Carol's Travels

 

 
Our hotel serves mainly a Chinese breakfast with very little western food. I enjoyed watching a chef make noodles, so I made a short movie of his technique  
After breakfast we drove to the fort at the western end of the Great Wall. We walked along the top of the fort. There was enough space for a lot of soldiers to be stationed to watch out for the Mongolians. We walked through several small buildings that had figures of people doing things they would have been doing when the fort was in operation.
While we were on top of a wall, we got to watch a show where warriors were performing martial arts and fighting with ancient weapons and swords. Acrobats, plate and pot spinners, and even a wedding were part of the show. It was fitting to have them perform in this old fort. 

 After this, we went back to the hotel for a relaxing lunch. Six delicious Chinese dishes were served, including a flan with green onions and very little sugar in it.

Then we drove to the western end of the Great Wall. This section wasn’t as long as the section that we went to in Beijing. It is a lot steeper. We walked part way up, and Cha-Cha-Cha had a photo session. Anita decided to climb to the two towers on the top, so we cheered her on! We took photos of her when she was on top, and we congratulated her when came down. 

   
After that, we went to the airport for our two-hour flight to Xi’an. When we landed in Xian, we were met by our guide, Victor, and driven to our hotel, Holiday Inn Xi’an Big Wild Goose Pagoda.

4 miles walked

We left the hotel in Dunhuang at 8:30 A.M. for a five-hour drive to Jiayuguan. The countryside looked similar to the dry gobi land on our train ride with wind farms and an occasional small settlement.    

We stopped twice for rest stops. The first was in the process of being built, but the huge restrooms were ready to be used. 

 As we neared the end of the long drive, James told us about an accident that happened yesterday near his home town. A car fell into a sink hole, and the government said that the driver caused the accident because he was too fat! They said people should lose weight so similar accidents don’t happen in the future. The government didn’t explain why trucks could go along the same route with no problem.

When we reached our hotel, lunch was ready for us. We ate more Chinese food :-). Our room had a balcony that overlooked the business district.

We decided to walk along the main street. We met up with Larry and Anita, so we all walked together. We soon found ourselves walking along a side street that appears to be where the locals shopped for food. There were stalls of fresh vegetables, spices, meat, and some small restaurants there.

James and his wife own a hot pot restaurant nearby. We asked if we could eat there, so he took us there this evening. It was called Greedy Bears, and it was located on the fourth floor of the mall. The food was quite tasty. James suggested what ingredients we would like, and he and his wife served us. After we had finished dinner, we walked around the mall and even watched some singers compete on a live Karaoke TV program. 

   

     

We found some of the English in the hotel services book in our room to be amusing:

After drinking you shall not stay in the balcony or climb over guardrail of the balcony.

You are expected to observe rules and regulations of the hotel and cherish public properties of the hotel.

Pets are prohibited from entering the hotel. If you want to buy any animals, please buy them after check-out so as to avoid unnecessary troubles.

 
8529 steps, 3.62 miles

The hotel breakfast buffet had a lot of variety this morning. We actually were the first to arrive at breakfast because we had an 8:15 A.M. show time at the Mogao Grottos.   

 
  
At the grottos we were given listening devices that gave English translations for the two movies about the history of the grottos that we were to watch. The first movie was an iMax film, and the second was a 360 degree 3D film.
Then we followed an English speaking guide for about an hour and a half through many of the grottos. The first grotto was started in the 6th century by a Buddhist monk. At one time there were 1,000 grottos, now there are 735. They were dug out of the cliff wall using hand tools such as hammer and chisel, and the largest took thirty years to complete. The walls are covered with paintings, many of which remain in excellent condition. They are essentially all shrines to Buddha.   

 The first grotto that we entered had a Reclining Buddha statue with 72 followers painted behind that were added later. Another grotto had the third largest ancient standing Buddha in the world at 35.5 meters high. I was very impressed with the paintings inside. Pictures weren’t allowed to be taken. This was among the first three sites in China to become a World Heritage Sight. We were told that the blue paint used in many of the paintings is actually lapis lazuli, and it was extremely expensive.

After we had gone into several of the grottos, we walked a short distance to a museum that had reproductions of some grottos that we had not seen. It was built by the Japanese.
After this, we drove a short distance to another Chinese restaurant for one of our better lunches. I especially liked the sweet and sour chicken and a dish that had delicious black mushrooms that are called umbrella mushrooms.

Then we drove to the nearby sand dunes. All three of us ladies in our group decided to ride camels. It was so much fun. I felt like I was in a camel caravan riding on the desert. The weather was cool and even occasionally spitting rain. I am glad it wasn’t a hot day! The weather so far on this trip has been quite mild. 

   Anita and Kay
17515 steps, 7.46 miles