Kashgar
Over the border and into Kashgar, China, in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. The history here is so complex, but Russia gave independence to Mongolia and the agreement was that Xinjiang would remain part of China. A fascinating place as the region has a majority of Uighurs. Although the Uighurs still almost consider themselves a separate country, they work on the local time of 2 hours behind Beijing time - the same as Kyrgyzstan, but all the official places and businesses in the area run on Beijing time, so its almost fingers up to China to say they are and will remain separate to China. The Uighurs are one of the minority groups, which China is quickly trying to obliterate from existence by the infiltration of the Chinese majority group, the Han Chinese, into their society. The schools are soon to be Chinese speaking with Uighur as an extra class, instead of the other way around, so slowly, China will take over and squash the religion and individuality.
Kashgar is a wonderful city with the new parts with flashing lights and a HUGE supermarket/shopping area, and the old parts; single storey buildings, dusty paths and locals selling handmade steel products, useful wooden objects, fruits and pots etc. We visited a local livestock market with everything you can imagine including sheep (with big bottoms - a sign of health!), cows, donkeys, horses, camels and the edges of the market lined with nut and seed stalls and barbers giving men a clean and close shave!
Turpan
An overnight train journey into Turpan - the hottest and driest city in China. The city is built where a lake used to be, so the city is actually 154m BELOW sea level so it is the second lowest depression in the world (after the Dead Sea). The rainfall is only 16mm per year while the evaporation exceeds 3000mm, so 2000 years ago they developed an underground irrigation system stretching for hundreds of kilometres supplying water to the people and land. Genius.
It was 42 degrees when we were there, visiting the ancient ruined cities of Bezeklik and Jiaohe, and the cave system of Gaochang - although not much in the Buddhist caves as looters and people from other religions have destroyed much of the paintings and decoration.
Dunhuang
Further East by train to Dunhuang. An increasingly touristy town as the masses are coming here to visit the Mogao Caves which contain the greatest grouping of early Chinese Buddhist paintings to survive dating back to 366AD. Amazing huge sitting Buddha built into a cave with murals surrounding telling stories of religion and adventure. We also did the usual Explore thing of watching sunrise after climbing to the top of the surrounding sand dunes - looking back at the oasis town that is surrounded by desert.
Jiayuguan
This is an ancient Han Chinese outpost and the Great Wall once extended beyond here but during the first few years of the Ming Dynasty, a fort was built and it was then considered the end of the empire. Today, the town has developed into an industrial town with just about everything and everyone owned by the Iron and Steel Company. The city has been built up for the workers, which could easily have been an utter failure, but instead the city is lined with trees and cycle/walkways without a factory in sight (until you get outside the city and look back to it).
We visited the 'Overhanging Wall' section of the Great Wall which is built in a different way to that of the wall further east as it is made of rammed earth - a technique that can survive here due to the lack of erosive precipitation. We visited the Fort which is the barrier between China and the desert (or the area that people were banished to if they committed a crime and never to return!). Finally we visited underground tombs dating to 220-420AD which are worthy of a mention as the bricks in the tomb were painted depicting social and rural activities including one showing a person eating with a knife and fork - who copied who!?
Xian
This city has been the capital of China 12 times in the past over various dynasties. A mix of historic buildings including the Bell and Drum Tower which in historic times would be like a time system being struck in the morning and night. An old section of the city called the Muslim Quarter with narrow streets, food stalls selling kebabs and cheap shops selling all the Beijing Olympic t-shirts you could desire! No trip to Xian is complete without a trip over to the Terracotta Warriors. Totally amazing and the Chinese have really done a nice job with the museum layout. Upon ascending the throne at the age of 13 (in 246 BC), Qin Shi Huang, later the first Emperor of all China, had begun to work for his mausoleum. It took 11 years to finish and thousands of warriors were made to guard the mausoleum (which still hasn't been excavated). This emperor did some good things but carried them out in a harsh and brutal way so he many people who disliked him. So in later years, the sites were broken into and all the warriors smashed up and destroyed. The pits were not discovered until 1974 when farmers were building a well.
The previous train journeys we've had have been long - usually 20 hours or so but interesting to see the vast expanses of desert and the frequent oil plant or steel factory for example. Its incredible to see the range of minerals, reserves and products that China has a huge supply of. With the man power and the increasing power globally, you can easily see why China is becoming a main player. Quite frightening really, how quickly China has climbed up.
Beijing
A short flight to the capital city with a population of 13.4 million. Huge high rises with 20/30 floors dominate the skyline but with plenty of trees and colourful flower displays to make the city an attractive one. The architecture old and new is fabulous, with so much thought going into design. The city has 6 ring roads circulating the edges, with the 2nd one being in the place of the old city wall, which was destroyed 20 years ago. The Forbidden City is not to be missed of course, and you feel you know the place after so many films being shot there. The FB is huge, with a large number of buildings that you walk through to get the part where the royalty lived. It was the imperial palace through 24 reigns and legendarily has 9999 rooms. The architecture is in the style of the classic Ming Dynasty - elegant curves on the edges of the roof.
The Great Wall
We also head out to another stretch of the Great Wall, at Mutianyu which was built in 1368. Beautiful location amongst the tree covered hills and less tourists as its further away from Beijing than other stretches. The Great Wall was first built by 7 kingdoms to keep the Mongol barbarians out of China but during the first Chinese Dynasty the emperor unified China and joined the sections of wall. So the wall essentially is the barrier between Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolia (AKA China and Mongolia). Over the years, sections have been left to degrade but others built and rebuilt. The wall further East here is larger, wide enough to take a carriage and 6 horses abreast and it is made of bricks and stone.
Finally
An amazing journey through different provinces of China and with such a variety of Chinese people and minorities. The people are so friendly and eager to please but the language barrier is a challenge as you cant even begin to read the Chinese characters and actions are different so charades are hopeless! Classic example was at the hotel where the receptionist barely spoke English and we were dancing around trying to get our message across, then finally when we gave up, she turned around and politely said, "its ok, you can relax now"!!.
This journey has taken us 7450km with only 1440km of that by plane, the rest by trains and buses...a bit easier then when the Silk Road was travelled over deserts and mountains with camels and horses!
