The explorers navigate tough mountainside roads that melt into slop in the rain. [Photo provided to China Daily]

People as places

The pair relished not only local specialties at, but also conversations with owners of, small restaurants along the way.

His former classmate, Zhao Qiaojuan, took them to a snack street to sample such Lanzhou delicacies as hand-pulled noodles, apricot tea and fermented rice with eggs when they visited the city.

She recalls people were delighted when Nielsen played guitar and ad-libbed lyrics to a song about their expedition.

"We think this trip was somewhat like Che Guevara's," she says.

"It's a cross-cultural journey."

They visited bars and teahouses along the way to meet people.

"The people there will know anything that's worth knowing within a 20-km radius," Nielsen says.

"Every bar we went to, we got some interesting information and met some very interesting people with interesting stories about the place-or just interesting stories in general."

And interesting stories, including those told through poetry, are what they hope to share at their upcoming event.

"I hope that through events we could advance and broaden people's understanding of China," Tao says.

Nielsen says he hopes it'll inspire people to reconsider how they travel, especially in China.

"Anybody can meet people. That's our point. But that's a really different way of traveling than simply thinking of yourself as a tourist, going to a place, buying tickets, then you're done, go home-check," he says.

He hopes their talk at Camera Stylo will "enrich people's understanding about places".

"Because when you look at a map, sometimes it can be difficult-other than the shape of a province or the name of city, or something like this-to see what that place really is, what makes that place special."