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?

 

 

 

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.

 

 

Visit to the zoo

Saturday, 09/13/2014
As our class duties ramp up, we can’t keep one day straight from another.  On the 13^th we took a bus excursion around the first ring road to see what we could learn about getting around. We have bus cards and you have to put money on them every month.  What’s left over is forfeited.  The first ring road is kind of like FM 1960 in Houston; stop go, stop go, lots of traffic. We ended up at a big, five-floor bookstore where we hoped to find anything that was printed in English, but no luck.  Books and magazines were piled waist high everywhere.  We had to climb over piles just to get around.  

On the way back we saw an interesting looking park and hopped off the bus to investigate.  It was called the Chengdu Cultural Park.  It had a war memorial and several pagodas and wall carvings.  Next door was the Qing Taoist Temple.  It cost 10 yuan ($1.60 US) to enter.  There are actually several buildings, all very old, in the complex.  Each one ornate and some filled with huge religious statues.  We watched one man painting wall hangings (calligraphy?)  I am not sure what to call them yet, but he signed them with his “chop” – a red stamp.  It seems everything here needs to be stamped with red ink or it’s not valid. 

Sunday, 09/14/2014
Lucky us, we were again invited to dinner after church. This time it was the Busby family.  They have four high-energy kids and he works at the US consulate.   She is the Primary president.  The food was so good and it was so nice to eat on matching dishes.  We had ice cream for dessert!  Wednesday Anne returned to the Busby’s for a Primary presidency meeting.  She did not want to take a taxi but chose to learn something new.  She walked to a bus stop, took a bus to the metro station, and took the metro to the Busby’s stop.  From door to door, it took one hour each way.  

Friday, 09/19/2014
We all had the day off and planned to go see the giant panda preserve.  We (ourselves and the Hadds) got up early and headed out the door at 7AM.  Before we could decend the stairs, the building boss, Miss Li, handed Marilyn a note saying that she needed to be in the director’s office at 9AM for a ride to the police station to complete her resident visa permit.  Oh so typical.  No previous notice, just a demand appearance.  So that canceled our panda plans.  Marilyn sadly went back inside the apartment and the three of us took a bus to the zoo.  We needed the practice of getting there to the zoo on a bus, since the zoo is on the way to the panda place. 

Some walking at both ends and two buses later we arrived at the zoo.  We weren’t expecting much, so we were pleasantly surprised.  We had the place to ourselves at the beginning but it never got crowded.  We are used to bus loads of day care center and school children everywhere in the US, but not so here.  We did get to see one giant panda in a cage and many other wonderful animals like white tigers, and grizzly bears.  The weather has turned a bit cooler, so the animals were more active.

Sunday, 09/21/2014
Oh boy, our first day as Primary leaders.  But we lived through class and Sharing Time.  They started the full block of meetings, but here it only goes 2-1/2 hours.  Clyde was the Sacrament Meeting speaker.  Members gave him complements on his talk regarding  the Book of Mormon. 

Afterwards we were invited to the MacKay’s for dinner.  Carolyn and Howard ( a non-member) are from Canada.  He works for Shell Oil and they are really treated well here.  They live in an ultra-modern high rise with every available amenity.  She put on a real banquet:  roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, several different kinds of veggies, and hearty bread.  She served apple cobbler, chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert.  Lowly teachers like us can’t afford those types of grocery items, nor can we get them on the side of town we live in. 

We received an email saying that two teachers have not shown up and Marilyn Hadd and Anne were to take a turn subbing in their classes this week.  That meant two extra classes for Anne and working on her day off.  Again, it was typical, very little notice.  It made for a much busier week.  

Thursday, 09/25/2014
During a break between teaching classes on the old campus, Clyde took a walk around some of the tiny shops that line the first ring road.  He came to a “hole in the wall” type of store that had some phones on display.  Anne is unable to work with the cheap, dumb phone that we got after we first arrived.  It has many things in Chinese and we couldn’t get it to work correctly.  She wanted a “smarter” phone.  He asked to see one of the lower-end smart phones and, surprise – the kid spoke very good English!  After trying out the phone, Clyde was able to get the price down from 600 RMB to 400 RMB (around $65).  But he didn’t have enough cash at the time, so he said he’d be back.  We both went this evening to check out the phone, but we also took our old Verizon phones with us.  We thought it was worth a try to see if this kid could figure out why they didn’t work here.  (We had called Verizon twice before we left the states to confirm that the phones would work in China, and that the phones were unlocked.)  Anyway, the kid (his English name was Scorpion) switched the SIM cards out of our dumb phones, worked his magic, and our Verizon phones now work!  WooHoo!  They have the Chinese number we use locally.  (You would still call our “281 . . .” numbers to talk to us on our WiFi (Republic) phones.)  Anyway, we are excited to have working smart phones!  (We hope they continue to work!)  We offered to pay him for his service, but he declined.  He just liked practicing his English on us.  We told him we’d recommend him to the Hadd’s because they want to upgrade their phones.  On the way back to our apartment, we passed a small guitar store.  Three guys were jamming on the sidewalk.  We stopped to listen.  One of the guys went into the shop and brought out stools for us to sit on as we listened to them play.  Very nice!