Happy New Year to everybody! My wife and I rang in 2009 without too much fanfare here in Xinjiang and are happy to have the next three days off from work. More than anything the solar new year is just a happy reminder that the lunar new year's celebration is just around the corner - one that will be a much-welcome break for us.I have begun this new year with the exciting news that Xinjiang: Far West China has been named the Best China Travel Blog for 2008! Thanks so much to everybody who voted for this site, I do appreciate your support (that goes to you, Pam!). I would also like to congratulate all of the other very worthy winners including Joel at The China Observer (#1 Business-Law Blog), David at China Sports Review (#3 Business-Law Blog), Michael at the other Xinjiang blog The Opposite End of China (#2 News Blog) and Will at Imagethief (#3 News Blog). A full list of the winners can be found by clicking the picture to the left.
It's at this point that I am very tempted to reflect on the past year and tell you all of my best or most popular posts, and if I did I certainly wouldn't be the only blog to do so. Instead I've decided to keep that contained to the right-hand side of this blog (but do check it out!) and use this post to focus on the coming year. I have a tendency to take myself (and this blog) too seriously at times while the point is to just have fun, so I've been trying to think of things that would shake up my normal "blogging routine".
Here's my ideas for some things I want to do this year and I'd love to get your feedback on any of it, PLEASE:
- Xinjiang's Best Food: I would love to continue this series this year with the possible addition of a "How to cook your own..." video series. This would of course star my wife instead of myself, but I think it could be something worth trying.
- Xinjiang Worker Profiles: The longer I live here the more I notice all the local people around me who work hard and for the most part go unnoticed, and I've already been talking with some of these people to get their story of why they're here in Xinjiang. Examples include taxi drivers, Uyghur bread makers, a Uyghur doctor, and some government officials I know.
- Short Stories: This website exists because I have learned to love writing (and I live in Xinjiang), so I want to have fun with some creative stories. I find that I personally retain information when it is attached to a colorful story, so instead of just rehashing a news story I want to tell you a true-to-life (names changed) story from perspectives other than my own. Example: I went to a Uyghur wedding last month. I could just rehash the details of the wedding in first-person and what I thought about it - you know, the regular blog stuff - but instead I think you would get so much more out of it if I had fun living the story through the bride's eyes (a personal friend).
- Photo of the Week/Month: I'm not sure how often I would want to do this, but through all the travels my wife and I have made around Xinjiang we have amassed a large quantity of high-quality pictures that we haven't yet been able to share. I could just load them all to a photo sharing site but I'd rather give people the chance to enjoy them. Those photo sites are like walking into a museum - you only appreciate the first few until your legs get tired (or in this case your eyes).
Any other ideas? What part of China intrigues you the most, and if you live here, what part of Xinjiang makes you the most curious? Please leave a comment or contact me with any suggestions, ideas, or advice. I seriously love where we live in China and want you to feel like you already know this place after reading the blog for a month or two. That's what a travel blog is supposed to do, right?
3 Comments:
Congratulations!
Happy Niu(Ox) Year!
I was born in Shaanxi, one of northwest provinces. But to me, Xinjiang is a very remote place. In my hometown(a small village), one guy went to Karamay(Kelamayi) after the graduation from Univ. He works for a oilfield and married a native Russian. Also one family move somewhere in Xinjiang, and do farming. One year they returned for a visit and told my father their lifes in Xinjiang are very hard.
Xinjiang is a true amazing place. But to most westerners, Xinjiang still is a unheard-of place. Your blog does a good job.
I also learned a lot about Xinjiang from your blog. Keep on!
i'd love regular pictures. weekly would be good. monthly may be too infrequent.
i especially like the food idea. even if it's not how to cook something, talking about what's in different local dishes would be cool. there are a number of uyghur dishes that even just knowing more about would be great, which the local restaurants won't tell me about. something about not wanting me to start my own xinjiang restaurant.
if i may offer one more possibility, the impression non-xinjiang people have of xinjiang people is pretty much that everyone in xinjiang is a criminal. while this is obviously not true, it might be cool to hear stories of specific people doing great things for society etc., though perhaps this would be harder to find. maybe it's best suited as part of the worker profiles, but having specific stories to share on this end of the country would be a nice way to fight the negativity directed to points west.
Thanks for the comments and feedback!
Kellen...nice idea about Xinjiang perceptions. I think I'll try to use that, even if it is melted in with the worker profiles.
Post a Comment
Comment Guidelines:
*Comments that do not abide by these guidelines will be deleted*