“镜彩云南”国际摄影大赛影像故事：外国人眼中的云南原来是这样？

今年二月，地处中国南方的云南省在Instagram上发起了一场以“镜彩云南”为主题的全球摄影活动，号召国际旅行者在社交媒体上分享云南旅游的精彩照片。

此次摄影比赛将会持续到三月底，大家可以通过在Instagram上发布云南旅行的相关照片，同时附上#WildYunnanThroughtheLens的标签，即可参与比赛。获胜者名单将于3月31日公布，头名获奖者将会赢得8000元人民币的云南旅游基金。

目前赛事官方已经收到了数百张Instagram照片，我们从中挑选了两位特殊的参与者，让他们来分享自己和云南的故事。

欧阳凯（Kyle Obermann）——用镜头记录不可思议的中国自然景观

Kyle Obermann，中文名欧阳凯，90后美国摄影师。作为一位保护摄影师兼作家，欧阳凯在努力地记录着中国自然保护区、国家公园的变迁以及草根环保组织的故事。目前他在Instagram上所分享的参赛照片获得了最多的点赞和评论。

2014年，22岁的欧阳凯获得了奖学金，来到北京大学深造。平日里，他非常关注环境问题，同时又非常热爱徒步等户外活动，在阅读《中国国家地理》的过程中，他看到了很多不可思议的照片，有些地方的存在简直令他难以想象。

于是，欧阳凯踏上了环游中国之旅。他带着相机，记录下了很多令人惊叹的地方以及保护那些地方的人们。他在社交媒体上分享这些照片，并获得了全球性的关注。

欧阳凯走过中国的很多地方，但最独特的当属地处西南的云南省。

“云南是个宜居的乐土，”欧阳凯大笑着说道。“它既丰富多彩，又充满酷劲。那里有很多不同的风景地貌，孕育出了非常具有活力和多元化的生态系统。”

“不同的地方有不同的风情，如果靠近老挝边境，那么著名的旅游胜地西双版纳就不可不去，那里以神奇的雨林景观和独特的民族服饰而著称；在云南的东端与贵州省和广西省交界的地方，每年春天都能欣赏到整片的油菜花海；西边的腾冲则以活跃的火山和地热活动而闻名，你可以去高黎贡山徒步，或者找处温泉简单放松一下；云南的西北边拥有连绵的高山、纯净的湖泊和幽深的峡谷。”

“在云南，我最喜欢的地方就是高黎贡山自然保护区，”欧阳凯说，“高黎贡是一座森林密布的美丽山脉，但于我而言，它最特别的地方在于，我曾经在那里工作过两年，专门记录长臂猿的生活。2017年，中国的科学家们在那里发现了一种新的长臂猿，并命名为天行长臂猿。”这一神奇物种以《星战》电影中的卢克·天行者来命名，看来这位科学家肯定是个狂热的星战迷。“它们既美丽又脆弱，仅有不到150只生活在中国境内。”

“我觉得云南就是个户外天堂，”欧阳凯说，“我们可以深入热带雨林，然后再攀爬至海拔5000米的雪山。”云南拥有举世闻名的高山、湖泊、森林和草甸以及绝无仅有的喀斯特地貌。多元化的自然环境使得云南成为了众多户外活动爱好者心目中首屈一指的旅游目的地。

布莱恩·林登（Brian Linden）——洱海边的大理市长

“一个来自芝加哥的男人和一位来自旧金山的女人，在这里生活了16年，到现在他们依然觉得这块土地美丽无比。我希望每个人都有机会来这里感受这份美丽和友善！”布莱恩·林登说，他是喜林苑的创始人，中文名林登。喜林苑专门介绍大理喜洲的风土人情，林登将这里称为自己的家。

为什么选择在喜洲定居？“我和家人曾经乘坐绿皮火车跑过全中国，最终我们一致决定在喜洲定居。”布莱恩说。他曾在75个国家工作和生活过，2004年他携全家“重返”中国，目的是为了保护和开发一座受国家保护的传统建筑，即现在的喜林苑。

“房子的名字是我自己取的。喜代表喜洲，我们选择安家的地方；林是我中文名字里的姓，苑代表我们对它的期许，希望它汇聚了自然和人文之美。”

在喜林苑酒店住上一晚，你可以完全沉浸在生机勃勃的中国乡村环境中。它的使命在于传递一种更为真实的体验式文化旅游，“确保我们的街坊邻里可以通过旅游获得社会和经济利益”。

“很多外国游客对于我们的本地旅游项目都非常感兴趣，他们最想要的就是能亲近当地人，体验最真实的本地文化。来这里旅游的游客都会带一份亲手制作的白族扎染纪念品回家，或者学着给家人烹饪原汁原味的白族黄焖鸡。”喜林苑致力于建设成为服务于游客的文化交流学习中心。

“我非常喜欢云南。这里有自然的‘国际化’基因，就像人们经常开玩笑地把大理称之为‘大理福尼亚’。地理位置和多元文化让云南具有天生的包容性。我相信在未来，云南将会发展成为中国的国际旅游中心，同时跃升为中国西南重要的国际文化交流中心。”布莱恩补充道。

Kunming, China / Mar. 10th China’s Southwestern Yunnan Province launched a global social media photo campaign on Instagram in February with the theme of “Wild Yunnan Through the Lens”, encouraging international travelers to share photos of their beautiful memories when they journeyed in Yunnan.

The global photography competition will last till the end of March, people can post photos of their Yunnan trip with the hashtag #WildYunnanThroughtheLens on Instagram to join the competition. The winners will be announced on March 31st. The top prize will be a Yunnan travel fund of RMB 8,000.

The competition has received hundreds of Instagram posts. We found two special participants and here are their stories with Yunnan.

Kyle Obermann - Recording China’s Incredible Natural Sights with his Camera

Kyle Obermann, who describes himself as a conservation photographer and writer, strives to document the evolution of China’s nature reserves, national parks, and the stories of the grassroots environmental groups. His photos for this Yunnan campaign got the most likes and comments on Instagram among all participants currently.

Winning a scholarship at Peking University, one of China’s top universities, Kyle came to Beijing in 2014 at the age of 22. With a strong focus on environmental policy and also a big lover of hiking and other outdoor activities, he started reading the Chinese National Geography magazine and found so many incredible photos of China, which he had never imagined existed.

So he started his journey across China, with his camera at hand, documenting these amazing places and the people who are protecting them. He shared his photos on social media and won global attention.

Having traveled so many places in China, Kyle finds Yunnan in southwest China somewhere very special to him.

“Yunnan is a dream place for living”, says Kyle with a big smile, “Yunnan is such a diverse and cool place. It has so many different landscapes, and is blessed with very dynamic ecosystems with great biodiversity.”

“Depending on where you are, like near the border to Laos, Xishuangbanna is a famous tourism destination known for its magical rainforest landscape and unique ethnic customs; To the eastern part of Yunnan, neighboring Guizhou and Guangxi Provinces, every spring, the entire county transforms into an ocean of canola flowers; Heading to the province’s western part, the city of Tengchong is well known for its active volcanic and geothermal activities, so try your hand at hiking the Gaoligong Mountains or simply relax in a hot spring; Northwest Yunnan is a gorgeous blend of soaring mountains, pristine lakes, and deep gorges and valleys.”

“My favorite place in Yunnan is Gaoligong Mountain National Nature Reserve”, Kyle says, “Gaoligong is a beautiful mountain range with incredible forests. But the thing that makes it most special for me is because I worked there for a couple of years, documenting the Gibbons. And later the Skywalker Gibbons, that were discovered by the Chinese scientists in 2017.” The incredible species is named after Luke Skywalker of the Star Wars movie series as the scientist who discovered this is a big Star Wars fan. “They are beautiful but vulnerable, less than 150 of them living in China.

“I would say Yunnan is an outdoors paradise”, says Kyle. “We can go to the tropical rainforests and then climb up to the glacier 5,000 meters above the sea level.” Yunnan boasts world-famous mountains, lakes, forests, grasslands, and Karst landscape like nowhere else. The diverse natural environment makes Yunnan a world-class destination for many outdoor activities.

Brian Linden - Mayor of “Dalifornia” by the Erhai

“A Chicago man and a San Francisco lady have lived here for 16 years and still feel that everything here is beautiful. I hope everyone has the opportunity to experience the beauty and friendliness of this place!” Brian Linden, or Lin Deng founder of The Linden Centre introduce Xizhou of the famous Dali, the place where he calls home.

Why Xizhou? “My family and I traveled all across China on the green trains and we finally voted unanimously to settle down in Xizhou.” Brian, who has worked in over 75 countries before “returning” to China in 2004 with his whole family to preserve and redevelop a Chinese nationally protected structure, now known as The Linden Centre, with a wonderful Chinese name “Xi-Lin-Yuan”.

“I named it by myself. Xi means Xizhou, the place we chose to settle down; "Lin" is my Chinese family name “Lin”, and "Yuan" is our vision of Linden Centre that this place is where the beauty of nature and humanities gathered.”

A stay at a Linden Centre hotel is an immersive experience into the lively communities of China’s countryside. Linden’s mission is to promote a more genuine form of experiential and cultural tourism, and “ensure that our neighbors can socially and financially benefit from the guests’ visits”.

“They are very interested in our local experience projects, because they have come to a strange country to travel, and what they hope most is to be close to the locals, experience the most authentic local culture. They all bring a copy of the local Bai ethnic group’s tie-dyeing souvenirs made with their own hands when they return home or learn to cook the authentic Bai yellow stewed chicken for their family.”The Linden Centre is committed to building a cultural exchange learning center for travelers.

"I like Yunnan very much. It has a natural "internationalization" gene, just like people always say that Dali is "Dali-fornia". The geographical location of Yunan and the mixture of diverse cultures make it naturally inclusive. I believe that in the future, Yunnan will become a hub for international travelers to China, making it an important international cultural exchange center in Southwest China." Brain adds.