City views in a wider lens

When photography enthusiast Jia Nan first heard his wife, a native of Chengdu in Sichuan province, recall seeing snowcapped mountains from the city as a child, he found it hard to believe.

He had just returned from a photography trip hundreds of kilometers away in the Western Sichuan Plateau, worn out by altitude sickness. "I had never imagined that in a megacity, you could actually see snow-capped mountains without leaving the city," he says. Jia Nan, 55, whose real name is Xie Xiaoming, moved to Chengdu in 2013 after spending years working in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. Born in Jiangxi province, he had never seen a snow-covered mountain before. The towering peaks of western Sichuan immediately captivated him, and his fascination became an obsession. At one point, he made four or five trips to the region every month. "Every time I went, the altitude sickness made me dizzy and nauseous," Jia Nan says. "Twice, it became so severe that my companions had to rush me to the emergency room." Taking his wife's advice, he began exploring Longquan Mountain near their home in eastern Chengdu on clear days, searching for vantage points from which to photograph the distant peaks to the west. Local farmers told him the mountains occasionally emerged on the horizon. In August 2015, Jia Nan captured his first photograph of the snow-capped peaks from within the city. Since then, he has rarely passed up an opportunity to photograph them. "From April to September, the best season, I don't leave Chengdu," he says. "Even when I visit my hometown in Jiangxi, I check Chengdu's weather forecast every day so that I don't miss a clear day."