Dunhuang, on the silk road
Trip Start
Jun 09, 2005
1
15
105
Trip End
Jun 08, 2006
Dunhuang,
China
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Since leaving Lhasa, the road has been in much better condition with tarmac and only the occaisional bump which sends the passengers sitting on the back seat of the bus a couple of inches into the air. As we cruise along, the air is really cold and we soon resort to pulling down the plastic windows in order to keep warm.
We continue to follow the new railway line which is being built from Golmud to Lhasa and stop for lunch nearby one of the spectacular viaducts
01 The Quidam depression
. It is hoped that the line will be finished in time for the 2008 Olympics although many critics have questioned how the rocks will be tunnelled and how the passengers will be expected to survive the altitude sickness. Eventually we reach the town of Golmud which is in the province of Qinhgai. Here we stop for 2 hours which is just enough time to have our first shower in days, check our e-mail and stuff up on ice creams (two for John).
Everyone leaves Golmud in really high spirits and we now drive out of the mountains and enter the mysterious Quidam Depression. This region is a flat expanse with salt appearing in crystals on the top of the ground. It is a mystery because geologists dont really understand how such a basin can form in an area of enormous mountain uplift. For miles and miles the ground is dug up where the salt is being harvested.
After passing the harvesting area, we pull off the road around 6pm beside some huge sandunes. The truck gets stuck a few times in the soft ground but after several attempts using a combination of digging and metal sandmats, we eventually find a fantastic camp spot.
As the sun sets we eat a great meal of stewed beef and potatoes
02 Sandboarding in the Singing Sands
. The stars appear one by one and then the most amazing thing happens. A gianormous full moon appears from the the flat horizon and rises slowly into the sky. Our tents become illuminated in the midnight light and cast errie shadows onto the sand. Everyone stays up until 1am around the camp fire and spectates the moonlight.The next day we wake to a feeling of warmth within the tent. This is the first morning that the sun has greeted us in this way and it feels great. This morning pancakes with bananas and honey are on the menu.
We continue driving through the Quidam depression. The landscape is still flat and now we begin to see some signs of life. First we see patches of grass, then we see a wild camel(two humps) and finally we see some water.
Suddenly, we turn a new corner and we see our first sandune. It is purely sand and it rises some 30 meters upwards into the blue sky. We are now at 2000m and we have a sudden burst of energy at this low altitude and stop the bus to run up to the top. Some folk run or roll down, but after Tom dives down the sandune leaving behind his trousers and pants, everyone is in fits of laughter.
03 Nightmarket in Dunhuang
John and I decide not to follow Tom's example and run down the dune instead. Tom then discovers his $300 ring is missing too to add to his pain.After a full day of driving we reach the outskirts of Dunhuang which is in the Gansu province. This town is approximately half way between our starting point, Kathmandu and our ending point, Beijing. We set up another rough camp very close to the 1000 Buddha caves. This is the first time any of our guides have visited this spot and we end up driving down a bumpy rough track to an ancient river bed. Our chinese guides are a little suspicious about whether the chinese authorities would allow us to camp in this beautiful area, but we don't see any officials to ask and we set up camp with no hassles.
The river bed is really beautiful but we now realise that it is extremely dry and hot (38C). It's hard to imagine that we were freezing cold a few days before whilst we lie helplessly on patches of shady sand. Our chinese guides Ding and Tommy (aka Dong) look horrified in the heat to think that we are only half way through our trip and that we only have a total of 6 hotel nights left. They tell us that from now on things will only get hotter.
As the sun sets again the temperature cools and the colours of the banks of the old river bed light up a golden colour. Tonight we sleep outdoors under the stars. We sleep early and watch shooting stars zip across the milkyway. Again we see the moon slowly rise and illuminate the campsite and it is a beautiful evening.
The next morning we visit the 1000 Buddha caves. Dunhuang is famous for its buddha caves and this set is smaller and less known than the Dugao caves which we will visit in a few days time. The entrance to these caves have been restored with some modern looking "cave" like material. Each cave is kept behing steel locked doors and huge panes of glass on wheels protect the paintings from any physical damage. There are only 16 caves at this site and not all of them are accessible today. We cram into each cave and see the bright colourful paintings. The art work in these caves orginates some 1500 years back. There are paintings of buddhas (which strangely look Indian), sitting statues and angels (which look a little out of place). Some of the iconography looks stangely like mediaval christian art.
After the Buddha caves we drive on to visit crescent moon lake. This is described in 'Let's Go' as a huge sandune which offers opportunities for sandboarding, paragliding and sand squeeking (the sand is supposed to make a belching sound as you walk on it). Sadly this place has turned into a huge tourist trap. We have to pay a staggering 100Y entrance fee (GBP 7). Then we get ripped off with a bus ride which the driver says will save us a 30 minute walk (more like 5 minutes). I feel deflated by the time we reach the towering sandunes and quite fed up when we are told that there will be no activities for the next 5 hours because of the lunch break. We attempt to find someone that will take us paragliding but there is not an instructor to be found. This seems hardly suprising as we all begin to get very hot. John and a couple of others opt for the sand boarding experience. They whizz down a small section of the sand dunes on wooden sledges and get covered in sand.
We stop in Dunhuang for 2 nights. There isn't too much to do here apart from visit the caves but we all enjoy our corporate looking hotel, showers, snacks and air conditioning.
During the first evening we go to the bustling night markets. Here there are plenty of craft and food stalls. John has the muslim lamb kebabs with rice and I eat the fresh perch with a couple of lamb kebabs. We round off our meal with some huge slices of melon -perfect.
