Easy Wandering
Cai Shanhai’s practice begins with the road beneath his feet.
In 2019, this independent photographer—who views long-distance travel as his primary methodology—turned his practice entirely toward roads and walking. He launched an ongoing, long-term project: systematically visiting all 2,800-plus county-level administrative divisions across China, county by county, following the contours of mountain ranges and rivers. He calls this almost stubborn approach "píngtuī" —taking no shortcuts, chasing no trends, but plowing through territories ignored by mainstream perception inch by inch. By 2025, his wheels had traversed over 300,000 kilometers, leaving his tracks across thousands of towns and villages.
This exhibition, "Easy Wandering", represents a mid-project presentation of his journey. Combining static portraits and moving images, his gaze remains focused on individuals scattered between county towns and rural landscapes—ordinary people alongside those worldly society considers eccentrics, outcasts, or recluses. Among them are a builder who constructed a nine-story wooden tower bare-handed in the wilderness; a cellar keeper dancing tipsily in a natural cave wine cellar; a hermit standing in deep meditation in the Taihang Mountains; a folk artisan crafting a private cosmos out of discarded materials; and the late Zhang Fuqing, who covered his courtyard walls with writing during his lifetime, worrying over crop yields while asking, "How vast is the universe?"
"Walking" itself forms the core proposition of Cai’s practice. He never predefines subjects or applies ready-made frameworks; instead, he immerses himself in a state akin to spiritual discipline: moving continuously, remaining fully receptive, and shedding preconceptions. As he puts it: "Waking up every day like an infant, perceiving with the most primal curiosity." Neither dwelling on the past nor over-anticipating the future, he lives solely within the immediate encounter. This mode of walking, tied to lived experience, permeates every shutter click. China’s 2,800-plus counties constitute the "in-between zone" most easily overlooked by mainstream vision: neither the city in the spotlight nor the countryside reduced to a symbol, but the blurry transitional layers caught in the tug-of-war between urban and rural life. Cai chose this place, of all places, as his field. Using the distance his own body travels as his measure, he has, through day-after-day movement, distilled the spiritual landscapes and existential weight of individuals amid the torrent of the times into an archive of walking life—one that can be contemplated.
"Zǒu Dì Xiān" (Earthbound Immortals) is the title Cai bestows upon these figures. In Chinese folk cosmology, a "xiān" (immortal) is never a distant deity residing above the clouds, but someone who drifts outside conventional order to guard their inner realm. The "earthbound immortals" in Cai’s lens are precisely such individuals: though deemed "marginal" by worldly metrics, they construct complete worlds of meaning within their own domains. Notably, this is not the "objective witness of an onlooker" typical of traditional documentary photography, but a mutual illumination born of encounter. Cai documents not merely distant "others," but the innermost tremors of his own heart at the moment of meeting. Filtering out daily noise, he preserves the fundamental tenor of life, stringing seemingly isolated individuals into a hidden lineage of folk spirituality.
This connection extends far beyond the moment the shutter clicks. Long after shooting, he remains in contact with many subjects, converting photographic encounters into genuine human bonds through daily greetings and casual WeChat chats. The WeChat screenshot with "Píngtóugē" displayed in the exhibition serves as testament: the two figures before and behind the lens are no longer photographer and subject, but fellow travelers who met on the road and hold each other in memory.
The exhibition's English title, "Easy Wandering", offers a precise annotation of this coexisting state of "locality" and "mobility." As populations flow rapidly and coordinates of home blur, countless individuals experience the dissolution and reconstruction of belonging. "Unbelonging" is not a sentimental drift, but a sharp inquiry: when traditional "roots" are no longer fixed, how does an individual affirm the self and construct meaning amid movement? This inquiry ultimately points back to the artist himself. Through the people of these lands, he mirrors his own condition. This endless journey is itself the most vivid interpretation of "Easy Wandering".
From 2019 to the present, Cai Shanhai’s creation has maintained a deliberate, steadfast rhythm. Chasing no fleeting spectacles or sensational topics, he allows meaning to settle through daily walking and meeting. As the title implies, those unseen figures scattered across China's vast terrain and their undisturbed spiritual worlds deserve to be gazed upon and recorded. The origin and destination of this practice always point toward that figure perpetually on the road, continuously reflecting upon the self through collision with the world.
In an era flooded with images, this slow creation—measuring the world with the physical body—reclaims for documentary photography its most unpretentious yet profound weight.
Text / Liu Yiheng
