GANSU － XINJIANG 甘肃－新疆省 2
08 May Dunhuang – daytrip to the Mogao Caves 敦煌－莫高窟
In the morning we sought out a hospital where Nigel went to have an X-Ray of his wrist. Later, he rested having been to the Mogao Caves before, so Jemi and I went on our own. (Admission RMB100). A guide with a batch of keys leads the visitors along the terraces. We saw a number of the famous grottoes, with Buddhist stone statues and paintings. There isn’t time too see all of the hundreds of grottoes on one trip, so you get to see only a select few, which was fine with us.
There is a museum with accounts of how wicked western explorers plundered the religious artefacts in the early twentieth century. The most (in)famous of these was Mark Aurel Stein, who in 1907 bought a hoard of scriptures from the head monk at Mogao for the equivalent in silver of one hundred pounds. The scriptures are now in the British Museum. Mogao officialdom didn’t appear to be gearing up to celebrate the centenary of Stein’s visit. The grottoes somehow escaped the depredations of the Cultural Revolution, so there is still a lot to see.
Dinner back in town at a backpacker place called Shirley’s. Jemi wanted to try a “special” advertised in Chinese, which turned out to be greasy stuffed and fried intestine slices. It cost RMB 99 ! Well done, “Shirley”, that will teach us not to check the price first!
09 May 05 Dunhuang to Hami 敦煌－ 哈密
We headed north through the desert to Anxi. There we rejoined the main Silk Road route at Xingxingxia, site of an infamous customs post in the distant past, where caravans could be delayed for weeks.
The modern Silk Road, near Xingxingxia
Part of the “howling wilderness”
There is little to impede the modern traveller and a journey that used to take two weeks can now be done in a few hours. Along the way one can enjoy the sight of the bare, rocky contours of what Cable and French called “this howling wilderness”. Along the way we entered Xinjiang, formerly known as “Chinese Turkestan”.
Hami, home of the Hami Melon, is now another faceless modern city, with little in the way of historical remains. One has to find one’s own amusement in such places so the slogans on a shampoo sachet in the bathroom came as light relief:
“Highe ffect nursing shampo”
“Root Shop Celebrate journe pleasurey”
“Cabaret guesthouse expert use”
10 May Hami to Turpan 哈密 － 吐鲁番
Only about an hour out of town I spied an old Silk Road watchtower/customs post near the road. (3695km, route 312) We swung in and found an oasis with a small spring feeding a pool with some irrigation for an orchard downstream. Lesser Whitethroat was trip species 207.
40km from Turpan 吐鲁番 we noted a blue lake with about twenty White-winged Terns hunting over the water. Then we passed through the Flaming Mountains 火焰山 (gloriously pink) on the run in to the city. The donkey-like heads of oil pumps nodded in the bare countryside.
The Flaming Mountains
11 May Turpan 吐鲁番
In the morning we went out to the old city of Jiaohe 交河故城, which is laid out above a spur of muddy steep cliffs. We got there before most of the day’s visitors and enjoyed the “Lost City” atmosphere. Nearby we encountered Azure Tits and Barred Warblers.
Later in the afternoon we went out to the grottoes at Bezeklik 柏孜克里千佛洞 in the Flaming Mountains. It was from here in 1904 that Albert Von Le Coq chiselled off many of the frescoes and sent them back to Germany.
12 May Turpan 吐鲁番
We went to see the Emin Minaret near the town, but found it locked up. Instead we went to 坎儿井 a museum which featured models of the traditional Silk Road Oasis Town form of irrigation . Based on a Persian precedent, meltwater from the mountains is directed through long tunnels known as karez.
Market near Tuyougou
Market near Tuyougou
Karez
Camels
In the afternoon we went to Tuyougou 吐峪沟 , where there are more grottoes and vineyards in a deep river valley. There was a colourful market at a Moslem village on the way. We did a loop up to the main road from the south and stopped here and there to try to capture the most “flaming” Flaming Mountain photos.
13 May Turpan to Urumqi 吐鲁番－乌鲁木齐
It is only 186kms from Turpan to Urumqi, and we got there by lunchtime. It rained in the afternoon, noticeably cooler than Turpan had been. After checking into our hotel, we went to the Medical University Hospital. Most of the older buildings were two-storey affairs with tin roofs and white-coated students wandering about outside underneath the trees. Jemi translated to Putonghua for Nigel while a Doctor examined his wrist, and I loitered in the corridor outside admiring the Russian-looking plasterwork on the ceilings. I got talking to a Pakistani exchange student about cricket.
The key issue at the hospital was ability to pay, so for less than thirty pounds sterling Nigel was X-rayed again and his wrist set in plaster. It was recommended that the plaster stayed on for three weeks, by which time we’d have to be out of the country. It had become obvious that I would have to drive the car to Kazakhstan. (We were previously unsure when we’d leave, fearing we might have all fallen out with each other somewhere along the way.) The sixty-day rented licence plates were going to expire and it looked like too much hassle to try to extend them.
Email : johnjemi @ gmail.com
All right reserved copyright John & Jemi Holmes 2005-2008
