Transit

★ A full-color masterpiece, two and a half years in the making, by Yipiyu, author of "Taipei Letter"
★ The undercurrents of an era seen through a personal lens
★ Tibetan issues and border politics hidden within travel writing

After leaving my job in 2009, my wife and I took the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to revisit Tibet. Amidst the wilderness, treacherous roads, and walking, time was forced to slow down, and all confusions had nowhere to hide.

Familiar places became unfamiliar surveillance zones; the lamas we knew no longer recognized us. We encountered a wanted photographer by chance and unexpectedly witnessed a sky burial. Tibetan civil servants forcefully took over our bus, yet we were granted the magnificent sight of a rainbow appearing over Mount Everest. There was a bookstore clerk carefully packaging banned books, and a hotel grandmother who burned all her documents at the border.

From Lhasa to the muddy mountain roads of Nepal, we witnessed countless unexpected twists and turns. Even if we didn't set out with questions, this journey of constant transiting ultimately became the prelude to re-arriving at daily life.