Silk Road Tour - Part 1

Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Today starts the official week long holiday called “National Day”, in honor of the Communist Party taking over China.  We booked a tour through a Chinese man, “Marvelous” Marvin Wu, who has been putting together trips for the BYU teachers in China for many years.  (We think he has gotten wealthy from BYU teachers!)  He calls this one the “Silk Road” trip, after the old trading route to Europe and beyond.  In the morning we flew to Urumqi in the far northwestern part of China.  (A bunch of coal miners were killed there just the other day.)  A local tour guide holding a “BYU” sign met us and we gathered on a bus.  It was so fun to meet up with several of the BYU teachers from our “class of 2014” and talk about each other’s problems, sharing the highs and the lows.  Some teach at universities that adore the BYU teachers, some are less loved.  Some had yet to even start teaching as their schools were on different schedules. 

The bus first took us to a Muslim bazaar/market where Anne learned she needs practice at this bargaining thing.  Clyde says they offer us the “round eye” discount (meaning a higher price) so Anne didn’t end up buying anything.  It must get really cold here because they were selling animal fur lined hats, coats, leggings, etc.  This area of China is called an autonomous region and the people here are more closely related to the middle-easterners (the 5 –stans countries) than the Han Chinese.  They are bigger (taller/heavier) and dress more modestly.  Few of the older people even speak Chinese here.  The signs look like Arabic.  We had a nice dinner with local food specialties not too spicy.  There was more meat (but not pork) than what we see in Chengdu.  The hotel was nice but they still have no padding on the beds here.  It is like sleeping on a box spring, without the spring!


Thursday, 10/02/2104  In the morning we had a nice breakfast at the hotel and then were taken to a museum of the different cultures in the region.  It gave us just a taste of what the people and their lives are like here, going back to cave people.  We would like to learn more.  What followed was a three hour bus trip to Turpan past China’s largest wind farm.  It went on for miles without a speck of vegetation of any kind.  The area is supposed to be the 2^nd lowest place on earth after the Dead Sea.  It looked like it had been scorched with an A-bomb – no living thing – plant or animal.  On one hill we saw what looked like ancient burial grounds.  In this middle of nowhere there was one truck stop where we all stocked up on snacks.  And unfortunately that’s the only place travelers can find a bathroom – it was hard not to throw up from the smell.  But the sky is very clear here, so that’s a plus; crisp and clean and no air pollution.



Scorched earth - not a living thing!

Model of Their Irrigation System

Grapes in drying shack

 

Next the bus took us to the Jiaohe Ancient City, an abandoned place that reminded us of Tattooine in Star Wars.  Built around 100 BC, it was on a mesa surrounded on two sides by rivers and high cliffs.  They dug dirt out to make the sunken roads and then packed the dirt into adobe to make the buildings – kind of like American Indians.  When it was complete there were 7000 family units, government offices and even a baby cemetery.  We loved the place and wish someone would do a Discovery Chanel style documentary on it.  We got back late to a very dirty hotel room, long black hair on the carpet, sticky something on the counters, but nothing we could do about it.  No dinner provided so we ate more of our snacks.

 

Jiaohe Ancient City

Gaochang - Ancient Walled City

Friday, 10/03/2014  Breakfast at the hotel involved a lot of greens.  Anne found a hard-boiled egg she could eat.  We were taken to another abandoned, no vegetation, 1st century BC walled city, Gaochang.  It was so big we had to be taken around in golf cart type vehicles.  We just can’t spend enough time in these fascinating places.  I hope I will have time to read about them some day.  Apparently Genghis Khan attacked this city and destroyed it.  And then much of any relics left were destroyed in the Cultural Revolution.  Too bad.

Off to a Tuyugou Valley and a pure Uygur village.  Think of a photo of some very poor town in Afghanistan/Pakistan and that’s about what you get.  Again very barren and dusty, except for where the irrigation is.  I guess melons and grapes/raisins are their main trade.  We walked through the town as a group and then to some very interesting looking graveyards. 

 

Yes - this is someone's home

A cemetery

  While walking through the village, a teacher in our group, Ann Perry (also from Texas), tripped when a village woman offered to let her come take a look inside her home.  She fell on her arm and broke something.  There was no doctor or medical clinic there.  One of the other teacher’s had been a doctor in the US; a urologist, but at least a doctor, so he and his wife helped tie her arm up with some of our silk scarves purchased earlier.  There were no taxis in the place either, so the village elder ordered someone with a car to take them to the nearest city with a doctor/hospital.  We continued on with the trip and they met up with us again later that day.  Ann had broken her elbow in 7 places.  She chose to continue with the week-long tour.  What a trooper!  She later had to fly to Hong Kong (twice) for surgery.  Anne never did see her scarf that she had donated to the cause.

Out to Fire Mountain (aptly named – the scorched earth look) and a visit to the Pachikli Grottos.  We climbed down some cliffs to see caves painted inside with 1000’s of Buddha images and statues.  (I'm afraid if you've seen one Buddha, you've seen them all.)  Then back to Turpan and (Oh No!) the same hotel from the night before for lunch.  But at least it was a little more edible than the lunch yesterday.  We also visited a Muslim Temple. 

From here we had a long bus ride to some place (not sure of the name) to catch an overnight train.  Another new experience to be reported later.