Turkish people are among one of the most hospital I've ever met. While the women are shy, men are usually flirtatious. The latter mostly walk a thin line between charming and pesty when they are persistent to sell you something. Most of the pictures in this collection were taken without the knowledge of my subjects because I wanted to depict them in their most natural settings.

While I was people watching, I got plenty of attention of my own. Telling people that I was Chinese and from the USA was more exotic than convincing since seeing a Chinese especially near the Syrian border was a rarer sight than spotting a leopard in South Africa. I felt totally out of place strolling through the streets of the Bazaar in Sanliurfa, where Turks, Kurds and Arabs have lived in peace and conflicts for centuries.