The first half of this trip encompassed the towns of Dunhuang, Jiayuguan and Lanzhou which traverse the Hexi Corridor which was traditionally the last outpost of China before entering neighbouring Tibet, Turkestan and Mongolia. Of course this area is nowhere near any international borders anymore (with the assimilation of Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia into China), but with the harsh environment and scarce population, there still maintains a frontier feeling. As for much of Xinjiang, the area is almost exclusively desert, with the towns each being located at small oases, containing what seems the only vegetation (and human population) in the entire area.
Crescent Moon Temple amongst the sand dunes
Our first stop was at Dunhuang, just near the Xinjiang-Gansu boarder. Having arrived on an overnight train from Turpan, we had a cold 2 hour bus ride across the desert from the train station to the town which was surprisingly "Chinese" after our time in Xinjiang. The main reason to come to Dunhuang is the Mogao Caves which are about 20km away and contain one of the most extensive collections of ancient Buddhist art in the world.
The Mogao Caves are a complex of over 400 grottoes which were carved into a cliff face at the height of the Silk Road, by rich traders hoping for good fortune on their journeys. The complex is quite amazing, we were only able to see around 10 or so caves but each was decorated with amazing detail and quite well preserved considering some were constructed as early as 2000 years ago. They are certainly a testament to the devotion of their constructors (or should that be financiers) as each of the massive caves was dug by hand, including one constructed around a 40m tall buddha, totally constructed within the cave. Despite the amazing amount to see (and we didn't even see the really good caves which cost a premium $$$), as with most of the world's most significant archealogical sites much of the material which previously resided here is now in European and American museums (much to the dismay of our Chinese guide).
Desert landscape near Mogao Caves
Also while in Dunhuang we did some bike riding and managed to get ripped off at some very, very big sand dunes. In true chinese style a fence has been constructed for several km's either side of the access road to the dunes, an 80 yuan entrance fee levied and loudspeakers installed, each competing to be the loudest. We had hoped to be able to side-step the fence, but after much searching we were unable to find an alternative access point so had to submit to the Chinese profitiers.
On entering we were greeted by yet more ways to part with spare yuan (camel rides, paragliding, sand surfing etc) and hundreds and hundreds of package tourists. Fortunately, once we managed to climb up into the dunes (pretty bloody hard work) we were pretty much by ourselves and able to explore away from the crowds. Turned out the dunes were pretty impressive, as was the temple and lake nestled between some of them, so the 80 yuan started to seem almost worth it...
Hobbes avoiding the hoardes (and struggling for breath)
From Dunhuang we decided to brave our first long distance Chinese public bus, thinking 5 hours would be a good introduction. Only problem was that 5 hours slowly became 6, then 8, then 10 before we finally arrived at Jiayuguan. It seems the abilities of Chinese engineers to build some amazing trans-desert infrastructure (perfect roads and rail lines traversing thousands of kilometres) are not matched by their abilities to construct alternative access during construction. As such, if you travel this route in a couple of years there will no doubt be a perfectly smooth road, but currently there is only a fully demolished old road and a partially constructed new one. This results in yet another choose your own adventure course across the desert, through powdery sand, which sometimes requires significant backtracking when the truck in front of you gets severely bogged.
Tourist camel train near Dunhuang
The best part of the trip was when we stopped to pick up a group of Chinese yokels who were sitting by the side of the road in the middle of the desert at 8 o'clock at night. They had set a few bushes on fire to keep warm and when the bus stopped they all started shoving each other onto the bus (trying to get 5 through the door at a time). Not that we are saying all country people in China are yokels (everyone else on the bus was from the Chinese countryside and had successfully turned the bus into a dutchie early into the trip), but these guys were something else. Hats on sideways, covered in dirt, teeth in every direction, wrestling up and down the aisle of the bus - it made for an interesting couple of hours!
Not long before we made it to Jiayuguan, our bus was stopped at a checkpoint and the driver dissappeared with the police for nearly an hour. Fortunately he finally returned, just when we thought we might be spending the night on the bus. We suspect that he was getting booked for exceeding the yokels quota for the bus? The final bit of fun was seeing the state of our bags when we collected them in Jiayuguan, despite being in the luggage compartment under the bus, they looked suspiciously as though they had just been dragged through the desert for the past 10 hours?
We had hoped to see the western end of the Great Wall which is not far from Jiayuguan, but since no one in town appeared to be willing to rent us a bike (combined with the fact that there isn't much else to do there) we decided to move on to Lanzhou.
The train trip from Jiayuguan to Lanzhou was interesting for a couple of reasons, firstly for the fact that it was by far the most local we had experienced (people smoking everywhere and windows open) and also for the interactions we were able to have with our fellow passengers. Having been immersed in "conversation" with a number of men on the train for an hour or so (them speaking Chinese with one or two English words and us speaking English with one or two Chinese words) they acquired our guide book and phrase book. It was soon after this that we were cursing Lonely Planet, as first they discovered phrases about Falun Goong and started shouting it out and arguing, then they noticed that the China Lonely Planet doesn't include Taiwan (which is of course part of China) and wanted to know why? Our explanation, that it is an American book and they don't respect the one-China policy (unlike Australia), didn't really seem to make them happy. After this we were sure some party cadre on the train must have overheard and would have notified the authorities in Lanzhou so they could take us away on arrival. But we were obviously too quick for them at the train station, as we were able to make it safely to our hotel without being detained........
Aimes takes on Lanzhou - the most polluted city in the world
Lanzhou is not really much to speak of, although it is supposedly the most polluted city in the world (according to LP that is), however we must have visited on a good day as it didn't seem to have anything on Beijing? Considering the bad wrap that most provincial capitals in China receive it didn't seem too bad to us. It had good food anyways, spicy hotpots and soups and more dumplings and steamed buns than two people could possibly finish (again!).
From Lanzhou we travelled south to Chengdu, skirting the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateu, among some of the most amazing scenery you could imagine, along some quite (make that very) marginal roads and very (make that extremely) marginal toilets! This route took us through a number of small Tibetan towns including Xiahe, Hezou, Langmusi, Zoige and Songpan. Despite being in Gansu and Sichuan provinces all this area was part of Tibet prior to 1949 (in fact there is now more of Tibet and more Tibetans outside what the Chinese call the Tibetan Autonomous Region).
The entire area is quite high, being between 3000m and 4000m, and while this didn't casue too many problems, it did result in Hobbes almost having a heart attack when he decided to climb a mountain near Langmusi... it also unsurprisingly meant that it was cold, very, very cold, especially when we had to take buses at 6am (the sun doesn't rise until sometime after 7:30).
Downtown Xiahe
Despite being a rather small and dusty town, Xiahe does have one major claim to fame, that is being home to the second most important Tibetan Buddhist Monastery after Lhasa. In fact, to some extent the (Labrang) Monastery is Xiahe, with most of the remainder of the town only seeming to exist to service the Monastery and it's many visitors. The Monastery itself is quite massive, housing over 1200 monks. Although this number represents only a fraction of what existed prior to the cultural revolution when there were over 4000 monks.
Monks walking to morning prayers
Tibetan dancing
Most of the people in the town are Tibetan, many of whom are pilgrims who have come to Xiahe on their way to Lhasa. The Monastery has a 3km pilgrim circuit which surrounds the monastery and includes over a kilometre of prayer wheels. Despite most of the pilgrims being quite elderly (though probably not as old as they look considering the weather they have to live with) many of them traverse the route continually throwing themselves prostrate on the ground in worship. Considering how cold it was neither of us could imagine even kneeling on the ground, let alone lying face first on it...
During our visit to the monastery we were privileged to be able to witness some Tibetan rituals, including dancing and the morning prayers where all the monks are called to the hall using giant conch shells. Although watching the monks slowly meander into the hall you got the feeling some would have rather been somewhere else (primarily those wearing collector's edition Nike Air Jordans and talking on their 3G mobile phones). To give some perspective to the size of the monastery, it took the best part of a day to see it all!
Xiahe was also notable for allowing us to try yak meat for the first time, and unlike mutton it is absolutely delicious (sorry to all vegos...). Although less enjoyable was the state of the share bathroom in our guesthouse - the less said about that the better.
The bus ride from Xiahe to Langmusi (the bit to Hezou anyways) was the coldest of this leg so far and must have been just about the coldest bus ride ever undertaken! Of course there was the inexperience of only wearing thermals, jumper, down jacket, beanie, gloves, boots etc, but it really was damn cold and we had to constantly move our hands and feet to stave off frostbite. It was sometime during these anti-frostbite rituals that we looked over at the monk sitting in the seat opposite wearing just his cotton robes and a thin shawl and looking rather comfortable!! Though we knew it really was cold as the ice which wasn't scraped off the windscreen was still there when we arrived in Hezou 3 hours later! Fortunately after waiting for something or someone (unknown to us) at Hezou for a couple of hours, during which time we were able to enjoy the extremely graphic pictures of traffic accidents at the bus station, the next part of the trip was slightly warmer.
The main street of Langmusi
Langmusi is perhaps the most beautiful town we have yet been to in China, as well as being by far the smallest (perhaps the reason why we liked it so much?). It is a Tibetan town nestled between several large real Himalayan looking mountains, and containing a couple of big monasteries (but then again which Tibetan town doesn't have at least two?). It is also home to lots of Tibetan cowboys who spend most of their day driving up and down the main street on their motorbikes Campbell Parade style, faces wrapped in scarves and big dell coats flowing in the wind.
We spent a couple of very relaxing days walking around the monasteries and surrounding mountains, most of which have prayer flags or other Buddhist monuments on top. The big open spaces make the hills look much smaller than they really are, which when combined with altitude and snow made for a couple of lung-busting ascents.
Prayer flags with the Himalayas behind
Langmusi also hosts Sky Burials, which have only recently been permitted again by the Chinese Government. They involve hacking up a recently deceased body, and spreading it for consumption by vultures. The Tibetans believe that the faster the body is consumed the better life the person led and the faster the person will be reincarnated. Although we didn't witness any of this we did see the remains of one of these ceremonies, consisting of scattered bones and axes, which was all a bit eerie and resulted in us moving on quite quickly.
Tibetan cairn
Another highlight of Langmusi was the yak burgers, although we only attempted the small ones, they were still just about the biggest burgers we have ever had (perhaps second to the 'stick everything in the shop on it' burgers in Albury a few years back). It may have had something to do with not having eaten western food for a few weeks (or more likely huge amounts of MSG) but all the food here was fantastic.
From Langmusi it was on to Songpan in Sichuan, although there was an unintentional stop off in Zoige for a day along the way as there is only one bus a day (at 6:30am). Zoige is not a particularly exciting town, all the buildings seem to have been very recently constructed (parhaps by the same person as they are just about identical) and just about devoid of people? After being refused a bed in the first hotel that we managed to find (we couldn't really work our why), we managed to find what looked to be an okay room not far away (that was until we realised it was about 1m from the loudest karaoke machine we have ever heard). It snowed for much of the day meaning most of the time was spent warming up over bowls of spicy Sichuan noodles or inhaling second hand smoke in an internet cafe.
Bus stop in the snow - no wonder it was cold!
If the bus ride from Xiahe was the coldest we have experienced, the one from Zoige to Songpan ran a close second, as it had snowed a lot during the night and there was at least 5 hours of driving through snow and ice. Perhaps the only thing keeping it from being the coldest was that we were now experienced and had decided to wear just about all the clothes we had with us. As such, the only time the ice and snow became a real problem was on ascending and descending some steep passes where the road is narrow, crash barriers non-existent and the passing vehicles many. Fortunately, there were plenty of Tibetans on board who kept a constant flow of prayers (bits of paper with prayers written on them that is) flowing out the windows for the duration of these sections. Otherwise the snow made for some stunning scenery (what doesn't look better covered in snow?) particularly the many small monasteries, stupas and prayer flags.
Unloading at Songpan Aimes noticed something wet on her bag, which appeared to be blood when wiped off. At first this seemed a bit strange, that was until the load of recently detached yak heads (and bags of offal) began streaming off the roof of the bus. After this experience and the one in the desert it seems we will have to argue harder in future to get our bags inside the bus?
The source of blood on Aimes' bag...
After having decided that we had sufficiently recovered from the horse riding in Mongolia of 4 weeks prior (Hobbes anyways), we signed up for a couple of days riding and camping in the hills around Songpan. Having picked up a few people travelling the same route in Langmusi (after not seeing any travellers for days and wondering if we were in the right places), we were able to get a group of 6 together who were willing to camp it out in the cold.
As in Mongolia, the horses weren't the prettiest you might find, but they were tough - damn tough! The first part of the ride involved walking up a near vertical hill for half an hour with us and camping gear on their backs (and of course at altitude), something they accomplished with relative ease. After this it began to snow, but this also didn't manage to slow them down. It wasn't until we arrived at a steep decent that we had to get off and lead them down the hill (or more accurately watch the guides throw rocks at them when they stopped gallopping down the hill).
The woman from Snowy River (Aimes in the middle)
The riding was a lot more comfortable than in Mongolia as the horses were loaded such that we sat with our legs over their shoulders and the less flexible among us didn't have to straddle their entire girth. Not such a good position for a gallop (even a trot made you feel like you might come off), but there wasn't going to be much of that in the mountainous terrain.
Arriving at the bottom of the hill it was the turn of our guides to show that they were no less hard than the horses. This demonstration involved constructing our camp (tents and cooking shelters) from logs lashed together with vines, making fire from wet wood and mattresses from ferns and branches. Through the night they continued to show what real bushmen are like (as opposed to pretenders from Sydney) by removing pots of boiling water from the fire with their bare hands and picking up the burning parts of logs with the same leathery appendages. Although they also showed us a softer side by preparing all our food, including noodles and bread, from scratch - the perfect men or what? One was even a spitting image of Clint Eastwood (in a Tibetan kind of way anyways).
We also had time to play cards, it seems Big 2 speaks a universal language (although Tibetans have some funny ideas about suit order) and Aimes was able to win the affections of yet another grizzled horseman... At night we were scerenaded by the youngest guide, with just about every song revolving around the line 'wor ai ni' (i love you).
The sun finally comes out
The second day of riding was similar to the first, after a small run down a road, it was back up another very steep hill and another occassion for the horses to prove their worth, something they did easily. From the top was an amazing view of "Ice Mountain" where we could have gone if we'd opted for 4 days riding, and something we regretted on seeing it as it is one of the most archetypal "mountains" you are likely to see.
The final leg back into town involved walking the horses down the hill before remounting for the final triumphant march up the main street of the town. The only thing missing was the ticker tape and music!
The hard men of Songpan
From Songpan there was one final long bus ride before we made it to Chengdu where we were to spend a few days recovering from the cross country route we had just taken. The bus wasn't too bad, despite taking nearly 10 hours (instead of the the supposed 7), except for the fact that at about the halfway point, when we began to descend down from the plateu we had been on for the past week and a bit, the visibility was reduced by about half.... it was at this point we knew we weren't too far from yet another big Chinese city!
Anyways, for those of you who love stats as much as Hobbes (and who in their right mind doesn't) here are a few from this part of our trip:
Number of days - 14
Time spent on buses - 46 hours
Times spent on trains - 24 hours
Distance covered - approximately 3000km
Rate of travel - very slow!
