Even in English I feel almost incapable of expressing the wonder and amazement I’m experiencing in China. Our Silk Road Tour only compounds the problem but I’ll try to capture some of it in words and pictures so you can get a glimpse back in time thousands of years with the benefit of the luxuries of modern travel.
Chicken or beef were the options for the meal on my flight and the pandas on the box were super cute! The dessert was some sort of pudding / jello like substance with real chocolate shavings on it that I thought were beans at first. As the only person from Beijing on our tour, I flew alone and was super proud of myself for getting to the airport and on the plane with only divine and tech help.
Sept 30 – After I arrived at the airport in Urumqi (pronounced Ooh-room-chi) Karen & Rich arrived from Xi’an (pronounced Shi-on) and Laura arrived from Shanghai so it was a happy reunion and start of the fun! We stayed at the Luxemon Xinjiang (pronounced Sheen-jong) Yindu Hotel. They had a place to dress up in traditional costumes and we explored around the hotel to find a delicious traditional Halal dinner, meaning no pork but lamb kebabs and pasta dishes along with beef bao buns.
October 1 – Urumqi to visit the Xinjiang Museum and Erdaoqiao Grand Bazaar and then driving by bus to Turpan. I loved seeing all the beautiful clothing, jewelry and yummy smelling food. Local pomegranate juice is for sale everywhere and they juice it right in front of you. I decided my souvenirs would be a skirt in a traditional pattern, matching earrings and some beautifully patterned coasters.
Turpan, Jiaohe Ruins, the fanciest La Quinta Inn ever… The whole area we were traveling through was a large desert with few plants upon first glance but then we would arrive at a little oasis. Jiaohe ruins was once a thriving metropolis but whoever controls the water controls life so the people eventually abandoned the area. What is amazing is that you can still see the mud brick buildings still standing thousands of years later because the area receives very little rain and the construction of the bricks and buildings was so solid! Night shows are a thing here in China and even though we didn’t stay to watch a historical reenactment we were ushered out by the soldiers and beat of the drums. I was ok with that because I was pretty tired and ready to get to our hotel, expecting the US version of a LaQuinta.
However this was the fanciest LaQuinta I had ever seen! And when we arrived we had a 15 course ‘beggars’ meal before heading to bed. We were told there was going to be a fire that evening but I didn’t know what that meant until we left the restaurant with ‘Opa Gagnam Style’ playing loudly, clearly someone was having a party nearby! Our room had a birds eye view of the revelers and I tried to get people to check it out with me but in the end only Laura and I went and by the time we found the way to the bonfire they were stopping the music and putting out the fire. Oh well, another time we will dance around the bonfire too!
October 2 – Uyghur (pronounced Weegur) village, Bezeklik Thousand Buddhist Caves, Gaochang Ancient City and the Karez Well System… If you and your family have lived in the desert for 1000’s of years you hopefully figure out a few things about how to thrive there. The Uyghur village and Karez system are evidence that these people were brilliant! They figured out how to get water from the mountains to the villages through connecting wells underground and like I said whoever controls the water controls life. They finished this Karez well system in 1949 and it has been watering their melons, grapes, pomegranate, dates and apricot trees since then without losing water to evaporation. How smart is that!
And then we returned to Urumqi to got on the overnight sleeper train to Liuyuan. As for sleeping on a train overnight, it sounds peaceful, or relaxing right? Not so much when you are on the top bunk and all your roommates are a sweet Chinese family with little girls, and you need to use the squat toilet in the middle of the night and the holdout old guy smokers were positioned in a place that seems to have direct access to the vent by my feet. Even though Marvin, our guide asked them to stop, they held onto the tradition through the night. We got on at 10:30pm and had to be up and ready to jump off at 6am when they had a 2 minute stop. I was so happy to breathe fresh air!
October 4 – Dunhuang, the UNESCO Mogao Caves and the Night Market… Thank goodness for modern facilities, smoke free hotels and restaurants and showers! After refreshing ourselves and perhaps a nap we traveled to the Mogao Caves. There are more than 700 caves there created by patrons, sometimes wealthy with walk in size caves and statues, sometimes not so much with a small window size cave. All dedicated to Buddha and decorated in artwork depicting 1000 Buddhas which symbolized that anyone who followed the path could become a Buddha and that there are a 1000 ways to follow the path. At least that is my understanding of it from our guide. She took us to 6 or 7 caves including the largest one which I’m am standing in front of which looks like a building and like it might be multiple caves but in reality just contains the one statue, the second largest Buddha statue in the world. While my facts may need a little tweaking – you can either fact check me or go there yourself someday. I would suggest the latter option. Again the longevity of this detailed and painstakingly created artwork is mind boggling in light of the 1000 years these beautifully decorated caves have been around.
What keeps coming to mind is that China is such an ancient country and has such a rich cultural history that I sometimes feel a longing to be so connected to family and land that has been observed and tended for generations. Whereas the United States is such a young country with such diversity that it seems easy to focus more on what is currently relevant rather than trying to learn from the past or build something for future generations. The thousands of years of history in China with their observations of nature, seasons, the human body and health, skilled artisans and evolving dynasties is what makes it a fascinating place for me.
More to come in my next post…
