Silk Road Tour - Part 2

Friday, 10/03/2014 continued
We arrived after dark at a train station that was under construction and appeared to be in the middle of nowhere. Our group was split up on two trains as there were not enough soft sleeper berths for all of us on just one train.  One group waited in the downstairs area while we lugged our suitcases upstairs.  The place was packed and the other waiting passengers just stared at us the entire time.  What a novelty we were!  The obviously don’t see many Americans.  In the toilet area women were washing out their clothes in the sinks.  I guess being some kind of VIPs, we were called to walk out of the depot first.  There was complete silence as all eyes followed us as we got up to leave.  Anne was one of the last one of our group and she just felt compelled to break out in singing “So long, Farewell” from the Sound of Music.  When she got to the high-pitched “good-bye” part, she waved and many waved back and sang “good-bye”.  We felt so connected!

Now we lugged our suitcases back down the stairs, outside, then up and down more stairs to another platform.  That would not be such a big deal, but one of the single women brought too much luggage with her and I felt obliged to carry her biggest suitcase for her.  On the train you can purchase just a seat, a berth on a hard sleeper, or one in a soft sleeper.  Hard sleeper means six people per compartment.  You just have a wooden platform and no mattress. 

A soft sleeper means four people to a compartment, pull down bunk bed style, and thin mattresses.  There was a three sink washroom and squat toilet at one end of the train car and a western style toilet (very popular) at the other end.  If you dared to peer down into the toilet, you could see the railroad ties blur past.  There were maybe 10 “rooms” per car.  We were paired with Frank and Marsha Lovell, a wonderful BYU couple.  We were amazed at how well we all slept.  But as we were told would happen, the car conductors rousted us out of our beds at 3:30 AM.  They made us stand with our luggage in the skinny, cold corridor while they made up the beds.  They just tucked in the same sheets and blankets we had used.  There we stood for the next 30 minutes.  At 4AM the train came to a brief stop and we were quickly ushered off.  It was get off in those 10 seconds, or continue on the train to the next destination.

It was dark and quite cold in Liu Yuan, but thankfully our new local tour guide was there to meet us and take us to the bus. 

Saturday, 10/04/2014
We had a very bumpy bus ride for several miles from Liu Yuan to Dunhuang that morning.  Think of a big bus driving on a rutted dirt road.  When we arrived at our next hotel we were treated to a very nice breakfast.  From there it was a short ride to the edge of the Gobi Desert.  What a sight!  You go from the green of the irrigated town to unending miles of mountains of sand.

Here we got to ride camels in the Gobi Desert!  The two hump kind, so much more comfortable than the one hump kind.  (Think of the song from the 60’s by Ray Stevens about Ahab the Arab riding a camel named ‘Clyde’ through the desert!)  Five camels in a row were attached with plugs through their noses.  A guide walks the string of camels out onto the hills for about 45 minutes to an hour.  I could certainly see why these were the preferred method of transportation.  We were surrounded by just huge and endless mountains of sand.  Some people were climbing the hills and then sliding down. 

Anne and her camel named "Clyde"



All I need is a turban!

Miles and miles of sand and camels

After our camel ride we walked to a valley that had a natural spring-fed lake – a real oasis in the desert.  I thought of all the movies I’d seen of desperate people trying to cross the desert.  The area was called Sound Sand Mountain (or Echoing Sound – due to the sound the sand made as you walk on it) and Crescent Moon Lake.  It was a beautiful retreat.  And very crowded.  All of China seemed to be taking their National Day week holiday here.



Crescent Moon Lake - our Oasis in the desert

After we finished, we were taken back to the hotel to freshen up (no shower or change of clothes for two days) and take a nap.  In the evening we were bussed to the “Night Market” in town.  Walking around it just seemed like all the same stuff we’ve seen in the streets for sale before.  And we were told there would be a better market coming up in Xi’an.  So we hailed a taxi, went back to the sand dunes, and each took a turn in an ultra-light glider we’d seen there earlier in the day.  The flight was short but fun.  I’ve got to get me one of those things!  We took a taxi back to the hotel and walked to a dumpling place for dinner.  A local customer who could speak English helped us place our order.  When some of the other teachers found out what we’d done, they were very jealous.



Anne in the ultra-light

The view from my flight

Sunday, 10/05/2014
After breakfast at the hotel we were driven to the Mogao Grottos, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and home of the 1000 Buddha caves.  It’s a system of 492 temples carved in 700+ caves along a rock hillside starting in 300 something AD.  All full of Buddha statues (some huge) and Buddha paintings.  Some had modern improvements so tourists could get to several of the caves, others were left as is and can only be viewed from a distance.  It was all marvelous to take in but at the risk of sounding uncultured, if you’ve seen a dozen Buddhas - you’ve seen them all.  But I guess it was a type of religious thing to do on a Sunday.  We went back to town to have lunch at a different hotel and ending up being part of a wedding banquet there.  IN China, if you want to get married, the couple just goes to an office, has some papers rubber stamped (chop-chop), and then they are married.  They may have a lunch for friends and family at some hotel.  We watched as the new couple went around to each guest table with a bottle of wine and drank a toast.  And there were a lot of tables.  They were pretty happy at the end.  :-)

Mogao Grottos 

Our turn holding our tour group flag

The unimproved grottos

Our local guide was telling us about what a man has to come up with to please a potential wife and mother-in-law these days.  Maybe 30 years ago the suitor needed a watch, a bicycle, and a sewing machine.  Ten years later a potential groom had to be able to offer a TV, motorcycle, and washing machine.  Ten years ago he needed to have a fridge, a color TV, car, and a personal computer.  Now days those in the city have to come up with all the above (upgraded of course) plus a high level job, the car should be a BMW, and a paid-for home/apartment.  Due to the fact that there are way more men than women in China these days, the future mother-in-laws can significantly influence who her daughter will marry, and they can afford to be very picky.  The mother-in-law will be living with the couple and raising their one child.  Anne said she would have hold out for a Western style toilet!  It is no wonder so many of our graduate students aren’t married!  Even though the government owns all the land underneath homes, housing is still very expensive in the cities.

After lunch we were taken to a small airport – the old style where you walk out on the tarmac to climb the stairs and board the plane.  We flew to the beautiful (but also heavily polluted) city of Xi’an.  We immediately started to miss the clear blue skies and crisp air of our previous tour cities.  There is a huge wall built in the shape of a rectangle (8 miles around) that surrounds the inner city.  It uwas sed to protect the palace that was located there.  Lights and lanterns glowed all along the top of the wall – very Disney-esque. 

Wall around Xi'an

We had a dumpling banquet at a dinner/theater location.  We must have been served 25 different kinds of small dumplings – all delicious.  They were shaped like whatever they were stuffed with, meats or veggies:  shaped like a pig if pork, bird if fowl, etc. – very creative.  After the meal we were treated to a singing/dancing show representative of the Tang Dynasty.  The people performed their little hearts out.  And we enjoyed it, a change of pace from our other activities.  The big, late dinner made it harder to fall asleep that night.

 

Our dumpling banquet

Our dinner show

  Monday, 10/06/2014
The hotel was nice (the best on our trip) and we had a large variety of food at the buffet breakfast:  cold cereal, fried eggs that were hot, their version of bacon, muffins, fruit and yogurt.  First we were driven to a workshop where they make replicas of the Terra-Cotta Warriors - duplicating how the originals were crafted in the past.  We were shown the method of forming the clay and pressing it into molds, firing in the kilns and then finishing them off.  We should have known there would be a very expensive gift shop at the end.  Nevertheless, many BYU teachers bought miniature replica sets of the different kinds of statues, heavy and breakable, and now have to find a way to ship them home.  Anne bargained (although she’s sure she still got ripped off) for a silk embroidered tapestry of trees.  It will be easier to put in our suitcase when we return to the states.
 
And then we were taken to see the real deal – the actual tomb site of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor who unified China in 221 BC.  (And I thought things were old in London!).  While it was very crowded during National Day week, it is a must see!  The different pits are all enclosed in large buildings, allowing you walk around them.  The statues are in different stages of restoration or just in piles of pieces.  Some reminded me of seeing scenes from Pompeii when it was covered in ashes.  Archeologists are there on site digging, testing, and reconstructing many.  Their jobs are secure for a very long time to come.  There were three different pits to see, plus an exhibition hall that showed many different figures restored in their original colors.  It was all very well done.
 

 
The emperor’s actual tomb is under a nearby hill, but they haven’t opened it yet.  The only souvenir we bought (besides a magnet for our fridge) was a book about the place (it had better pictures than we could take with all those other tourists there).  Then we had it signed by one of the farmers that found the place when digging a well in 1974.  Their farms were taken by the government after the discovery and book signing is their only compensation – I guess they get a little kick back from the book price.  And I’m sure it is a better life than the peasant farming thing.

In the evening we were taken to a large and very popular Muslim street market – the one Anne was saving her shopping for.  We were also supposed to buy our own dinner here.  But we had previously arranged to meet another couple there who came to China with us and are from our Houston ward, Steve and Betty Ann Curtis. 
 

They live in Xi’an so they didn’t take the BYU tour.  Turns out they arranged a meeting spot for us on the opposite side of the market where we were dropped off.  It took us a twenty minutes to get to the other side.  Once we found the spot they were another half hour getting there themselves because of heavy holiday traffic.  So we just talked as we walked back through the market to get to our bus in time.  We didn’t get to do any shopping or eat the famous kabobs or taffy.  We ate our snacks in our hotel room for dinner that night and watched an old Jackie Chan movie on TV.

Tuesday, 10/07/2014
After another welcome buffet breakfast we were taken to the city wall.  It is huge and thick and old and I just marvel at the man power, pure manual labor that built so many things.  And unlike so many of the much younger structures in America, the wall is still standing and is in good shape.  It is also surrounded by a moat and has large and heavy metal doors at the gates.  You can rent and ride bikes on the top of the wall.  We had just enough time to go around the entire thing before needing to be back on the bus.  Eight miles can take a long time when you stop frequently to take pictures.  It was invigorating and so enjoyable.  The only safe way to ride bikes in China.  The streets are too dangerous!

Gate under the wall

Bike riding on Xi'an city wall

The view from a tower

 

Our tour director also sells pearls on the side.  He says he gets the really good ones and sells them to his customers on his tours at a discount.  Anne bought a necklace and earring set from him that he promises would cost triple in the US.  So if any of you want pearls…let us know.  We flew out of Xi’an in the afternoon and arrived at our apartment that night.  We were actually very tired and could have used a vacation from our vacation.  But there was a lot of laundry to do and school to teach the next day.  It was an expensive trip and there are more planned for the BYU teachers.  But when and how could we ever see this part of the world any other way?