Urumqui to Kashgar

Our first group breakfast and we met our new best friends at the buffet breakfast. The group looked pretty bleak and very “crunchy”. Before we headed off for the day, we attempted to ship Mao back to the states… $136! We decided to carry him.
In the bus, we were back on the road heading south. We headed to “Bia Yang”—a.k.a. Burt’s Yurts. A real Disneyland adventure with concrete yurts and gangs of Kazaks on horseback.

We opted to take a jeep (only 10yuan/person extra) to the waterfall. It was still iced over. The road was a challenge with huge boulders and a Kazak driver.

After the tourist extravaganza, we actually got a chance to visit a real Kazak family. We got invited in to see their house, meet the kids and get some sense of their life. We took Polaroids of the family and kids and they were thrilled.

Then it was back to the Overseas Hotel Restaurant. Lunch in group mode was a real eye-opener. Tea equals an automatic time extension to lunch.
After lunch we had time to see the Urumqui Museum, The Qu Bowuguan. It houses 2-4 thousand-year-old corpses, still intact down to their clothing. Their bodies were found in the Tarim Basin and are in a remarkable state of preservation due to the drying effect of the burial in a desert. Most interesting is that the high-cheekboned bodies in the museum are obviously Caucasian and that they were buried hundred of years before the Han Chinese can claim to have ventured in the area. The “we were here first” argument of the Chinese is questionable.
At the airport, the men check their knives at security. We were on a Tupelov 154…with no air conditioning, smelly Germans and a very heavy handed pilot. We got crackers and cokes and wonderful raisins.
We landed in Kashgar and were met at our hotel by dancers and musicians.

We checked in to find that at the “Semen Hotel” the beds have special dropcloths and special instructions.

We dumped the group and headed across the street to the Oasis Café for a few beers. It was filled with lots of western hippy-dippies, drinking beers and eating cheap food. The beers were 40 cents (3.5 yuan) and the schechwan noodles $1.00 (8 yuan), the chicken with green peppers 13 yuan…. our entire bill was $5.00. We met the “knife guy” who tried to sell us a Uighur knife and teach us a few Uighur words. Then we met Elvis; an aspiring Lonely Planet contributor and a climbing guide from North Wales. He gave us a ton of advice on the Karakohrum Highway.
In Kashgar there are no street lights…next door to the Oasis was Curly’s Video Emporium. In Asia- volume wins—all the TV’s were blaring English TV shows…

Turpan to Urumqui

Breakfast – We tried the Western style restaurant in the Oasis, filled with all the other westerners.
* Note: Chinese—they don’t like butter or cheese. They hate the smell.
We headed to the Jiaohe ruins. It was originally one of the capitals of the Western Region during the Han dynasty. Genghis left the city in ruins.
Then it was another shake and bake to Urumqui. The old road left a lot to be desired.
Along the way, we watched the building of the new road, both women and men laborers with pick axes working in high winds, dust and overwhelming heat.
The last 20-km was a series of flood washed roads—unrepaired and heavily trafficked.
We had lunch at the “Oversea Chinese Hotel”, an old Russian 1950’s hotel. We had great food (another 1000-plate restaurant). The food was Uighur with Chinese influence… meatballs, noodles and veggies.
It was Friday, so the bazaar was closed, the 8th Route Army Museum was closed. We opted to head to the hotel.

What a surprise! We entered into another world at the Holiday Inn Urumqui…. a Hong Kong quality check-in. The room wasn’t ready so they gave us free drinks while we waited. We ran into Aidan and Rachel, the Brits from the train. We traded a few stories then headed to our room. It had great views of the city, hot showers, laundry and wine and cheese. We got very close with the room service staff after four bottles of wine, cheese platters and 2 cheeseburgers…. all this plus CNN.

Urumqi itself was an unimpressive city, not typical of Zinjiang province. The Chinese government has done everything they can to encourage Han Chinese to move into the area, but Urumqi is still an island of Han Chinese in a region of “minority” peoples.

On to Turpan

Another morning on the train and when we arrived at Turpan, we met our new guide.
She explained the ethnic variations:
* Han- Lake Blakash to the Altain Mountains—Great Wall
* Hui- Chinese Han with Uighur and Arab and Islam
* Tajiks- ethnic Persians- speaking Persian

She also gave us some perspective on life in the Uighur Autonomous Region of Zinjiang.
* The military is in business. They own their own grape fields and produce their own wine
* The “Cultural Revolution”—from 1965-1975. They didn’t have any TV’s in her town until 1980—when her grandmother got the first black and white TV.
* University students couldn’t learn anything but the teachings of Mao. After the Revolution, they had to go back to the university to get re-certified.

We visited the Karez (ganats), underground irrigation canals. This ancient irrigation system is comprised of a series of wells and linking underground channels that use gravity to bring ground water to the surface.

In Turpan Country, there are over 1000 miles of tunnels. Keeping the underground channels unclogged is an ongoing task. Two men and a draught animal work as a team- one man is lowered down the shaft to clear the tunnel and the buckets of mud are hoisted to the surface by a rope haltered to the animal.
Then, we stopped to see the Emin Minaret. The minaret, made of mud brick is 44m high.

We asked our guide to drop us off at a typical Uighur restaurant. We were still on Beijing time so rather than 12:00- it was 10:00 am in Turpan.

She ordered for us and we got dinner for 20 for < $10.00…all inedible. The staff of 1 grew to a staff of 12 as more dishes were put on the table. The best dish was pasta ropes with mystery meat. The others! —chewy “bean jelly” noodles, stringy kebabs, dishwater dumpling soup. Embarrassed at leaving so much food, we paid the bill and ran out of the restaurant- having snubbed all of their food.

We walked through the bazaar—very very very hot…107 degrees—and we were lost. John negotiated a 60-cent taxi ride with some local Uighurs. I thought the price was too high- but John overrode me. We taxied to John’s Info Café and had cold beers. Mike, the Scottish guy from Dunhuang, was there, following the same tourist track. When 8 Chinese Mafia types arrived at the bar, we decided to beat a hasty retreat.

At 4:00 (2:00 Turpan time), we headed to another “1000 Buddha Caves” (a.k.a. Bezeklik 1000 Buddha Caves).

To get there, we drove through the Flaming Mountains with spectacular colors. The caves were fairly disseminated by the Moslems and the Germans so there wasn’t too much left to see.

Then it was on to the Astana Tombs, the Tang dynasty burial ground.

There were 3 tombs containing the dead of Gao Chang. Because of the dry climate, the bodies have been remarkably preserved - 700 AD mummies and a 130-year-old couple.
More riding through the Flaming Mountains. We are becoming flaming tourists…pink was the color of the day.
We headed to the ancient city of GaoChang and took a 2-km donkey cart ride through the ruins of the city.

The site is one of Han Dynasty ruins elaborated during the Tang Dynasty and was the 9th C capital of the Uighurs.

On the site is a wonderfully preserved Manichaean temple. The Manichean religion was established about 300 AD in Persia. Persecuted by the Persians, they fled to Samarkand and founded a community.
Back at the Oasis Hotel, we grabbed some beers and spring rolls with mystery filler (ketchup was the sauce).
Two showers—one ice cold, one scalding hot….

More Info from our guide;
* Minorities are allowed 2 children in the city, 3 in rural areas. Chinese only allowed one.
* The Tibetans get free medical, pay no taxes—and still hate being ruled by the Chinese.
* 2 scripts—Arabic (Uighur) reading right to left and Chinese reading left to right.
* Uighurs can send their children to either Uighur schools or Han Chinese schools. At Uighur schools, they learn Chinese- but typically can’t find a job. At Chinese schools, they learn Chinese, Russian and English and typically get a good job.

We tried the Oasis again for dinner and beers. This time, we ordered a cheese sandwich and got a ham and egg club with no explanations. When we asked the manager, he explained, “Cheese is finished”. This was beginning to sound familiar. It was a lot like the cold shower in Dunhuang; the explanation, “The boiler was temporarily broken that morning--from 10-11:00”…. but the water was still cold at 10:00PM.

Dunhuang

First thing in the morning, we headed to Magoa Caves. We had two guides- Lily and the authorized Magoa Caves guide.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
The caves were amazing. They are honeycombed on the cliff-face of the Mingsha Hills and are the richest treasure of Buddhist manuscripts, wall paintings and statuary. The caves span nine dynasties- from the 4th to the 14th Centuries.
The caves were supposedly started when a monk named Lie Zun came upon the cliff in 336 and had a vision of a thousand golden rays of light shining upon him like as many Buddhas. The monk asked a pilgrim to have one of the smaller caves painted and consecrated as a shrine to ensure his own safe journey. Other pilgrims and travelers followed and for the next thousand years, temples and shrines were carved out of the hill, painted and decorated by the pious to guarantee the success and safety of their journeys.
We saw the library cave and the caves containing the giant Buddha figures (“BFB” (Big F--- Buddha), two upright and one recumbent.
We had lunch back in town at Shirleys—once again, great food – and headed back to the caves after lunch.
Lily’s quote of the day, “I’m not a Buddhist, I’m a realist”
We had an hour after the caves before we had to head back to the train station. We stopped at “our place” in the market and the “three stooges” sat across from us and we traded phrases in English and Chinese.
Then it was on to Liuang in the ‘shake and bake’. We stopped for another flower stop with the drivers tribute: “May your beauty last as long as the yellow flower”…
John taught Lily the slave song from South Park, “Slaves never finish, master got me working, someday master set me free”. Then he tried to convince her to sing it to the next American tour group.
With time to spare, we walked through the local “free market”. I don’t think they’ve seen to many Caucasians here!
The train experience in China is never easy. Since it was peak tourist season, they had added a sleeper car to the train and we got to experience a true Chinese train boarding---lots of yelling and screaming. Lily threw us into our car and told us to keep the door locked. Outside, we could hear more screaming and yelling. Our ‘mama duck” left and we realized that we had no tickets and no water. A British couple following a similar itinerary had been booked on the same ticket with us and neither one of us had the ticket and the ticket enforcers were glaring at us. We finally found the CITS woman who had our tickets. She had been talking to one of her friends at the end of the car. We had another loud discussion and then just got into our beds and tried to sleep. The Brits came through with a bottle of water. Since we were connected at the end of the train to the baggage car, there was no way to get any service and hot water was not provided.

Dunhuang

We woke up at the western end of the corridor. We were up at 6:00 am again and off the train at Luyuang. (By this time, the train reeked with the smell of urine.

At every station, the attendant stands at attention, saluting.
In order to leave the station, they need to check your ticket which had us fumbling through our bags. Truly a case of underemployment.
We met our guide, Lily (who was on our train—but in hard seat).
We looked like weary travelers and faced our 120km drive to Dunhuang. We were in John’s Shake and Bake. Once again, A/C is not featured on the itinerary.
The driver took a shine to me and stopped by the road to pick some special tree branches that are particularly fragrant (jupe sand root).

All along the drive were numerous Han Dynasty fortifications and cities in ruin. This was the far western end of the Chinese Empire - two desert gates 60km west mark the official end.
We headed to the hotel in Dunhuang (it’s claim to fame: “Bill Gates stayed here”). Finally we had a clean room—and an ice cold shower. At this point, any shower felt good. We had another electrical crisis. This time, there was a new set of plugs.
Lunch at the hotel. 13 unordered dishes of food appeared on our table.
After lunch, we headed to the local museum. Han dynasty (200BC-200AD) and Tang dynasty artifacts with all narration in Chinese.

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We decided to walk around downtown Dunhuang. We saw our Mao jar for 220 yuan…not $220 dollars. Oh well, why pay less ($200 vs. $30!) And, of course, ours is an “original”. This store featured both the young and the old versions of Mao.
We visited the mandatory luminescent cup factory, then the mandatory carpet factory. We saw both in record speed.
Then it was off to Crescent Moon Lake and Singing Sands Mountains. It was the first time we’ve ever had to pay to see sand dunes!

Although we had the option to walk or ride a camel to the dunes, we opted for the “Dumbo” bus for a mere 40-yuan roundtrip.

The site was filled with herds of Japanese tourists with hats and face coverings. Lily said that it looked like chemical warfare had started…

The dunes were spectacular…. we opted not to climb them and slide down to hear the “singing sands”. Instead we watched the tourists take camel rides and looked at the other Disney-esque attractions like archery and parasailing.
Back to the hotel, we washed our shoes off (a combination of sand and urine and spit) and headed to the night market.
At about 7:00, the market begins to change from shoe and clothing vendors to outdoor refreshment stands. The crowds started to fill with girls in mini-skirts and guys with open shirts and beepers. The transformation was amazing—we sat, drinking beers and watched the scene.

We attempted dinner at the Manhattan Café. supposedly run by two Americans. Not a soul could speak English in the place (John’s attempt to ask directions to the men’s room required a fairly graphic display…) We gave their soup a try. It was so bad we hastily retreated to Plan B and grabbed a cyclo to Shirley’s Restaurant across town. The food was spectacular. We met a Scottish couple on tour with a small group. We got two bottles of “Great Wall Wine”, dumplings and spring rolls. It was the best Chinese food we’ve ever had.
We grabbed a cyclo and headed home.

Traveling by train in China

At 6:00 am we awakened with military “hero” music from a speaker in our compartment (with no volume control) and the sounds of everyone spitting. The music problem was solvable--John took our handy Swiss army miniature knife and disabled the speaker with the nail file.

The spitting continued (as the floor got progressively more disgusting).
Soft sleeper was…. well—not exactly “soft”. The blankets were filthy, the sheets questionably clean and the facilities left a lot to be desired. One toilet for the entire car…. squat and pee onto the tracks…and a urinal that empties on your shoes.

We were averaging about 50K/ 30 mph.
Everyone was awakened at 6:00am- except the dining car crew. The dining car doesn’t open until 9:00 am.

At our first morning stop, John jumped off the train and bought some beef broth noodles and we got cups, glasses and tea (not in a bag…the next challenge).
People in hard seats were brushing their teeth and spitting on the floor.
The scenery was beautiful

Everyone smokes and spits.
We saw caves with people still living in them.
Traveling the China Stink Road. After only one shower in 6 days, we were not at our best. But, as everyone says, it’s dry heat….so you don’t sweat.
The local staff walked by singing as they headed to their breakfast. The staff seems to be the only ones eating in the dining car.
Day 2 on the train and it was empty
Lots of cheap beer and no tourists.
We stopped at a local station across from another train filled with Urghurs. They found us as amusing as we found them.
We entered the Ganju corridor at WuWei, stretched out on our beds and watched the scenery for the first 50 miles before sunset.
We were asleep at 8:30.

Xian

In the morning, we had a hair setter crisis. We finally located the correct converter and convinced the hotel staff to let us buy it.
We headed to the museum with low expectations, but found a wonderfully laid out museum that walks through the history of China and the Silk Road. We also found the museum gift shop and the Mao vase that we bargained down from $400 to $200…. a true “antique” (not to mention the brass frog and the Chinese Warrior statue). It was already time to activate the gift bag and we’d been in the country for less than a day.
Our guide’s quote: “In China, we see anything with four legs and we try to figure out how to cook it…”
We went to our “lunch” location—a true tourist trap. The a buffet that goes on forever—with the vegetables as only edible dishes
We did the obligatory visit to the jade factory and took the tour…John was “jaded”.

We headed on to the Terra Cotta Warriors. Our guide pointed out the tacky tourist spots along the way (including the 8 wonders of the world theme park).

The Qin Terra Cotta Army Museum was amazing. Local farmers digging a well discovered the site in 1974. Although there is no historical record for the thousands of life-size armored soldiers and horses, it is believed they were intended to serve as bodyguards for Quin Shihuangdi (reigned from 221-210 BC).

Photos courtesy of Flickr

The museum is in a huge hangar-like building constructed over Pit #1, the site of the original discovery. There are thought to be 6,000 soldiers in formation. So far only about 1000 warriors, the remains of 8 wooden chariots, two bronze chariots and 32 terracotta horses have been unearthed.

Photos courtesy of Flickr
Pit # 2 was found in May 1976 and contains 1000 soldiers with cavalry, chariots, archers and foot soldier units. Pit # 3 was unearthed in June 1976 and is smaller, with only 69 soldiers and a wooden chariot. There were still extensive excavations.
Amazingly, each of the soldiers has distinctive facial features and stands about 5’11” tall.
We saw Pits 1, 2, and 3 of the warriors, the museum and the cyclorama.

After a full day of touring, we headed to the Bell Tower Hotel and grabbed some cold beers…then walked to the Drum Tower.

We watched the families parading through Bell Tower Square. It was a combination of mini-skirted young girls and old men in Mao suits.

Tired and hungry, we grabbed a tuc-tuc to take us to our restaurant. The driver got lost so we got an extra few blocks of our entertaining ride.

Dinner was at the Laosunjia Restaurant. It was great food but we had a little difficulty getting our order placed and trying to get a cold beer. We finally figured things out and had “yangrou paomo”—a mutton stew that is wonderfully hot and spicy. We met a couple from SFO--- he spent years in the Peace Corps in India.

After dinner, it was time to head to the train. We lugged our bags for what seemed like miles and entered into the “soft sleeper” compartment. To our surprise—it had 4 beds and “Mr. Personality” sitting in one of the beds. We immediately got Chin to try to talk to the conductor about buying the entire car. The thought of 2 days and two nights with anyone else was unbearable. Nothing could happen until the train started, so we had Chin explain our situation and also write our request out in Chinese. After a fairly difficult attempt at conversation, we got directed to car # 8. I made my way through hard sleeper cars (hard sleep is really hard…it’s like a Chinese cattle car-filled with extras from a Chinese peasant revolution movie) and played charades with the conductor and the “accountant”. who was using an abacus to calculate the fares and with scissors intricately cut out the jagged edge of each ticket. Success! Once back in our soft sleeper, we had to deal with the system for collecting the tickets—they collect your receipt, fold it up and put it into a folder by car and bed number and give you back red and green “dominos” to show that you’ve purchased your beds.

The good news…. there was hot water provided for you. The bad news… you have to bring your own tea on board. There is no tea in China. We finally crashed- happy to have our own private space.

China Map and Route

Central Asia Route

The Route for our Central Asia - Silk Road - Trip

From Boston to Xian

We left Boston at 7:45 PM…Martin and Christine moved in to the house…
Boston to JFK 9:00 PM- 10:30 PM
JFK…11:50 PM…. with a surprise stop in Anchorage
Asiana Airlines- spicy food, stewardesses- same hairstyle (pulled back in a bun), same bodies, and pasted on smiles.

Half an hour before landing in Anchorage, all the lights were turned on in the cabin and the stews started doing aerobics with the passengers participating…they followed this with a full magic show and musical acts.
Before we could get off the plane, they needed to unload the cargo….
Midnight in the Anchorage airport--- a scene of depressing duty free shops and a restaurant with no where to sit…all the signs are in German, Korean and Chinese.
JFK to Anchorage: 6 ½ hours
Anchorage to Seoul 7 ½ hours
Seoul to Beijing 2 hours
Beijing to Xian 2 hours
…Not to mention the wait time in the airports
7:00 am – we were in the transit lounge in Seoul drinking cold beers
Then it was the transit lounge in Beijing…. We met a nice guy from Switzerland. He explained that the Koreans are the most adaptable of the Asians. He worked setting up manufacturing facilities across the globe and said that with Americans, they’ll take something and try to improve it or find another use for it…. the Japanese and Chinese simply follow the rules.
We finally landed in Xian, the starting point for the great trade caravans of the Silk Road. Our guide was there to take us to the car and drive us to our hotel. It was outside of the city walls with a very Japanese feel…. but it was clean and had CNN. We fell asleep with our clothes on after our 36-hour ordeal.