All posts by richardpieper

Wutaishan and TaiYuan

July 17, 2014 richardpieper Leave a comment

Yet again another horror transit…our bus broke down so they put 9 of us (+luggage) and a driver into a 9 seater van for the 4 hr ride up the mountains. This was at least manageable as one of the group was about 6-7 so could be managed. Inexplicably we stopped on the top of one of the mountains, in the rain, behind a large bus and were told we would be switching busses for the last bit…ok…the big bus wasn’t ours though…all of a sudden a little 7 seater pulled up and we were all expected to pile in… somehow.

The Chinese raced to the bus and took their seats while Jill and I attempted to put our luggage behind the back seat. A small day bag might have fitted but our backpacks and their suitcase were not going to fit. My bag and their bag made it in and Jill’s bag was to join us in the cabin…somehow. As we moved around to the door we saw that all seats were taken…where do we fit…this one Chinese woman suggested that Jill and I cram into the back seat with the two existing people already there…a few “what the f…is this” from me and the world slightly rearranged with Jill and one of the smaller Chinese women in the back with the other two.

Jill’s bag at my feet and me on the crash seat. As we descended the hill I heard Jill squeal and turned to find the back door had flown open and she was clutching on to my backpack…while her day bag somersaulted and skidded down the mountain. Now is probably a good time to mention that our day bags contain all of our electronics and vital items…Jill’s had the laptop, kindle, telephone and her glasses in it…as it skidded and tumbled down the concrete at 30-40 km/hr.

About 5 minutes later my bag was randomly being transferred to the car that happened to be behind us…another few “what the f…” from me, the it was on my lap inside the cabin with Jill’s bag… Jill had checked that the laptop still worked and was not relinquishing the day bag from her grasp. Half an hour later we were delivered at the location where we checked into a relatively ordinary place and hid from the cold and the rain.

The room had 6 foot doorway entrances…I found this out as my head ploughed into the door frame…followed by some fairly predictable words given the transit we had endured. Right next door to our hotel was a place where they were singing Chinese opera on the street and blasting it over speakers for the whole neighbourhood to enjoy. This was going strong when we arrived and continued until 11 pm…and started again at 9am.

The next morning we woke to find the rain had stopped…as had my case of the darks with the world…and we could actually see that this place was stunning. Blue skies, gorgeous tree filled green mountains. Mount Wutai is one of the 4 sacred Chinese Buddhist holy mountains (the others being Mt Emei, Mt Putuo and Mt Jiuhua). Wutaishan is actually the name for the area of 5 peaks with plateaus on each peak. Jill tells me that this place is snowed in about 7 months of the year and the owner reckons winter is about minus 30 centigrade…so we were lucky with our timing.

It is an area of great natural beauty but being of religious significance it has also been overrun by the building of over 360 temples during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 ad). Thankfully only 47 of these still exist but the place is still thick with temples, caves, pagodas, monks etc…based on the construction going on…the 600 temples that one was, are being replaced as we speak…modern China.

We hit the pavement and started walking up the hill past the temples etc that we had seen from the sardine can…through the mist of the rain… and the red mist over my eyes the previous night. This place is beautiful. Jill went off with her camera, as she does, loving the green hills with temples everywhere you look. Throw in the odd stupa and she was in her element. After going up the hill we headed back down and found the lake with the waterfall and koi and I was happy. Add to this the fact that by the time we got back the opera had packed up and left from outside our room and all was good with the world again.

The temple that Jill REALLY wanted to see was the one that involved climbing over 1000 stairs to the top of the mountain. We did this…but via the chair lift…not the stairs. Just as well cos it was pretty lame once you got there and you would feel robbed if you had hiked the stairs. Effort vs Reward.

That evening we had a great night with no bleeding eardrums from the squealing opera singers, a food recommendation from the owner and generally some peace and quiet. The next day after a haircut and breakfast (totalling less than $5 for both) I headed back to the lake and sat in the shade and breeze feeding steamed bun to the koi. I have decided I really like fish. While I sat by the lake feeding fish Jill climbed the hill next to the lake to see yet another temple.

The final thing that needs mentioning for this place was the pooch in the hostel. This dog looked deformed with a depressed brow and protruding skull cap…but was 100% self sufficient. They had attached pull handles on the doors so the dog could take itself in and out of everywhere it wanted. It had learned to open a normal door and it basically had free run of the place. It was a well natured mutt but with a very odd look about it.

We bussed it out in a much more civilised manner (despite the fact that my seat was broken and kept slowly reclining to the point of being horizontal if I or the bloke behind me would let it). But that was the only real issue the rest went the way it should with no dramas. We got off in Taiyuan only to find that the entire city is being renovated…and I mean the entire city. We decided that the wide streets, metros, parks, gardens etc are on a schedule and are rolled out in one big hit…and it was the turn of Taiyuan when we were there. We stopped to break the journey to Pingyao and to check out the Museum which was supposed to be pretty good.

The museum was OK but without being startling and the city as a rule might have been OK but the construction at present has made the place quite poor. The one bit that saved the place was the night food market. It was made especially for the tourist and was priced accordingly…but the range of food was startling and we wandered the streets munching on a range of the fare on offer at the stalls.

China

Datong – Part one

July 8, 2014 richardpieper Leave a comment

There was so much to see and do here that I have split this into two posts as the photos and blurb was just too much for a single post.

We left Hohhot on what turned out to be a nightmare journey…for me at least. It started with a swelteringly hot, jam packed bus ride to the railway station, which was under renovation. This meant that every departing passenger was wedged into a single waiting room, which would normally handle 2 trains worth of people but was forced to constantly rotate 4 trains worth of people along with the early birds for the next 2-4 trains. All of this in high humidity and no air flow.

The trains are 5 seats wide with three on one side and two on the other. We had seats 14 and 15 which ended up on opposite sides of the train, facing in opposite directions. Jill got the side with 2 on the window while I got the side with three. The first thing that came to our attention was that once the seats were all full there was an additional 30-50 people standing in the aisles as the train had clearly been oversold.

As the ones on my side were friends they decided to share…turning our 3 seats into four and at one point five. Jill on the other hand…happily sat reading her book with herself and the very civilised little Chinese man next to her. The normal Chinese transit rules applied…with the yelling into the phone, smoking in the aisles of the no smoking train, staff selling crap to supplement their incomes (and the spruiking that goes with it), the constant Hrrrccht ptooi, however this trip had the discordant music and singing of a child old enough to be stopped…but wasn’t.

Jill had done her research and found that the hostel in Datong was charging more than the five star hotels…for no apparent reason… So we boycotted, paid half of what the “supposedly” cheap hostel was asking and stayed in a magnificent 4 star hotel (Garden Hotel) where excellent service was the aim and was delivered beautifully. This place was great, fruit platters each day, turndown service with chocolates, super clean, bathtub, full toiletries, and staff that could not be politer or more accommodating if they tried.

Datong is a city under reconstruction that is walking the line between old, new, renovated and original in an interesting manner. It is in an area rich in coal and is morphing its primary industries from mining to tourism and commerce. In winter the temperatures here get to minus 30 and in summer it gets to about 35 ( which it was while we walked the city walls). It was originally 4 walled cities in close proximity (one for the people, one for business, one for government and one for the military) but the old town section is the one being renovated and the wall is currently 3/4 finished but in the new China way. Some of the streets are done (the outer grid) but the middle sections remain untouched.

The main streets are wide, clean and lined with newly manufactured, old looking, Chinese buildings. The pedestrian street is identical but without the traffic…but the inner part of the grids are the original town that once was. There are ratty little hovels, narrow alleys dodgy food stalls and street vans and all the best bits that China has to offer. Alas this is being systematically replaced by the new China.

That said…this town is doing the new China in a semi-authentic manner. They are looking at old photos and are rebuilding with at least a semblance of what once was. LiJiang was a town that had undergone this form of transformation and it was obscene in its newness and blatant commerciality of what was there. At the moment…Datong is walking the line relatively well. There are examples of crassness but overall they are trying to do things relatively authentically.

The inclusion of imitation medieval weaponry such as trebuchets will do little to aid authenticity but by the same token they have included other things such as the sculpture museum within one of the open courtyards which seems like fun. On one of the walls was possibly the greatest sculpture I have ever seen. It was a 70-100 metre long dragon snaking its way along the wall. As you got closer you found that the entire sculpture was made from Chinese bowls, cups, plates and spoons. This was an amazing sight and quite frankly unexpected.

The sculpture museum was not open yet but as we turned the corner we could see down into one of the courtyards and see some of the likely additions to the museum. In reality…we both saw the same sculpture and laughed outright. Obviously this was done by a person with a sense of humour…but the sculpture of a 10 metre obese naked person clinging from the wall broke us both up. To get a sense of scale as to just how big this thing was… Jill headed to the other side of the wall and stood above the hands…if you blow it up and zoom you can get a fair idea of just what we were confronted with. I know that this comment will hurt me later but…Jill’s the one in the hat.

The city walls were originally made of mud/clay…and in parts, remnants of this still remain…but what has been built over the top of the original wall is a magnificent (if fake) city wall. It is fake…but it is also really impressive. The new wall is the width of a 3 lane road and is 14 metres tall with towers and pagodas dotted along is length. From atop the wall you get great views over the renovated and un-renovated sections of the inner city. You can look down on the temples and pagodas and the renovation that is well underway. We hiked this wall for about 2 hrs in an attempt to do a lap before we found that the final section was not complete and we had to backtrack about a kilometre to the closest gate and set of stairs down.

Having hiked for about 2.5 hrs in 35 degree heat with no shade we found the first shop and inhaled about 1.5 litres of fluid each…before setting off on the next leg of the exploration. The journey to the next point of interest (the Huayan Monastery) saw us passing the local Chinese car yards which just needed to be photographed. One of these little beauties will set you back between $5-7,000. They even have the police pursuit version.

The Huayan Monastery was original but had recently been given a “facelift”. While not entirely authentic it has been the subject of a really nice renovation and is a beautiful place to kick back. The other key highlight in town was the Nine Dragon Screen which is a 600-year-old screen made of glazed tiles showing nine dragons which is apparently the oldest glazed screen in China. The town actually has a 3 and 5 dragon screens too.

China

Datong – Part Two

July 8, 2014 richardpieper Leave a comment

Now we get to the real reason that we came to Datong…many years ago we saw a documentary which showed Xuánkōng Sì (the Hanging Temple/Monastery) which is built into the side of a cliff face near Mount Heng which is about 60 km outside Datong. My darling bride… immediately upon seeing this…and long before we thought of such a trip..decided this was a bucket list item for her… and therefore a must do for us. The guide told us that the temple dates back to about the 4th century which quite frankly is astounding when you see this rickety building dangling off a sheer rock face.

The Hanging monastery is shaped to resemble a dragon with an open mouth and has about 40 rooms linked by mid-air walkways. The monastery has been adopted now by 3 religions (Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism). It appears to be perched on skinny stilts but they assured us that the beams buried deep into the cliff were bearing the load. So much so that the tour guide suggested that we shake the (seemingly) supporting pillars…we did not try this.

Having seen some of the modern building techniques in China…I would not get into a modern Chinese building that is attached to a cliff face. Needless to say I was reasonably reticent to trust one that had been stuck up there 1600 years ago. The hand rails were at a bit over knee height and the paths were about one and a half persons wide. So if you wanted to try an overtaking manoeuvre one of you was hanging over the side looking at the sheer drop. Not sure exactly how high up you are when you do the climb to the temple, but you are certainly high enough to die if you fell off and those with vertigo should not even think of trying this. I am not particularly afraid of heights but there were times up the mountain when I was a little concerned for my future longevity.

After the hanging monastery we headed to the Yungang Grottoes which are a series of over 250 caves 16 km west of Datong. Wiki tells me that there “are over 50,000 carved images and statues of Buddhas and bodhisattvas within these grottoes, ranging from 4 centimeters to 7 meters tall”. The guide was telling us that the biggest Buddha was about 17 metres and that there were a few others around the 13-15 metre mark…so I think wiki has some typos. The entrance to the caves has been China-fied and the kilometre walk to the first cave is filled with brand new buildings, statues, pagodas and a bronze tree.

The region is rich in coal and until recently had a town at the base of the caves and a coal mine about 500 metres away on the other side of a small lake/pond thing. Interestingly the government thought that the town folk were causing too much dirt and were destroying the caves…so they moved the whole town away and built temples and the new China exhibitions that you see everywhere else. A year after displacing an entire town…they found that the dirt continued so they shut down the coal mine…go figure.

The Yúngāng Grottoes are a UNESCO World heritage listed site and date back around 1500 years. Unlike the Dunhuang grottoes (apart from the tourist entrance route) the place has not undergone a trashy renovation attempt and are quite original. This is of course with the exception of caves five and six. The entrances to which have had wooden temple structures built. The caves 9-14 were blocked off as they too had such structures being built in front of them. From here high atop the mountain you could see sections of the great wall. Once again as you head west the wall is really more of a mud pile than a major defensive platform…but each section was built using the local materials available.

Cave 20 is the iconic image which is seen everywhere…it had the front of the cave knocked away by either the weight of the rock or an earthquake and the Buddha is clearly visible from all around. The caves are not as awesome as the Ellora and Ajunta caves in India but they are far better than the ones in Dunhuang. Either way they are an excellent attraction and well worth a visit.

The final thing that needs to be mentioned in Datong is the finest restaurant that we have hit since landing in China. This is a VERY big call as we have had some absolutely spectacular meals along the way but this place was a cut above. It is written up on Tripadvisor as Feeling Restaurant but we are not really sure what this is in Chinese. It was a five star restaurant with five star food, service, ambience and décor but at a 2 star price. We went for dinner after the caves and hanging temple and basically went back for every other meal until we left…it was that good.

It was essentially a dumpling house…and the dumplings were good…very good. But it had a wider menu and over the period we had sampled about 10 different dishes and they were all superb. The place is made of wood and stone and has intricate carvings in every nook and cranny in every room. The rooms are themed and the first night we ate in the Dragon Room and the next day it was the Phoenix Room. This theming relates to the carvings and sculptures that adorn the room…fantastic.

As for the food…the dumplings pictured above were rolled to the thickness of tissue paper on the top and were filled with all the normal dumpling things like pork and prawns etc. But the thinness of the outer layer without any loss of structural integrity was impressive. The standout dish for us was the abalone mushrooms (right hand side)…these were sliced thin and marinated…wow..so simple but amazing. As I mentioned we sampled about 10 different dishes and they were all of highest quality as was the service. We ate 3 meals here having between 3-4 dishes plus 3 beers and not one of the bills reached $20.

China

Hohhot – Inner Mongolia

July 6, 2014 richardpieper Leave a comment

Hohhot

The original plan for Hohhot was to look around while we got our visas to go to Mongolia proper…then head in to Ulaanbaatar. Upon arrival this proved to be incredibly cost prohibitive with the visa and transport options adding up to a ridiculous amount. We would have had to get a train to the border (8hrs), hire a private jeep to cross the border then 10-11 hours on local train or busses on the other side to get to the capital.

Wiki travel tells us that “Mongolian buses are notorious for being late and on some routes for not even arriving on the scheduled day”. Otherwise the flight would have been $700 each plus the visa costs. We both have the trans-Siberian railway on our bucket lists (Beijing to Moscow) which goes through and stops in Mongolia several times so we decided to skip it. We tried to arrange the trans-Siberian train on this trip but not having Russian visas we would have had to use a broker and the bill got over $10,000 very quickly.

Having decided that Mongolia was out we had time to kill and plans to make. The hostel we stayed at had organised private tours of the desert, grasslands, Great Wall etc…but they were all very expensive. The Great Wall in this section is really just a mud heap, the desert involved camels which was an immediate no vote from me, and the grassland was just too dear.

So we stayed in town and checked out the local sights. Firstly, this part of China is very different to the rest and is a little more like our Indian experiences. The street is often used as a toilet here and the sights and smells in certain areas of town reflect this. The development that is in the heart of town has not spread to the inner ring so the drainage, toilets, footpaths and the normal Chinese efficiency did not exist. There was a lot of construction underway to remedy this but alas we were not there yet.

The local busses were their usual cheap and efficient selves with a ride costing 1 yuan each and busses coming regularly enough that only peak times had the sardine squash. Our first ride took us to the museum which was in a complex of four of the largest buildings I had ever seen. The museum was built to resemble the Mongolian steppes so in a way was quite similar to Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra with the building and mountain merging into one.

It was spectacularly huge with one of the greatest dinosaur exhibits…bear in mind that this part of China is dinosaur alley with lots of fossils etc located in the Gobi desert nearby. We normally don’t take photos in museums, as they tend to be dioramas, but here we found ourselves snapping away. Add to this the local culture exhibits and possibly most impressive of all was the China space program exhibit (with actual space suits and capsules) as well as the mock ups and back stories behind the evolution of the space program and its participants.

After this we were off to the usual, temple and mosque run and of course our adventures in food land. My first find was the breakfast bao zi shop, then the supermarket where Jill found a semi reasonable muesli, and then GOLD…an imported food shop…with NZ tasty cheese, smoked oysters, pate, prosciutto…there is a god. The next night we hit the restaurant strip after a long day’s hiking in the heat and settled in for some cool ales.

While drinking our refreshing beverages we watched the next table be delivered an entire leg of lamb on a spit…I went over and asked what it was and to point to it on the menu…being Chinese they immediately offered me some and the deal was done…we had to order this. The menu said it was 48 yuan ($8.23) so we ordered this, some mushrooms and some tofu and a mystery menu item that I randomly pointed at.

Our lamb came and it was spectacular…alas we later found out it was 48 yuan per half kilo…so our leg was almost 4 times more expensive than we thought…but it was good. The mushrooms and tofu were fine but the mystery item I pointed at turned out being a toasted jam sandwich…don’t ask. This was now our most expensive meal in China at 304 yuan ($52.12) but we had a huge leg of lamb, 6 beers (600ml each) and some small nibbly bits.

Back to the hostel the next day for beers with the others and to watch the World Cup game between Germany and France washed down with many more ales and some pizza from the joint across the road…which actually wasn’t too bad. We met up with the guys we had met on our first day who had disappeared on the overpriced grassland tour and having chatted with them upon their return…we made the right choice as they claim that the tours were not worth the expense.

It is quite interesting to see how our idea of value has changed during our time away…we always knew that Australia was expensive however the last 10 months has crystallised just how obscene the prices in Australia have gotten. Of course you can have fine dining here and pay through the nose for it…but within a 5 minute walk you can have a huge meal for two, with beverages, for under $20 and more often than not under $15. A single beer can be bought at the local store for between 50 cents and a dollar…everywhere…this will be hiked through the roof to about $2-4 in a restaurant and most main meals will cost about $2-8 depending on the venue.

Long story short is that we will suffer a huge culture shock when we finally decide to return…

China

Yinchuan

June 29, 2014 richardpieper Leave a comment

After leaving the desert of Dunhuang on an overnight train we landed in Yinchuan having slept very little and checked into a cheapie hotel (which was about five times better than our supposed 4 star number a few towns back). On the way in we spotted the wet market directly opposite and food stalls aplenty along the way…we were clearly in the right part of town.

The place is close to the Ningxia section of the Great Wall and is yet another of our stops along the Great Wall of China. In addition to the wall, there are mosques, drum towers, monasteries, pagodas and the normal Chinese parks and gardens etc. The real reason for the stop was to break the journey as we head to Hohhot in Inner Mongolia to get our visas to go to Mongolia proper.

We basically did not see any westerners the whole time here but the place was great. On our first night we headed out for a meal and on our walk back we came across about 1000 locals dancing in the park and guys giving shoulder massages in the park near the drum tower…a 20 minute massage for $3.40…bring it on…walking about 100 metres further we came across a free Chinese acrobatic show with all the flipping, jumping, human towers and pyramids that you would expect from a highly priced show. Watch this with a gelato from across the road and a good evening was had by all. Two days later and our Acrobatic show was replaced with free Chinese opera and all the squawking and discordant noise your ears could handle.

The next day we were off…we had been fairly sedentary post Tibet…but apparently we needed to get moving and make up for our lazy days in one hit. So it started…a wander to the bell and drum towers, past the old gate, to the monastery and pagoda…up the pagoda…because all things with stairs must be climbed (the gospel according to Jill). The pagoda was 11 tiers high but each tier was about 2 storeys high…so we basically climbed the stairs of a 18-22 storey building…both ways…but the staircase was only one person wide, dodgy wood and the head height meant that you sconned yourself at every turn if you were not careful.

Having emerged from the pagoda we found the rain had started…so we embarked on an 8 kilometre walk in the rain to get to the museum. Needless to say I did not know that it was that far or I would have boycotted or at least got a bus or a taxi. Walking past the parks and squares was quite nice (if a little long) but the museum at the other end was worth the hike. I had never really gotten into museums etc before this trip but I am a convert…the information, displays, exhibits and histories are fascinating.

Sanity (Richard) prevailed and we caught a bus back most of the way to our hotel. A fantastic lucky dip meal down the road next to the park…followed by another $3.40 massage (for me) and home to bed. We found possibly the best coffee shop in all of China… it is called ego coffee and has good coffee at (relatively) reasonable prices and has an awesome menu…we have slotted into a morning ritual of bao zi (pronounced bowser…which are steamed bready meat buns…dipped in chilli and vinegar) and followed by our coffee at ego. Sadly we get 20 bao zi for 12 yuan ($2) and 2 coffees for 58 yuan ($10). In fact the food that we have encountered the entire time we have been in Yinchuan has been incredible. The pick had to be the Duck Pancakes…which we have always loved…but there was a mushroom and chilli salad, that was too heavy on the coriander for my tastes, but Jill just simply inhaled while I picked around the evil weed that is coriander.

Bao zi and Jiao zi (bowser and jowzer) are our staple breakfast foods since arriving in China…the bao zi is the bready one and the Jiao zi is the dumpling (pastaish) one…every now and then you can find these both done on a sizzling plate with beaten (scrambled) egg poured in between them…these are awesome. The bao zi in Shanghai are filled with soup so add a whole new level of difficulty to the uninitiated (as Jill found out when I bit into one sending a stream of hot soup shooting across the table and onto her…she was very happy). Each area has their own versions of both of these…but so far they have all been excellent… and are cheap. Add to this the occasional Gem Bean (Phonetic) which is an eggy thing.

We have actually found our feet when it comes to most of the foods in China…however ordering still poses the various “lucky dip” problems that it did in the beginning. Jill downloaded a child’s game that gives you the name and symbols of various meats so we can sometimes make sense of those. Add to this the rice and noodle symbols and we at least wont starve…nirvana is still a picture menu… Street food is king…it is cheap as chips and awesome tasting…we have progressed from our early meat on a stick forays to being educated pointers…Alas the key issue with china and its provinces…is that the yummy local delicacy may never be seen again which sadly has happened more than once.

The next day we found ourselves (after our breakfast ritual) riding the short bus…we hopped bus #1 and followed it to the end…then got back on and followed it to the other end…then we got on #3 and did pretty much the same thing…after arriving at the largest while elephant of a shopping centre on the planet we decided that we were feeling like special school kids…no more licking of bus windows and off we got…a cold beer and a coffee then back for a cheapie dinner. The last day was spent wiling away our time in the coffee shop as we waited for our 8pm departure on a 10 hr overnight train to Hohhot.

China

Dunhuang

June 25, 2014 richardpieper Leave a comment

After one of the worst stays at one of the (supposedly) better hotels we left on a 3 am train to Dunhuang. A zombie day to get over the lack of sleep and then off exploring. Dunhung is an oasis city at a crossroads of the silk road. No surprise to most of you but the first thing we found of note was the dumpling shop…closely followed by the location of the night market…then the food snack street. One of the first things that strikes you about Dunhuang is just how pleasant a city it is. It is not overly large (about 200,000) but is extremely liveable.

All of the good bits of larger cities are here but without the annoyances that some of the other places have…the beeping is almost non-existent and the likelihood of being run over on the footpath by ninja motorbikes is also greatly reduced. The weather is warm (mid 30’s), the streets are wide as are the footpaths, the place is clean and the people are friendly. There is actually not much to the town but it is a really pleasant place to kick back and do stuff. The big thing for Jill was the sheer size of the walk symbols when you cross the road.

We headed to the night market for a meal on the first night and had a Chinese casserole and the next afternoon returned for the Chinese Hamburger (slowly braised pork, chilli and capsicum chopped fine and put in a roll) with an ale or two in the sunshine. Dunhuang was a major hub of the silk route and was the most westerly frontier military garrison in China. We found a pair of Melbourne paramedics (Jude and Astrid) who are trying to cycle from Melbourne to Glasgow (in bite sized chunks) as the money allows. So we joined them for a trip to the flash 5 star hotel on the edge of the Gobi desert, overlooking Mount Qilian for a massively overpriced (but relatively pleasant) sunset meal overlooking the dunes.

The main things to do in Dunhuang are the Mogao Caves, the desert and the crescent moon lake (and of course the camel safaris through the desert). Having learned from my last camel experience I refused outright to willingly place myself on the back of another of these dirty, smelly and uncomfortable beasts. The caves on the other hand were no problem at all and after avoiding the crush of Chinese tourism weekends we set off to the Mogoa Caves/grottoes on the Monday morning. A cruise through the very interesting museum and a wander through about 15 (of the 925) caves with our English guide and we were done.

The caves had been subjected (externally at least) to a Chinese renovation which meant that the outside of the caves and grottoes essentially looked like a relatively modern (if ugly) stucco apartment block. As Chinese tourists come to see statues…all of the previously destroyed or stolen statues that would have inhabited the caves had been replaced with more modern and stylised versions of themselves. The paintings on the walls for the better part were original. The 35.5 metre Buddha remained but the housing around it had been severely modernised. The before and after pictures in the museums give a really fine indication of just how bastardised the current version of Chinese historical sites actually are. Having done the caves we were left with the crescent moon pool and sand dunes but rain, wind, weather and a general post Tibet malaise stopped us.

Instead along with our newfound biking buddies we ate and drank and enjoyed pleasant company and a comfortable city. Our big boon for the city was the discovery of deep fried oyster mushrooms that were coated in chilli after the battering and frying…this is without a doubt the best ever beer snack ever made. Not one day passed after its discovery did we not indulge, which is possibly a good thing as some of the other menu options left a little to be desired.

China

Lanzhou and Jiayuguan

June 19, 2014 richardpieper Leave a comment

Having left the minority areas we got back into China proper. Lanzhou is in Gansu province in the north west of China and is the province with the westernmost point of the Great Wall. We are getting close to having seen the majority of China and now have the northern strip and we plan on (generally) following the Great Wall to where it meets the ocean.

We have been in tiny cities for over a month now and I have really not been enjoying them. The prices for everything have been high, the services available have been poor and the English has been virtually nonexistent. We got into Lanzhou and found a night market around the corner where we could have 2 main meals with rice and the equivalent of 8 stubbies for under $15. There is still minorities and very little English but the food is great and cheap.

We headed to the museum and spent time checking out the Silk Road exhibition which was truly fascinating. Some very cool maps of the olden trade routes, and a great way to get your head around the spread of cultures and civilisation. Then off on the cable car up the mountain for some aerial shots and a look at the pagodas etc. the cable car sets off from the banks of the (very inappropriately named) yellow river… it is interesting to see what passes for a beach in China.

Jiayuguan is the westernmost fort of the Great Wall of China and is at the end of a torturous 8 hr train ride from Lanzhou. But the key attractions are the Jiayuguan Fort, the Overhanging Wall, and the First Beacon which are all a simple 1 yuan (18 cent)bus ride from town and a taxi. The place had been renovated to within an inch of its life and was obscenely fake. This is a typically Chinese phenomena whereby a renovation puts in things that were never there or leaves out bits that were meant to be there…our first exposure to this was on the three gorges tour but it is a common theme throughout China.

The absolute kicker to the fakeness was the installation of a jousting field into the fort and a concrete camel caravan running alongside the renovated wall of the overhanging section. There were sections where the old part of the wall could be seen and it was really interesting. The fort and wall is adjacent to the Gobi Desert so you could photograph from the newly renovated wall across the Gobi desert which in itself is pretty cool. Alas on the other side of the wall was the hire of camel rides (actual camels…not the concrete versions) and quad bikes…so you could belt around the desert making obscene amounts of noise and tearing up the natural environment.

If you can ignore the added bits the place is quite stunning…the original wall was fascinating, the renovation had it been done authentically would have been great the only real detractor was the out of context additions which are clearly just grabs for the tourist dollar. Whilst walking around you could see the construction going on to build additional elements such as pagodas and temples etc. I am glad we came when we did as I have a fear that in 5-10 years time this place will more closely resemble a theme park.

On a positive note…as part of the admission fee there is the Great Wall Museum which is fantastic. It does not have the usual nationalistic rhetoric but rather has the facts of the great wall, its construction, make up, fortifications etc. The museum was the best part. The next best thing was the photographs lining the path towards the Fort. There was a strip of about 100 metres that contained historical and current photographs of the same sections of the great wall. Some of these had been renovated, some had remained untouched. Some of the renovations had been done in line with what was originally there while others included the “additions” such as were found in the Fort.

Some of the photos and artists drawings dated right back to the 1800s while others were just the more recent (2004 to 2007) history photos. But any way you look at it these photos of what it once was, were without a doubt the highlight of an enjoyable if not a little contrived day.

China, Tibet

Xining and Xiahe

June 13, 2014 richardpieper Leave a comment

For Elaine these are pronounced shinning and sha-her respectively.

Well this was our post Everest malaise…we intended to get massages and pamper ourselves…in reality we both fell in a heap. Our hostel was run by the nicest Tibetan guy you will ever meet (Westin) and had great wifi, big screen tv, a hard drive full of movies and tv series, and we almost had the whole place to ourselves the entire time we were there.

Westin told us that a group of Tibetans get together every couple of months to celebrate and remember their heritage and that this was on the next day…Jill and I and (Rob the British cyclist who was there) were all invited. So we went along to a Tibetan picnic in the park. A great group of guys, too much food and way too much booze for the 11 of us that got together.

After the picnic day we both checked out…I watched tv for three days straight on a comfy leather recliner while Jill read the kindle and watched tv intermittently. I discovered that the plain Chinese steamed buns are unsweetened (unlike all the bread you can buy) so grabbed some of them and sat on my recliner squeezing vegemite onto them and grazing. In one of my rare excursions off the recliner I found the “eggy thing” shop (a sort of pancake with egg, crispy thing, bean sauce, chilli, and lettuce…called phonetically gem bean).

We did nothing for days…could not even be arsed enough to walk the 120 metres to the massage place to get $8 massages. Every now and then I would venture the 70 metres to the restaurant and bring back food…but that was about it. If you remember the last post…the journey to Tibet and Mount Everest was quite tiring… And we needed some well earned down time.

An amusing sideline was our foray into Chinese hostel management. Westin had to go home for 24 hours (up in the mountains) for a family religious festival…but had guests arriving and nobody to deal with things…so we volunteered. An Italian girl was due to arrive at 1 am so we agreed to let her in and show her the ropes etc… At about 11am a Chinese couple arrived wanting a room for two nights…but spoke no English…Westin was up the mountain and out of range…the cleaning lady was nowhere to be seen… And Jill and I were left to play charades and fumble our way through checking in some drop-ins…getting them rooms etc…it all worked, the Italian girl arrived and was checked in and the following afternoon Westin returned and we handed back the running of the place to him.

Having done nothing for about 3-4 days it was time to move again. Jill (with the help of Westin) booked us bus tickets to head towards Xiahe which is the site of the Labrang Monastery which is the second largest monastery in the world.

This bus ride took us through the grasslands meadow belt of China and was in fact what I thought Tibet would be like. Green rolling hills, expanses of sparse grasslands dotted with stupa’s and inhabited by horses, cows, sheep and even the odd yak or two. The scenery was stunning…the ride was murder. Throughout the 7-8 hr bus ride there was not a 100 metre stretch that was not pot holed, pitted or rutted. Add to this the last 50km on rough dirt track and we were back in Tibet doing the base camp trek once again.

Add to this the fact that we did not fit into the bus seats as they were so close together…the seats had metal poking through them and into us…we had the world’s worst bus driver who talked on his phone most of the journey and sat on his horn constantly for the whole ride…and his female bus conductor who learned to whisper in a helicopter who would not stop talking the entire time. I put in ear plugs and prayed for the nightmare to be over…and after a mere 8 hours (or 480 ear piercing and rear punishing minutes) later my pain ended.

Having arrived in Xiahe we slept and headed to the monastery early the next day. We did the 3 kilometre Kora around the outside of the monastery, followed by a zig zagging through the middle. The standout feature is that almost the whole distance around the monastery is covered in Tibetan prayer wheels. With hundreds of locals doing the lap around the joint spinning the wheels as they went. We had the opportunity to climb one of the temples and get a birds eye view over the entire complex.

In its peak the Labrang monastery housed about 4000 monks but for political reasons this has been limited to 1500 monks. The town of Xiahe only has a population of 70,000 and it is impossible to walk 100 metres without either seeing about a dozen monks or hearing car horns. This place is the worst place we have been to with respect to inappropriate use of the car horn.

The streets are wide, the population is low but the car horn noises are incessant. At all times of day and night the car horn blows…if you look around to see for what reason you will see a car on the road and a pedestrian on the footpath. The Asian use of the horn to notify of passing is annoying but in places like Beijing with the whispering assassin electric bikes it can be understood. In a small town with wide roads and no traffic…this is infuriating as it is 100% unnecessary.

Tibet

Mount Everest or Qomolangma in the local lingo

June 8, 2014 richardpieper Leave a comment

Despite its popularity and the advanced transportation and communication networks Mount Everest is still a bugger to get to. Our journey started with a 24 hr train ride from Xining (it would have been 44 hours if we had tried it from Beijing) to Lhasa. A couple of days to acclimatise to the altitude then a monster 13 hr drive to Shigatse. A quick nap and a feed and another 11 hr drive to base camp…the last 75kms on a bone jarring dirt track. Dawn photo session followed by breakfast and another trip up the mountain at 9 am with a 10:05am departure back for the 10.5 hr drive back to Shigatse. A shower, meal, nap and we were headed back on a 7hr drive to Lhasa for a night, before our 23 hr return train journey to Xining.

I guess if such a naturally beautiful place is to stay pristine then it will need to be out of the way. If you could get there by hopping a flight and taking a short cab ride it would cheapen the experience…we earned our views and photos.

We were blessed with stunningly blue skies and clear weather throughout all of our time in Tibet. As you drive through endless tracts of desert and dry riverbed you begin to realise how desolate Tibet actually is. There are some stunning sights but they are a long way apart. I had an image in my mind of what Tibet, Everest and base camp would be like and I was completely wrong on all three counts. The place is full of natural beauty but in a barren kind of way. The soil is poor and the temperatures are cold so the vegetation is sparse and the landscape is dotted with hardy animals like yaks and goats.

About 140 kilometres from the mountain along the torturous drive you catch your first real glimpse of Everest…and all the pain melts away. The great weather meant that our first viewing was the postcard shot. Our photo was of the peak with the wind blowing the snow wistfully from the top. A 10 minute stop for photos, oohs, aahs and wows…then back in the van for more torturous bumps.

There are little if any facilities along the road and those that exist are feral. Nine people were jammed into a van for essentially 5 days solid driving with zero privacy…to see a mountain and the odd temple and monastery along the way. As you do the obscenely long and uncomfortable drive you are told to drink copious quantities of water to offset the effects of altitude sickness. We all did what we were told and still all got altitude sickness to one degree or the other. Bumpy roads, full bladders, no facilities…we got to know each other pretty well.

Altitude sickness is a phenomenon that affects everybody but in different ways and to different degrees. Some of the others in the group were put on drips, given oxygen and took anti-altitude medication. Jill and I had none of any of this…we did both get the headaches and shortness of breath, we both skipped the nausea and vomiting and I got the added joy of sleeplessness. I basically had no sleep between leaving and returning to Lhasa (about 78 hours all up) then Jill forced another 9 hours on me as we had to go shopping and topping up our mobile phone credit. After 87 hours of being awake I caught about 4 hours sleep then headed for our 23 hr train ride back to Xining.

We finally arrived at Everest base camp at 10pm tired grumpy and exhausted. We did have a few choice photo opportunities along the way. But it was dark when we got in so we got into our accommodation, got fed and crashed. The accommodation was an indigenous tent on the side of the mountain. It had a wood stove in the centre, carpets on the dirt and a bench doubling as beds around the outside. The seven of us bunked down for a freezing night of communal camping while the driver and guide headed off to another tent.

When I said it was a wood stove in the centre of the tent…this was accurate…but… It was not wood that was being burnt. The fuel of choice in Tibet is Yak dung paddies and sheep and goat pellets. So in addition we had a rural aroma permeating the tent. The facilities were about 100 meters away and were totally rank and there was a very real threat that you could fall into a pit of raw sewage. Because of the threat of falling through the wooden floor in the tin shed onto the pit of raw sewage, those that had gone before had gone on the floorboards rather than braving the hole. So most of us chose torchlight and the rocky riverbed…behind whatever stone that might give you some semblance of cover. Clearly we were not the first with such an idea and the area was littered with human and animal excrement. So we added our fair share and moved on…I have a detailed version of this for my nephew Fleebs but have been banned from publishing it.

After a fitful nights sleep for most and no sleep for me…the sun rose and most of us headed to the other end of base camp for sunrise shots of Everest. Standing at over 5200 meters watching the early morning sun reflect off the highest point on the planet seemed to make all the pain of the preceding few days melt away. Back for brekkie then hop a bus to take you another 6-8 Kms closer for an hour of photos and our odyssey was over…except for the return journey.

Mount Everest is definitely a bucket list item but one that needs to be seriously considered before embarking. This is a destination that cannot be taken lightly and is a serious investment in time and damage on your body. Our trip was in the Tibetan summer and the weather was perfect…and the trip was still tough. The guide told us stories of others that had had weeks on the mountain and barely got to see it due to the clouds and mist…we were VERY lucky.

While it is a fantastic thing to have done and no doubt in the future we will regale you with stories of the time we slept in a tent at the northern face base camp (EBC for those of us who have been there) of Mount Everest in Tibet… we are both glad it is over and we are headed back to Xining for some well earned rest and a little bit of pampering. We can get one hour massages for less than $8 and both of us are aching and in need of some down time.

Tibet

Tibet – Lhasa to Shigatse

June 8, 2014 richardpieper Leave a comment

We headed off on the Sunday morning from Lhasa to Shigatse which was to be a slight increase in elevation but transiting through a serious elevation bump. As it was a holiday weekend the Everest ticket office closed early so we took the long route to get there. This saw us leaving at 9am and arriving in Shigatse at around 8 pm that night.

The entire time was not spent driving but rather we stopped off at three of the most spectacular sights that we have seen thus far. The first was the Khambala Pass at 4794 metres above sea level. This was the passage to pass over the mountains and from the top you had a magnificent view down over the Yamdrok-Tso lake which is one of the three holy Buddhist lakes. While perched high on the hill I managed to get Jill to ride and be photographed atop a yak.

Heading down from the pass we stopped at Yamdrok lake for some more photos and the ever present trinket selling. Alas having seen the placid yak atop the hill I tried to pat the one at the bottom of the hill…while he was eating…bad mistake. Tip for young players if an animal is eating…leave them alone…especially if they weigh about as much as a car and have big horns. Anyway…after a minor goring and some serious threatening gestures later…I learnt a lesson.

A bit later on we made a stop at the Karola Glacier which was happily at 5020 metres at its base where we were but was 7191 at its peak. A few photos and some more locals pestering us to “looky looky… Cheap cheap” at the now ubiquitous trinket shops and we were off again.

After this we went to the Pekor Chode Monastery which was built in 1914 and was the first monastery that allowed photographs inside (for a small fee). One monastery is very similar to the next and the key images, layout and structure are all pretty much the same. This one was one of the few that allowed photos or at least did not charge extortionate rates to allow any images within. All of the monasteries have been stunning although due to the burning of incense and yak butter candles I have had shortened adventures prior to choking on the fumes. We paid the fee and Jill went crazy.

The standout feature to this place was the sand paintings. The monks sat in a circle on the floor and poured coloured sand onto the ground. Not that impressive you may think…but they did it in an artsy way…a seriously impressive 2.5-4 metre diameter intricate as all get out kinda artsy way.

We got into Shigatse, had a meal and crashed. Well sort of…I spent about 90 minutes hyperventilating as I could not get breath into my lungs. At 12:30 am I went to reception in an attempt to purchase oxygen…as I stepped into the hallway I nearly fell over as it was choked with cigarette smoke and incense. As a long term former smoker I am not opposed to smoking but when you are at altitude and every bit of oxygen is precious…copping gobfulls of smoke and the incense they use to try and mask it is debilitating. No oxygen in reception but a short time later the drunks went home and the incense stopped burning and I could breathe again.

The next morning saw us visiting the Tashilump Monastery in Shigatse while the guide got us our Everest passes then we did the big drive to Mount Everest…or Qomolangma in the local lingo. Along the way we reached the highest elevation that either of us had or will ever likely be at at 5248 meters which was at Gyatso La (Ocean Pass) which is actually about 50 metres higher than at base camp.

midliferadventure

All posts by richardpieper

Wutaishan and TaiYuan

Datong – Part one

Datong – Part Two

Hohhot – Inner Mongolia

Yinchuan

Dunhuang

Lanzhou and Jiayuguan

Xining and Xiahe

Mount Everest or Qomolangma in the local lingo

Tibet – Lhasa to Shigatse

Travelling the world in a pre and post COVID state