Carol's Travels

Today is the 80th birthday of our travel companion, Paul. Cha-Cha-Cha sang Happy Birthday to him on the bus to the train station.     
 The new express train began service in January, and we got to take a four-hour ride across the bleak desert dotted with oil fields, wind farms, a few small towns, and little else. We had only about three stops along the way. Half way to our destination, there were some trees and green plants at one stop. It was fun riding four hours at 120 miles per hour on this smooth train. It is much better than riding the slow overnight train for seven hours that we would have had to ride if this train were not in service. 

 James (Liu) met us at Liuyuannen. He brought us a lot of snacks because it would be a three-hour drive to our hotel in Dunhuang. The usual road is only a one-hour drive, but it is closed for construction.

He told us about this area of China. Gobi Desert is not the name of a specific desert. It is a type of desert with some greenery growing on it. A desert is only sand.

The government owns the land and most companies such as the airlines, banks, trains, electric companies, and insurance companies. Education is free for the first nine years, then the parents have to pay for high school and college. If a person works for the government, 60% of health care is paid by the government.

We were still driving along the Silk Road. 2000 years ago people walked on the Silk Road, but it was named by a German Scholar only 800 years ago.

We finally arrived at our hotel, had an hour to get settled, then ate dinner at the hotel. We then got to attend an acrobatics show this evening! The cast was amazing, especially for this fairly small city of 200,000 people. They danced wearing lavish costumes, and they performed amazing tricks during the telling of a legend of the origin of the paintings in the grottos we will see tomorrow.

5719 steps/2.43 miles

After our breakfast at the hotel, the bus took us for a scenic drive outside the city. We drove along the Flaming Mountain Range, called that for its red color. The bus stopped on the road since there was no shoulder, and the driver waited while we walked to a scenic lookout. We could see a river and vineyards below. There were buildings for drying grapes for raisins. It was interesting to see the greenery in the canyon below when there was nothing but rocks and dirt where we were. 

 Soon we arrived at the Uygur Buddhist Caves. We walked down steps to get to the caves that were open to the public. Long ago the caves had first been dug out, then covered with mud to provide a smooth surface to apply paint. The walls of the caves were covered with deteriorating religious paintings. Unfortunately, many treasures that had been there were stolen by European explorers. 

 After viewing the last cave, I stopped to listen to a man playing a stringed Chinese instrument. He handed the instrument to me, and motioned for me to play it. Even though I had no idea how to play it, I managed to play something while he played a drum. Then we switched instruments. I found it amusing that some Asian tourists took lots of pictures and movies of us. On the way out, one Asian man even indicated to me that I had done a good job. 

 Next we drove to a raisin farm. We were given the opportunity to pay to watch a cock fight, but we refused. We enjoying walking under the grape arbors, past vendors, and into examples of a poor family’s house and a rich family’s house. We ended up at the home of a family who dried grapes into raisins. We got to taste watermelon and grapes. Then we got to taste several different kinds of raisins. The woman, I think, was expecting us to buy some of her raisins, but none of us seemed so inclined. She had two little boys there, so as a gesture of good will, I brought Cha-Cha-Cha out to talk and sing. 

Visiting a vineyard where the grapes will be dried into raisins

We next went to a local outdoor restaurant that specializes in shish kabob, rice pilaf, and noodles. All of us chose to have shish kabob and the homemade noodles with tomatoes and beans plus tea. It was delicious. The portions were so big that most of us couldn’t finish our meal.

We returned to the hotel to rest, as is the custom, for a couple of hours during the hottest part of the day. Then at 5:30 we went to Karez Underground Irrigation Tunnels. They were dug in 1720. We went underground and saw water flowing through them. They are still in use today, but they don’t produce as much water as they used to. Dinner was at the hotel. 

Paul won!

9469 steps, 4.03 miles

We checked out of the hotel and boarded the bus. Our first stop was a tour of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region Museum. There were many displays and showing how they dressed and lived throughout the different dynasties. There were also cases of artifacts that had been dug up. Mummies were displayed in another section of the museum.  
Next the bus started driving along the silk road on the way to Turpan. We passed a dry salt lake then one of the largest wind farms in China as we continued along the edge of the Gobi Desert. We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant where we enjoyed eating the specialty: Big Chicken Plate with noodles. We were served lots of special dishes including stir-fried celery, baby bok choi, steamed buns, and the best tofu I have ever eaten.

After lunch we continued on as Richard told us a couple of historical stories that took place on the Silk Road. We stopped to explore Yar City Ruins where the population at one time reached 6,000. People had dug into the ground and carved out niches. The majority of the houses were constructed by digging into the ground where some parts of the structures were built using compressed earth. We visited this site at the perfect time in the late afternoon when it was cooler and most of the tourists had gone. This is one of the hottest areas in China. In the summertime it can get up to 120 degrees. September is one of the coolest months. It was almost sunset when we left, so the shadows made for perfect pictures. 

 We finally checked in to our hotel in Turpan. Before dinner some dancers in colorful costumes entertained us until the food arrived. I think lunch was far superior to dinner.  

   
    
 
16201 steps, 6.9 miles