Silk Road - ShaanXi Xi'an, Where it all begins!

We finally got a hard sleeper on the train ride to Xi'an, paying almost double as we could only get the ticket through an agency!

Xi'an (西安) was once called Chang'an (长安).  If you know mandarin, you would know 'Chang' mean "Long" and 'an' means "Peace", so "Perpectual Peace" it hopes. One of the Four Most Ancient Capitals in the world as Athens, Cairo and Rome, Chang'an was the capital for 12 dynasty in ancient China before it was renamed to Xi'an in the 14th century during the Ming Dynasty. As the eastern terminus, Chang'an was also the beginning of the ancient Silk Road with the west most terminus to Cairo and Constantinople (today Istanbul).

Xi'an, the fort is the best preserved part of the Great Wall, is a museum by itself with 3000+ year of history.  We couldn't possibly visit it all in our short stay.  So, we aimed for the biggest - the Tomb of Emperor Qin (秦始皇墓) and the Terracota Warriors (兵马俑).

The reason to visit the Tomb of the Emperor Qin (Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huan) is to understand the existence of the Terracota Warriors.  The tomb is on a little hill, where now is fully grown with pomegranate tree.  We were not allowed to go in the tomb as it is underground, only to visit the park.  However, when we reach the top, we can view at its east where the terracota sit.  The legend said for the position the terracota in the east, it is the garrison force to protect the emperor, even after his death, from the invasion of the east, which at that time, Japan.  By going into the Terracota Warrior Museum, one can only realize the size of it, is a troop of army.

Terracota Warriors Museum Pit No.1 - Xi'an, Sep 2004.

There are 3 pits for the museum and the photo is only Pit No.1.  The interesting thing is this very first pit were found by a farmer during drilling a well, in the month I was born, :-).  It opens to public in 1979, 230Mx620M (18 soccer fields?) in size and has 6000+ warriors. Without any existence of historical record, the Terracota Warriors is the most valuable piece of cultural heritage in China second to the Mogao Grottoes.

Although I was not aware that Xi'an is actually the centre for the space exploration program in China, I did know that it is renounced for it's food, especially the FuLu Chicken  (芙芦鸡).  What is a FuLu?

This is FuLu.  It is a type of melon.  When it is dried up, it can be made into liquid container (most to hold wine) and here, an artifact.  However, FuLu chikcen is nothing like this.

  

FuLu chicken, as I read, is cooked first by steaming the chicken with different ingredients to get the right taste before deep fried till goldish.  It supposed to be soft inside and crispy outside. I read about the Xi'an FanZhang (西安饭庄) serves such a dish in its best.  When I asked the ladies from the agency, they know nothing about this restaurant.  Then one of their train ticket agents scolded them that they as mainland chinese should know where is Xi'an Restaurant for it is so famous.  I had no clue why till I reach the restaurant for my dinner.  It took us a while to find it because we could not believe how grand is the restaurant.  When we went inside (2 backpackers), we realized from the photos hanging along the hallway, this restaurant serves dignitarians such as the President of USA, Singapore and is a favourite among the Chinese Premier.  But, to my shocking surprise, the waitress and captain were in the most manner behaviour, serve us just like any customers  and the food was in a reasonable price.  We ended up having the best meal in the whole journey.

Our menu - FuLu Chicken (right) always serve as a whole, Asperagus (middle) and Tea Mushroom with rice steamed in a claybowl with Pearl Ball Jasmine tea.

Silk Road - Gansu Lanzhou, it is really Yellow?

When I got to Lanzhou (兰州), I was exhausted after 2 weeks of travelling.  Thus, I took 2 days off just to sleep and eat here.  First thing I learnt in Lanzhou, the people here talk very loud, but definitely brainy. A hotel manager help me to unscrewed my pedlock with 2 screw drivers. A taxi driver got me the best deal in town to stay with a humbly tip. A bus driver kindness protected us from the conning act of boatman.

Lanzhou, if you hear people saying, always the Ramen.  The Lanzhou Beef Ramen is the most famous ramen in Chinese culture.  I went on the street and tested it, it is indeed the best ramen I ever had!  If you ask anyone on the street which is the best store, they will say All Are Good.  It is indeed!

Most tourists came to Lanzhou to see the HuangTu Plateau (黄土高原). Over the history, this area had and will be flooded in which the HuangTu (a.k.a Yellow Soil) deposited over thousand of years is what formed the plateau.  You can see from the plateau the mark of level of the flooding over certain years. The flood certainly can reach a very high level.  But the soil deposited does not seem to be fertiled.  The cultivation here is mainly corn and the farmers are mostly poor.  Thus, they will work as the boatman during the tourist season.  Surprisingly, the culture is completely different along this river and plateau, the people here are mostly muslim. This could be due to the close vicinity to the NingXia province which once upon the time was one of the 5 largest dynasty in China.  West Xia (西夏) dynasty was predominatly muslim.

By taking the boat up the Yellow River, it is actually not Yellow, we reach a grotto called Bing Ling Si (冰灵寺) in the canyon built a little bit latter than Mogao Grottoes in AD420. It is not one of the 3 greatest grottoes in China (Mogao Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes and Maijishan Grottoes), but Bing Ling Grottoes has something very unique to it.  On top of it was flooded by the Yellow River, it is a fully expose grottoes making it vulnerable for erosion. Due to that reason, it is in the open and preservation is almost impossible.  As time past, this grottoes will disappear.

>27M in height, this Maitreya Buddha is similar in style to the great Buddhas that once lined the cliffs of Bamiyan, Afghanistan

Take in the view around, a sail along the Yellow River is a must. We might not feel the force of its flood, but we can see the mark the flood left behind.  In which, the impact seem tremendous.

Silk Road - Gansu Jiayuguan, the Fort

We took the morning bus to Jiayuguan (嘉夷关), going through the Hexi Gully (河西走廊).  Hexi Gully is the 1000KM stretch of land in Gansu from east to west on the western shore of the HuangHe (黄河), a.k.a the Yellow River. It consists of the central part of the Silk Road from Lanzhou to Dunhuang. While Dunhuang is named as "the throat of Silk Road", Jiayuguan is named "the throat of Hexi Gully" and Jiayuguan Fort earned the name as "the First and Greatest Pass under Heaven".  The fort is the first pass for the Great Wall in the west while Shanhaiguan (山海关) is the first pass in the east.

At first look, Jiayuguan is an industrial city, the steel city.  However, knowing China history, Jiayuguan is famous due to its strategic location.  It is the last fort in the west, thus, making it the most important fort to hold against the invasion along the Great Wall.  Back then, the west had the Persian, the Turks, the Urbez while the north had the XiongNu, the Yan, the Khazaks.

Today, Jiayuguan is famouse for its Great Wall.  It has the one and only Hanging Great Wall in China.  I know, you wonder what is a Hanging Great Wall.  This stretch of the Great Wall goes on at a 70-90 degree slope, making it the most steep, slenderly Great Wall you will ever climb. The hiking enthusiatics know there are 2 parts of the Great Wall is excellent for hiking, Jiayuguan and Simatai in the east. Jiayuguan is steep and Simatai is raw. Strangely, this section of the Great Wall is built by mud clay snaking over the mountain. From a far distance, it looks like hanging from the sky.

After DunHuang, Jiayuguan is another oasis city in the Gansu province. Up high in the station, the Gobi desert is in view in the north. Of course, the best time to visit should be the evening sunset time.  However, we did not plan to stay over in Jiayuguan. As we can see the endless Gobi desert in Dunhuang, the snow cap Qilian mountain ranges bounded Jiayuguan in the south. We only spent half a day here and took the night bus to Lanzhou.

Silk Road - Gansu DunHuang, Mogao in the Gobi

Done with the bus, my 1st train ride in China, out of Xinjiang, heading east to the city of Dunhuang in Gansu. I was shocked to see the amount of crowd staying overnight in Turfan train station on the floor in order to get a train ticket.  We got a seater for the night train instead of a sleeper make it a tough night to endure. The "platform ticket" holders were standing all around us, they wouldn't get a seat if the train is full, the train was full.

There was no sleep all the way and we reached the centre of the Gobi Desert before sunrise. Gobi is the Mongolian word for "waterless place". We catched a van to Dunhuang while the sun seemed to be waking up. Even Gobi is surrounded by snow capped mountains in the north - Altai and in the south - Qilian, we only see sand in the middle.

Everyone who came to Dunhuang, came for 2 sites - Mogao Grottoes and Yueyaquan (Crescent Lake).

Mogao Grottoes, for it is so famous, it does not require much introduction.  For any Buddhists and art carvers, Mogao Grottoes is the only and ultimate place to visit. A cliff that secured from the north-west wind erosion, a monk that passed by on the Silk Road, the greatest Buddhist site was created in AD336. The cliff was carved into more than 1000 caves, always digged from the top of the cliff,  carved in so that the monks could use the natural sunlight in the morning, then down to the bottom. Many monks passed by and eventually 400+ residing caves were carved for meditation, only 300+ caves were carved into holy scripted caves. Too bad, no camera or photos inside the grottoes to protect the carved and coloured carvings.

In the 90's, the richiest Chinese in the world donated a fortune and maintenance work started.  Now, all the caves are covered for protection from erosion.  We were only allowed 10-15 caves per visit.

Yueyaquan (Crescent Lake) is where I had my ever 1st camel ride and 1st sand boarding down the dune. It is also the place where you hear, ya, hear the Singing Sand Dunes, an effect from the blowing wind.  Crescent lake is an oddity because it is in the middle of no where, a little oasis with a cresent lake, out of no where.

I hiked up, yes, no buggies, hiked all the way up those sand dunes just to get my 1 ride on the sand board, like a little boat. It was funnest thing I done, get the adreline running.

And the camel ride, such cute animals.

If you notice, the camel in the Gobi is the Bactrian camel, not the Arabian camel.  The Bactrian camel got two-humped to suit the arid environment here, great transportors with a good thick wool.  I was enchanted by the camels.  I thought they are a bunch of lovely cuties.

Silk Road - Xinjiang Finale

Silk Road will continue, but the journey for Xinjiang has came to an end.

We spent 14 of our 23 days journey in Xinjiang and we were having hard time at the moment we thought of crossing the border to the province of Gansu.  Not that Gansu is any less, Magao Cave is in Gansu, however, we were showered with the kindness of Uyghur for 14 days and we know we will have problem to face the Han Chinese.  Why?  Because we were never once cheated or conned by Uyghur in Xinjiang.  And for all we read, that is not the case heading east.

With a heavy heart, I am to show a summary what I felt about Xinjiang.

The Land

Desert - It was the first time I see desert.  Just like the feeling as I read it, quiet, vast, dry, surprisingly, pleasant to me!  Wierd, no!  Side effect of having 9 siblings and living in a land with lot of rain. I totally appreciate the feel of a desert, mysterious!

Oasis - It is like a place where you see hope.  A 26 hours of bus ride without anything around is a despair feeling.  The scene of an oasis takes all those despair away and gives every bit of hope that things are assure, comfortness!

Grape Trellises - I came to Turfan to see what is in the history, in the legend and in the story book.  The grape trellises tell it all.  I can spend all my time walking up, walking down, sit along the side walk, and have a drink.  I do not mind to be one of those seasonal workers here, enjoying the sense of, romance!

The Culture

Mosque - It should be familiar as there are many back home, but there are completely different.  The mosque here puts more emphasis in the front facade and the minaret, not so much to the dome as back home.  It normally like a piece of art work sitting in the middle of no where.  It might not have many attendants, but calling out far, in faith!

Art - I am not a muslim, but have always interested in the Arabic art.  The grilles,  the ceramic tiles, the carved foliage inscriptions. It looks colourful and I some how see patience in every piece of it.  More over, it's duty, sacred!

Bazaar - Hahaha :-).  Yes, I like this one the most.  The sundry produces, the variety of fruit, and most of all, the textiles.  By just walking along the bazaar and vesting through all the textile stores, I alrady feel, beautiful!




 The People

Kids - Children are amazing here.  Their smiles are never ending! They called you, asked you to take their photos, always with a big smile.  They laugh even more when they see their own photos in the camera.  They are everywhere and decorated their land with the upmost, innocence!

Folks - Most impression of a muslim society is uptight.  Well, mine is they are honest. For the record, I had bought 1kg of grape for RMB1, 2 fat goat milk bagel nun buns for RMB1 and 2 botols of date drink for RMB1.  Negotiating a price to them is a no no. The is what I called, virtue!

Family - Everything has to happen with a family.  Work, especially!  They are so family oriented that it makes a traveller like me feeling shameful of myself. The inclusion does not matter with time, place or us, the strangers.  It puts me in mix feeling to leave their land because it touches the softest part of a human, compassion!


That's it for Xinjiang, writing making me feel like going back again! 

**Note - the 234 photos for Xinjiang are  here (photos 7-240) and the 17 posts for Xinjiang are here. 

Silk Road - Xinjiang Turfan, Toyoq Valley people

We came for the door, but we got more than what we came for!

I can't write about Toyoq Valley without telling the stories of the people we met here.  The lady in red, with her upmost resilence to upkeep her feminine in a pair of heel on a rocky road. The old granny who came and open the big orange door, she was at least hundred year of age.  It shows you that life is more matter to the Uyghur here than anythings.

As we walked, we were also peeping into the Uyghurs' house to see how they work on raisin production.  As though we should not have, it is offensive to these people, they are muslim.  However, we were surprised by the friendliness of the people here.  Work is done together in a family as they normally have big family and stay together.

This couple saw us passing by and taking photos.  Without stopping us, pulled us into their roof top, show us how they worked on the raisin and offered us to eat their raisin. When we were reluctant to take their raisin, they got angry with us.  :-) so, lesson learnt - never refused a kind offering from Uyghur, they will get angry!

We met Abdullah at the end of the road where the mosque is.  Abdullah goes to school here.  Even though they are Uyghur, the class is in Mandarin as it is a province of China.  I asked Abdullah why is he not in class and going around.  He said - very few students at school, teacher is off and he does not like the Mandarin class so he is skipping it.  He only can communicate in very basic Mandarin.

We met this family on the way back.  They have one of the newest door, thus, the paint is still fresh. The daughter can speak proper Mandarin and is the only person I can fully communicate to.  The father is no longer around and the mother takes care of her 3 children alone.  According to her, life is not easy, but peaceful in Toyoq Valley.  Again, they were so friendly they invited us in, offerred us tea and raisins.  We visited her house but didn't have anything as we were heading to catch the bus back to Turfan.

Kids here love to be photographed.  They will ask to be photographed and once you show them the photo on your digital camera, they will laugh and laugh.  It was 2004, not quite a digital age yet and they were surprise to see themselve on the digital camera. But, they will do it over and over again.


Every house we peeped in, the Uyghur family will pull us in, offering us raisin is a must, some offered tea.  I wrote about the people because recently I saw many incidents of violence in Xinjiang betwen the Uyghur and the Han Chinese.  I can't help but to doubt the cause is the Uyghur for the reason of my experience with these people.  They might not be the most civilized, or educated, however, they are the most honest and friendly people I have met in my travel.  They have a very different kind of culture, but hey, who are we to judge them. Give it a thought!

Silk Road - Xinjiang Turfan, Toyoq Valley with the interesting Door

We did came for the door, so I have to write about the door!

These doors are colourful, historical and dated back to 500 years old.  Why?  Most of it are the influence from the Persian and Arabic art.  Uyghurs are muslim and this region has a long history of the domination from the Semitan Penisular.  The Arabic art shown on both the carving as well as the colour.

My favourite one is this bright orange colour door. 

The reason is for the old lady who came to open the door for us.  She reminded me of this place that time does not seem to be matter to the people, only life does.

All these doors are built with big frame, some closed to 15 feets in height. Two main features are - there is always a smaller door embedded at around 5-6 feets height and there is always airing holes on top. Some of the colletions here.

Silk Road - Xinjiang Turfan, Toyoq Valley in the Flaming Mountain

After being the tourist over Turfan, we read about a place where the "house door" is colourful and dated back to 500 year ago!  Without a doubt, we got up early the next morning, went to the bus station, after numerous enquiries, we finally got one lady reluctantly told us about the bus we should take with the when and how to go to Toyoq Valley.  At first, I was took back by all this reluctancy as Uyghur has been so friendly and helpful. Got the ticket, went on the bus, I started to understand the reason after the bus left Turfan.  The journey is into the Flamming Mountain, probably without a single soul  in the middle of the desert. Also, it is one of those place where if you miss the bus back, there is no where to stay. 

After an hour into the journey, we saw the sign to get off the bus. The junction is to an oasis village along the stretch of road. There is no modernity, just a normal road. But look deeper, we saw the amazing water irrigation syetem that keep this oasis going.

Toyoq Valley is a grapevine oasis. The main reason Turfan region can have such a good growth of grape thanks to the great development of the water irrigation system called Karez Well. The Karez Well system channeled water underground from the mountain to the vineyard, defining the desert hot dry weather making Turfan a perfect place to grow grape.

As we walked (we walked for closed to 6 hours that day to cover the whole oasis grapevine village), we saw this lady in red with the most resilence to maintain her feminine. I am amazed by her insistent to wear a heel in this road condition. I was wearing a pair of Adidas walker and my ankle was aching.

All villagers here cultivate grapes, indirectly, raisin is a main product.  Most village home is the flat top style with a roof that built to dry grape for raisin. The roof top is built with hole for airing the grape. It looks like a square box and the brick is made of mud from the ricer bed.

The grape is harvest at the end of Auguest through October before the snow came.  The grape will be hanged on branches that prepared for drying to raisins.

In Turfan regions, there are many such oasis cultivating grapes.  The valley is normally dark green when it contrast with the red earth and the desert.

Silk Road - Xinjiang Turfan, the driest city on earth!

Before I started talking about going on Silk Road, I imagined everything like those in Turfan.  After I came back from Silk Road, I talked about everything in Turfan.  Yes, you are right, I love Turfan.  Turfan to me is like the ancient Chinese once said "西丝", the persian beauty! This town is so relax till you want to stay forever.

The most striking part of this city, is very much because of all the history sessions I had in high school.  Almost all my high school teacher is from Taiwan, or educated in Taiwan.  Thus, Chinese history is part of life than school.  A major part is about Khazack, Mongol, Xiongnu and the western territory of Xinjiang.  Not hard to see the reason, the Hans considered concurring the west and north as their major empire.  While Turfan is a oasis town which centred at most the empires trying to concurr the west, it has long history since 100AD and been concurred by the Turks, Rouran, Gokturks, Tang dynasty, Tibetian, Sogdian, etc. To have such background, Turfan is loaded with historical sites and mixture of cultures.  It is everything to experience the imagination I had in high school, is De-Javu!

After the long journey back from Kanas Lake, we took a 3 hours bus heading east.  We been to the west, the north, well, heading east means heading home.  Turfan was our last stop in Xinjiang. As we had came to know, learn and realize so much about the Uyghur Culture, not exactly Hans, we love it. Before we headed to all the famous histrorical sites, this is how relax it is.

9am, bed and sleeping in the middle of the street.

No, I am kidding.  Turfan is one of the driest cities in the world. Thus, it is hot and dry.  There is a local culture to move the bed out of the building at night so that it is easier to sleep with the breeze.  It is common in Turfan.

Well, if you come to Turfan, you have to visit the 8 UNESCO historical sites for it is too famous such as the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, the Tarim Mummies, etc.  The very famous Emin Minaret is completely built by earth brick.  One of the 8 Great Literaturers in the Ming dynasty, 苏东玻 was outcasted to Turfan and stay here for the rest of his life.

For all, I only impressed by the JiaoHe Ruins.   Jiaohe Ruins is still very much intact. Taking a walk through this ruins  is a real live history session. It shows the properous time of the Silk Road.

I named this photo "背影", for it to looks so lonely!

In Turfan, even with such hot and dry climate, we couldn't forget to talk about Grapes.  As it is an oasis, fruit is in plenty while grapes are in major production.  Going into the town, you will not miss the Qingnian Lu, a street which shaded by grapevine trellises.  Just like I say, you will fall in love with Turfan.  Take a walk to this street will tell you why.

Transportation vehicles are allowed.

Some of the grapevine trellises are over 150 year old.

When the harsh cold Winter comes, the city will unfold these grapevine down and cover it with the desert sand. When Spring comes, they will put it up the trellises.  Citizen are well behave and no one is trying to pick the grape.  They don't need to, well, you will see why when we go to Toyoq Valley.