(Exploring Western China 2004  continued)

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Wednesday, September 15, 2004

We woke up to a very cold room. By now, I concluded that the thermometer on the thermostat probably didn't work since it read about the same temperature regardless of the time of day.  This morning, it read 13.5 ˚ C, about 56 ˚ F.  It felt considerably colder.  I dressed quickly after washing and shaving and put on sweaters and warm clothes.  It is clear outside and gives promise of being a nice day. There's a bit of fog hanging around the hilltops but that should burn off once the sun comes up.  It probably will warm up quickly if yesterday was an indicator. It must have reached the mid to upper 60s in mid-afternoon yesterday but it cooled very rapidly once the sun began to get low in the sky.  Considering the elevation at Shangri-La, about 11,000 ft., it's not surprising that it gets cold at night this time of year.

We had to go to an adjacent building for breakfast. Once we were outdoors, it was cold enough that one could see their breath.  By the time we finished breakfast, the sun had risen above the hills and one could immediately feel its considerable warmth.  Breakfast was pretty much what we have been finding in the hotels.  There was a long buffet table covered with many types of typical Chinese breakfast dishes.  We managed to find some hard-boiled eggs and sausage plus some toast and a bit of fruit so we didn't go hungry by any means. What did surprise me was that there was no Chinese tea or coffee. The only hot beverage available was yak butter tea! That, I couldn't quite bring myself to drink at breakfast! We returned to our room and made a couple of mugs of tea with the tea service in our room. At least the teapot did work to heat the water we needed!

We met Moon and Dua in the lobby a bit before 9:00AM. Moon took the broken hairdryer to the lobby and left it with the desk clerk with a request that it be replaced by the time we returned.  We then got into the car and headed out for the day's activities.  Moon explained that we would be going first to Shudou Lake this morning and that it was a replacement for another lake listed on our itinerary. Shudou Lake is more beautiful in her opinion and is closer to Shangri-La. The trip there and return would take less time and leave more of the day for other visits on our itinerary.  Shudou Lake lies in the mountains to the east of Shangri-La at an elevation of 3,700 m., about 12,200 ft.  Its name in Tibetan means "good yak butter, good grass" which is not surprising since it lies near "Yak Butter Mountain."  The drive took about an hour and during this time we traveled through an ever-changing countryside as we climbed into the mountains. Following are some of my observations and "factoids" from Moon that I recorded in my notes.

•    The road out of town initially wound between farms and past a dam before beginning the climb into the hills east of town.  The farmhouses are quite large and are two stories high with sloping roofs that peak down the middle.  All are oriented to with their front side facing toward the south or southeast in order that their outdoor courtyards and the balconies and rooms catch the sunlight.  The remaining three sides are stuccoed with only two windows, one at each end high up on the second floor. There seem to be varying amounts of carvings and brightly painted wood along the front and ends of different homes and I suspect that the differences generally relate to the wealth and status of the family. •    In May and June, many azaleas bloom around Shudou Lake. The blossoms fall into the water and begin to ferment. The fish eat the fermented blossoms and become drunk. Then the bears come to eat the fish! The fish are gold in color with white underneath. •    For much of the journey, the road followed a valley with a small stream in the middle. The hillsides were covered with a forest of dark green conifers and little underbrush.  The valley was covered with rectangular fields of barley, potatoes and pasture. The barley was just starting to turn brown while the pastures and potato fields were bright green.   This made a very colorful sight. Also scattered here and there were racks piled with green-brown hay drying in the sun.  Herds of yaks, cattle and sheep grazed in many of the pastures and free-range pigs, many of them quite large, rooted in mud holes along the road. Tibetan crows were prevalent around all of the farms and also out in the countryside.  The general outlook of the landscape reminded us of areas of Northeastern California and Eastern Oregon. •    We passed through an area of road construction. There were a few dump trucks to haul dirt and rocks and there was one scoop loader and a roller. However, most of the work was done by hand labor from large crew of men equipped with shovels and rakes. •    We left the cultivated fields behind after driving about 40 minutes. The valley narrowed but there still was a stream in the center. Occasional small brooks tumbled down the hillsides supplying the stream with clear fresh water.  Cattle grazed on the open range on grass that was quite short.  The few houses that were present were low, one story affairs and were made of river stones and/or logs with wood roofs that are covered with sod. A canopy shields both the door and an outdoor work area from the sun and rain. Some have small fences to keep cattle out. The families who live in them are clearly less prosperous that the farmers back down the valley.  •    Moon called our attention to broad-leaved plants that grew in clumps in the pastures.  They consisted of clusters of maybe 4 to 8 large leaves about 14 to 18 inches high and 6-8 inches wide that grew from the surface of a common root in a manner much like our dandelions.  These are called "beautiful lady" plants and they are harvested and eaten by the local people in the winter when other vegetables are scarce.  They seemed to be growing wild without cultivation although there were large numbers growing around some of the houses we passed.  I suspect that most are harvested on an opportunistic basis as needed rather than being grown or cultivated in any systematic way. •    The valley continued to narrow and the road eventually became only one lane wide. We soon crossed a small wooden bridge with a carved wooden railing and entered a large parking lot at the entry to the park at Shudou Lake.  The park had been developed to attract tourists to the area and includes a small zoo, offices, living quarters for maintenance and supervisory personnel and a large store that sells the usual wide array of jewelry, herbs, mushrooms and other wild edibles, jewelry, clothing and souvenirs.  A small office sells tickets for admission to the park.   A sidewalk leads from the parking lot up an incline that I suspect was an old glacial moraine and then across almost level ground the lake about 1/2 mile away.  A small stream flows out of the lake and joins a larger one that flows by the edge of the parking lot.  A footbridge across the latter connects the parking lot area with the sidewalk to the lake. •    Shudou Lake is nearly round being about a mile in diameter. It lies in a bowl amid surrounding high hills that are covered with conifers.  The lake probably formed from glaciers in the last ice age about 10,000 years ago.    Most of the lower slopes are devoid of trees and are green due to a lush growth of grass. The lake was at a high level due to recent rains so flooded grassy areas surrounded most of the lake. Using my binoculars, I could see a very idyllic setting at the far end of the lake.  Here, there was a long meadow that sloped upwards to the tree line. Several houses were scattered across the meadow and numerous animals were grazing there.  It appeared that no roads led into the area and the families must have been living there in a very traditional manner.  It was a very beautiful sight and one that has to stay in the memory because there was no way to get an all-inclusive photograph.  One can hike around the lake if they have a day to spare. We did not. •    We stood around for a while admiring the view of the lake and taking some photos.  One also could hire horses from local Tibetans for about 3/4 hr rides along the lake bank.  These horses were decked-out in very colorful saddles and blankets and also were available for photo opportunities.  Ditto for the several local residents who were dolled up in their traditional costumes hoping for a chance to earn some cash by agreeing to be photographed.  After a while, we tired of the view and the people so we headed back. Along the way, we stopped and photographed many small flowers that were growing along the walkway. •    We stopped in the store beside the parking lot. We had little use for most of the wares on sale. But, we did find one fruit-like substance that tasted good and we brought 250 Gm even though we had little idea about its intended purpose. Fortunately, the clerk gave us a little slip that told in Chinese what the substance was good for and how it should be prepared and used. After asking Yvette to translate the "directions," we determined that Chinese lore regards these plants as being good for the eyes and back.  It is administered as a tea with both the juice and the fruit being consumed.  (After returning home, Jacquie ate most of this fruit dry as an after dinner dessert!) •    Most Tibetan horses are quite small, yet very sturdy.  There are many yaks along the roads and we occasionally see some actually working.  The yaks usually are black but you see a considerable number that are black and white.   So, we eventually will have multi-colored yaks hanging around the tourist sights. •    We saw a woman with a big pack basket climbing over a fence using a "style" that had been installed in the wire fence.  The style was a log flattened on one side and then incised with notches that served as steps. She was on her way up and we could not see what the other side of the fence looked like. But, we assume that it was similarly arranged.

We returned to Shangri-La and went to another downtown hotel. Like others we have encountered here, the lobby area and restaurant suggested that it was recently constructed.  But, it didn't seem to be very busy and we were the only ones in the dining room.  The highlight of the lunch was an eggplant dish.  It had a delicious sauce that was not excessive in amount but just right in flavor. Upon our request, Moon asked the chef about what seasonings it contained. It was seasoned with "broad bean sauce". And, we also recognized a mild bit of cinnamon although not mentioned by the chef. We vowed to attempt to reconstruct this dish after returning home.   We finished lunch and used the toilet facilities and then continued on with the day's activities.

Our next stop was the Songzanlin, a temple and monastery of the Tibetan Buddhist sect. Songzanlin is located a mile or two north of the city of Shangri-La on a high hill overlooking the valley.  It is considered one of the most holy places of Tibetan Buddhism and receives visits by pilgrims from all over Asia. It is also a major tourist attraction in Shangri-La. The highway ends at a cluster of tourist shops at the foot of the hill.  Dua parked the car in a lot and waited while Moon toured us through the Songzanlin. This actually includes two large buildings; one a large temple and the other a lamasery.  The latter includes shrines as well as places for the monks to study and worship.  A walled-in compound begins at the bottom and extends across the base of the hill below the temple and lamasery.  Included in the compound are many houses that are the homes of the monks, several hundred in all.  As we faced the complex the temple was on the left. It is a five or six story building, the lower part of which is painted white and the upper part a dark rusty red. It is topped by a golden roof and many golden statues stand on ledges at the upper level of the building. Large black and white tapestries with designs of flowers and animals hung down the front of the building covering the doorway and front balconies.  The lamasery was on the right. From below one primarily sees a huge wall made of light colored brick that is the rear side of one of the lamasery buildings.  The buildings behind that show only the upper parts of their walls which are painted the same red color as the temple. At the very top of the lamasery is a building that is red in color and topped with a gold roof. A large glass window lets light into the internal areas of the building below.  Like on the temple, figurines and statuary stood on ledges along the rooflines but these are painted yellow and instead of being gold.  These large buildings were silhouetted against a brilliant blue sky on the day we visited and the whole complex was an impressive sight.  The Songzanlin is claimed by some people to rival the Potala in Lhasa. But having personally seen both structures, I find the Potala to be the more impressive by far. 

We entered the grounds of the Songzanlin through a large gate across the street from the parking area and waited briefly while Moon paid the admission fee.  Directly ahead of us was a broad stairway that led up to a courtyard in front of the temple.  From there, a few additional steps would take us to a courtyard in front of the lamasery buildings.  Climbing these steps at over 11,000-ft elevation was no small task. But, we took out time and eventually reached the top with no problem.   The temple was not open to visitors on the day of our visit for reasons unknown to us.  May led us on a tour through the entire lamasery and this took at least an hour.  It was typically dark and dingy inside and as usual, not very clean. The exception was a painting of the Lamist Wheel of Life in the antechamber of the lamasery. Hundreds of years wear and tear with almost constant use of yak butter lamps have darkened the interior with soot and dust.   I have chosen not to try to describe the interior. It was interesting but it was basically like all of the many other Buddhist monasteries that we have visited during our various travels.   Jacquie was able to take a few pictures to help us remember our visit.

After spending almost two hours at the Songzanlin, we drove back down to the main road and headed a few miles on north to Nata (or Napa) Lake.  This is a large shallow lake that is an animal preserve, particularly for waterfowl in the winter.  Black-necked cranes arrive in November and spend the winter in this location.  At this time of the year, the water level was very low and large expanses of the lake bottom were exposed. We could have walked out to the water about 3/4 mile distant but decided against the idea since the afternoon was getting late and a chilly wind had begun to blow across the area.  There was a large livery with horses available to hire for a ride out to the lake and this was crowded with tourists.  The horses were all decked out with colorful bridles and saddle blankets and were tended by Tibetans in their native dress.  The only wildlife around was the usual Tibetan crows and one lone hoopoe.  Moon pointed out a small hill rising out of the valley named Lepung Mountain.  The mountain was named after the leopards (lepung) that used to live in the area.  The leopards now are long gone and they can be found only in the high mountains.

On our way back to the hotel we passed several men standing around scratching their heads while they tried to figure out what to do with a load of 20-ft. rebar that they were trying to carry using two flatbed carts equipped with bicycle wheels.  A wheel on one of the carts had collapsed from the excessive weight placed on the cart and there the load sat in the middle of an intersection.  We will never know what was the outcome of their dilemma.  We also passed a drugstore that had a sign in English reading "Jixin Phar Macy."

When we got back to the hotel, our room key-card would not open the lock so I had to go back to the desk to get the key reprogrammed. Once back in our room, we were pleased and a bit surprised to discover that we had a new hairdryer in our bathroom. It actually worked so tonight we would be able to warm the bathroom for showers.  Also, the chambermaid had made up the beds with all the covers I had applied last evening so I at least wouldn't have that to do before being able to go to bed.  I dug out our bottle of Scotch and we had a drink before going to dinner at 6:00 PM.  Dinner was scheduled for a restaurant just down the road from the hotel and Moon urged us to walk in spite of our protesting that we were tired. She assured us that it was less than a 5-minute walk so we finally agreed. As it turned out, the distance was much more that a half-mile and we had to walk along the edge of the busy highway. Each time a vehicle passed, it stirred up a cloud of dust!  Jacquie finally told Moon that Dua would have to return to the hotel and get the car to take us back after dinner because she refused to walk back. Dua retrieved his car while we ate dinner following which we rode back to the hotel. Dinner was good, especially a dish of fried potatoes with a hint of red pepper added.

Once back at the hotel, we fired up the hair dryer and the bathroom soon was nice and toasty warm and suitable for showers. We were just getting ready for showers when we had a call from Yvette a bit before 8:00 PM.  She wanted our reaction to a possible change in our Xinjiang itinerary. This would substitute a trip to a lake region that's supposed to be very beautiful for the scheduled trip to Kashgar.  This is an opportunity that came out through personal contacts of one of the people who would be traveling with us. My response was that we could go with whatever plan the travel group wanted to do. Yvette still had others to call and promised to get back in a few minutes.  She called about 1/2 hour later to let us know that the itinerary was changed. Details would be explained after we get to Shanghai. There would be some cost savings resulting from the change.  I hated to abandon the trip to Kashgar.  But, it would have been more visits to temples and mosques and two long plane rides in 24 hours with one of them not arriving back at Urumqi until 10:30 PM.  So it would have been stressful. As a result, neither Jacquie nor I was too upset about the change in plans.  We did wish we knew a bit more about our new destination but for now, that was impossible.

We had to be up and ready to leave the hotel at 7:00 AM. Moon had arranged for us to have breakfast in the dining room at 6:30 AM.  Our plane leaves at 8:20 AM. It is only a short distance from the hotel to the airport so our 7:00 AM departure will leave us plenty of time for catching our flight.  After having showers in a nice warm bathroom, we dived beneath the covers in our frigid bedroom area and soon were fast asleep. In spite of the cold, it was reasonably comfortable under the covers. 

Tonight's problem with Moon and the walk to the restaurant were representative of difficulties we have had throughout out visit to Shangri-La. Unfortunately, her English is not very good, a fact that she freely admitted. She even asked us if we could speak German since she has a college degree in that language.  But, the bigger problem seems to us to be that she really doesn't listen and/or try to figure out what is being said. And, she didn't seem willing to admit when she didn't understand what we were saying. Hence, our questions either went unanswered or received a totally off the wall response that had little relationship to what we had asked.  We tried talking with her about the problem but didn't get very far.  We had been warned by May, our guide in Kunming, that the farther we went into "backwoods" Yunnan, the more problems we would have with the English capability of our guides. This certainly is the case here. It wasn't a problem in Lijiang.

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Thursday, September 16, 2004

We got up this morning at 5:00 AM in order to be ready to depart on time for our flight to Kunming.  It still was very chilly in our room but the hairdryer in the bathroom helped a great deal while we washed and shaved, etc.  We took our bags and left the room about 6:25 AM. We left the bags in the lobby and went to the dining room for breakfast. To our pleasant surprise, staff was there and had boiled eggs and a few other nourishing things available for us. There were 8-10 other travelers there who would be going on the same flight.  I finished first and went to the front desk to complete the checkout process. Moon was there to translate and that all went smoothly. I took a "header" on the stairs going out of the building but quite fortunately did no damage. I must be more careful about dragging baggage around and not looking where I am going.

We arrived at the airport about 7:15 AM where we bid Moon and Mr. Dua goodbye. Moon had apologized this morning for last evening's fiasco so departure was cordial. We really hated to leave Mr. Dua. He had been cheery and helpful throughout the past several days and had a positive impact on our visit to Yunnan.  We gave him a substantial tip for his effort. We noticed that he had packed the trunk of his car with things he bought in Shangri-La and would take home for whatever purpose. He planned to drive directly back to Dali today. The drive would take about 7 hours.   We were first in line to check in for our flight. This was fortuitous because a large tour group arrived about 5 minutes later.  We next went to the boarding area to await our flight. Another flight on the same airline was scheduled to depart at 8:40 AM.  In due time both planes arrived and pulled up on the tarmac at the terminal.  But only the 8:40 flight loaded and departed. Our plane continued to set on the ground for another 40 minutes for whatever reason.  Then, without any explanation for the delay, the passengers were boarded and we left for Kunming.

Once we arrived in Kunming, we retrieved our checked baggage and went outside where we met May.  Recall that she had guided us during our brief stop in Kunming a few days ago.  She was scheduled to take us to visit the Stone Forest. This would take most of the day and  we would then return to the airport and depart for Shanghai about 7:15 PM where we would arrive at 11:30 PM.   So, there was a long day ahead.  We walked to our waiting van that was to take us to the Stone Forest but upon arriving we learned that we would have to wait for another van. The driver and van were not licensed to carry passengers outside Kunming City.  So, another van was called and arrived after about a 30-minute wait.

We headed out of Kunming on a newly constructed freeway that carried little traffic.  The highway was built solely for the purpose of carrying tourist traffic between Kunming and the Stone Forest.  The drive takes a bit short of one hour. May filled us with facts and figures as we drove along.  Some of these I have incorporated into the notes below.

 When we got near to the Stone Forest, we began to see outcrops of a slate-gray limestone, actually karst formations.  These became more and more prevalent. Some looked almost like a small Stonehenge with vertical slabs of rock standing above the ground. The freeway ended and we drove about another mile to the entrance to the Stone Forest Park.  The karst formation of which it is a part is much more extensive and stretched for miles in either direction as best we could see.  We drove through nicely landscaped grounds planted with flowering shrubs, many trees and broad expanses of lawns. A couple of small lakes with encircling sidewalks nestled among the trees and shrubs.  To our left lay the stone formations thrusting above the tree line.  About a half-mile into the park, we came to several large buildings that belonged to a hotel and associated souvenir stores and restaurants.  Our driver parked the van and we walked through nicely tended grounds of the hotel to a large dining hall that served its guests as well as visitors to the park.

We were seated at a table by a window looking out over the lake.  It was getting on toward 1:00 PM when we arrived and many of the diners had begun to clear out and go on their way. So, we enjoyed a relatively quiet dining time with reasonably good service from the waiters. The food was good but not remarkable and as usual, there was too much for the two of us to eat.  The meal included a serving of duck which I detest. Chinese people regard the duck as a special treat and I feel a bit guilty not eating it. But, it's one of those few things that I absolutely will not eat. I have tried it several times but have come away with the same feeling each time. I have finally decided that it's best just to not even put it on my plate!

We next walked about a block to the entrance of the Stone Forest.  The park is an area especially rich in the karst formations with many interestingly shaped rock formations, secluded grottos and pools of water along a small stream that flows through the area.  Sidewalks wind through the formations and give visitors many different options to tour the area.  In fact, the whole place seemed like a maze to me and I was thankful that we had May along as our guide.  She took us on a route that she called the foreigners' walk.  It went into the more secluded and quiet areas that foreigners seem to enjoy. Chinese tourists are taken on the domestic route that offers many places for photo opportunities and spaces for groups to gather.  We enjoyed the foreigners' route and complimented May on her wise choice of itineraries!  Out route took us to the lowest place in the park at the bank the river and then we climbed to one of the highest places where we had panoramic views of the area.  We returned to the starting point by walking along a road that goes around the perimeter of the park. This provided us a more scenic view of the karst formations outside the park itself. The whole walk took about 1-1/2 hour and was a very enjoyable experience.

We reboarded the van and headed back toward Kunming.  Rather than following the new freeway, we returned via the old highway so that we could see more of the villages and scenery along the way.  The old road followed the same canyon as the freeway but it was down at the narrow bottom far below the new highway. Following are some of the things we saw and heard from may as we drove along.

•    We passed several fields of rice that were now being harvested.  The rice still is cut by hand using sickles following which the shocks are stood in the fields to await transport back to the threshing area.  We passed a local parkway where large quantities of rice were laid out on the pavement to dry in the sun. I assume that auto traffic was restricted through there areas. •    In the areas near the stone forest where there are karst formations, the farmers merely plant their crops around the rock formations and do not attempt to remove them.  All of the rocks must make the harvest more difficult.  I suppose the fact that the rice and other grain is harvested by hand makes the presence of the rocks less objectionable since nobody has to try to negotiate harvesting machinery through the fields. •    We passed a 3-wheel motorcycle that included a flat bed at the rear of the vehicle.  A woman was driving the rig while a man and baby rode in back. A short time later, we passed a similar vehicle piled high with used plastic jugs that probably were on their way to a recycler.   Farther down the road, we passed a motorcycle dealership with a lot full of motorcycle "trucks" that had flat beds about 4 ft x 6 ft.  •    According to May, there are 25 minorities in Yunnan.  Many live in border areas that are shared with other provinces and countries.  But, many of the minorities are unique to Yunnan where they make up about 1/3 of the population.  Han Chinese make up the remaining 2/3.  The mountainous terrain in Yunnan has fostered isolation and reduced assimilation. As a result, the development of many different minority groups has been possible. •    We saw many wildflowers along the roadside.  Some were planted along the highway but most grew wild out in the fields and elsewhere.  The hillsides also were covered in many places with fields of vegetables and corn.  •    We passed by an old railroad clinging to the hillsides above the highway. The French forced construction of this railroad in the early 1900s as a means of transporting mineral wealth of Yunnan to their ports in Vietnam.  Some 200,000 - 300,000 people were forced to work on constructing the railroad.  About 60,000 of them died of mistreatment.  The French eventually abandoned the area and the railroad fell into disuse. A modern railroad track follows its route today.  May also noted that Kunming was the destination of the Burma Road built from India to China in order to move supplies during the Sino-Japanese war.  There was fierce fighting with the Japanese in the area around Kunming.  This was about the only mention made of the Burma Road during our travels. Flying Tigers were never mentioned although their major base was at Kunming. I suspect that the people who would remember these events are now dead and their descendants have not been taught about this aspect of the war. •    We again noticed the terrible driving habits of the Chinese during this drive. They tend to pass anywhere and everywhere regardless of whether on the straightaway, on a curve, against on-coming traffic, etc.  Most drivers tend to drive all over the road and a lane stripe seems to make little difference to them.  Yet, we have seen remarkably few accidents! Breakdowns are common, probably the result of poorly maintained equipment and/or overloading.  At one point, we passed a many trying to inflate a truck tire using a bicycle foot pump! •    We drove around a large lake that is the third largest in Yunnan. I unfortunately did not get its name but it is not far from Kunming. It is 30 Km at its widest and depths range up to 30 m. •    When we got closer to Kunming, we passed many roadside business establishments. Included in the mix were filling stations, hotels, restaurants and factories.  There were many closed business enterprises. I assumed these represent the results of what seems to be rampant speculation and the effect of a softening of the worldwide economy.

We eventually stopped at a large tourist attraction about 8 Km from Kunming.  It was several acres in area and included several buildings, each selling a different theme of merchandise designed to tweak the interests of its tourist visitors.  One building was solely devoted to selling such things as jade, semiprecious stones and stone carvings; another was devoted to foodstuffs; one to small and cheap souvenirs; another to art, music CDs and DVDs; and, one to tea and coffee. There may have been more that we didn't notice. There also were several outdoor eateries.  Admission to all of this was free except there was an associated park named "Paradise Garden," that charged admission.  It contained models of various tourist destination locations in Yunnan. If you couldn't tour Yunnan, you could come here and take photos of replicas! Paradise Garden also had a large flock of peafowl wandering around the grounds. We did not go in to this area but could see what it was like through a fence.  We ended up buying some reasonably priced dried fruit at a place that was remarkably similar to a Trader Joe's.  It was getting late so we soon departed on our way back to Kunming and the airport.  Getting out of the parking lot was itself a challenge because of the large number of tour buses visiting this facility. 

The drive back to the airport took about 1/2 hour through very heavy traffic. We arrived about 5:45 PM but found that we could not check-in for our flight until about 6:05 PM.  We found a place in the lobby where we sat and watched people coming and going. May stayed with us so that she could assist us with the check-in process.  

We went to the Shanghai Airlines check-in counter at 6:00 PM and found only a short line of people ahead of us. The process went quickly and we were ready to go to our gate by about 6:25 PM. We bid May goodbye at Security and we went to our boarding area following processing. We were familiar with this part of the process from our departure for Dali last week.  We found hordes of Chinese people in the boarding area since more than one flight was departing from there. Our flight was called about 7:00 PM and we were pleased to find that the aircraft was a Boeing 757 so there was lots of room to accommodate the large number of passengers. Unfortunately the plane didn't get off the ground until 7:45 PM. The ticket information had the flight listed for 4 hours but we have learned by now that flight times seem to be very approximate and planes sometimes are early and, not infrequently, sometimes late.

We were served dinner soon after taking off.  It included veggies (good), rice (didn't eat); fish balls (weren't good, ate only part); peanuts (OK); cake (awful but ate); and a roll (didn’t eat).  There was only water served for the beverage plus sweet soda.  By now, I have become rather tired of mediocre Chinese food so am just passing it by unless it really appeals to me.  Surprisingly to me, I seem to be getting by without feeling that I need additional food to supplement what little that I eat at some meals.

We were on the ground in Shanghai about 10:30 PM well ahead of the 4 hours scheduled for the flight.  The plane unloaded passengers out on the tarmac and we rode to the terminal in large buses. Out baggage came off quite quickly and we hurried outside only to find a substantial line ahead of us waiting for taxis into town.  We soon realized that we were among the lucky ones to have arrived so early since the line quickly grew in length behind us.  We boarded a taxi after a 20-minute wait and in another 10 minutes arrived at the hotel.  To my surprise, the driver asked for 50¥ as the fare. This was very much more that we had been charged a few days ago when we went to the same airport from the same hotel.  I was concerned about getting ripped off by the driver and was playing dumb, which I was, until I finally took the bellman's word that the fare was OK.  I later learned that the fare was actually 35¥ plus 15¥ airport tax that is assessed only on vehicles exiting the airport.  It was the latter that made the fare seem unusual to me.

We checked into the hotel with little delay and went to our room. We showered and were in bed by 1:20 AM with the alarm set for 8:00 AM. It was necessary for us to be up by then in order not to miss breakfast time in the restaurant.  But, we are used to getting up early and by this time into our trip we've had plenty of practice!

I had a chance to talk with May about her job as a travel guide while we waited at the airport in Kunming today.  She is a university graduate who majored in English and so is familiar not only with vocabulary but also the grammar and the written language. Her spoken English is quite good considering that there aren't a lot of English speaking tourists that come to Kunming.  When she first graduated from college, she worked for a company in a full-time job that only partly related to her educational background. She found this to be very boring and quit after a year or two to become a free-lance guide during the tourist season. At other times of the year she picks up jobs translating business documents for area companies.  She enjoys the variety of her work and meeting people from over the world.  Because there are so few guides that speak good English, she can demand premium pay for her work and is doing quite well financially. When you enter domestic travel airports in China, the flights are posted on a large electronic sign in the main lobby. The sign tells not only the gate and the flight time but also the ticket counter number where you must check in and the time that counter will open.  The latter information is very helpful, particularly to travelers like us who cannot read Chinese.  If you have your flight number, you can easily determine the counter number and when you can check in. Many of the attendants at the check-in counter can speak at least some English.  In our case, we also usually had our local guide to assist us with this part of the process as well. Out guides repeatedly have mentioned a "southern Silk Road" that communicated with the West from Yunnan Province. We do not know whether this road went through India or whether it led north through Sichuan and/or Tibet to eventually join the "Silk Road: in Xinjiang, This will merit some study after we return home.

Return to table of contents Friday, September 17,  2004

We got up about 8:00 AM. I had slept soundly until about 7:00 AM. At that point, I awakened with my hip hurting so much that I couldn't get back to sleep.  The hip was extra-painful probably due to the combined effects of climbing stairways at the Stone Forest, the hard floors at the shopping center in Kunming and the seats on the airplane that bothered me considerably during the flight last evening.  I did my usual routine of morning exercises and that seemed to loosen up the muscles so that I was no longer experiencing pain by the time I finished.

We went to breakfast in the hotel dining room about 8:45 AM.  It was nice to have western food available and this tasted very good after our stint of more than a week eating Chinese breakfasts.   I had some toast, a fried egg, cereal with yogurt and a croissant with some brie and strawberry jam.  Although much more food was available, I tried to be a bit conservative in how much I ate. At this point in the trip my impression was that I actually had lost a bit of weight. My belt wants me to take up an additional notch for the first time on this trip. I am increasingly passing up dishes at both dinner and lunch that aren't very appetizing to me. Sometimes this leads to a meal where I primarily have vegetables and a little bit of meat with not much else.

We found out message light blinking when we returned to our room. Yvette had called.  She wants us to come visit her home. We called back and agreed to a 10:30 AM pick-up by Mr. Gu.  The resultant plan was to do our laundry while visiting Yvette rather than doing it in our room as we had planned.  In spite of this new "wrinkle" we plan to have a relatively quiet day and to have dinner in the hotel so that we can get ready to travel tomorrow and still be in bed at a reasonable hour.

Mr. Gu picked us up at the appointed time and drove us via a tunnel under the river to the Zhou apartment in Pudon, a district across the river from the downtown area of the city.  The drive took about 20 minutes in heavy traffic. Pudon is a newer area with broad streets, open spaces and mostly newer buildings.  Yvette and Patrick have an apartment in a high-rise building.  The view from their apartment is marvelous and includes ship traffic on the river, the Bund and vast areas of Shanghai.  I enjoyed the view from their living room while Yvette guided Jacquie through using the washing machine to process the laundry that had accumulated during our visit to Yunnan.  Yvette, Patrick, Jacquie and I next went to lunch at a club associated with their apartment complex. The club has both indoor and outdoor swimming pools as well as exercise rooms and dining facilities. The whole apartment complex includes two very modern 30-story buildings with about 250 families living in each. The grounds are nicely landscaped and security guards control access.  Later on, Yvette took us on a brief drive around the area at the end of which, we stopped at the day care facility to pick up daughters Willa and Adella.  Mr. Gu then drove us back to the hotel through heavy traffic. It was about 5:30 PM when we got back to our room.  We hung up our still-damp laundry and then fixed ourselves a Scotch.  It was nice to have ice from our in-room refrigerator after several days of drinking our evening Scotch at room temperature!

We took our dinner in the hotel restaurant where we had salmon pasta with some zucchini and sun-dried tomatoes plus a glass of Australian wine.  Jacquie washed her hair after dinner while I worked on packing for tomorrow's departure. We will be leaving from International Airport, which actually is the domestic terminal.  Patrick and Yvette will pick us up here at the hotel about 9:15 AM. Our flight leaves at 11:30 AM.  The traffic on the freeway below our window continued to be very heavy until about 8:00 PM.  I enjoyed the fact that we only had to look at the traffic and were not our driving in it trying to get somewhere. Our preparation for tomorrow was completed we were bed by 11:00 PM.

Yvette managed to get us a very favorable airfare for the Xinjiang leg of our trip and today, she returned 5,400 ¥. My initial concern was what to do with this extra money. To convert it back into US dollars would be very expensive because of unfavorable exchange rate.  I decided to pay our hotel bill tomorrow morning with cash rather than putting it on the credit card. But, that takes only about 1,500 ¥. At the rate we have been spending on this trip, there's no way that we'll use up the balance.  The wild card in the problem is whether there will be additional expense in Xinjiang due to our change of schedule.  At this point, we don't know how much that might be. It was uncomfortably hot in Shanghai today, especially after the chilly temperatures and cloudy days encountered during most of our Yunnan trip.  The temperature stood at 98˚ F about 4:00 PM when we were in Pudon and was 93˚ F when we reached the Rendezvous Hotel about 5:30 PM!  We were thankful that we could spend most of the day in air-conditioned buildings and autos. Patrick told us today that wives are almost never included at dinners and parties hosted by business associates or vendors.  These are for men only and the wives are left at home.  This custom also applies to vacations and pleasure travel that is often provided by companies as perquisites for their employees. This is probably why we saw so many all-male groups of tourists during our Yunnan travels.  It was especially noticeable on the airplanes. We encountered a few all-female groups as well.  Patrick's associates think it's odd that he and Yvette travel together on holidays.  Yvette does get invited to accompany Patrick to some social events because many people still regard Patrick and Yvette as foreigners and therefore they are treated differently from China residents! Patrick today confirmed my belief that many people in China are under-employed and that as a result, it is possible to hire help at very low wages.  He says that such people tend to have very little loyalty to you as their employer and they readily jump to another job for miniscule differences in salary. Hence, an employer is constantly training new help because of the rapid turnover.  He expressed belief that it's better to pay people a better salary to get good employees who are loyal and who will stay with you over the long haul.  To me, this makes eminent good sense! In Shanghai, most taxicabs are operated by two drivers. They work opposing shifts and in that way, keep the taxi operating 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.  Prior to working for Patrick and Yvette, Mr. Gu was a Shanghai taxi driver.  He is such a careful driver that this is hard to imagine! During our drive this afternoon, Yvette pointed out several barbershops along a street not far from their apartment.  She told us that in Shanghai, many barbershops are a front for prostitution and are heavily patronized, especially by construction workers, laborers working away from home and tourists. These barbershops  are important vectors in the transmission of venereal diseases and AIDS.  She sees the end result in the medical clinics where she practices.

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Saturday, September 18

I woke up at about 5:45 AM today one hour before the alarm was scheduled to go off.  I misread the clock and thought it was time to get up.  Once I discovered my error, I returned to bed and was able to go back to sleep until the alarm rang a little before 7:00 AM.  The skies were hazy with broken clouds and the day promised to be another hot one.  We had breakfast and then finished our packing following which we went to the lobby and checked out of our room. I paid our 1,500-¥ bill with cash in order to work-down our supply per yesterday's comment.   Our itinerary today is to fly initially to Lanzhou in Gansu Province where we will have a 2-hour layover at the airport. We will fly from there to Jaiyuguan where we will spend the night at the Jiayuguan Hotel. This air travel will take most of the day ahead of us with no time left for sightseeing.  We will tour in the Jiayuguan area tomorrow and then travel on by bus to Dunhuang.

Patrick and Yvette arrived at the hotel about 9:25 PM and we were on our way to the International Airport (domestic terminal) by about 9:25 AM.  The drive was short and check-in was fast. We were in the boarding area, Gate 12, by shortly after 10:00 AM.  Patrick and Yvette wandered off to check out the airport shops while Jacquie and I waited in the boarding area.  Suddenly, all the other passengers got up and left and we suspected that a gate change had occurred.  Sure enough, Patrick arrived almost immediately and confirmed our suspicions. We followed him to a different gate where we met the two other people, Lucy and Linda, who would be traveling with us this week.  Lucy is Yvette's sister-in-law and is married to he brother Edward Xu. Linda is a friend of Lucy and Yvette.  Both live in Shanghai.

Our flight departed on time and arrived in Lanzhou about 1:55 PM, about 20 minutes ahead of schedule and after a bumpy flight.  Lunch was served along the way and included braised beef with knots of bean curd skin in brown gravy, broccoli, rice, lettuce salad, melon and a bread roll. I ate the beef and broccoli, about 1/3 of the rice and the melon but left the rest. The food was OK and better than most of the airline meals served to date.  The airport at Lanzhou is located outside the city in a narrow valley with trees and cultivated fields.   The hills on either side are very barren and almost devoid of vegetation. We had observed during our descent prior to landing that the whole area was very arid with little greenery to be seen.   The terminal building looked to be new and was very modern in design.  We were met by a local representative of the travel company who presented us with airline tickets for the rest of our journey. Why the tickets are not issued at the point of origin, I do not know. But this also happened on our Yunnan trip where May presented our tickets upon our first arrival in Kunming.

We ended up with a 3-hour layover in Lanzhou before our flight departed to Jiayuguan.  We sat in a restaurant area of the terminal lobby to while away the time by reading and talking. Someone ordered three large bowls of noodles. Noodles apparently are a specialty of the area and are made fresh daily.  They were excellent and it was hard to stop eating them even though I had consumed plenty on top of the previous lunch!   Other "goodies" soon appeared and included peanuts, pistachios, spicy-hot dried raisins, dried apricots and glycyrrhiza-preserved olives.  I guess one might consider this the Chinese equivalent of junk food but it was much more healthful that what we tend to snack on in the USA.  At one point during the wait, I walked outside the terminal building to assess the weather.  I found conditions to be very pleasant with the temperature about 68˚F with a light breeze. Of course, the air felt very dry and this added to the comfort of the day.

The four remaining members of our group arrived on a flight from Beijing and joined us about 3:45 PM.  One couple was formerly Yvette's neighbors in New Jersey and we had met them a couple of years ago during one of our visits there.  The other couple was new to us and lives in China. In all of the confusion, it was impossible to record everyone's name so Jacquie and I would have to work on getting that down as soon as possible.

We checked in for Hainan Airline's Flight # 219 at 4:00 PM. The flight to Jiayuguan was scheduled to depart at 5:00 PM but was posted as being late.  But, we went to the boarding area on the ground level of the terminal to wait for the flight to be called.  A small two-motored passenger jet with its wings above the fuselage came in about 4:50 PM and parked in front of our gate. The flight boarded about 5:15 PM so it actually wasn't very late. The plane was a Dornier 328 and held probably 30 - 45 passengers in a 1+2 seating configuration.  By the time all passengers had boarded, the plane was nearly full. We soon took off and headed in a westerly direction toward Jiayuguan about 1-1/2 hours distant.

We entered an area of barren sand hills almost immediately after being airborne,. We were flying at about 10,000 ft and could clearly see the wind-blown waves on the sand dunes below.  There was absolutely no sign of green vegetation and all seemed like a trackless desert. This area probably was on the southern edge of the world-famed Gobi Desert.  Once we neared Jiayuguan however, we began to see patches of greenery and cultivated fields that represented oases and/or irrigated areas amidst the desert.  We flew over numerous ponds and irrigation ditches in the immediate vicinity of Jiayuguan but all of this was surrounded by trackless desert and barren mountains. The exception was off toward the South where we could see a wall of snowy mountains rising above the barren desert terrain.

The plane landed not far from the city in a barren area that was totally devoid of vegetation except for some plantings around the terminal building.  The airport terminal was a small one-story building that probably was at least 30 years old.  We walked across the tarmac to the arrival area where our local guide greeted us. She was young and quite small and, quite fortunately, could speak considerable English.  I was first into the terminal and she introduced herself to me as being Ms. Zeng. She asked which passenger was Mr. Zhou and I directed her to Patrick.  The bags arrived on a cart and were dumped in a small room with a counter that you could approach to claim your luggage. The load completely swamped the one or two attendants on duty and after a few minutes of watching the ensuing chaos, I just went into the room and retrieved my bags. I gave my claim check to the grateful attendant and left the area. Most of the other passengers started claiming their luggage in the same manner.   I followed our guide to a waiting bus and once all were on board, we headed for town along a road lined with small trees and flanked by an irrigation ditch.

We passed a large power-generating plant and then reached the edges of the city. It was pretty typical of large Chinese towns, The highway was lined with small shops and congested with people lounging around or going about their end-of-day routines either on bicycles or on foot.  The traffic consisting of buses, trucks, autos and bicycles was heavy but nothing like Shanghai or other large cities we visited in Southwest China.   There seemed to be few tall buildings in Jiayuguan with exception of the hotel where we were to stay.  It was one of the tallest at 9 stories.  There were many apartment buildings being erected along our route to the hotel.  They were of the boxy style of older days and looked a lot like military barracks and were about 4 stories tall.  A textile factory is being constructed in Jiayuguan and this housing is for the workers who will be imported from elsewhere in China.  The employees mostly will be women and there was no mention of what jobs, if any, will be available for their husbands.  My initial impression was that the place had the typical grubby look of a desert town with exception that there was little litter to be seen in contrast to similar towns at home.

We checked into our hotel and found our room to be quite comfortable.  We had about 30 minutes before we had to be on the bus to go to dinner at a local restaurant. Once we settled in, we pulled out our Scotch and had a drink using ice from the minibar. Unfortunately, the flask was about empty with only one or two days' supply left.  After a short breather, we returned to the lobby to meet our traveling companions and reboard the bus to go to dinner.

The bus drove down the main boulevard through town on the way to the restaurant. The whole place looked much better at night with the streets and shops brightly lighted. In fact, it looked quite modern and inviting.  When we arrived at the restaurant a couple of miles from the hotel, we noticed from the outside that is seemed to be very dark.  The parking lot was only dimly lighted from a streetlight a block or so distant.  Once inside, we learned that the power was off and the restaurant was lighted only with candles.  The restaurant turned out to be operated by Moslems so there was no pork on the menu. It was dark enough at the table that we really couldn't see in any detail what the dished contained.  One or two dishes made with lamb were quite good as was an eggplant dish.  With 10 of us eating together, we had lots off variety and I regretted not being able to be more familiar with the array of dishes.  But, we all made the most of the adversity and had a good time getting better acquainted.

We returned to the hotel following dinner and did our laundry. The temperature here is quite mild and there was no air-conditioning in our room.  Thus, there was no blower but we strung our clothesline and washed out underwear anyway betting that the low humidity would help things to get dry by morning. We left our window cracked open to facilitate airflow into the room. Jacquie is developing a nasty cough that has become worse as the day progressed. It looks like the respiratory problems inherent with visiting China are finally catching up with us!

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Sunday, September 19 2004

We were up a bit before the alarm went off at 6:30 AM. It still was dark outside at that point but it was beginning to get light by about 7:00 AM.  This is considerably later than what we were used to, especially in Shanghai. But, we now are considerably farther north and west. Since China observes only one time zone, the western areas of the country see a much later sunrise that the eastern areas.  Add to this the fact that the sun rises later in northerly areas as the year progresses and you have the reasons for the late sunrise in Jiayuguan.  Looking out our window to the south, we could see a wall of snowy peaks gleaming through the early morning haze. They seemed to rise abruptly from the valley floor. These are the Qilian Mountains.  From our perspective, they stretched across the total southern horizon but may have been 20 or more miles distant.  We kept a watch on them hoping to get some good photos as the rising sun began to shine on them. Unfortunately, the angles were wrong and the good shots never materialized.

There were other interesting sights out our window this morning. Just below was a construction site where a group of men were just beginning their daily work. They all were wearing hard hats. What a difference from 20 years earlier when safety considerations were seemingly non-existent!  A mosque was visible across the rooftops about a mile distant.  It was painted white but had a round green-tiled dome and two minarets that also were topped with green tiles.  This caused us to recall that our restaurant last evening was operated by a Muslim family. We also saw many Muslims on the streets last evening.  A large convention center was under construction a couple of blocks from the hotel and promised to be a very modern-looking structure.  Other than this, most of the view was filled with apartment buildings that reminded me of those from earlier days. They were about 4 or 5 stories high and rectangular in shape with very unexciting architecture. The unique thing compared to previous experience was that they were painted in a variety of pastel colors that made them somewhat more eye appealing.  At least they weren't the drab, gray Russina-style monoliths of the earlier days in China!

We had breakfast in the hotel dining room. A buffet table held mostly Chinese-style breakfast dishes. But, a chef was preparing eggs so I had two "over easy."  I added to this a dinner roll, a sugar cookie, a Chinese steam-bun and a bowl of rice porridge.  It was more than enough to tide me over till lunchtime. The rest of our group was not up yet and seating was limited, so we sat with a group of French tourists.  One French man at the table asked where we were from. When I answered California, he made a face and exclaimed in a tone of disgust, " Oh, Bush!"   Jacquie's immediate response was, "Don't blame me, I didn't vote for him!"  That brought laughter from all around the table.  The comment was made in jest but showed how unpopular George Bush is among French people.  But, they made good breakfast companions and took the trouble to converse with us in English from time to time.  And, we agreed with their sentiments so the remark in no way offended us.

By the time we returned to our room after breakfast, a high overcast was setting in to the south and this prevented us from getting a sunrise picture of the mountains.  We did our post-breakfast amenities and then finished packing since we would not be returning to the hotel at the end of the day.  Instead, would be driving on via bus to Dunhuang.  We assembled in the lobby at 8:45 AM and after stowing baggage in the back of the bus, we departed for the famous fortress at Jiayuguan Pass. The morning temperature was brisk but the sky was mostly sunny.  But, I needed to wear a fleece vest until the sun came up and began to warm the air.

We headed down the “main street” of Jiayuguan which was a wide boulevard with several roundabouts.  Our route took us past a small Moslem temple and then onto a highway that headed for the fortress only a short distance from the edge of the city. We passed several factories with tall stacks belching smoke and particulates into the clear morning air.   A small park at the edge of town was nicely planted with beds of cosmos in full bloom. It also contained life-sized statues of a string of 4 or 5 camels being led by a herder.  To our surprise, just a block or so down the street we passed a man leading three real-life Bactrian camels carrying small loads. Although this would become a common sight by the end of this week, it was exciting today to see these double humped creatures “in the flesh” being used as work animals. Our only prior observations of these animals had been in zoos, television and in print media.  Somehow, seeing them for the first time “in the flesh” and in their natural environment was exciting.

We arrived at the fort after a short drive and disembarked the bus in a spacious parking lot. On one side was a line of vendor booths set up to sell souvenirs to tourists. On the opposite side was a visitors’ center that was closed save for attendants in an office and a large restroom facility. We were early so there only were two or three other tourist buses in the lot. A winding walkway led from the parking lot up to the fort, a total distance equivalent to a couple of city blocks.  On the left, was a large pond with an extensive growth of reeds and water plants. Several ducks lounged on the surface and a couple of them took flight as we passed by. On the right was a small ravine with a stream, that probably flowed out of the pond to the right.  Directly ahead was the fortress perched at the top of a low bluff. It was an imposing edifice with high walls that looked to be in excellent condition.  We later learned from our guide that much of the fort had been renovated in modern times fromthe original structure which was in ruin before this restoration began. 

The following was abstracted from a site  on the Internet, address not recorded.

“Jiayuguan Pass is marked by a magnificent castle (fortress) and three-story gates, symmetrical in structure, and majestic in appearance.  It is the first pass at the west end of the Great Wall of China and was built during the Ming Dynasty. It is located in Gansu Province about 6 kilometers southwest of Jiayuguan City.  The pass is located at the foot of Jiayuguan Hill, between two hills on opposite sides of a broad valley with rugged mountains to the North and the South.  Jiayuguan Pass earned the name "The First and Greatest Pass under the Heaven". This is different from "The First Pass under the Heaven", which is located at the east end of the Great Wall near Qinhuangdao City in Hebei Province The Fortress is located at the narrowest point of the western section of the Hexi Corridor, and Jiayuguan often has the meaning of "Nice Valley".  It was also a must stop point of the ancient Silk Road.  It is the most magnificent and best-preserved fortress among the over thousand along the Ming Great Wall.  The fortress is trapezoid-shaped with a perimeter (city wall) of 733 meters and with an area of more than 33,500 square meters. The height of the walls is 11 meters. There are two gates-with one located on each of the east and west sides of the fortress. On (top of) each gate there is a building. On the building at the west gate, the Chinese inscription of "Jiayuguan Pass" is written on a tablet. Walls running south and north from the fortress are connected to the Great Wall. There is a turret on each corner of the fortress and on the north side inside the two gates, there are wide brick-paved sloping ramps for cavalry that lead directly to the top of the wall. The structure was initially built in 1372 during the Ming Dynasty and has a history of more than 600 years. A legend says that when Jiayuguan Pass was to be built, the official in charge of this project asked the designer to precisely count how many bricks and other materials would be used. The designer gave him a specific number. But when the project was finished, one brick was left which was placed on the pass as a symbol of commemoration.  A replica resides today in a sheltered location on the south wall behind one of the turrets."

We entered the fort through the East Gate and found ourselves in a nicely planted courtyard that contained several buildings including one that was the residence of the fortress’ military commander. This courtyard was bounded on all sides by the high stone walls of the fortress that are about 33 ft. high. Three of these are the outer walls of the fortress. Opposite us across the courtyard was a wall that served as the wall of the inner fortress, i.e., there was actually was a fortress within a fortress.   We crossed the courtyard and where we could enter the inner fortress through a pair of large gates. In between was a space that could be closed off by shutting both gates and this was designed to be a trap for unsuspecting invaders. Once they had entered the area, the gates would be shut and arrows would rain down on them from defenders posted at the top of the surrounding walls.  Just outside the gate to the inner fortress was a small theater where plays were performed for soldiers of the garrison.  Remnants of brightly painted frescoes still were visible on its walls.  There was also a Buddhist shrine in this area as well.  We climbed up to the top of the walls where we had magnificent views of the surrounding countryside as well as of the fortress itself.  Clearly visible were fortified walls stretching from the fort to the high hills on either side of the valley several miles distant. These walls were not as high and were now mostly in ruin. Apparently, they were substantial enough to block the passage of travelers and force them to pay the appropriate taxes at the fort. Ms. Zeng told us that common people and the caravans didn’t go through the fortress entering and leaving China.  Only soldiers and businessmen were allowed inside.  The West Gate opened on the trackless desert to the west and represented the end of China in bygone times.

The countryside surrounding the fort was extremely barren and nothing appeared to grow there. It mostly was just sand and rock as far as the eye could see.  We visited the fort for about an hour which afforded plenty of time to explore its various nooks and crannies. In one location, a woman had stationed herself on the top of the wall with several bows and a stash of arrows.  A companion had set up several life-size dummies on the ground outside the wall of the fort.  For 1¥, you could shoot an arrow at the “barbarian” below.  I duly paid my Yuan and gave it a try. My first shot fizzled when the bow didn’t work properly so the woman gave me a second chance.  To my astonishment and the amazement of bystanders, my next shot zapped the straw man right through the head!  I decided to quit while ahead and not let anyone know that my unerring shot was sheer, blind luck!  I also was pleased to find the spot where the lone “extra” brick from construction of the fortress was enshrined on a ledge behind a watchtower on top the wall.  Even though it was not the original extra brick but a replica placed there during reconstruction of the present-day fortress, it made a nice picture.

We returned to our bus and drove about ten miles on a paved road to an oasis at the foot of the mountains bounding the north side of the valley.  The road paralleled remnants of a wall that stretched from the fortress to fortifications at the crest of the first echelon of mountains overlooking the valley.  The wall was made of adobe bricks with watchtowers every few hundred yards. It mostly was in ruin but here and there pieces of it still were standing. Nearer the oasis, we passed through irrigated fields of corn, potatoes and grain.  At one location, there was a concrete threshing floor strewn with straw remaining from recent threshing activity.   The bus stopped in a parking area surrounded by souvenir shops and eateries that represented the starting point of the “Hanging Wall.”  The Hanging Wall was a section of the fortification originally constructed in the 1600s.  It was intended to “anchor” the fortification of the Jiayuguan Pass on the north side by creating a barrier to invaders trying to slip past on the north edge of the valley. The Mazhong (sp?)  Mountains at the end of this wall were considered impenetrable to invaders.  If I understood correctly, this section actually represents to terminus of the “Great Wall,” at least in this general area.  The Hanging Wall has been reconstructed and today, is a major tourist attraction. It begins on the valley floor and follows a steep ridge to the top of the nearby mountain where there are two buildings that serve as watchtowers and fortifications for the defenders.  The wall is about 20 ft. high and is constructed mostly of adobe blocks and rocks.  Because it is a reconstruction, it is in “mint” condition and serves as a “must stop” for tourists visiting Jiayuguan.  The hike to the top is a challenge that most of the visitors accept in spite of the fact that it represents a very steep climb, oftentimes in very warm temperatures.  Jacquie elected to make the climb with other members of our group and made it to the top watchtower without too much difficulty. She was rewarded with some good photos of the surrounding countryside. I stopped about 1/3 of the way up when the climb became very steep and started to aggravate my painful hip problem.

I returned to the parking area and then walked a short distance along a dirt road to a construction site where a large group of men and women were busily at work building a continuation of the Hanging Wall. This extension was headed out into the valley in the direction of the Jiayuguan Fortress and followed the line of the old wall.  At this point, the workers were engaged in building the rammed earth core of the wall. This looked to be about 8 feet wide. Long bamboo logs were set in place at the upper edges to mark the wall’s core and were held in place by stakes.  Dirt was then piled on top the wall using a scoop loader and was then spread around by men using shovels. Bits of reeds and straw were scattered between thin layers of dirt to add stability. This dirt was then tamped or rammed by many workers who each were using a gallon-size, round concrete block attached to a short handle about 2-1/2 ft long. The worker used this “tool” by repeatedly lifting it about 12 inches off the surface and then letting it drop with a thud. This had the desired effect of tightly packing the dirt and thus making the rammed core for the wall. The bamboo logs contained the dirt and maintained the sides of the wall. When the level of the packed earth came up to the top of the bamboo log, the latter was reset and the process started all over again.  I have no idea of how long this crew had been working but they had completed about 50 ft of the wall to a height of about 6 ft.  To me, it looked like a slow process but was one that probably wasn’t much different from construction techniques that were employed hundreds of years ago when the original walls were built.  I watched this effort for several minutes until the rest of our group returned from their hike to the top of the Overhanging Wall.

We next had lunch at our hotel in Jiayuguan. Especially good was a dish that contained noodles with tomatoes and green onions. It now was bright and sunny outdoors and not too hot. We boarded a bus with our guide and headed out on a long drive through the Gobi Desert to Dunhuang about 380 Km distant.  According to our itinerary, the drive would take several hours and we would not reach Dunhuang until evening.  I took notes about the sights visible from our bus as we drove along during our journey. My observations and comments follow.

•    We headed due west across the Gobi Desert on the only major east-west highway in the region. The highway was paved with Macadam but was full of chuckholes, a few of which had been patched to some extent. The bus was constantly bouncing, pitching and yawing as we traversed this uneven highway at a speed between 40 and 60 mph.  There was a lot of truck traffic and this occasionally impeded our progress until it was possible to pass. •    The highway initially followed the foot of the Mazhong Mountains. Their slopes generally were dark brown in color but with occasional splashes of red or yellow due to a change of mineral content.  The Qilian Mountains initially formed a distant snowy barrier off to the south but these faded from view as the road progressed out into the vast desert basin to the West. Occasional patches of green vegetation and fields of corn off to our right suggested the presence of underground water along the base of the mountains.  As we progressed on our way during the afternoon, the basin widened and the mountains on both sides receded into the distance.  This especially was true off to the South where the mountains eventually became almost invisible through the haze. •    I have noticed that many of the young Chinese women have hair that is red-brown in color, especially when you can see them in the sunlight.  One of our group told us that this is not natural but is an artifact of the present-day fad of daily hair washing which damages the hair and turns it a lighter color. •    At various times this afternoon, we passed the remains of large adobe structures and wondered if they are remnants of the old Silk Road or something more recent. We also passed occasional hard-scrabble villages set in the midst of fields that received some, but possibly not enough, irrigation/ground water.  I was surprised to find the considerable number of places where water was obviously available in the midst of what otherwise was a very barren desert.  We would come upon these places seemingly in the middle of nowhere. These moist areas apparently are places where water draining from the mountainsides pools in the valleys and wells-up to the surface.   I assume that the various branches of the Silk Road tended to follow these wet spots so that the caravans could find water in the midst of this otherwise hostile environment.  The fields appeared to be flood-irrigated and crops included corn, hay, grain, and vegetables. •    Farms frequently have mounds of hay piled on the roofs of the houses and associated sheds. Yet, we saw no animals all afternoon long. If present, they must be kept inside the sheds and not allowed to roam. In actuality, there is no food for them out on the desert so releasing them to browse would accomplish nothing. •    We passed several trucks piled high with yellow onions headed for markets farther to the east. In a nearby town was a collection depot where hundreds of bags of onions lay on the ground awaiting transport to market. •    We passed a “wind farm” of about 60–75 machines generating electrical power. They were modern in design and were very similar to some of those along the Altamont Pass near home.  A large oasis and town were located nearby.  Around this area were many greenhouses that appeared to still be in use.  The greenhouses have an adobe wall on the north side and on the ends. Metal ribs supported a vinyl-sheeting formed the roof and south side of the greenhouses. The result was a structure that resembled a Quonset hut of WW II fame. Small agricultural fields were diked in anticipation of being flooded at a later date prior to planting.  Nearby was a new city that was still under construction.  It had all the benefits of urban planning including wide streets, a beautiful new hotel, modern government buildings, residential apartments with nicely landscaped grounds, etc.  Oil has been discovered nearby and the Chinese Government is building this town to accommodate the influx of new workers and their families.  It appeared as if there were few inhabitants beyond a few construction workers. Perhaps they will come later as the oil field is developed. •    By about 3:30 PM, the occasional settlements and irrigated fields gave way to totally barren desert. This desert did not contain sand dunes one sometimes associated with such areas. Rather, it was a “pebble desert” which means that its surface was strewn with small pebbles and gravel layered over a reasonably hard sand base. There were a few small dunes here and there and there occasionally were a few small shrubs somewhat like the saltbush we see at home.  But, there was essentially nothing to see other that the empty landscape stretching for miles in all directions.  Off to the south and three to five miles distant there was a thin line of greenery that signified some type of intermittent stream course.  At one point, we passed a large shallow lake that appeared to be fed by a stream.  White deposits along the shore suggested that it was somewhat brackish. The watercourse persisted almost the total distance to Dunhuang. One could assume that the old caravan route more or less followed along this track in order to find water for the animals.  We could occasionally see bits and pieces or old walls and fortifications off in the direction of the water. •    We stopped about 3:45 PM at a small dusty place named Qiaowan. Upon disembarking, we found it to be quite pleasant outside our bus with the temperature being in the mid to 70s. A light breeze came from the west and there were a few high clouds. But overall, it was sunny and pleasant.  The only things there were a large open-air market selling vegetables, fruit, snacks and souvenirs to tourists and a “museum” across the highway that exploited a legend about ruins that existed a short distance away. The legend as I can best recall follows.  In the ancient past an emperor dreamed of a place to the west where there was a grand palace located by a river and groves of trees.  He sent two men to look for the site but and they found the trees and river but, there was no grand palace. They returned to the emperor and told them what they had found. He gave them money to go back and construct a grand palace on the site they had discovered.  They returned to the site but they built only a small building instead of the palace and kept the money or themselves thinking that the emperor would never know about their misdeed.  But, the emperor later sent someone to view the palace. This person reported back that the palace did not exist.  When the emperor heard this news, he sent a contingent of soldiers to capture the two men and bring them to justice. The soldiers found the two culprits and killed them following which they were skinned.  Their skin and skulls were made into a drum! The remains of an ancient, long dead tree still exist at the supposed site of the palace. The location now is a tourist stop. A ruined fort or set of buildings stands about 100 yards distant.  A “tourist museum” advertises that passersby can view the skulls for a few Yuan. We did not go into the museum but did use the smelly toilets at a cost of 0.5¥ each.  Local people were selling melons in front of the museum and somebody in our group bought two watermelons that were shared among all of us.  They were field-ripened and were delicious.  After this short stop, we reboarded the bus and continued on our way across the desert. •    We soon drove through an area where the soil had differential hardness and the result was a landscape heavily eroded by wind and rain that featured many “monuments” of varying size ranging from a foot or two in height up to house-size.  All of these appeared to be quite hard and had been sculptured and shaped into similar contours by the prevailing west wind. •    There was little sign of agriculture in view from the highway except for an occasional small oasis where there would be a few acres of green crops showing. We passed a herd of 30-40 cattle at one point. They were tended by a couple of herders. We also occasionally would see farmers selling melons along the highway. They camped right beside the highway in tents and stacked their wares at the edge of the pavement.  For the most part, however, the land was mostly barred and devoid of vegetation. •    We stopped at a fruit stand and outdoor market about 5:30 PM. I bought a bag of 6 pears for 2¥, about 25¢ US. Patrick bought a sweet potato from a vendor who was roasting them over a charcoal fire.  He gave me about ¼ of a large one which I found to be very good. It was not as sweet as the ones we have at home but was much better than a plain baked white potato.  I ate it skin and all since the potato was just out of the oven and hadn’t had a chance to yet become contaminated. •    We came to a three-way intersection about 6:00 PM where we turned off the main east-west highway we had been following and headed in a southwesterly direction for Dunhuang.  One immediate benefit was that we left the heavy truck traffic behind so progress was faster. We continued to drive through barren desert that was sometimes sandy and sometimes rocky.  By 7:15 PM we could again see the long line of greenery that marked the course of what appeared to be the same intermittent river we had seen all afternoon.  Now, we were heading toward it rather than running on a parallel course.  As we approached this stream, the amount of vegetation on the desert increased but still was sparse by most standards. By 7:20 PM, we began to see cultivated fields with people working in them. There also were houses and a small village as we approached the green belt. I was surprised to see that the workers in the fields were picking cotton, something that I hadn’t expected to see growing in the midst of the desert.  As it turned out, cotton seemed to be the primary crop. It was grown in fields two or three acres in area and was being picked by hand. There was no mechanical picking equipment to be seen.  We also passed people standing by the road with large sacks full of freshly picked cotton waiting for a truck to haul the load to market or storage.  I assumed that with all of this activity and greenery, we must have been approaching Dunhuang. •    To my surprise, the bus continued on through this green area and headed on out across the desert still going in a southwesterly direction.  It now was about 7:30 PM and the sun was setting fast. It soon dipped below the horizon and we still were not in Dunhuang.  A line of towers about 1 Km apart stretched out across the desert to the southeast and nearby, was some type of ruined buildings. I suspect this was some remnant related to the old trade routes.  Shortly thereafter, we saw a sign that read in English “Welcome to the Dunhuang Peace Road” and eventually, we reached another area where there was much vegetatin.  People, many of them women shrouded with headscarves, were still out in the gathering dusk picking cotton in the fields.

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After what seemed an interminable length of time, we finally reached Dunhuang and to my surprise, it was a quite large, modern city.  By now, it was 8:00 PM and was quite dark. We drove to a restaurant on the opposite edge of town from where we entered. This gave us a chance to see what the city looked like at night. Our route took us along a broad central boulevard that had fountains, sculptures and shrubbery in the center. There were roundabouts at major intersections of cross streets with this boulevard.   This street was lined with brightly lighted shops that still were doing a brisk business at this time of night. Many shoppers were still out on the street browsing in the various shops.  Our restaurant was situated along one of the side streets and was very busy. But, we had a reservation so we were seated promptly. The food was quite good, especially a tofu dish with noodles that was very similar to one that we make at home. Like yesterday, our meal contained no pork, just lamb and beef. This reflects the Moslem influence in this area of China.

We drove a couple of miles to the Sun Village Hotel after dinner. It was situated along a highway on the outskirts of town and was easily recognizable by a large sign and brightly lighted grounds. The facility appeared to be quite modern and after checking in at a central lobby, we were escorted to one of four buildings that held the guest rooms. The walk to the rooms was almost a block long through nicely planted gardens.  In addition to flowers and fruit trees, the gardens contained stands of… you guessed it, cotton!  Our room was quite nice and modern. We took showers and did our laundry and were in bed by 11:30 PM.   It had been a long day but one that was full of interesting sights and experiences. As I write this travelogue several weeks later, I marvel at how much we packed into one day’s travel adventure!

Following is a descriptive narrative concerning Dunhuang that is excerpted from the Internet (address not recorded.):

Dunhuang is an oasis town in Chinese Central Asia west of Xian,  a former capital of China. To the west of Dunhuang lies the Taklamakan Desert.  To the west of Dunhuang, the silk road split to follow the northern and southern borders of the desert where there were many small oases.  Thus Dunhuang was the town where the two branches of the silk road rejoined for the final leg into China's capital. The cave-temples near the town of Dunhuang form what is arguably the world's most extraordinary gallery of Buddhist art: a gallery whose magnificent mural paintings and stucco sculptures were not collected from distant sources but were created in situ over a period of nearly a thousand years. Moreover, one particular cave contained a sealed library whose contents, consisting of written documents, silk paintings and woodblock prints, reflect contacts with every major Buddhist centre of both Central Asia and the Chinese empire. The town was founded by Emperor Wudi of the Han dynasty in 111 BC as one of the four garrison commanderies which assured Chinese control over the trade routes to the western regions. For several hundred years after the collapse of the Han empire (206 BC-220 AD), the area was subjected to successive waves of invasions, which often caused great upheaval. For example, in 439, conquest of the area by the Northern Wei (386-535) led to a relocation of thirty thousand of its inhabitants to the dynastic capital in Shanxi province. In 781, during the Tang dynasty (618-906), Dunhuang surrendered to the Tibetans after ten years' resistance. When Chinese rule was restored in 848, one local family assumed power, to be followed in the tenth century by other powerful clans. Dunhuang was last considered a place of importance when it was under the control of the Western Xia kingdom (990-1227) and the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). From the time of the Han to the end of the Yuan, a most important trade route developed from China to the West, which later became known by the marvelously evocative name, The Silk Road. The ancient traveler leaving China along this road would pass through Dunhuang before braving the many hazards of the journey westwards through East Turkestan (present-day Xinjiang). Dunhuang has a special place in history because of its location close to the parting of the northern and southern routes that skirted the impassable Taklamakan desert. Silk was traded along this seven thousand kilometer braid of caravan trails from China right across Asia to the eastern Roman empire on the shores of the Mediterranean, and also to south Asia. Persian and Sogdian merchants traveled the whole length, and were such familiar sights in the Chinese capitals Chang'an (present-day Xi'an) and Luoyang that they can frequently be found, for example, portrayed on Tang dynasty figurines. This route was also used by Buddhist monks from China and Korea traveling west in search of images and scriptures, and by ambassadors and princes from the west making the long journey to China. It was by means of the Silk Road that all manner of exotic imports reached China, as diplomatic gifts or through trade, and mainly in exchange for silks: vessels made of gold and silver and the techniques for working these metals; fine glass; fragrances and spices; exotic animals such as lions and ostriches; new fruits such as grapes; dancers, musicians and their instruments. After the splendours of the Tang dynasty, however, trade along the Silk Road was severely curtailed, and Dunhuang was left in isolation. Later trade between China and Europe was entirely by sea. By the late nineteenth century, with the decline of Chinese imperial power, the whole of Central Asia, including Dunhuang, was a political void which invited foreign interest from many sides, including Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Japan. This provided the opportunity for the "rediscovery" of ancient cultures and treasures along the trade routes. It was not just merchandise, technology and culture that passed along the Silk Road. From the early centuries AD, learned monks from the monastic centers of Central Asia imparted their knowledge and interpretations of the scriptures to their Chinese counterparts by way of these trade routes. Representatives of Zoroastrianism, the ancient Persian dualist religion, and of Nestorianism, an Eastern Christian sect, also reached China and established themselves there. Founded in the sixth century BC, Buddhism soon began expanding northwards from the foothills of the Himalayas. In the third century BC, under its most influential convert, the Indian emperor Asoka, it was dispersed by missionaries across Central Asia, where it remained dominant for about a thousand years, until invaders in the seventh century AD brought in Islam. In China itself, Buddhism was introduced probably as early as the first century BC, with communities of Buddhist monks in existence by the first century AD. Learned Buddhist monks became valued as palace advisors, and it was through imperial and aristocratic patronage that Buddhism made its first substantial progress in the empire. Because of its vitally important position on the Silk Road, virtually every stage of this progress is chronicled in the caves at Dunhuang.

The Law in China is that the driver who hits a pedestrian is automatically at fault no matter how egregious is the latter’s behavior.  This has created a problem where some pedestrians totally ignore the rules and place their personal safety in jeopardy.  They neglect the fact that even if the driver is at fault, they may suffer serious, even fatal, injury. Throughout today, we have seen many people who obviously are members of the Moslem faith. The men wear small white skullcaps quite analogous to those worn by their counterparts in the Jewish faith.  Women wear scarves over their heads. We have not seen anyone wearing the heavily veiled costumes common to Moslems in some of the more conservative countries. The Moslem faith appears to be especially prevalent among the farmers and the working class,  most of whom also are members of one or another ethnic minority group or tribe. Throughout this travelogue, I   refer to our Chinese traveling companions and guides by names that are decidedly Anglo-Saxon in origin.  Many Chinese, particular younger ones who have considerable contact with Westerners, adopt an alias that is familiar to Americans and/or Europeans.  Most of these names correspond roughly to the sound of their given Chinese names but this is not always the case.  Unfortunately, Jacquie and I came to know our associates and guides by these Anglicized names and not their appropriate name in Chinese.  For this I apologize as I write this travelogue.

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Monday, 20 September 2004

We were up today just before the alarm went off at 7:00 AM. We were scheduled to leave the hotel on a sightseeing tour at 9:00 AM. Thankfully, we will not be moving today and will return to the Sun Village Hotel this evening.  The sky outside was devoid of clouds but the air was a bit crisp. Considering the lack of clouds, the low humidity and the prevailing temperatures in this region, it should be a very nice day as time progresses.  The itinerary for today calls for visits to Yanguan Pass, Yumen Pass and the remnant of an ancient Han Dynasty wall near Yumen pass.

Jacquie started coming down with a cold the night before last and it progressively has become worse. Yvette advised Jacquie this morning to start taking zithromycin from her Z-pak before the problem gets any worse. We brought the Z-pak from home for just such a purpose and this turned out to be a good move since the cold did not worsen during the rest of the trip.

The hotel's dining room held the typical Chinese buffet breakfast. By “grazing” for things like boiled eggs, sausage, fruit and even toast, we were able to have a satisfying breakfast that wasn’t too different from our meals at home.   By time to board the bus at 9:00 AM, it was getting warm to the point that it was almost shirtsleeve weather. Still, we took light jackets with us on the bus. We headed through town on the highway we traveled yesterday and then headed southwest from Dunhuang.  Before leaving town, we stopped for petrol at a PetroChina station.  As was the case all over China, young women served as attendants to pump the gas and take the payment.  Drivers never service the car themselves!  The filling stations in China are usually very large with at least a dozen gas pumps and are housed in “cookie cutter” modern buildings designed for the purpose. My impression is that there are too many of these. Stations owned by the same company often are on opposite sides of the road from each other. But, with the burgeoning number of motor vehicles on the roadways, I guess some of these are being installed in order to meet future demands.

While still in town, we crossed a multi-channeled, shallow, muddy stream that was typical of what one finds in a desert environment.  I’m not sure of the origin of this stream or where it goes after Dunhuang. But, it may originate to the southwest and run parallel to the base of the sand mountains on the southern edge of the valley. Later in the day, we saw a similar stream course near Yanguan Pass that flowed in the general direction of Dunhuang.  We also passed several “spectacles shops” in town that probably were the business establishments of local opticians.  Once at the edge of town, we had opportunity to get another look at the cotton fields. Cotton appears to comprise the large majority of the local agriculture although some fields contained volunteer corn and grape arbors were prevalent. Goats appeared to be the principal animal production.  Most crops are grown in 1 to 3 acre plots that are diked up so they can be flood-irrigated.

We soon left the town behind and headed approximately west paralleling a line of high sand dunes and a mostly-dry watercourse about a mile to our left.  There was little vegetation and other than near the watercourse off to our right, there seemed to be only trackless desert.  About 10 miles out of town, we passed a ruin of an old city on our right. This probably was what remains of ancient Shouchang City.  We did not stop although there were two or three tour buses parked there already.  The high dunes on our left eventually gave way to rocky hills that maybe were 200-300 ft. high.  After driving for about 30 minutes, we saw a dam at the foot of the mountains that seemed to span a gap in the hills to our left. There was a green “oasis” at the foot of the dam and we later would learn that there was a considerable impoundment of water behind it some of which could be seen from Yanguan Pass.

Just before reaching the turn-off to the dam, we turned right onto a paved road that angled off in a northwesterly direction, Its destination eventually was a Chinese military installation and nearby that, was the ruin of former facilities at Yumen Pass.  After driving a couple of miles, we came to a small stone building out in the middle of nowhere.  There was a rope stretched across the road so the bus dutifully stopped.  Ms Zeng went to the building and paid admission for which she received a ticket for each passenger.  I am not sure whether the admission fee was for us to use the road or for visiting Yumen Pass.  I marveled at how the toll taker lives out in the middle of a totally barren area of the desert with no shade and little human contact or anything to occupy his time other than attend to his ticket collecting duties!

We continued along the road for the better part of an hour, 70 - 80 Km, and for much of this time, we passed through totally barren desert paved with small pebbles. The monotony was occasionally broken by sparse vegetation. We passed a couple of good-sized oases a mile or so to our left that contained villages. At one point, we passed a man squatting by the side of the road apparently waiting for a ride to somewhere.  He had started a small fire with oil soaked rags that gave off black smoke that was visible for a considerable distance.  Ms Zeng had been talking non-stop in Chinese ever since Dunhuang. Of course, we could understand none of this. She eventually stopped and then came back to when Jacquie and I were sitting and gave us a condensed version of her talk in English.  Her English is not super but it is sufficient to get across the information and we have appreciated the fact that throughout the trip to date, she has made the effort to explain things to us in English.  In addition, Yvette and Patrick as well as others in the group who speak English have been very good about keeping us informed.

We began to see more vegetation as we neared our destination. This included a low-growing shrub scattered across the terrain that had succulent leaves and was about 6 to 8 inches high. Ms Zeng explained that this was "camel & sheep grass."  In this area, we even encountered some low-growing trees and taller shrubs of unknown species.  We eventually reached a place where the macadam road turned left and headed toward a complex of one-story buildings about a mile distant. This was the Chinese military complex and it was off-limits to us. We turned onto a rutted dirt road and went about 200 yards past a "tourist trap" and through an arched gate to reach a parking area in front of what remains of the fort at Yumen Pass.  Very little is left except for some mounds of dirt that once were buildings and the walls of the fortress complex. The lone exception is a badly eroded remnant of a large 2-story building about 80 ft on a side. It has very thick adobe walls with no roof. A chain-link fence keeps visitors away and all one can do is take a picture.  It must have been an impressive structure in its day.  Ms. Zeng said that this building once was a caravansary associated with the military complex. Nearby is a small adobe building that one might assume is part of the old complex but it actually is of more recent vintage.  The site is very desolate and the only people around were two women renting a couple of horses for tourists to ride. Lucy and Linda accepted the opportunity and demonstrated considerable equestrian skill as they explored the general area on horseback.

The area was far from being barren of vegetation and wildlife. The fortress perched on the bank of what must occasionally be an intermittent river that flows approximately west to east. It is at least 100 yards wide with steep banks. The riverbed is covered with green vegetation, mostly low-growing grasses and reeds, and here and there are marshes and areas of shallow open water.  Numerous waterfowl were loafing on the various small ponds and flying here and there. It was strange to find this abundance of moisture in the midst of a desert that otherwise was almost devoid of vegetation. Ms Zeng said the source of the water is springs as well as snowmelt from the mountains distant to the south.  On across the stream and about 3 to 5 miles distant was a line of low hills that surely weren't the source of the moisture.  A dirt road followed the stream course on out to the west going who knows where.

Following is a passage about Yumen Pass taken from a web site on travel in Xinjiang:

Yumen Pass, situated in Gobi Desert eighty kilometers northwest of Dunhuang County town, was a pass on the northern route of the Silk Route. The remaining building is a well-preserved square structure, 24 meters from east to west, 26.4 meters from north to south, and 9.8 meters high. It was built with yellow mud bricks. The desert outside Yumen Pass bears few traces of human activity. It was so desolate that Wang Zhihuan (688 - 742), a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote:" Even the spring breeze cannot get through Yumen Pass."

Once we had explored the remains at Yumen Pass, we continued on down the dirt road paralleling the riverbank for about a mile until we came to the remnant of an old defensive wall constructed during the Han Dynasty about 2,000 years ago. The wall is badly eroded and only a few sections remain.  Some of these are as much as 8 to 12 ft. high. There also are remnants of a couple of watchtowers that were situated along the wall at regular intervals. Due to many years of erosion, the construction technique is plainly visible.  The wall was constructed by alternating layers of adobe clay with mats of reeds that once grew by the river.  The layer of reeds was about 2 or 3 inches thick whereas the adobe layers were more like 8" to 12".  I suspect that when originally constructed, the clay layers were tamped or pounded to harden them and to fuse them to the reeds.  Seeing this caused me to reflect on the reconstruction of a piece of the Hanging Wall that I observed yesterday near Jiayuguan. It basically employed the same technique except that straw was used there instead of river reeds.  In any event, the knowledge that we were looking at remnants of something constructed by humans 2,000 years earlier was very impressive. The fact that parts of this wall are visible after being subjected to the erosive forces of wind and the elements for 2,000 years attests to the validity of the construction method.  Whether this wall was effective in keeping out the "barbarians" is another matter. Historians generally seem to agree that the walls had little actual effect in this respect.

We took a few pictures of the old wall and then boarded the bus and headed back out to the main highway. Instead of turning left toward Dunhuang, we turned right and continued southwest toward Yanguan Pass which was a few miles distant. The road led through barren country with mountains and dunes to our left and trackless desert on the right.  We eventually came to a fork in the road.  We all missed seeing on the left pointing to Yanguan. As a result,  we took the wrong turn and after about 5 miles, we had to turn around and head back to the intersection where we took the other branch of the highway. About three miles on down the road we came to the oasis that is present-day Yanguan. It was a beautiful little village located in a narrow valley with high trees overarching the road on both sides and houses nestled among extensive grape arbors and shaded by the trees.  Irrigation water ran in roadside ditches.   We stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant where we were seated in our own private outdoor dining room whose walls and ceiling were formed by grape vines. Large clusters of ripe green grapes hung from the vines and were there for guests to pick. It was shady and pleasant under the grape vines.  There was room for the ten of us around a large table with the typical lazy Susan to facilitate the serving of many dishes that make a Chinese meal for such a large group.

Lunch took about 2 hours and just when we thought we were finished, another dish or two would arrive.  We ate slowly and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere.  It was warm out in the sun and we appreciated the cool shade of the grape arbor. Among the many dishes served was a broiled lamb that one dipped into a substance that tasted a lot like curry powder. Raw garlic also was served with the lamb as a condiment. Other than the lamb, most of the dishes were vegetables. Many were well seasoned with hot peppers and were very flavorful. The meal service finally ended and we topped off the lunch with bunches of ripe green grapes plucked from overhead.

We re-boarded the bus and started down the highway in the general direction of Dunhuang. But, we went scarcely a block before we found out way blocked by a small flatbed truck parked in the middle of the highway unloading a large pile of boxes. It was piled high with the boxes that probably contained fresh or dried grapes.  The unloading was all done by hand, a box at a time and the loaders seemed to be in no hurry to accommodate our passage. So we sat there waiting, not altogether patiently. Some on the autos in the queue began honking their horns but this did no good.  After about a 15 minute wait, the truck still was only partially unloaded but the driver finally moved it enough to let traffic by and we were able to go on our way to the nearby Yanguan Fortress.  

 We drove about a half-mile and then turned right on a small road that climbed up out of the valley. It wasn't much of a climb, maybe about 30 ft! Immediately ahead of us was a restoration of the original  fortress that in ancient times had served to oversee the camel caravans and visitors seeking to enter China through the Yanguan pass.  Close beside the road were several fruit dryers. These are small buildings about 24-30 ft long and 12-15 ft wide. The walls are made of brick laid in such manner that their ends just overlap. This creates open spaces in the walls of the building and gives them a lattice-like appearance. These openings allow the breeze to blow through the buildings.  The fresh fruit is hung on poles inside the building while the drying takes place. The humidity is very low and the sun us quite intense. Hence, the fruit, principally grapes, dries very quickly.  Because of the lack of industrial grade refrigeration, drying is the only economical way to preserve the largess of the agricultural operations of the area.

We parked in a dusty lot in front of the Yanguan Fortress. The structure and the buildings inside the walls are all reconstruction and I assume that the original fortress disappeared sometime in the past. Yanguan has a history dating back to the Han Dynasty 2000 years ago.  The fortress now has external walls about 30 ft high with fortified towers standing atop the wall every 30 - 50  feet. A massive gate provides access to the inner grounds. Parked out in front at the edge of the parking lot were reconstructions of several siege engines typical of the days when armies saw fit to attack and try to overcome fortresses such as this.   We walked through the main gate after Ms Zeng paid our admission and found ourselves in a nicely planted outer courtyard.  About 100 feet ahead of us, a broad portico stretched across the courtyard and terminated at either end with entrances to a museum that contained artifacts and interpretive exhibits about the early days of the fortress and the surrounding area.  Ms Zeng arranged for an English-speaking guide to take Jacquie and me through the museum which made our visit very informative. 

Once we finished with the tour of the museum, we crossed through the portico into an inner courtyard at the rear of the fortress where there was another building that probably either was a mosque of a residence of the former nobility. We did not enter this building because a movie company was actively engaged in making a film in the center of this courtyard. Earlier, they had been around the entrance to the museum. Ms Zeng told us that the group was making a film for MTV.  I could believe that based on the large number of young men and women involved and the presence of numerous musicians.  In any event, we exited the fortress through a side gate and walked toward an area outside where there was a reconstruction of the quarters where the military garrison would have lived and trained. This was quite interesting but touring it took only a few minutes. We next walked a short distance to a corral where we each rented a horse for 10¥ to carry us about a half-mile up a sandy hill to an observation platform where we could look out over the desert at what once was the caravan road. Also visible from there was an oasis and small park that was located behind the dam mentioned earlier.  I was not enamored with the experience on the horse. Its owner led it so I just sat there as the horse reluctantly plodded along.  But, I did enjoy looking out over the empty desert that once had been the location of the caravan road. There was little but sand and sparse vegetation and it made one wonder how caravans of people and heavily loaded camels were ever able to traverse this barren country.

We spent 20-30 minutes at the overlook and then returned to our bus. We headed back to Dunhuang where we went to a carpet factory. There was a perfunctory display of women weaving carpets at handlooms. We have toured similar carpet factories in India, Thailand, and Turkey and on previous trips in China. All have been alike and mostly they serve as a prelude to taking you into the sales room.  The sales room was extensive and heavily staffed with sales persons who followed you around pouncing each time that you showed any interest in their wares. Jacquie and I were not buying, as was the case for most of the rest of our group.  There was an attached souvenir shop that was drawing the most attention, especially from a group of French tourists. Jacquie did get a good deal on two bone necklaces for which she paid 64¥. The salesperson originally asked 320¥ but Jacquie eventually worked her down to just 20% of the original asking price. She gave these to Sharon and Liralen as souvenirs after we returned home.  Jacquie also bought a beautiful silk scarf for 50¥ as a gift to Bernice Pais for taking care of her outdoor plants during our absence from home.

We went to the same restaurant tonight where we had diner last evening. By mutual agreement, we contributed 14¥ per person so that we could have a meal of local dishes rather than the set tourist menu. The result was that we were served a variety of dishes most of which included a bit of hot pepper and were quite different from anything we had experienced to date.  For example, there was cubed tofu in a flavored sauce, very "picante" noodles with lamb, small fried breads like our American Indian fry-bread and a couple of dishes liberally "laced" with cilantro. The result was a very good meal and a bit of overeating on my part.  Patrick bought a bottle of moutai which we shared around the table with our dinner. The taste of moutai takes some getting used to. But, it sort of grows on you and by the end of the meal, I was enjoying it thoroughly!

Jacquie, Patrick and I returned to the hotel after dinner whereas the rest of the group stayed in town for a foot massage. Jacquie was suffering from her cold and needed to get to bed early. We showered and were in bed by 10:20 PM. The alarm was set for 7:00 AM.  Before we went to bed, we partially completed packing our gear in anticipation of moving tomorrow. Bags have to be on the bus when we depart tomorrow morning. We will tour locally all day and have dinner before we depart for Urumqi at about 8:20 PM. We are not scheduled to arrive at Urumqi until 10:20 Pm. It will be another long day!

Tuesday, 21 September 2004

 We were up a bit before the alarm went off and set about our morning activities that today, included finishing our packing preparatory to moving.  My cold had not improved over the nighttime hours and to complicate things, my bowel is a bit loose. The latter may be due to the extra amount of fruit and peppery food we have consumed.  I slipped some tetracycline into my pack as insurance against a problem later in the day. I preferred to stay in bed today but the Mugao Grottoes beckoned.  Besides, there was no way that I could remain at the hotel since we were checking out this AM. So, I forced myself to get going.  My challenge was to drink enough water today to stay hydrated so that I could keep the congestion in my chest moving up and out. 

It was chilly outside at 7:45 AM and the sun still wasn't up but it was quite light and gave promise of a sunny day.  We walked over to the dining room to have breakfast. The selection for breakfast was not very good but we still found some boiled eggs, baked sausage and mostly cold toast. This was enough to last us until lunchtime.  While seated in the dining room, we noticed that nearly all of the big picture windows were cracked.  These windows were probably 7 ft by 10-12 ft in size and they represented a substantial cost in constructing the building.  After looking at the crack patterns and considering the soil outside, we concluded that the culprit was the building settling unevenly due to a hastily and poorly constructed earthen fill underlying its foundation.

We walked back to our room following breakfast and continued packing up for departure this morning.  On the way back, we had opportunity to observe some contemporary sculpture on the hotel's grounds. Most bizarre were several plastic tree trunks that probably stood 20 ft high with stubby limbs and no leaves.  They looked something like trees from a bad horror movie. There also were some other plastic shrubs and animals scattered here and there.  But, there also were some very nice gardens planted with colorful flowers. These looked much nicer that the plastic vegetation. Why the hotel included that latter, I do not know. I did note that the hotel's lighted signage along the road is almost equally garish at night!  But, the rooms were comfortable and we had enjoyed our stay so these things were only minor annoyances.

Once on the bus, we headed out of town going in an easterly direction. After driving for a few miles the driver turned off onto a macadam road and headed south toward a line of sand hills and low mountains about 5 miles distant. It soon became evident that we were following a dry riverbed as we neared the mountains. The terrain around us was devoid of vegetation and was quite sandy.  We soon found ourselves ascending a rather narrow canyon with high rocky walls on its west bank and with sandy hills on the opposite side.  We could see caves cut into the high bank on the west side of the dry river. We later learned that these probably housed monks during the days when this area was an active Buddhist shrine.  A short distance farther on, we pulled into a parking lot full of tour buses along the bank of the wash. Ahead of us were a wooded area and the park that houses the grottoes. Between the grottoes and the parking lot was a line of tourist souvenir stalls selling everything imaginable and staffed by very aggressive salespeople.  By now, it was pleasantly warm and we could leave our jackets in the bus.  From here, we walked the equivalent of a three or four of blocks to the grotto area entrance. Along the way, we crossed a bridge over the dry river so that we now were on a strip of ground at the base of the south wall of the canyon.

Ms Zeng had tickets for each member of our group that she surrendered at the entrance to the grottoes. She had arranged for an English-speaking guide to accompany Jacquie and me so we stood aside while the others went off with their local guide. The guide soon showed up along with three French people who would be accompanying us on the tour. We found that the guide, name not recorded, was very knowledgeable and spoke good English. We spent the next 2-1/4 hrs touring through the grottoes. Taking pictures was not allowed inside the grottoes so the only record we have of the event is a few notes that I jotted down. I also have entered under Post Scripts for Today a copy of a narrative that I found on the Internet that describes the grottoes in some detail. But, it is best for anyone wanting to know about the grottoes in more detail to review the many published books on the subject and/or visit related sites on the Internet.  Many of the grottoes we visited contained marvelous frescoes rich in color and detail.  It was impossible to take notes to adequately describe these during the relatively brief time we were in the various grottoes.  So we returned home mostly with memories of what we had seen and notes such as these than might serve as memory joggers. Excerpts from my notes follow.

•    There are dozens of grottoes carved into the face of the sheer cliff bounding the western side of the valley. The cliff itself is only between 125 and 175 ft high. But, this provided opportunity for the grottoes to be carved in layers into the hill. There were at least 3 levels of grottoes stacked one above the other. There was enough room between layers for the grottoes to have 12-15 ft. ceilings.  A facade has been constructed across the face of the cliff to protect the grottoes and to give access via walkways at each of the three levels. Most of the grottoes were closed to viewing behind thick, locked doors. A select few were open and available for the tour guides and their guests.  There are walkways at each level of grottoes that provide access.  The park in front on the grottoes is shaded with tall trees and has areas for rest and refreshments. •    Many of the grottoes we entered included in their design, representations of one thousand Buddhas.  These were in various stages of decay but many were still quite visible. The Buddhas in of the first ones we observed were fairly well preserved. Their faces had originally been covered with gold leaf but this had been looted many years ago.  The gold leaf would have made the Buddhas' faces glitter in the light of an oil lamp or torch. •    Buddha was often depicted with two of his disciples, the youngest and the oldest. Occasionally two other disciples were added to the paintings or to the statuary cluster.  Buddha usually had a stylized halo and wingless angles, musicians and dancers appeared closer to the borders of the scenes. •    The individual grottoes were uniquely shaped depending on the period when they were created. Some were pyramid shaped and some were rectangular with a vaulted ceiling. Others were domed. In a few cases the ceiling were pitched as if there was a central beam high above. This was not the case although one grotto did possess stylized beams carved from the rock in the ceiling.  Some had statues of Buddha and his disciples arranged in the center of the grotto so that worshipers could walk completely around the images. In other grottos, Buddha was seated at the back of the room with no access to the back or sides. •    Some paintings were almost as bright as when they were created 1600 - 2,000 years ago. Others, made with lower quality pigments were faded. Some had been painted over or changed subsequent to their installation.  The condition of the paintings mostly is a function of light exposure.  •    Almost all of the freestanding statues of Buddha and associates were built around wooden frames.  The frame was then wrapped with reeds and straws to give it shape. Plaster or stucco was then added to give the figure its detail.  The resulting figure was then painted to produce the finished statue.  We noticed that many of the statues were damaged and often were lacking one or more fingers.  This was the result of some rough treatment over the many centuries of their existence. •    About 500 White Russians occupied the grottoes during the 1920s.  They lived in the grottoes using them for shelter. Walls in some grottoes are blackened from the cooking fires.  These inhabitants also defaced some of the Buddha figures and wrote graffiti on the frescoes in some caves. •    In several grottoes, human figures had black faces and bodies. It was easy to speculate about the presence of a race of black people when the grottoes were being developed.  But, we learned that we were looking at an artifact caused by exposure of the paintings to the air.  Skin of the figurines originally had been painted pink. But exposure to oxygen over several hundred years had oxidized the pigment resulting in the black color.   •    We visited two grottoes that housed tall Buddhas.  One was almost 30 m tall and nearly fills the grotto. Its top is within a few feet of the top of the canyon. It was carved out of the solid rock around it. The carving started at the top and took 26 years to complete.  It still is in remarkably good condition.  As the sculptor worked his way down in the process of carving, he opened shafts out to the cliff face to facilitate removal of debris and to let the light in.  A wooden façade has been constructed as a facing to the grotto and this looks like a temple with doors on several levels that correspond to the access tunnels mentioned in the previous sentence. These remain today as "windows" that light up the grotto.  A passage way goes behind so that the faithful can circle the Buddha while saying their prayers.  The second of these tall Buddhas is smaller and less dramatic. •    Our tour ended at a small on-site museum that housed some dioramas and exhibits of materials from the grottoes.  I was a bit concerned that some of the relics did not seem to be stored under adequate temperature, humidity and light control. I suspect that these actually were copies, although signs claimed them  to be originals. This may be why there didn't seem to be high level of concern about protecting them.  In any event, we found the museum to be quite interesting and we spent the better part of an hour looking at the exhibits.

We had been advised to be back at the bus by not later that 12:30 PM and we arrived on time. But, there was no sign of either our traveling companions or our guide. The bus driver was squatted near the bus playing cards with other drivers while awaiting the return of his passengers.  We waited in the shade of awnings over the souvenir stands feeling frustrated over the fact that we had hurried back only to have to sit and wait. The group finally showed up at 1:30 PM. They had taken an add-on tour of one of the restricted grottoes at a cost of $25 US per person.  I was glad that we weren't with them on the tour since Jacquie and I both are quite saturated with Buddha by this point on our China tour.

We returned to Dunhuang where we had lunch at the same restaurant that we used for dinner the past two evenings.  The food was good so we didn't mind the repeated visits to the same place.  The first stop following lunch was at a local museum that mostly features dioramas depicting the historical development of the Dunhuang area. There also were a few displays of pottery, clothing and various tools and artifacts.  Neither the dioramas nor the displays were very good in my opinion and I quickly became bored with it all.  Part of the problem was that the itinerary through the museum was set and you could not wander around and browse on what interested you.  You also had to keep up with the flow of visitors so there wasn't much time to stop and look when something was of interest.  For some reason, a large room at the end of the tour was filled with erotic paintings, statuary and artifacts.  They were very explicit and definitely X-rated.  This display seemed totally out of context compared to the rest of the exhibits.  I wasn't particularly offended by this material, just puzzled as to why it was there. I believe the museum was a proprietary venture and it is entirely possible that this room had been added to attract tourists to the site.

We crossed the street to a theater for an I-max type presentation of scenes from Xinjiang Autonomous region. This was very enjoyable but I tended to get a bit "woozy" as I watched because of the speed and tilt of some of the road scenes.  It was interesting how visual effects like these could induce motion sickness when there was no actual movement on my part.

We reboarded our bus and rode to an area of high sand dunes few miles south of Dunhuang to a park at Echoing Sand Mountain and Crescent Lake. Both are popular tourist attractions.  The bus stopped in a shaded parking lot and from there, we walked the equivalent of three or four blocks to the park entrance.  The sidewalk was flanked the entire distance with small shops selling all kinds of memorabilia and food.  One had to run the gauntlet of aggressive vendors the entire way.   An elaborate pagoda-like building formed the entry way into the park and behind that were areas where you could hire a variety of different ways to get transported to the dunes and/or to go exploring on your own. The range of things available went all the way from 4WD jeeps, to motorbikes, to bicycles, to camels, to trams and more. Of course, you also could walk but the distance was at least ½-3/4 mile uphill. We rode up on one of the complementary trams which got us there in about 10 minutes. The first part of the ride was across a sandy area devoid of vegetation but then we came to a small wetland formed by the spring flowing out of Crescent Lake and followed this to a level area of several acres surrounded by high sand dunes.  These dunes were the ones that made up Echoing Sand Mountain, also known as the sand dunes of Mingsha. The tallest dune is about of 250 meters (820 feet).  From the base, they look very high and are very steep. At the far end of the level area was a collection of buildings and a pagoda that once was a Buddhist monastery but has now been turned into a pavilion or visitors center with shops, eateries, restrooms and lounging areas.  Flanking these buildings was Crescent Lake, a half-moon shaped body of water that probably was 200 yards long by 30-50 wards at the widest point. It is nestled at the base of a high sand dune and is fringed with reeds and water grasses. A small creek exits the lake at one end and runs downhill toward the park entrance.  The net effect is one of standing in the bottom of a bowl surrounded by steep walls of wind-sculptured sand that tower high into the air. The temperature was relatively mild on the day of our visit but I suspect it could get very hot here in the middle of the summer.

We walked to the pavilion and after taking a look at Crescent Lake, we found some tables in a shaded dining area and ordered tea and plum flavored cold drinks from one of the vendors.  Patrick also ordered a large bag of peanuts and some other snacks that soon were devoured. It now was about 3:00 PM.  We stayed at the pavilion watching people trying to climb the steep dunes and waiting for the cooler temperatures toward the end of the afternoon for a visit to the dunes ourselves.  Some of our group started a card game but Jacquie and I spent our time wandering around the visitor complex seeing what was there and taking another look at Crescent Lake.  Someone from the local area told Jacquie that the lake stays free of sand because of the way the winds swirl around the "bowl" under the influence of the tall dunes. The lake has remained there hundreds of years without sanding in.

At certain times, the wind blowing across the face of the dunes creates a sound of "rumbling sands" which is like the sound of thunder or a drum-roll.   Legend has it that in ancient times a Chinese general had his army camped in the dunes beside the Crescent Lake.  Noise from the encampment attracted the enemy, who attacked in the dead of night. The Han army beat their war drums to call the troops to arms.  Suddenly, in the middle of the battle, a fierce wind blew up, filling the sky with sand and burying both armies. This is why, to this day, the wind blows across the sand's surface to the roll of war drums!

We left the pavilion about 5:30 PM and walked to the base of one of the tallest dunes where there was a stairway that climbed to the top.  The stairway was little more than a series of wooden steps laid on top the sand and was very steep, especially the farther up the dune that they went.  The cost was about 10-20 ¥ to use the stairs and this included "transportation" back down for those who chose to use it. Patrick and I elected to not join our group, Jacquie included, in climbing to the top and we stayed at the base and watched the others laboring their way up the dune.  It took at least 30 minutes for them to make the climb including frequent rest stops. Apparently, the steps stopped about 10 ft from the top. Yvette got a couple of young men standing nearby to give Jacquie a pull over this last bit of very steep, loose sand. Otherwise, she did fine getting to the top and did as well as those more than 30 years her junior!  They stayed at the top about 20 minutes taking pictures and taking in the view.  Then it was time to come back down and there were two choices. One was to walk back down the stairs, an arduous and slow process judging from what I could see of those who tried that approach. The other way was to come down in a "sand sled" which took only a minute or two.  Our entire group who were up on top the dune elected the latter approach.

A sand sled is merely a low-sided box about 2 ft wide by 3-1/2 to 4 ft long.  It bottom is made of smooth bamboo strips that run parallel with the long axis of the sled thereby becoming its "runners."  Those wanting to come down by this method queue up to await their turn while a couple of "starters" assists each rider in getting settled in the box and then push the sled over the edge of the dune. From there, gravity takes effect and the sled comes speeding down the steep slope hopefully reaching the bottom without its rider falling off.  The rider reclines in the sled with feet out in front held well off the ground. The sled is steered by dragging a cupped hand in the sand just enough to steer the sled and keep it going straight ahead. The trick is to not let the sled begin to yaw to the side for when that happens, the sled rolls over dumping its rider into the sand. Then, the ride is over and it's a long slog on foot to the bottom dragging the sled behind you!  How do the sleds get back up to the top of the dune? There are men who are hired to carry them up. I watched several going back and forth carrying 5 or 6 of the heavy sleds on each trip.  What a way to earn a living!

I was watching all of this through binoculars and finally saw Jacquie coming down.  She did very well and reached the bottom without wiping out along the way.  She was covered with sand and while we were able to brush most of it off, we found enough in her underclothes at bedtime to almost make a small beach in our bathtub! Jacquie said that people up on top the dune were amazed to see her there and asked Yvette about her age. They were astonished to find out she was age 73. One just does not see Chinese people our age in places like the dunes area let alone at the top a dune and riding a sand sled all the way down! 

We walked back to the pickup point for the tram where we had a short wait.  We soon boarded a tram and were on our way back down to the entry area near the place where camels were unloading their riders. It was very active now because most visitors were leaving.  The place looked like a caravansary with animals offloading their cargo and with hostlers scurrying around getting the animals ready to make another trip. I imagine that there were 50 to 75 or more camels in the immediate area at the time with more on their way down from the dunes.

We returned to town and drove to a different restaurant to have dinner. It was 8:00 PM by the time we were seated. The food was waiting for us and was served immediately. By 9:00 PM, we were on our way to the airport which is located a few miles down the road from the Sun Village Hotel.  We bid Ms Zeng goodbye at the airport since a local guide in Urumqi would meet us when we arrived there.  Patrick recommended a tip of 50¥ per person for the three days Ms Zeng had guided us.  I felt this was fair and it also gave me a "reality check" to know that the tips we left in Yunnan, where we had no idea about what level of tipping is considered appropriate, were in the right range.

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