Concerning Western China

Hey Laowinners!

Winston and I have received hundreds of requests to film Conquering Western China to round out the series as a final part of the Conquering trilogy. The first two series have met with fantastic reviews, and awesome feedback so far, but I wanted to address why, at this current point in time, Conquering Western China wouldn't be a possibility for us.

The first thing that some of the subscribers have said is that though they traveled to Xinjiang and Tibet and were questioned at checkpoints, and we not allowed to freely travel in much of the region, they were still able to visit.
The issue with that is the first two series were shot with Winston and I, and our two crew members, Rik and Mark. We encountered a ton of police hassle, and had to put ourselves at risk even when filming very non-controversial areas. This is due to the fact that we were using professional gear, and traveling in a group larger than two. The PLA searches, and the police hassles in our hotel rooms became very tiresome and worrying, and if we were to shoot western China in the same vain, we would end up with MUCH more hassle and worries. Western China (just Google Xinjiang to see what's going on there now) is a very sensitive region, and for us to even think about shooting there with any semblance of quality would mean permits, a government minder, and a very non genuine film. We did the Conquering series to highlight the untraveled regions of China, and to show the real stuff that no one really talks about. This mission simply would not work out in the western region, as we would be carted around to tourist traps and false set ups from our minder.

The second thing is that it would be impossible to travel the region and not run into political issues while filming. I am sure that since we would not be able to be free to film what we want, we would encounter some major pushback from a western audience that would call us immoral for not bringing the sensitive issues to the forefront, maybe similar to the tourists to North Korea who prop up the regime and are a form of pro NK propaganda when filming what the government allows them to film.

So at this point in time, we wouldn't be able to film western China. That is NOT to say that at some point in the future we wouldn't go back to film. If the situation normalizes, we may visit later on. That being said, get ready for some epic stuff we have in the works.

Thanks for your support! We appreciate all of you!