Since my last post which I think was in Khotan, I moved on northwards across the Taklamakan desert, skipped Urumqi and went straight to Turpan. Little disappointed with the place after all the good reviews, but probably just because I am a bit late in the season. While there saw a couple of tourist sites and moved on to Dunhuang, which was nice. Visited the famous and amazing Mogao Buddhist sculpture caves (twice) and some huge, huge sand-dunes just outside town. Next stop Jiayuguan which was the western most point of the original Great Wall. Saw some of the great wall and the huge fort there, which I now know as being the source of so many photos I have seen to promote Chinese culture, books, films etc etc..
Now in Lanzhou and soon off to Nanning way down south of China in Guanxi province to a wedding (No, not mine Ade !!). Due to the wedding date, I'm speeding through Gansu province, so will have to come back here again next year, when it will be warmer too, was snowing yesterday and also previously in Jiayuguan..brrrrrr
Will have time to update more and add photos too I hope when I get to Nanning as I expect I will hang around there for a while.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Blogspot is back in China !
The 'Blogspot' domain is back online in China, or at least, now I am in Gansu province... So having just tried to migrate it all to my own webspace (still a few problems with photos), I find I don't need to, so for now everything is staying at this address...
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Along the Silk Road in China
Since Uzbekistan I have been passing along a route that includes many towns from the ancient 'Silk Road'. Leaving Kashgar, I moved along the Southern road of the Taklamakan desert that was also a well trodden route in the Silk Road days. From Kashgar I went to Khargilik (叶城, Yecheng in Chinese), there I stayed in the 'traveller's guest house' outside the bus station, as do most tourists by the look of the guest book. Strange thing there, I was a little bemused at first as the floor lady kept knocking on the bathroom door, but then I realised she was trying to demonstate that the bathroom light was sound activated. It was amusing how you could turn it on in different ways, shouting 'on' would switch the light on, so would shouting 'off' ! So did the knocking on my bedroom door late at night (which I guess were from ladies offering 'services'). Hi tech it sounds, but it did not fit in with the general appearance of the room, in contrast the shower had no real shower head, so the water just poured out like it was being pumped through a trumpet. The town had nothing of any special interest, just a historical note, it was almost entirely Uighur populated, very very few Han Chinese there, so lots of food stalls in the streets with various delicacies such as sheep's head.
Left: Traffic in Yarkand.
Right: Local Uighur people gather outside the mosque in Yarkand.
Next morning I took a bus backwards to Yarkand (沙车, Shache in Chinese), a bigger town half expanded by Chinese development, modern Chinese buildings, hotels, restaurants in one half, and the much more dusty but appealing old town area where the Uighur people hang out, big buzy bazaar, mosques, mausoleums and traditional old wooden houses. Many of those that were still standing looked like they were about to collapse or were abandoned, but the local way of life still went on as normal, selling food on the streets, animals wandering about, donkey carts and open trucks pulled by motorbikes whizzing around everywhere.
After a few hours I headed back to Yecheng, where if I could still catch a bus to Khotan I would, if not I would stay another night. On the way back (at a place I think was called Qinbag Zhen in Chinese Pinyin), the road was blocked, some big market going on, full of sheep, donkey carts, camels, food, quite an amazing site really. Took a while to get through but was worth the wait seeing all the animals, locals and the trading going on. In Yecheng there was a bus, almost full and so within 30 minutes of arriving it left and I was on yet another uncomfortable bus to Khotan. After some 8 hours on busses that day, my back hasn't been the same since.
Arrived in Khotan (和田, Hetian in Chinese) late at night and checked into the Traveller's guest house outside the station (again the same name, though this time translated to 'Traffic hotel'). Khotan is an old town renowned historically for its silk, jade and carpets trade. The next morning I moved to another cheaper hotel and walked around Khotan, took a bus to the silk factory, had trouble finding it and when i did they were closing. A pretty uneventful, unsuccesful day apart from finding a 'Western bakery' cafe that had all sorts of lovely sounding western foods on the menu, but out of all of them, only pizza was available, it was an OK pizza though and the waitresses there were ever so sweet and beautiful and found my attempts at communication incredibly funny. Today I moved to another hotel again (3rd in 3 days in Khotan) as yesterday's one had no hot water, this one is cheaper still, but actually better (I think so far). I was given room 102 which I could not find at first but then i discovered it, in between rooms 106 and 107 (of course!), and opposite 109, which was adjacent to 105.
This morning I visited the carpet factory and saw workers weaving carpets at quite impressive speeds, jumping columns along the loom without even thinking, knowing exactly where the next weave of that colour was to go. Very impressive skills on display and it seemed a nice atmosphere there, the ladies were working impressively but were still chatting amongst themselves at the same time. Only the sight of a strange foreigner watching, stopped them in their tracks. Walking back I stumbled across a jade market, I spotted crowds of people hanging around which usually signifies people selling mobile phones, but here it was jade. Quite a selection of stalls selling a variety of stones and other people just hovering around, pulling hands out of their jacket and showing you a handful of stones, like it was some kind of dodgy merchandise. A bit like my first ever visit to Amsterdam where you used to get approached all the time by dodgy men offering various drugs, but here the merchandise was just harmless stones. There was an amazing array of stones available and people asking ridiculous prices, but that was probably just a special price for the foreign tourist ! Some nice things but as I had no idea of value I resisted until I had done some more research. Further on I decided to pop down to the river where people were digging away with forks looking for jade stones, I chatted with a couple of people to see what they found and they had recoverd a few nice pieces, there were all sorts of people there, digging for their fortunes, old ladies alone, young girls with their babies, men in groups working as a team, obviously big business this. Final cultural visit of the day was to the jade factory to see workers carving and shining jade on their lathes, nothing special, but nice to see the environment in which it is being done. Some nice carved pieces available in the shop, but again far too expensive really. Later on, in the street, I bought a stone for 15 yuan, his starting price was 300 ! So shows how much they try to rip people off.
Top: The jade street market
Left: Khotan silk factory.
Right: Locals out seraching for jade on the river bed.
Tomorrow I have to make it to the silk factory again in the morning and then later, hope to leave for Urumqi (乌鲁木齐, Wulumuqi in Chinese) and Turpan (吐鲁番, Tulufan), North across the Taklamakan desert highway.
Left: Traffic in Yarkand.
Right: Local Uighur people gather outside the mosque in Yarkand.
Next morning I took a bus backwards to Yarkand (沙车, Shache in Chinese), a bigger town half expanded by Chinese development, modern Chinese buildings, hotels, restaurants in one half, and the much more dusty but appealing old town area where the Uighur people hang out, big buzy bazaar, mosques, mausoleums and traditional old wooden houses. Many of those that were still standing looked like they were about to collapse or were abandoned, but the local way of life still went on as normal, selling food on the streets, animals wandering about, donkey carts and open trucks pulled by motorbikes whizzing around everywhere.
After a few hours I headed back to Yecheng, where if I could still catch a bus to Khotan I would, if not I would stay another night. On the way back (at a place I think was called Qinbag Zhen in Chinese Pinyin), the road was blocked, some big market going on, full of sheep, donkey carts, camels, food, quite an amazing site really. Took a while to get through but was worth the wait seeing all the animals, locals and the trading going on. In Yecheng there was a bus, almost full and so within 30 minutes of arriving it left and I was on yet another uncomfortable bus to Khotan. After some 8 hours on busses that day, my back hasn't been the same since.
Arrived in Khotan (和田, Hetian in Chinese) late at night and checked into the Traveller's guest house outside the station (again the same name, though this time translated to 'Traffic hotel'). Khotan is an old town renowned historically for its silk, jade and carpets trade. The next morning I moved to another cheaper hotel and walked around Khotan, took a bus to the silk factory, had trouble finding it and when i did they were closing. A pretty uneventful, unsuccesful day apart from finding a 'Western bakery' cafe that had all sorts of lovely sounding western foods on the menu, but out of all of them, only pizza was available, it was an OK pizza though and the waitresses there were ever so sweet and beautiful and found my attempts at communication incredibly funny. Today I moved to another hotel again (3rd in 3 days in Khotan) as yesterday's one had no hot water, this one is cheaper still, but actually better (I think so far). I was given room 102 which I could not find at first but then i discovered it, in between rooms 106 and 107 (of course!), and opposite 109, which was adjacent to 105.
This morning I visited the carpet factory and saw workers weaving carpets at quite impressive speeds, jumping columns along the loom without even thinking, knowing exactly where the next weave of that colour was to go. Very impressive skills on display and it seemed a nice atmosphere there, the ladies were working impressively but were still chatting amongst themselves at the same time. Only the sight of a strange foreigner watching, stopped them in their tracks. Walking back I stumbled across a jade market, I spotted crowds of people hanging around which usually signifies people selling mobile phones, but here it was jade. Quite a selection of stalls selling a variety of stones and other people just hovering around, pulling hands out of their jacket and showing you a handful of stones, like it was some kind of dodgy merchandise. A bit like my first ever visit to Amsterdam where you used to get approached all the time by dodgy men offering various drugs, but here the merchandise was just harmless stones. There was an amazing array of stones available and people asking ridiculous prices, but that was probably just a special price for the foreign tourist ! Some nice things but as I had no idea of value I resisted until I had done some more research. Further on I decided to pop down to the river where people were digging away with forks looking for jade stones, I chatted with a couple of people to see what they found and they had recoverd a few nice pieces, there were all sorts of people there, digging for their fortunes, old ladies alone, young girls with their babies, men in groups working as a team, obviously big business this. Final cultural visit of the day was to the jade factory to see workers carving and shining jade on their lathes, nothing special, but nice to see the environment in which it is being done. Some nice carved pieces available in the shop, but again far too expensive really. Later on, in the street, I bought a stone for 15 yuan, his starting price was 300 ! So shows how much they try to rip people off.
Top: The jade street market
Left: Khotan silk factory.
Right: Locals out seraching for jade on the river bed.
Tomorrow I have to make it to the silk factory again in the morning and then later, hope to leave for Urumqi (乌鲁木齐, Wulumuqi in Chinese) and Turpan (吐鲁番, Tulufan), North across the Taklamakan desert highway.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Into China... Part 2
Apart from the clear differences in quality of customs buildings at the remote and mountainous Irkestham pass, there are many other observations that have come to my attention during the first 2 weeks in China. Here are some notes from my time so far, not all contrasting to things in Central Asia, some are similar too, but these things have caught my eye in some way or other.
- Regular road checkpoints, they are watching youuuuuu..
- Road quality far superior in China
- Don't expect any vehicle to stop for you at a pedestrian crossing, I don't even know why the lines are painted on the road, noone stops, they just toot horns to warn you they are coming at you, and few people use them anyway. Any part of the road may be used to weave your way across, get used to standing in the middle of the road with traffic going past you in both directions until the other side of the road is clear.
- Having said that traffic in towns is reasonably slow moving so not too difficult to negotiate.
- The bigger the vehicle the more right of way you have ! When overtaking all vehicles toot horns to warn the vehicle being overtaken. If something is coming the other way, there are even more horns and swerving, which always result in the smaller vehicle getting out of the way, great when you are on a bus !! But being on the road is noisy, good earplugs are recommended.
- I have never seen so many donkey and carts on roads anywhere, ever. In cities, on major roads, carts, small trucks and flocks of sheep, cover a large percentage of the traffic. (Note: This I expect this is Xinjiang province specific).
- Noone understands what i am trying to say when I try to speak Chinese
- Bananas are cheaper here than in Kyrgyzstan
- So is beer ;) 3 yuan (30 euro cents) for a bottle, around the same as Uzbekistan but....
- Better still beer comes in bottles of 620 ml here
- Hotel rooms have nice little packs of hygiene products like shampoo, bath foam, comb, toothbrush and toothpaste. Yes, ok you get that in Europe too, but not when you are paying around 4-8 US dollars for a bed or room.
- Nice to see people dancing and doing Tai chi in squares and parks around town.
- What is so special about sheep's heads, it doesn't look like there is anything appetising or nourishing on them to eat, but still they stand there on sticks staring at you at Uighur food stalls.
- In Kashgar (especially on Sunday, the big market day) I saw a number of cow's heads lying around the streets, mmmmmm
- China mobile's network (incidentally the mobile network with the most subscribers in the world !) gives amazing coverage, in the mountains, at remote lakes, and even in the Taklamakan desert, you get a signal !!
- Regular road checkpoints, they are watching youuuuuu..
- Road quality far superior in China
- Don't expect any vehicle to stop for you at a pedestrian crossing, I don't even know why the lines are painted on the road, noone stops, they just toot horns to warn you they are coming at you, and few people use them anyway. Any part of the road may be used to weave your way across, get used to standing in the middle of the road with traffic going past you in both directions until the other side of the road is clear.
- Having said that traffic in towns is reasonably slow moving so not too difficult to negotiate.
- The bigger the vehicle the more right of way you have ! When overtaking all vehicles toot horns to warn the vehicle being overtaken. If something is coming the other way, there are even more horns and swerving, which always result in the smaller vehicle getting out of the way, great when you are on a bus !! But being on the road is noisy, good earplugs are recommended.
- I have never seen so many donkey and carts on roads anywhere, ever. In cities, on major roads, carts, small trucks and flocks of sheep, cover a large percentage of the traffic. (Note: This I expect this is Xinjiang province specific).
- Noone understands what i am trying to say when I try to speak Chinese
- Bananas are cheaper here than in Kyrgyzstan
- So is beer ;) 3 yuan (30 euro cents) for a bottle, around the same as Uzbekistan but....
- Better still beer comes in bottles of 620 ml here
- Hotel rooms have nice little packs of hygiene products like shampoo, bath foam, comb, toothbrush and toothpaste. Yes, ok you get that in Europe too, but not when you are paying around 4-8 US dollars for a bed or room.
- Nice to see people dancing and doing Tai chi in squares and parks around town.
- What is so special about sheep's heads, it doesn't look like there is anything appetising or nourishing on them to eat, but still they stand there on sticks staring at you at Uighur food stalls.
- In Kashgar (especially on Sunday, the big market day) I saw a number of cow's heads lying around the streets, mmmmmm
- China mobile's network (incidentally the mobile network with the most subscribers in the world !) gives amazing coverage, in the mountains, at remote lakes, and even in the Taklamakan desert, you get a signal !!
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Best and Worst so far ..... Update
The Karakoram Highway/ Lake Karakul (Xinjiang Province, China)
Must be added to my earlier list at number 3. (I only saw about 25% of the road, but that was enough to justify inclusion)
Must be added to my earlier list at number 3. (I only saw about 25% of the road, but that was enough to justify inclusion)
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
The Karakoram Highway to Pakistan
Just back from 2 and a half days along the amazing karakoram highway which stretches from kashgar 1300 km to Rawalpindi in Pakistan. Went as far as Tachkurgan the last town before Pakistan about 400km from Kashgar. At first the road is nothing special but after around 90 minutes you start climbing into the Pamir mountains that just stretch into this Western most part of China. Up and up you go, surrounded by mountains on both sides continuously. Past the highest peak of the Pamirs in China which is 7,546m high as the road reaches around 4,100m. Snow all around the mountain tops but surprisingly little on the ground at this altitude. All along the views are amazing and had to stop many times to grab photos. First day we went all the way to Tachkurgan where we stopped the night. There we saw a 600 yr old stone walled crumbling city, played pool in the streets with locals and made a brief visit to the local disco.
Left: Ancient stone city at Tashkurgan
Right: Villagers of Kyrgyz inhabited Karakul play pool.
Top: Lake Karakul and a camel
Bottom: Lake karakul and the 7546m high Mt Muztagata in the Pamirs
Left: motorbike and driver around part of lake Karakul
Right: Liah, Tom and Alarvo at the local disco in Tashkurgan
Next morning we headed back and stayed a second night by the beautiful lake Karakul with snowy mountains all around. Walked part way round the lake and did the rest on motor-bike when a passing local offered to take us around. Stopped in Karakul village - inhabited entirely by Kyrgyz people - where we were giving tea and nan. Then back to our camp which had a number of yurts and a stone house where we stayed and were fed and looked after by a local Kyrgyz family.. Around the mountains and lake I saw yaks, camels and sheep which were not in the least bothered by strangers wondering by. The tea was strange, made with yak's milk and a good helping of cooking fat, which may be good for people living at high altitude in cold weather, but doesn't taste so good to me!! The dinner was very tasty though...
Left: Our family host at Karakul lake
Centre: Easly morning at the yurt camp with moon still shining
Right: Entrance gate to Karakul village
Just seeing this section of the Karakoram highway is enough to make you come back to see the rest, it really is absolutely stunning....
Monday, November 06, 2006
Kashgar and the Sunday Market
Visited the famous Kashgar Sunday market this morning, an animal market and bazaar. It was a little disappointing having read so many good things about it, but it was still something special, Rows and rows of animals lined up for sale, sheep, donkeys (with carts), camels and horses all available at a price, we were tempted to buy a camel, but did not have enough money for one, though it would have been cool.. The amazing thing was to see so many traders heading along modern Chinese highways with flocks of sheep and donkey carts. There is a real mixture of culture here in Kashgar, a real mix of old and new, there is an old town full of Uighur people who culturally and physically looking are Central Asian, buying & selling fruit, nuts, carpets and hats, eating shashlyk, noodles, laghman and other Central Asian foods from street stalls and then, the modern side full of Han Chinese shopping in modern shopping underground shopping centres and modern boutiques around the southern side of town, while at the same time Uigur people ride through on their donkey carts, which today being Sunday took over the whole city. Even late this evening, the roads had as many donkey carts trotting along as there were the green and white striped taxis.
Top Left & Right: At the Kashgar animal market.
Bottom Left: At the Sunday market.
Bottom Right: traders arrive at the animal market.
It's a really good city with such a mixture of culture, so much more modern than Central Asian nations, but still with a strong Central Asian influence, probably about 50/50 ratio these days. The people are very friendly and helpful and it makes it an easy place to hang aorund a while. Also helped by some great fellow tourists I have met; with Tony (Oz), JP (US) and Fuki (Japan) and also Stefan (France) we had a great night out in a couple of night clubs, one which was very Uigur, in fact there were only Uighur people there apart from us. This club had the bizarre idea that for a few hours during the evening, they would play only Turkic music which involved revolving around the dance floor anti-clockwise while dancing, something Tony and I tried and got quickly thrown off for not moving around enough and havning everyone bumping into us, as well as the fact that after every song the dance floor had to clear for a two minute break of 'other' music after which everyone could start dancing again. The other club was entirely Han Chinese who strangely favoured dancing around the tables, but it was pretty quiet and did not stay long. Also met Michael (Germany) who was on the bus form Osh to kashgar and who i had also met earlier in Bishkek, Tom and Dom from England, Freddy from Peru or Switzerland depending on his mood, and surprisingly today, again Oren and Magen (Israel) all of whom I also met in Bishkek over a month ago, we somehow ended up in the same cafe in the Sunday market.
Left: Kashgar's Id Kah mosque.
Right: Test drivinga horse at the animal market
Also spent a day in the Taklamakan desert with Eunmi form Korea, who amazingly has visited my home town of Haverfordwest; I was a little embarassed that I had not yet visited her town, the capital of Korea, Seoul; that was a nice day and she was the second person in two days I met who has been to Haverfordwest. Tomorrow I should be off to Lake Karakul and then Tachkurgan near the borders of Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan which is supposedly beautiful with the Pamir mountain range towering behind the lake at over 7500 metres high..
Left: Me & Eunmi in the Taklamakan desert
Right: Uighur men in Kashgar old town
While here I found someone to give me some Chinese Mandarin lessons (Puo tong hua) to brush up the few things I learnt in Amsterdam before I left, it's difficult for sure and nobody (except my teacher) has understood anything I have tried saying yet ;) but I hope thing will improve. It seems many tourists survive without any Mandarin at all, but it would be nice to be able to try some at least so I will probably stay a few more days when i return to be able to learn 'just enough' to get by when I move around the rest of the People's Republic of China (must get the name right !)
bye for now...
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Into China... Part 1
aCrossing the border from Kyrgyzstan to China at the Irkishtan pass, you could see immediately a difference. The Kyrgyz border post was a little wooden hut in dusty surroundings, the Chinese border buildings were BIG, new, shiny and overmanned. The crossing took about 13 hours !! yes really. Brief diary summary
6:30 am - Arrived at the Kyrgyz side
8:30 am - Allowed through the gates to the customs control (it opens at 9am)
9:00 am - Let into building
10:00 am - Out of customs building
10:15 am - Drive on
10:30 am - Stopped, sent off bus by Chinese guards, all made to line up with bags, all bags searched by two officials, passports and names checked by girl in oversized uniform walking along the line, looking up at faces under the overhanging peak of her oversized cap, saying 'Imya?' (russian for 'name?') to check if she had found the correct person before moving onto the next passport and moving up and down the line again looking for him/her. No real problem for me and Michael - a german tourist also on bus - but locals were thoroughly checked, foods sampled, drinks were made to be drunk, packages opened etc etc
11:30 am - Back on bus and onwards to customs building, big queue of trucks ahead of us
12:00 midday - Queue that was moving slowly now stops as border is closed 12:00 - 14:00
14:15 pm - Queue starts moving agian
15:15 pm - Bus drivers negotiate a overtake of some trucks, we move foreward and into customs building
15:30 pm - Food taken away from me (apples are dangerous in China obviosuly !) but I get through first ! Probably because the customs declarations and immigration cards are in Chinese and English only, so all the Kyrgyz/Uzbeks have problems filling it in !
16:30 pm - By now everyone else is through but no bus, still stuck behind a few lorries on other side of building. It cannot move through as trucks are piled up on Chinese side queueing to go the other way, blocking the way out, gridlock.
16:45 pm - Two Chinese border guards come bursting out of the building doors throwing wild punches at each other, one is thrown againsta low wall and nearly goes over, but escapes, more punches thrown until two larger Chinese officials break them up and drag them away in diffreent directions. Bit of entretainment at least.!
17:00 pm - I see driver arguing with customs and lorry drivers to move their vehicles, some move but still our bus cannot get through
17:45 pm - Again more lorries move, still not enough to get through
18:30 pm - Bus squeezes through and heads for exit, notices some passengers missing, they are in a restaurant
19:00 pm - All aboard and off we go
22:45 pm - Arrive in Kashgar almost 27 hours after leaving Osh
6:30 am - Arrived at the Kyrgyz side
8:30 am - Allowed through the gates to the customs control (it opens at 9am)
9:00 am - Let into building
10:00 am - Out of customs building
10:15 am - Drive on
10:30 am - Stopped, sent off bus by Chinese guards, all made to line up with bags, all bags searched by two officials, passports and names checked by girl in oversized uniform walking along the line, looking up at faces under the overhanging peak of her oversized cap, saying 'Imya?' (russian for 'name?') to check if she had found the correct person before moving onto the next passport and moving up and down the line again looking for him/her. No real problem for me and Michael - a german tourist also on bus - but locals were thoroughly checked, foods sampled, drinks were made to be drunk, packages opened etc etc
11:30 am - Back on bus and onwards to customs building, big queue of trucks ahead of us
12:00 midday - Queue that was moving slowly now stops as border is closed 12:00 - 14:00
14:15 pm - Queue starts moving agian
15:15 pm - Bus drivers negotiate a overtake of some trucks, we move foreward and into customs building
15:30 pm - Food taken away from me (apples are dangerous in China obviosuly !) but I get through first ! Probably because the customs declarations and immigration cards are in Chinese and English only, so all the Kyrgyz/Uzbeks have problems filling it in !
16:30 pm - By now everyone else is through but no bus, still stuck behind a few lorries on other side of building. It cannot move through as trucks are piled up on Chinese side queueing to go the other way, blocking the way out, gridlock.
16:45 pm - Two Chinese border guards come bursting out of the building doors throwing wild punches at each other, one is thrown againsta low wall and nearly goes over, but escapes, more punches thrown until two larger Chinese officials break them up and drag them away in diffreent directions. Bit of entretainment at least.!
17:00 pm - I see driver arguing with customs and lorry drivers to move their vehicles, some move but still our bus cannot get through
17:45 pm - Again more lorries move, still not enough to get through
18:30 pm - Bus squeezes through and heads for exit, notices some passengers missing, they are in a restaurant
19:00 pm - All aboard and off we go
22:45 pm - Arrive in Kashgar almost 27 hours after leaving Osh
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