Sunflowers at sunrise star in Gansu

Foreign photographers focus on desert region for Discovering China tour, Kurt Nagl reports.

Nearly everyday, the naked sun beats down on the burning sands of China's Gansu province, a mountainous desert region in the west. Across the rugged terrain, seas of sunflowers spout and beckon tourists to wade through their fragrant yellows and greens.

This year's Discovering China Photographers' Tour gave photojournalists, cartoonists and tourists across Asia the chance to dive into sunflower fields scattered across the capital Lanzhou and the lesser-known Wuwei.