Road from Urumqi to southern Xinjiang. [Photo by Niu Siyuan/chinadaily.com.cn]

Niu started to receive training in digital cameras in 2010 when he returned home after graduating from a university in Jiangxi province. He formed the habit of taking pictures of Xinjiang with iPhone in 2012 and joined the ever-growing global professional iphotographers.

He believed it was Xinjiang's unique beauty and charming people that won the judges' hearts. "I was born in Xinjiang and am deeply in love with it so I want to show people what's the massive land is really like and how diverse it is," he said. "Mobile phone is like a pen that I can write poem with."