Following the Yunnan- Tibet highway, Shen Jing and his friends rode bicycles for 30 days to finally arrive at Lhasa in 2007. The journey brought him some of his best travelling experiences and daunting challenges too, but one important change was that he started to fall in love with photography.

"My love for Tibet has greatly inspired my curiosity in photography, empowered me with the courage to work hard and face loneliness, and also drove me to pursue more achievements," he wrote in an email.

The word Tibet alone seems to be a perfect starter of discharging his strong feelings and reflections of life. The language becomes lyrical.

"The further and deeper you go, the more remote, quiet and full you feel in your heart. I observe this magic land with my eyes, I feel its amazing strengths with my soul, and I use my camera to record images of this mystical terrain.”

Last year Shen, who works in commercial photography now in Shanghai, went to visit Tibet again, for photography this time. He was moved by what he saw in the cold weather - Lamas chanting, Tibetans praying and spinning the prayer wheels, not bothered by tourists.

At the beginning, Shen felt himself an intruder into a new world of Tibet, but to see Tibetans wearing a smile on their face, slowly putting palms together, and whispering the Tibetan greeting Tashi delek melts down all estrangement and distance.

"It’s good to see Tibetans have their religion practiced and the last thing I can imagine is this tradition becomes commercialized in the process of tourism development, " Shen said.

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Photo by Shen Jing