China - Chapter 2 - Urumqi and Kashgar

FINALLY I'm back! A series of personal activities prevented me from getting back to it.

Sept 14: Afternoon flight to Urumqi to the north-west of Beijing. Arrived at 9 pm and off to bed shortly after. Weather a little cooler and the air much clearer although this is still a large city by our standards.

With a population of 2.8 million people, Urumqi means "beautiful pastureland" in Mongolian. The green pastures still exist, running up against the Tian Shan range and it is here that we found nomadic Kazakhs living in yurts. The city however, has undergone a major facelift, with soaring skyscrapers and a steadily growing international population of Russian, Kazakh and Pakistani businessmen. Oil is a major source of revenue and Han Chinese have jumped on the western bandwagon, opening new shops and businesses.

We stayed at the Xinjian Hotel (which sounds much more romantic than the English name "Holiday Inn") where the breakfast buffet was probably the most varied of any we had in China. Included were authentic Chinese dumplings and noodle dishes as well as fruit, sushi and some western offerings.

The next day we cruised on Tian Chi (Heavenly Lake) which is glacier fed and reminded us of Lake Louise; visited a yurt for sweet tea and goodies at Nanshan Pasture and saw exhibits of preserved bodies (the oldest of which is the 4000 year old Loulan Beauty of Indo-European ancestry) and garments of nearly a dozen people discovered in tombs throughout Xinjiang at the Xinjian Autonomous Region Museum. We also learned about the lost cities of the Silk Road region with archaeological artifacts on display.

Above: Tian Chi (Heavenly Lake); a yurt along the way

Below: Nanshan Pasture;yurt community; our hostess Maria who shyly told us, through our guide, that she knew of a famous Canadian doctor.....Norman Bethune. He's quite the hero in China and even though Maria had no formal education, she knew of him;Next photo: heat source in the yurt; our snack table; a river runs through there; riders in traditional costumes
KASHGAR
Would you ever expect to see the following scenes and people in China?

Above: This building is a tomb which houses the bodies of 72 Muslim family members. The coffins are all above the floor on a platform;Muslim cemetery

Above: Street scenes

Above: Public phones (no kidding!!!)

Above: Mysterious tourist; Old fashioned roller-skates and check out the wrist guards

Above: Very public barber shops and a very public wash


Above: Lovely old doors

Above: The beautiful children

Above: The people of China seem to love to nap!

Above: This gives new meaning to the expression "street meat"
KASHGAR - SUNDAY MORNING ANIMAL MARKET
We were up bright and early to enjoy the market.


We found Kashgar, population 340,000, to be exotic with an ethnic mix of Uighurs, Tajiks, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks and Han Chinese. Some things haven't changed from medieval times and metalworkers and cobblers use hand tools in the old quarter narrow backstreets lined with earthen-walled homes.

Kashgar has been a Silk Road trading centre for two millennia and traders and tourists continue to fuel the city with negotiations on street corners and at the bazaars..


Above: Artisans in the old city and walls that are older than air
Ramadan was being celebrated at the time of our visit and although our Muslim guide Abdul could not eat with us during this time of fasting, he washed our hands and demonstrated to us the traditional method of eating while we were lunch guests in a Muslim home. The owner of the home could not speak English however through Abdul, told us that her daughter is a doctor in Toronto. Our friend Chris took her number to call her upon our return.

The Muslim home and our hostess

Abdul (our guide) washing Trudy's hands;Some of our tasty feast

Above: Preparing to enter the Grand Mosque; left to right: Diane, Thelma, Me, Trudy

September 17th We flew back to Urumqi where we were met by our previous guide (Johnson...believe it or not!). We boarded a coach and headed to Turpan. Along the way we passed the largest wind farm in China (and possibly the world)....as far as the eye can see... and they are still adding to it.

Karez Irrigation System- Turpan: A head well was dug on high ground where snowmelt from the mountains collects. A long underground tunnel was dug to cunduct this water down to the village farmland. A series of vertical wells, some of which were constructed over 2000 years ago, were dug every 20 metres along the path of the tunnel to aid construction and provide access. They are fed entirely by gravity, eliminating the need for pumps. The city of Turpan owes its existence to these wells and channels. There are over 1000 wells and the total length of the channels runs to 5000 km, all constructed by hand and without modern machinery or building materials .

Above: Grape laden walkways fed by the wells. We tried the wine. Did we like it? Not so much. Canadian winemakers need not feel threatened by Chinese wines....yet.

Jiaohe Ruins: During the Han dynasty, Jiaohe was established by the Chinese as a garrison town to defend the borderlands. We walked through the old streets and along the roads. A main road cuts through the city where at the end is a large monastery with Buddhist figures still visible. The ruins stand on a plateau surrounded by two small rivers.

September 18 - Back to Urumqi to catch the overnight train to Dunhuang
Departed at 10:40 p.m. and had sleeper bunks in roomette's with four to a roomette. Margaret bunked in with a couple of strangers (all men) from Austria while I shared with Bob, John and a national tour guide who was guiding a small group through China. The beds were (as were all the beds in our experience in China) pristine with snow white duvets and sheets and soft pillows. The train was pretty upscale and comfortable. We didn't meet our roomie until the next morning because he slipped into the room late in the evening and left early in the morning, although he left his briefcase behind so we knew he would be back. When he returned, we found him to be hilarious with his collection of western idioms and his excellent English. He told us that he had been a bit nervous because it was the first time he had slept with tourists. Cute.

Next: Final Chapter....Dunhuang to Shanghai

China - Chapter One - Beijing (a.k.a. Peking)

Nothing could prepare us for the diversity and beauty of the country and the people, the kindness of our guides and people encountered in China. Therefore, I have decided to write as little as possible and to share with you the images Bob captured on our travels.

We thank our friends Margaret and Eric for extending the invitation to us...while still in Australia....the extent of their research over the past eight months, in planning the route and sites and David Crichton for organizing the trip, giving awesome recommendations and planning with such an eye for detail. Bob and I would consider this to have been a perfect trip.

Ten of us flew direct from Toronto to Beijing on September 9th and our adventure began immediately.

We expected to be scrutinized at Custom's and Immigration however it was a breeze and extremely casual.

Beijing is astoundingly western ....entirely understandable with the olympics coming next year ...with bio-buses, new cars, clean and efficient subways, construction cranes everywhere (jokingly described by our guides as China's "national bird"), clean streets, no graffiti, ring roads in the cities, toll highways everywhere, electric bikes, high fashion, high speed trains, maximum usage of public spaces by the public and enormous TV screens hovering over the public spaces. CNN can be seen in most cities we visited and even North American sports are covered on the sports channel (we saw the Downy hit on the Sen's player both on CNN and the national channel). There are Chinese reality shows on television. The producers of these shows were warned by the government that they are becoming too western in their meanness and lack of respect for the participants....and if they continued in this direction, would be cancelled. Kind of refreshing don't you think??

I will not be making any political statements in the blog. We all know about the atrocities of Tibet and the current furor over the Dalai Lama's visit to Washington and I have personal opinions on these which I will keep to myself...unless asked to share. Surprising to me was that Burma was not a secret there and was covered on the Chinese National TV channel as well as CNN in Beijing. To be honest, we had to remind ourselves that we were even in a communist country it seemed so western.

There were contrasts to the ultra-modern of course with labourers sweeping streets with straw and tree branch brooms and hundreds of construction workers dotting the new buildings since cheap labour is not a problem.

Here are the images we are excited to share with you. We would recommend that those of you with an adventurous spirit, visit this amazing country.

(Note: Several readers commented in the past that the photo's were a bit small to see detail. Double click on the image and you will be able to view a full screen image).

TIAN'ANMEN SQUARE - World's largest public square

Photo's: Our group with our guide Julie; Julie's bag (she has more than one and they are apparently the real thing!) ; Bobby and me;Memorials rimming the square

Beijing , with a population of 14 million, has developed so rapidly in the last 20 years that it must be like fast-forwarding a video to the residents.

In the late '80's there were no personally owned vehicles, many of the streets were unpaved and traffic congestion was pretty much comprised of buses, trucks and bicycles. In 2000, there were 250,000 privately owned cars and 7 years later there are 4 million.


Above: Diane pondering how he can possibly balance that load let alone ride the bike.

Above: Any mode of transportation works in Beijing

Above: "Ah....just 5 minutes....that's all I need....5 minutes"

Above: No challenge is insurmountable when crossing streets in Beijing

THE ANCIENT

The Forbidden City (seen here being spruced up for the Olympics next year), built in the 15th Century and home to two dynasties; the Ming and Qing dynasties...also the location for the film "The Last Emperor". The courtyard will hold 100,000. The two urns are the firefighting water sources of the day. Women sweeping and weed-wacking. Beautiful architecture and lion (we learned how to distinguish female from male...male has a ball under it's paw, female has a lion cub) statue.

One sad tale (with a happy ending) of the Forbidden City was that a Starbuck's cafe was established there. Praise the Lord, it's gone due to protests from the public.


Above: Neat dragon

Above: Sacred Way - Ming Tombs
Below: Now where on earth would an emperor go in the heat of the summer in Beijing? Why, to the Summer Palace overlooking a lake of course!


The intricate and beautifully painted covered walkway above extended a kilometre to the edge of the lake. We boarded a boat to cross the lake and yes, spending summers at the palace would not be hard to take.

JUYONGGUAN GREAT WALL
Built and rebuilt from the 5th century (BC) to the 16th century, this is the closest section to Beijing. The most challenging part of the climb was the steps which ranged from a couple of feet high (Bob tells me it was nowhere that high so humour me...it felt like it!) to a few inches causing a lot of lurching on my part. I found it quite emotional, knowing what was involved in construction of this 6,400 km ancient wall (although not connected in all places) and that it is the largest human made structure in the world. Overwhelming!





Above: Our group about to begin the climb; I'm still smiling (and puffing); the views; lovers locks along the wall (not certain why!)
Below: This unit is two huge screens over a public square that accomodates concerts and provides an area for the public to hang out, shop and have a coffee or gelato. The long screen is turned on at night and when we first saw it from our bus, it was showing a program on ocean life which was absolutely magnificent. Unfortunately, we were unable to stop and take a photo at that time. Note the small screen TV station (City TV really is EVERYWHERE!).

Below: New buildings and lovely, immaculate and efficient subways

Below: Birds Nest Olympic Stadium - holds 91,000 spectators


Above: Public phones inside Lama Temple walls....aren't they cute?; a typical Chinese broom; incense (this must be the most lucrative industryin China) at the Lama Temple

Above: Clearing the streets following a downpour

Above: Jade carving....now that is a hunk of jade! You MUST double click on this one!

Above: Chef serving our Peking Duck dinner....yum, yum!

Above: Communal sinks at a Beijing restaurant caused a huge laugh. The wall in the women's cubicles were glass and we could see people entering the restaurant. Fortunately, those entering could not see us!

Chapter 2....Coming soon!