Road to the East
A journey of luck and unexpected adventures defined our cover shoot in China’s Jiuzhaigou amid nature’s wonders
That colourful tent down there—let’s shoot there,” said Singapore Tatler contributing fashion director Desmond Lim, as his sharp eyes caught sight of a multicoloured Tibetan tent from our vantage point at Banyan Tree Jiuzhaigou, our home base for our sojourn in the picturesque county in the Sichuan province. Moments later, with our cover star Georgia Lee in tow, the crew packed into a large shuttle bus and headed down the winding stretch of road, which connected the hotel to the localities at the foot of the mountain. Along the way, we passed two similar tents before the bus came to a stop in front of the third. We decided that the ground was more favourable at the first tent and tried our luck asking the driver to make a U-turn back up. Within seconds, our hearts were in our mouths as he reversed the huge vehicle into a narrow cliff—the seemingly impossible task overcome with unbelievable speed and ease. Demonstrating the same confidence, Georgia worked the camera like a pro. She knew the best pictures come not with exaggerated and drastically different poses, but with subtle changes in motion and expression. And all this while chilly winds and blinding rays of sunlight took turns to beat down on the set. The next day, we ventured further downhill and into Linghua village, where we would spend another full day shooting. With a stroke of serendipity, we met a local family who kindly opened their traditional wood-and-brick house to us for the day. We even made a star of the household’s shy matriarch, who held her beloved red pipa as she posed with Georgia as part of the spread. Curious neighbours began peeking in, and soon enough the house roared to life with the sounds of camera shutter and animated conversations between the crew and our new-found friends. As luck would have it, a menacing shroud of thick grey clouds rolled in just as we were wrapping up our last shot for the afternoon. Thankfully, we managed to lug our equipment onto the bus back to the hotel, mere minutes before the heavy downpour. But no complains as it put us in a languid mood for a laid-back lunch, before we headed back out to catch the next ray of sunlight.