A young skiing and snowboarding photographer has been working hard to perfect his skills in this emerging profession as he bids to capture the best action shots of the sport while striving for the best version of himself.
At a ski resort in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, 20-year-old photographer Xiong Jiawei bravely follows a fellow snowboarder down the slopes while using a camera to record the highlights of his movement.
For many people, skiing itself is not an easy activity, let alone skiing down a mountain while filming with a camera at the same time, making Xiong's work all the more impressive.
Xiong was a snowboarding student in sports school and has chosen to pursue this profession out of his love for the sport. He said he wants to capture the thrilling and memorable moments of the high-speed slide on the snow lanes. But to be really good at it, he knows a lot of effort is required.
"When you are attentive to the camera screen and thinking about composing, you crossed into an ice block and lost balance. I would fall down sometimes too, like tumbling down from a very steep slope together with my camera. Compared with normal skiing or snowboarding, it's very different to glide on snow as a photographer since we need to carry a heavy bag, hold a stabilizer and a single-lens reflex camera. I myself tried over and over again to find the balance and figure out how to film better footage while skateboarding," he said.
Since starting out in the photography business, Xiong has worked for more than 200 clients each year, and has also met many excellent skiers and snowboarders, including 19-year-old Li Haolun.
"It was the first time that someone took such a video for me. I felt it was really good, since I couldn't see what I was like when I was snowboarding in the past," Li said.
Xiong says he is living his best life and hopes to keep on honing his skills while allowing others to fully enjoy their skiing experience.
"I think it's very good and cool to hold a camera to record such beautiful moments during skiing. In the future, I want to become an extreme sports photographer, be my bravest self, record the best footage with camera and live the life I love the most," he said.
Daring young ski photographer bravely captures best action shots on slopes
China is continuing to accelerate its green energy transition while meeting the considerable power demand, with renewable energy representing over 80 percent of the country's new installed power generation capacity.
The latest data showed that China's newly installed capacity for new energy power generation reached 258 million kilowatts from January to November, accounting for 81.5 percent of the total newly installed power generation capacity.
Experts say the renewable energy expansion can be partly attributed to China's efforts to accelerate the construction of new energy bases in its western areas to promote the distribution of new energy production in the more populous central and eastern parts of the country.
"For the next step, China's new energy power generation will be both centralized and distributed. It will also be land-based and sea-based. The generated power will be transmitted to other regions and consumed locally. We will continue promoting the construction of the wind and solar power generation bases in the sandy areas, rocky areas and deserts in the shelterbelt program in the northeast, north, and northwest regions of China. We will push forward the development of the water, wind, and solar power generation bases in southwestern China and the offshore wind power generation bases in eastern China. We will work to strengthen coordination in an effort to comprehensively diversify the supply of new energy," said Rao Jianye, director of the Clean Energy Research Institute under the China Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute.
China is also improving its new power system, keeping enhancing the system's capability for receiving and distributing new energy so as to support the country's energy transition.
As China races to construct more new energy storage projects like photothermal energy storage projects and compressed-air energy storage projects, so far, the country's new energy storage has a capacity of over 60 million kilowatts, marking a significant achievement in maintaining the stable operation of the country's power system.
By the end of July, China's total installed capacity of wind and solar power had exceeded 1.2 billion kilowatts, more than doubling the 2020 level and achieving the 2030 target six years ahead of schedule.
New energy represents over 80 pct of China's new installed power generation capacity
