo's route into China, such as Dunhuang, Urumqi, Turpan (the old Turfan) and Kashgar (though not in that order for either Marco or me). I'll be looking to make palladium prints from these exotic subjects, but I thought it would still be within the spirit of this blog to feature some of the soon-to-be palladium prints in color. This is especially appropriate, I think, because I am also planning a companion color publication to the Sense of the Distant Past Blurb book which is referenced earlier in this blog, though considerably longer. I'll also be attempting to post from China, the account of which should be interesting in its own right.