C & C globetrotting around the world…

From Chengdu we had to switch trains in Guangtong with only one hour waiting time before boarding the second one. For the 6 hours to Lijiang we would not have really needed a sleeper, but it was either that or standing, so we obviously took the sleeper. We also managed to dose a little bit, so that was great. And of course we had the box soup, the classic food on train rides. We had booked a room at the Lonely Planet recommended “Mama Naxi Guesthouse”, but we had a hard time finding it. It’s amazing how the Chinese cannot read maps and point you to a direction even though they have no idea. You always have to ask at least 3 people. We finally called Mama and she sent someone to pick us up. From Lijiang we did a 3-day trek to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, a tall and narrow canyon formed by the Yangtze River as it winds between the Jade Dragon Snow and the Haba Mountains (both above 5000m high). The trail is 22km long and follows the steep cliff 2000m above the water. Legend has it that a tiger jumped over the river at its narrowest point (25m) to escape a hunter, hence the name.

Day 1: We had breakfast at Mama Naxi’s before our departure for the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek. Cecilia ordered a pancake with sugar and lemon, got sugar and tomato instead. Theoretically tomatoes are also a fruit, but not exactly what she wanted. Martin, a guy from PEI with whom we did the trek, ordered an egg and tomato sandwich. He got a banana pancake and when he said he ordered egg, Baba (Mama Naxi’s husband) said the egg was inside the pancake. Funny people! So we took the bus to Qiaotou which is 3.5 hours away. Actually the distance is only 75km, but the driver stopped on the way, had breakfast to go and picked up some rice bags. We were totally puzzled when he stopped on the side of the road, put the 2 rice bags a meter apart, opened them and then we drove off. To this day we don’t know what that was about. When we arrived in Qiaotou at the beginning on the gorge, we had a small lunch before starting our hike. We had 2 guys follow us with their mules, hoping we would give in and take one instead of walking. Martin and we walked a little quicker and left a couple (Raymond & Lorraine) from Gainsville, Florida who had been on our bus behind. The first part of the hike was not so close to the gorge and the 28 bends (the steepest part) were pretty difficult, where we had to take lots of breaks. It’s funny because just before the 28 bends there’s a stand with people selling weed and they tell you that everyone buys it before the 28 bends. We don’t think so! The 28 bends were strenuous, but once you get to the top, you are rewarded with a breath-taking view. There is a cliff protruding into the gorge to get an even better view, but there is an old guy sitting there charging 8RMB to take a picture. It’s worth the money ($1.25) though. Christoph also came quickly, although the pictures of him look like he pooed in his pants. Cecilia is proud of him that he at least came out. From there to the Tea-Horse Guesthouse (named so because of a famous tea- and horse-trading route here) was mainly downhill. We arrived at the GH around 5pm, where we decided to stay for the night. We were chilling on the terrace with Martin, Raymond & Lorraine and some time after dark 3 more people arrived (Garrett, Brandon & Kerry). They had hiked in the dark, which we can’t even imagine! The whole evening we were laughing and telling funny stories about the Chinese. Martin told us about 2 signs he saw: “no shitting in the toilet’s water tank” and “no peaking at girls when they shower” (we found them online too). Then Brandon mentioned he walked in on his room mate who was squatting on the western toilet seat to take a dump. Pretty disturbing sight! And then Lorraine & Raymond started telling us about Gainsville. They definitely did not work for the tourism board! The most memorable phrases were: “you might not get eaten” and “very few get killed”, talking about alligators on the university campus. We had good food, lots of beers and really great laughs.

Day 2: We slept in so that when we woke up everyone except Martin, Brandon & Kerry were gone. We had breakfast and left on our hike around 12. The hike was an easy stroll with beautiful scenery. After about an hour we arrived at the Half-Way Guesthouse, where we stopped for tea. We went out to the Inspiration Terrace from where you have an amazing view of the gorge. We had lots of time, so we really enjoyed the sun and quiet out there. The hike was spectacular, crossing waterfalls and always very close to the ridge. Christoph was scared at times, but he was very brave. Then we stopped at another look-out point, free this time. From there it started going downhill and certain parts were pretty slippery, especially the red soil. At the end of the gorge hike, we went to “Le Chateau de Woody”. We had lunch there and enjoyed the view, while also playing “Pass the pigs”. When a Chinese group arrived, we decided to leave and go find Brandon & Kerry. They were at Sean’s Guesthouse, so we decided to stay there. We chilled on the terrace (the view was also nice). At some point after dark the lights went out, but Sean brought us candles, so we had a nice atmosphere. Later we decided to star-watch, so we dragged out some mattresses from the rooms and lied down on the terrace. We were the only ones in the entire guesthouse, so we didn’t bother anyone.

Day 3: We slept in again and had breakfast before attacking the last day of our trek. Most people do it in 2 days, but we wanted to take our time, enjoy the fresh air, the peace & quiet in nature. After breakfast a Dutch couple arrived at Sean’s GH and they also wanted to take the bus to Lijiang, so we decided to take it together. Instead of taking our stuff with us on the hike down to the water, we left it with the Dutch couple. Shortly after we left Sean’s and our bags, we were wondering if it was such a good idea leaving our stuff with strangers we had met 5 minutes earlier. It’s funny, we would never do that back home, but for some reason travelling is different. There were no valuables in the bags (except some dirty socks and sweaty t-shirts), but still. We walked to Tina’s GH, down the winding road passed Zhang’s GH and then took the little path down to the river after paying the 10RMB entrance fee. There were no Chinese on the upper trail, but the bottom trail has been paved so Chinese tourist buses drive there. Those people then also go down to the water, so we were walking down behind Chinese princesses in high heels, white shoes and people that had obviously never hiked. We passed them pretty quickly and made it down in 45 minutes. We stayed there a bit, admiring the gushing water and the perspective from down below. Then we decided to go up another way (the ladder way), which turned out to be very very difficult. We thought the 28 bends were exhausting, well this was at least double as hard, but the views were nice and it was definitely rewarding. It was also the hardest hike we’ve done so far in China! Cecilia is very proud of Christoph (although he only took the little ladder) and he will get a medal soon.

Around 4pm the mini-bus with the Dutch couple came to pick us up and we were relieved that they hadn’t taken off with our stuff. The drive back was also long and bumpy, but we made it back safe and sound. We were tired after the 3-day trek, but also very happy to have done it and felt a great sense of accomplishment.

The bus ride from Songpan to Chengdu took forever (7.5 hours to be exact). The road was very winding and Chinese driving is always an adventure since they always pass in blind turns and dark tunnels. Christoph was sweating the entire drive, especially since the ravine was so close. Luckily the driver wasn’t driving fast, but he was on his cell phone non-stop. Arrived in Chengdu we were totally drained. We checked in at Sim’s Cozy Garden Hostel, the largest and coolest hostel we’ve ever been. We had heard amazing things about it and now we saw why. They have a nice garden with bunnies running around, many terraces and chilling corners, and although it was huge, there was still a nice feel to it. And then there was a very big DVD collection and DVD players in every room (on top of the DVD room that’s like a small movie theatre). Cecilia had diarrhoea, but if there is one place that’s not so bad to have it, Sim’s Cozy is it. She took advantage of the DVD collection and watched some comedies, which was lots of fun, especially when you can’t go very far from the room…

There’s not much to see in Chengdu, so we spent more time inside the hostel talking to other travelers and watching some movies while Cecilia got better. The hostel organized activities every evening in the bar, from birthday parties where everyone got free beer all evening to Trivia Games where the winning team got beer each round. Very awesome. We also met lots of people, so that was lots of fun.

The main reason to come to Chengdu is because of the pandas, so one day we went to see these almost extinct animals. They are just adorable!!! Like live teddy bears! Totally cute! We went to the Panda Breeding and Research Centre with a tour from the hostel. The Giant Panda, a solitary animal, lives about 18 yrs in wildlife, 20-25 in captivity. There used to be a lot, from Beijing to Yunnan, but now their habitat has been destroyed, so the numbers have dwindled dramatically with only 2000 still living in the world (there are 70 here). Females reach maturity at age 5, while males when they are around 6 or 7 years old (men, always maturing later!). A female will usually have a baby every 2 years, but in captivity that can happen more often. However, natural coupling is often unsuccessful, so the researchers actually resort to artificial insemination (they collect the semen by electrically stimulating the male). The gestation period is between 32 and 50 weeks, after which 1 baby is born. Sometimes twins are born, but in wildlife only one would survive since the mother cannot care for both. What’s really impressive is that although the mother weighs about 150kg, the baby only weighs about 150g at birth (1/1000)! At birth they are actually pretty ugly, looking more like rats than pandas. Slowly they develop the black spots and then the hair starts to grow. The babies we saw in the incubator were a bit over a month old. Their eyes are closed in the beginning and they learn to walk only when they are 6 months old. They stay with their mother until about 18 to 24 months of age, when they get their own territory. It’s very interesting to see how close to humans this behaviour is, when you consider that most other animals can walk right after birth. From then on the young pandas are pretty playful, climbing trees and running around. However, the pandas usually spend about 16 out of every 24 hours eating bamboo. The ones we saw were eating bamboo sitting on their butts – so cute (I know I’ve said it before, but they are just loveable). I guess because they are such big animals and bamboo is not as nutritious, they just have to eat all day. We also saw red pandas, but those look more like racoons than pandas.

We also went to Carrefour to buy groceries and saw some interesting articles: pig feet, pig intestines, pig face, chicken feet. The funny part is that these are considered delicacies and are more expensive than chicken breast. Weird foreigners eating chicken breast, the thing with less taste…

The last day in Chengdu we decided to go down-town. We went to Renmin (People’s) Park and that was really interesting! There were lots of tea houses with (mainly old) people chilling and playing games, while not far there were about 10 different groups of people playing blaring music and dancing to it. Some was karaoke and some was completely out of tune. We really don’t know how they can listen to it, but we were laughing our heads off the whole time. We’ve never seen anything like it before. And the people dancing, they were not even nearly moving to the beat of the music, not to mention that since the musics were playing one next to the other, there was an indescribable cacophony!!! Not so far from the music place still inside the park, there were people offering to clean your….ears! The cherry on the sundae!

Then it was time for another 24-hour train ride. Initially we had wanted to take the backroute to ShangriLa and Lijiang in Yunnan over the Szechuan-Tibetan Highway passing through the mountains and beautiful landscape, but then we decided that taking buses for 8 hours a day for 3-4 days in a row was maybe not that exciting. We had been to Tibetan villages, so we decided to skip the Tibetan villages around ShangriLa. The train is just so much more comfortable. Christoph also slept on the train, a first!

From Xiahe we continued further South. We had met a Dutch couple (Britt and Tim) in Xiahe and with them, we hopped on an early bus to Langmusi, supposedly to arrive at 11:40am. We passed through Hezuo, a town on the way where we stopped for a quick break. About an hour after Hezuo the bus stopped on the side of the road. Cecilia was feeling kind of nauseous due to the bumpy ride, so she was sort of happy for the respite. We didn’t know why we had stopped, but were speculating that maybe the driver forgot something and someone was going to bring it from Hezuo. After a while, a car with 4 cops arrived and starting looking at the bus and taking pictures. This is when someone told us that the bus had hit something. We didn’t really think so since we hadn’t felt anything and there were no marks on the bus, but let the police do their job. Soon after they left, the bus driver told us to get back on the bus. We were happy to finally go since we had been waiting for an hour. We weren’t so happy though when the bus turned around, heading back to Hezuo and driving 10km/h. The ride back took forever! The whole time we were making jokes with Britt and Tim, but deep down it wasn’t that funny after all. When we arrived back in Hezuo, one of the guys on the bus told us that apparently our bus had hit a person and the person had died, so the police needed to investigate and question us. We didn’t really think that was possible and were hoping to catch the last bus from Hezuo to Langmusi, otherwise we would have had to stay a day in this ugly town. Luckily the police came pretty quickly and our bus driver was absolved of the accusation, so we were able to catch the next bus to Langmusi, where we arrived at 3:30pm instead of 11:40am… At least we got there!

We checked into the hotel and went to the Snowy Mountain Cafe to book our trekking tour. Not that we wanted to do a horse trek, but when the girl saw Christoph, she told us that the horses are for people weighing under 85kg. Luckily we were planning on walking anyway. Britt and Tim decided to come with us, so we booked a 2-day trek for the 4 of us (it worked out to be cheaper, so that was cool). We were told that it would be cold at night, so we walked around town to buy some gloves and hats since we hadn’t packed thick clothes.

Langmusi, a Tibetan village, is at the border between Gansu and Szechuan province separated by the White Dragon River, surrounded by grassy meadows and mountains. We also walked around town (there is one street) and took a quick look at the two monasteries. Sertri Gompa on the Gansu side dates back to 1748 and is a little higher up the hills, while Kerti Gompa on the Szechuan side was built in 1413 and is home to about 700 monks. Christoph and Tim went for a walk on the hills behind the hotel to get some nice views of the surrounding area. The girls were cold, so we went directly to the rooms to take a nice hot shower (after 2 days of only cold water in Xiahe).

After a pancake breakfast at Leisha Cafe to get a good start to the day, we met up with our Tibetan guide: Chita. He was a 24-year-old guy of medium stature and very friendly. On this 2 day trek we will hike through the grasslands and sleep at a nomad family’s place. The nomads are called Goloks and have their own Tibetan dialect, but luckily our guide also spoke Mandarin so Cecilia was able to communicate with him. Her Chinese definitely got better. The fact that the Tibetans are so friendly helps a lot, as well as the fact that they also speak standard Mandarin (no Chinese local dialect) since they also learnt it in school. So we began our 35km trek at 9am walking through the village and then on a road by the White Dragon River. A little motorized tricycle came along and Chita suggested we take it. So we hopped on it for a very bumpy ride. After a while we told him we want to get off since we were sitting very uncomfortably, but it was fun. Soon we came to a place where we were supposed to cross the creek, but it was too wide for us to jump over it. Chita tried to throw some rocks in it that we could step over, but even the biggest rock (that Christoph and Tim couldn’t lift together but Chita just grabbed and threw in the water) was not enough. We were ready to take our shoes off and walk through the creek when Chita told Christoph to hop on his back. He carried Christoph and his backpack through the river and we were just staring, not able to believe our eyes. He then carried us all through the river while we were laughing. We realized this thin and not-too-large fellow was as strong as a bull.

For lunch we stopped at a tent in the Xiu’re Valley where a Chinese group of horse trekkers came to join us. Christoph helped make fire with dried yak shit (that’s what the nomads use for making fire) – luckily it doesn’t stink – and then we had rice with a cabbage stew, a very hearty meal. The horse trekkers had Tibetan guides dressed in the traditional Tibetan cloak and Christoph got to try one. The cloak is pretty heavy, but doesn’t feel as warm as it seems. Christoph looked very funny in it and he enjoyed walking around in it. At the end of this valley, the Xiu’re God Mountain Home God Festival is held twice a year. Once upon a time tribes decided not to fight anymore, so men got together and put their weapons on the summit of high mountains to offer them to the gods. They still do it to this day, putting down wooden swords and holding horse races.

Then came the hardest part of our trek, where we hiked to the White Dragon River Source (from above it looks like a dragon claw ) and to a pass in the grasslands at an altitude of 3800m. Langmusi lies already at an altitude of 3000m, so even though the hike is not very steep, the altitude really took a toll on us. We were often out of breath and had to take breaks while our guide was running up the hill. The views were really nice and we enjoyed the fresh air and the clear skies, admiring the natural beauty of the area. After the pass we saw the “Ocean of Flower”, a big grassland with streams inside and lots of wild flowers in summer. It is used as the autumn grassland by nomads, each family having 3-4 grasslands where they graze the sheep and yaks according to season. Usually a few families live close to each other, but each family has its own tent. We walked through the herds of sheep and yak in the bumpy and muddy grassland slowly making our way towards the nomad family’s tent. Traditionally the tents are made of yak hair, which is so strong that it can be used for 20 years. Since yaks cannot be shore though, a little bit of hair is cut off every year and made into a section of yak hair tent, replacing the oldest section. The family we stayed with was not living in one of these because they were better off and could afford a fabric tent, we were told. Arrived at the tent, we were greeted by the very friendly mother who immediately served us yak yoghourt. We rested a bit and were looking forward to experiencing the nomad lifestyle.

Being a Tibetan nomad woman is not the easiest thing in the world since she does all the work. In the evening she was gathering dried yak dung and piling it into the corner of the tent to use it as fire, a task Christoph helped her with. The yak dung fire produces more smoke than wood. As it was starting to get a little darker, it was time to bring the herds back – the only thing the man does (besides drinking tea with his friends)! Some nomads still heard their animals by horse, while others have motorcycles. We were planning on going to bring back the yaks from the grassland, but when we saw the family dad being attacked by the neighbour’s dog, we changed our minds and stayed to help the mother peel green beans. The dogs are used to protect against wolves and thieves, but they are very aggressive and we armed ourselves with rocks for the remainder of our stay there. Luckily we didn’t need to use them. So once the man brought back the yaks, he was finished working for the day. Some yaks automatically went into a fenced-off area, while the ones with babies were tied up by the woman. Christoph helped Chita tie up the baby yaks, which are not as big, but still very strong. During this time, the man was drinking tea with his friends and we were sitting there, incredulous to the fact that he didn’t help her. We were told each family has about 80 yaks and 300 sheep, but it seemed to us that there were more than 80 yaks. What’s interesting is that the horns don’t tell the difference between male and female. Some have them, others not, but the animals are definitely impressive. Then she had to cook dinner, a stew of zucchini with dried yak meat over rice. We had dinner with the family, but were disappointed that they were watching TV (they had a laptop hooked up to a sun-powered battery). We also talked to them and found out that the son was going to school in Hezuo 4 days a week, sleeping there in a dorm and coming home on the week-ends. The mother called him “baby”, although he was already 14 years old. When we were ready for bed, they prepared the sleeping area and Chita tucked us into the sleeping bags we had brought with us. We were very warm, despite the fact that air was flowing through the tent.

The next morning the woman woke up at 6am and started milking the yaks (the man woke up at 8am). First she would let the baby yak drink a little bit to get the milk flowing, then tie him up again while she milked the yak mother. When she had milked it enough, she would let the baby drink again. In spring and fall she milks them once a day, while she milks them twice in summer and not at all in winter. Unlike cows, female yaks only produce milk when they have a calf. They also only let their own calf drink, no other one. Once the lady finishes milking (it took her over 3 hours!), she sends off the yaks to the grassland and starts gathering their shit and spreading it into a thin layer. Within 4 days it is dry enough to be used for fire. After a plain breakfast, we started off our second day of trekking. Our guide hiked very quickly and we tried to keep up. It is surprising how wet the grasslands are; we were wondering where the water was coming from and why it wasn’t draining. For a big part of the day we were hiking on the side of hills, so our ankles started hurting from walking at an angle. We told Chita we wanted to go home the quickest possible, but that still took another 4 hours, so it was a very long day. Overall it was a really nice experience; the trek and the nomads, and the fact that Britt and Tim were also there made it more fun.

We left for Songpan in Szechuan province (continuing South towards Chengdu) early the next morning. The way the departure of the bus is announced is by honking super loud for half an hour before departure, even if that’s at 6am and the whole village wakes up. On the way to Songpan there were many decorated villages, but we don’t know what festivities were going on, unfortunately. As we approached Songpan, many villages seemed rebuilt and almost every house had a Chinese flag. Our theory is that the Chinese government rebuilt many of these places after the 2008 earthquake, but in return the people had to put up the flag. The houses are really nice and look like in Switzerland, but the flagpole on every house reminded us of the US. The old town of Songpan is walled, but here too everything has been rebuilt. Christoph calls it “Disney” since it seems to have been built only for tourists. What’s funny is that every shop and restaurant has an English name displayed as well, but some of them are horrible and hilarious at the same time.

From Dunhuang we started heading back East. We had wanted to go to Tibet, but it’s pretty complicated since you need a special permit (if you get it) and need to book a tour (expensive). Since we still wanted to come in contact with the Tibetan culture, we decided to visit some Tibetan villages in China, but at the border with Tibet. We took the train East from Dunhuang to Lanzhou (12 hours) and then a bus to Xiahe (South). The first part of the 4 hour bus drive we saw lots of mosques (at least 3 visible at all times), terraced hills slowly getting higher and losing the terracing. The predominance of the Muslim (Hui) population also slowly gave increasingly way to the Tibetan and even the road signs were in 3 writing: Chinese characters, Pinyin and Tibetan. Although the towns are developing, it’s still a very agricultural-based area.

Arrived in Xiahe, we were surprised by how developed the town is. We expected a smaller Tibetan village, but instead there are banks, supermarkets, 5 storey buildings and a few cranes. The town lies at 2920m altitude and its 70,000 people population is composed of 50% Tibetan, 40% Han and 10% Hui. Walking around town, we saw something that looked like feta cheese. Since we haven’t had cheese in a while, we bought a chunk. We didn’t want to wait until we got back to the guesthouse, so Cecilia told Christoph to bite into it. It was butter, not cheese! He was pretty grossed out and will probably remind her of it for a while. Despite the altitude, we didn’t have altitude sickness, but were a bit more tired than usually, so went to bed early on the first day. After having accumulated some energy, we did what we came to Xiahe for: “Walk like a Tibetan” (can’t help but thinking of the song). Labrang Monastery is surrounded by a 3km kora (Tibetan pilgrim path) lined with 1174 prayer wheels that pilgrims spin when they walk the kora. We also walked passed the meditation cells on the hillside, which look kind of funny. We found that the Tibetans are a lot more friendly than the Chinese, smiling more, shaking hands and also laughing whole-heartedly. For dinner we went to the Nomad Restaurant where we had Tibetan food: local schnapps, butter tea, yak meat momos (dumplings), and Tsampa (a barley with cheese & water bread).

After walking the kora around the monastery, the next day we visited the Labrang Monastery with its 2000 monks from Tibet, Mongolia and the area around Xiahe. The monastery built 1709, is one of the 6 major monasteries of the Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism and also the place where the current Dalai Lama studied. The tour guide (a monk) we had was amazing, giving us a lot of information about Tibetan Buddhism helping us understand their temples and culture a lot better. The Labrang Monastery has many different colleges (tratsang in Tibetan) where monks study various subjects, including philosophy 13yrs, medicine 15yrs, astrology, tantras). Children can join the monastery as early as age 7 or 9 and then for the first few years they have to memorize the scriptures before taking a test to enter the college. Depending on the test grade, a specific college is then assigned. During their time in the monastery, monks usually get supported by their families and donations from pilgrims. In Xiahe the monks seemed to be pretty well off since most of them had cell phones and other gadgets. It was pretty unusual seeing monks in their crimson cloaks with Nike shoes and texting… The lamas and masters on the other hand wear yellow cloaks to show their status. Unlike other Buddhist monks, monks here can eat meat due to the cold, but lamas & masters are still vegetarian. This special status, the masters and lamas have, is also evident after death: their relics are “buried” in golden stupas in the temples, while monks and normal people usually get a sky burial.

The sky burial, where the white cloth is removed from the body while the master of ceremonies slices the body on the stone slab seems a very interesting albeit very perturbing sight. The flesh is cut into large chunks, the bones and brains smashed and mixed with barley flour. The smell of flesh draws the vultures and once the master retreats, they carry the pieces towards the sky. They believe that it performs a spiritual as well as practical functions. According to Buddhist beliefs, the body is merely a vehicle to carry you through this life, so once the body dies, the spirit leaves it and the body is no longer of use. Giving the body as food to the vultures is considered a final act of generosity to the living world. Vultures are themselves revered and believed to be a manifestation of the flesh-eating god Dakinis. This form of burial also provides ecologically sound way of disposing of bodies in a region where wood is scarce and the soil is often frozen solid. We have not seen this ancient Buddhist-Tibetan tradition, but have walked past a sky burial site. The sick people or those who took medicines get incinerated and then the ashes are brought to the sky burial place to avoid making the vultures sick.

The set-up of Tibetan monasteries is quite different from what one expects of normal monasteries. There are the various colleges and the monks live in little courtyards. Each monastery has at least one white stupa (choerten in Tibetan) which is located outside and holds holy scriptures, around which the pilgrims can walk when doing the kora (pilgrim path). Inside the temples, the candles are made of yak butter and we also saw a Hall with sculptures made of yak butter, which has a very particular smell, but the sculptures are very nice and colourful. They are made by the monks using natural colouring agents and kept for a year. Another interesting feature of Tibetan monasteries is that the Buddha statues have blue hair (not black or golden like other Buddhas). Our guide was a philosophy student himself and an excellent guide.

After the monastery tour and lunch, we decided to walk the outer kora up on the hill. On the way through the Tibetan village part of town, we passed another smaller monastery where we saw monks in red and white robes with long braided hair before heading up the hill. On the hill, we passed a sky burial site with all the prayer flags and lots of small papers with stuff written on them flying in the wind. From the top we were able to get a good feeling of the design of the monastery with its small courtyards where the monks live and even saw some playing basketball.

Dunhuang is really far in the Northwest of China. We were happy to have had hard sleepers on the train because 23 hours of sitting is no fun. Cecilia had the middle berth while Christoph had the bottom one and he could even stretch in it. During the day the passengers from the higher berths usually sit on the lower one or on the seat in the corridor for chatting and eating. After 10pm the lights go out and everyone goes to bed. The train was very clean, we had nice people around us and the waggon attendant came to clean and wake people up during the night so they wouldn’t miss their stop.

We finally arrived in Dunhuang, in the middle of the desert. After the rain in Xian, it felt good to be in the dry. It was Cecilia’s first time in the desert with sand dunes and she was very excited. The fertile Dunhuang oasis is situated at the westernmost end of the Hexi Corridor and was the most important station on the Silk Road. While most people used to just stop here to swap a camel, others stayed and built forts and cave temples. Now the town has about 150,000 inhabitants. The city is really not what we imagined for a desert city. It’s very clean and pretty modern. Our hostel, right by the dunes was nice and had a traditional Chinese courtyard.

The Mogao Caves are said to be one of the greatest repositories of Buddhist art in the world. At its peak, the site housed 18 monasteries, over 1400 monks and nuns, and countless artists, translators and calligraphers. Wealthy traders and important officials were the primary donors responsible for creating new caves, as caravans made the long detour past Mogao to pray or give thanks for a safe journey through the treacherous wastelands to the west. The traditional date ascribed to the founding of the first cave is 366AD. In total there are 492 caves, although only about 20 are open to the public. We visited 2 enormous seated Buddha figures (34.5 and 26m tall respectively) carved during the Tang dynasty (7^th -10^th century), when 230 caves were built. They were carved from the top down into the cliff, but also using straw and clay for the clothes. The 34.5m tall one is the world’s third-largest Buddha and is inside the 9-storey cliff pagoda, while the smallest one is 2cm high.

A dark chapter in the history of the Mogao Caves was when in the early 1900s, the Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovered a walled up area behind one side of a corridor leading to a main cave. Behind the wall was a small cave stuffed with thousands of manuscripts dating from 406 to 1002 AD. These included old hemp paper scrolls in Chinese and many other languages, paintings on hemp, silk or paper, numerous damaged figurines of Buddhas, and other Buddhist paraphernalia. There were original workbooks, books of prayers, Confucian works, Taoist works, Nestorian Christian works, works from the Chinese government, administrative documents, anthologies, glossaries, dictionaries, and calligraphic exercises. Unfortunately Wang sold (voluntarily?) the majority of them to English, French and Japanese archeological expeditions. This is why you can find most scripts today in French and British museums.

It was interesting to see the different caves because they were carved in the span of 1000 years, so styles differ considerably. The early ones are more Indian in style and iconography, while later they became more Chinese with more rigid strokes and sculptures. During the Tang dynasty there is an appearance of court life with music, dress and architecture. The colours used in all caves are green, blue and red, with the rare yellow colour. Overall they were very impressive and interesting (even though our guide’s English was horrible), but unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the caves.

Dunhuang is different from the other cities (it’s also considerably smaller) as in there is no KFC and McDonald’s yet. Also, motor-scooters are still powered by fuel here as opposed batteries in most other places we’ve visited so far. In the area, the main crops are wheat, corn, cotton, melons, fruit, and vegetables. We’ve seen cotton plantations from the train on our way here and melons and grapes are for sale everywhere. We even saw chars for the “Dunhuang Grape Festival” with girls dressed in traditional costumes, but we couldn’t find more information about it. The wine from this region is actually quite good table wine, even the cheap one. We also went to the Dunhuang Tourist Information Center because we wanted to see what else there is to do in town since we had a free day. The people there didn’t speak English, but called someone on the phone. Christoph asked if this was the Tourist Info Center and they said yes. When we asked them what there is to do, they replied “We don’t know”. Wow, very helpful Tourist Info Center!!! After seeing how chilly it gets in the evenings in Dunhuang and hearing stories from other travelers about how cold Szechuan gets, we went to a town  market and bought a jacket and a pair of long-johns for each of us.

The other major reason we came all this way: the sand dunes. We first went to Crescent Moon Lake, which is really close to the entrance. It’s an oasis with a pagoda in the desert with a lake in the shape of a crescent moon. It’s very nice, but there are so many tourists and you cannot get a picture without the stupid orange boots used for sand walking… Still very nice though and it must have been magical when it was first discovered. We then started hiking on the sand dunes of Mingsha Shan (Singing Dunes Mountain)– really strenuous work, but the views were rewarding, even though we didn’t actually hear the dunes signing. It’s probably one of those things like in Hangzhou where they give places really poetic names. The best part was when we decided to go on the other side and hope to see some camels. It was Cecilia’s first time in sand dunes and she really enjoyed running down on them. We hiked in the dunes for a few hours, going up and down. Christoph discovered a spot where he was able to take gorgeous pictures of camels and the sunset. Mission accomplished!

Our butts are square, but we made it! We will try to avoid hard seat overnight (or longer than 8 hours) probably going forward. We finally arrived in Xian, Shanxi province, the birthplace of China. About 6000 years ago nomads settled down in the fertile area around the Yellow River and Shanxi became the heartland of the Qin dynasty, whose warrior emperor set out to unite much of China for the first time. Xian was also the end of the Silk Road, so the city has a very very long history and is considered a melting pot of cultures and religions.

Like most historic cities, Xian also has a Bell Tower, a large and impressive building, which was rung at dawn, while its partner the Drum Tower marked nightfall. Both towers date from the 14^th century and were rebuilt in the 18^th century. Back at the hostel we checked into our beautiful hostel (nice village-like looking rooms with traditional stone bed, luckily covered by a mattress). We then attempted to see the Small Goose Pagoda with its 15 progressively smaller tiers built in the 8^th century, but it was closed so we only had a glimpse from outside the park. In the evening we met up with Lance and his friends. The kebabs in Xian (and food in general) was delicious. We also found out that buildings (like apartment buildings) are demolished after 70 years in order to keep the economy going. This of course explains why people don’t upkeep the buildings and they look in such a pity state. They told us that for them it’s not worth buying since after the 70 years the compensation money the government gives you is not really enough to buy a new place, so many people prefer to rent. This also explains why there are soooooooooooo many new apartment buildings (actually communities of apartment buildings) being built at the same time.

Since Xian was the end of the Silk Road, there is a large Hui (Muslim Chinese) community established here since the 7^th century. We wondered through the street of the Muslim Quarter just behind the Drum Tower past butcher shops, souvenir stands and men with white skull caps. We visited the Great Mosque, one of the largest ones in China, which is a fascinating blend of Chinese and Islamic architecture. The mosque looks more like a Chinese temple (even the Minaret is disguised as a pagoda), but the Prayer Hall and inscriptions are obviously Islamic. Afterwards we went for Cecilia to get her hair cut since it was starting to look like an afro. That wasn’t such a good idea since she couldn’t explain to them how she wanted her hair cut. They also had never cut curly hair, so it was an interesting experience for everybody. Cecilia told them to cut, but that her hair becomes curly when dry. They understood she want her hair curled so they brought the curling iron. She said no, so they brought the straightening iron. Then Christoph pointed that outside later her hair will become curly, so they wanted to colour her hair red. Finally we just let them cut it and were happy to get out of there. The guy was laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes, while Cecilia was happy that hair grows back at least. Lesson learnt: never cut your hair where you don’t speak the language!

We also visited another one of the major attractions in China: The Terracotta Army. On the way there, the bus broke down – twice – and we had to switch buses, explaining why the 35km took one hour.

The Terracotta Army is one of the most famous archaeological finds in the world and it was discovered by accident when some peasants were digging for a well in 1974. This subterranean life-size army of thousands has stood guard over the soul of China’s first unifier for over 2000 years. There are theories that Emperor Qin Shi Huang was terrified of the spirits awaiting him in the afterlife; or that he expected his rule to continue in death as he had in life. Qin Shi Huang is a controversial figure in Chinese history. On the one hand, he created an efficient and centralized government that became the model for later dynasties, he standardized currency and writing, as well as building many new roads and conquering 6 major kingdoms, and all this between the age of 13 and 40. On the other hand, he enslaved hundreds of thousands of people, outlawed Confucianism, buried its top scholars alive and burnt many written texts. Nevertheless, his Terracotta Army is very impressive. As suggested in the LP, we visited the 3 pits in reverse order. Pit 3 contains 72 warriors and horses and is believed to be the army headquarters due to the number of high-ranking officers unearthed there. Pit 2 contains 1300 warriors and horses and is still a work in progress, but there are 5 soldiers on display: kneeling archer, standing archer, cavalryman with horse, mid-ranking officer and a general. It is extra-ordinary to note the level of detail and how each soldier has unique facial expressions, hairstyles, armour and footwear. Pit 3 is the largest and most impressive with its 6000 warriors and horses, all ready for battle. There were also 35 wooden chariots which have now disintegrated, but the imprints remain. There is also a pair of bronze chariots which are on display. It is very interesting to see the pits, but also how they are restoring the broken warriors. Very very interesting.

The rain ruined our plans for our last day in Xian! We wanted to go biking on the city walls and in the evening go to the fountain and music show by the Big Goose Pagoda, but both had to be cancelled. Xian is one of the few cities in China that still has its city wall intact, which measures 14km in length and is 12m high. Biking on it is supposed to be one of the highlights of Xian, but the rain killed our plans. I guess we shouldn’t have waited until the last day anyway, but we were really lazy in Xian. The Big Goose Pagoda is Xian’s landmark and that too we missed. Built in 652AD, this is where a Buddhist monk spent many years translating scriptures. That too will have to wait until our next visit in China.