Gansu: The Final Installment

This always happens! I start writing a series, but never finish it because I get distracted by...life. Better late than never I guess, although that's not a proper excuse.

But to continue with the trip to Gansu province China:

I knew I would like the desert much more than I liked Tibet as soon as we stepped off the train in Dunhuang. We arrived early in the morning from our overnight sleeper train and the sunrise was amazing! It was so beautiful.

The first thing we did in the desert was visit the sand dunes, of course! We went to a state park which is pretty much just miles and miles of sand. Huge mountains of sand that look just as impressive and striking as you would imagine them to be. But being China, the state park couldn't be content with just the sand. They also advertised a beautiful oasis in the middle of these dunes. This was by far the most man-made oasis I've ever seen. Maybe at one point there was a natural spring and oasis in the area, but today it is definitely a concrete pool and "historic" pagoda built in the ancient 1990s. That's the thing about China, though: for a country with such a long and amazing history almost none of it still exists. Most of the incredible ancient structures have been torn down either during the Cultural Revolution or because of the huge property boom going on throughout China right now.

Aside from the unimpressive oasis, the dunes park was pretty cool. Mainly because of the extreme sand sports. We took ATVs up the dunes! At the top of the dunes were sleds on which you could glide over the sand back down the dune. On the way there they let you pseudo-drive (there was a guy there with you to make sure you didn't crash), but on the way back from the dune the professional driver took us up and down and all over the dunes. Its exactly as cool as it looks on TV. And it was so much fun!
After the dunes park we went to the Magao caves. This is a really interesting national site. One of the first sights of Buddhism in China, the Magao caves are also called the Cave of One Thousand Buddhas. hundreds of caves are carved into the side of a cliff with elaborate paintings and sculptures decorating the inside depicting the Buddha. These Buddhas are hundreds of years old and are still pretty well preserved. There are two GIANT Buddhas carved inside some caves out of the rock. These Buddhas are about five stories tall and are very ornate. It's almost scary standing there in the dark cave at the feet of this massive seated Buddha staring down at you.

Behind this facade is the Giant Buddha.  Who knew China had some many of those things?

With no time for resting, after we saw one thousand Buddhas we hopped on camels to trek across the desert to our camping spot. The camels were so much fun and so cute! We rode them caravan-style, tied together led by a little old Chinese man. We rode the camels for two hours into the desert. The certain spot in the desert where we camped was all set up and waiting for us to arrive in our camel caravans. At night we built a bonfire, roasted meat and veggie skewers, and ran around in the desert. It was pretty chill, just how you would expect an evening in the desert to be.

For only 6000RMB you can take home your own pet camel!

The next day was pretty uneventful. Except for the evening. On our last night of the trip we hung out in Dunhuang. Dunhuang is a modern town with all of five streets: North St, South St, East St, West St, and Fifth Avenue. No joke. Even though its so small, Dunhuang was a much more impressive town than Xiahe. In Dunhuang they had commercial businesses, modern hotels, and even community beautification projects. Along the river that runs through the city are lines of intricate and unique pagodas among trees and landscaping. It was really nice. At night we went to the night market that was full of local artisans and handicrafts.

But the best part of the night market was dinner. China is known for its...unique cuisine, so we of course had to try the craziest dish we could find on the menu. So we ate a sheep's head. Yep. The entire head. Face, eyes, brains and all. They serve it to you with the skull and everything! I will admit that I only tasted the sheep's head--the brain to be specific. And to be honest, it wasn't that bad. It tasted kinda like crab meat. Definitely the strangest food I've eaten in China so far.

BRAAAAAINS!

The next day we had a 5 hour bus ride to the airport, where our flight was delayed two hours.
The end!

Ponies and Expresses (Gansu Trip part 2)

 Welcome back!
...turned out JR was just a RedShirt and no one knew him anyway. You didn't know this was LOST did you?

Our hotel. Probably the tallest building in the city.

The next day in Xiahe was less religious and informative and more fun. It was more about meeting real Tibetans and seeing how they lived, but that didn't really happen. We went into the valley to some grasslands to a small community. We saw yaks and it was cold. AND WE GOT TO RIDE HORSES! When I heard that, I was so excited. I love horses, but haven't gotten the chance to ride one in a very long time. Unfortunately they don't train horses in Tibet the way they train them in America, so I couldn't drive my own pony, he had to be led up the hill. But it was kinda nice anyway.

After that we sat in a traditional Tibetan tent for some snacks. The kind of large tent we were sitting in used to be where entire families would sit, eat, sleep, and generally live. Nowadays, they live in more modern tents with TVs and everything. A lot of the girls were a little shocked when we went into the tent because they told us that the girls had to sit on one side and the men on the other, with a fire pit between. This normally wouldn't have bothered anyone (let's face it, boys are smelly) except that the men's side was obviously superior to the women's side. The men's side had a carpet and table and seats. The girls' side didn't even have a carpet. We were told that we weren't allowed to go to the men's side, but after a while we said, "F THAT," and sat with the boys.

Girls on the left, Boys on the right.

The snack that the Tibetan family gave us was a little strange, but tasted pretty good. It consisted of milk tea, flour, yak butter, and sugar all mixed up in a bowl. If you put enough sugar into the mixture it tasted a little like cookie dough...a little. They also served us yak yogurt with our yak-butter-tea, and that stuff was so delicious!

Meals on the trip were pretty mediocre and gave you dejavu every time you sat down to eat. My friend told me we kept being served the Tour Group Menu. But despite the lack of creativity in the restaurants, we found some pretty good street food. That region of  China has tons of sheep--quite a few herds got in the way of our bus on our travels--so we decided to eat some of them. Lamb kebabs are quite good. We had some other quite interesting sheep snacks, but I will save that story for another time.

When our time in Xiahe was through, we hopped back on the bus for the 5 hour drive back to Lanzhou, the capital city of Gansu province. There's not much to see in Lanzhou. The city is big, but not particularly pretty. We saw an old water wheel, a statue of the Monkey King, and a statue where a baby represented the minorities of China. One worthwhile thing we did in Lanzhou was float down the Yellow River on sheep-skin rafts (so many sheep they make them into boats). I felt kinda bad because this little old man was paddling us down the river, but it was pretty fun. Other than that, though, Lanzhou is so boring that looking at an ugly steel bridge that isn't even very old is one of the main sights to see.

After we saw the numerous and thrilling sights of Lanzhou we hopped on the train headed for the desert. America doesn't use trains very much anymore, but most of the rest of the world does. China is known for it's super fast bullet trains that they build in, like, a day. Their all aerodynamic with conical noses and luxury interiors! ...We were not on one of those trains. Our train ride was 13 hours. But it was ok because we had beds! Heh. But I've gotten used to giving up my creature comforts and privacy since coming to China, so it wasn't so bad. We sat around and ate junk food and played cards until they turned out the lights and yelled at us to go to bed (hey, I didn't know my dad was on this train?!). In the morning they played Chinese national tunes over the intercom to wake everybody up. Who do they think they are?!

Like the Hogwarts Express except not magical. At all.

And then we were in the desert.

Monks in the Mountains (Gansu Trip part 1)

My first big adventure in China (Hong Kong doesn't count) was completely different from anything I have ever experienced, and completely outside the realm of what most people think of when they think "CHINA". I went to the very western part of the country. One part mountains (think: Everest), one part desert (think: oceans of sand) make up the province of Gansu. Unlike the eastern seaboard, western China is still developing and very poor. So, no tall buildings or interesting architecture, no shopping malls or even large cities. Just open spaces and lots of nature.

The trip had two very distinct parts. For the first half of the trip, we were in the cold Tibetan region (as close to Tibet as any American can get these days) where the air is thin and yaks are abundant. The second half of the trip we spent in the dry, arid, sandy, warm desert. There's so much to tell about each location that I think I'll split the trip into two blog posts so that it's bearable. I'll go chronologically. So let's start with Tibet.

Now Entering Tibetan Territory

After a 5am wake-up call, 5 hour flight and 5 hour bus ride (we were really in the middle of freakin nowhere) we arrived at the tiny town of Xiahe (pronounced "she-ah-huh"). When I say "tiny," I mean it. Xiahe has one street running through it. The town is almost dead because no one actually lives there. Most people in the region are farmers or herders so they only come into town once in a while to purchase stuff they can't make themselves.

Being college students, we located just about the only bar in town the first night...well, we didn't find it ourselves, our awesome tour guide Emma took us. She was the best. She was so excited to have a group of young people--she told us on the first day that she usually only guides old people because they have time to see this remote region of China. She also taught us that when you "ganbei!" (cheers!) at the beginning of the night in China you have to down your full glass......of...yak milk. Of course.

On our first full day in Xiahe we visited Labrang Monastery, which is apparently the most famous Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the world. Western China is interesting because it's actually very religious, as opposed to the more developed eastern half. What's more interesting is that much of western China is Muslim. During our long bus rides we could look out the window onto this rural landscape with a few houses and ranches, and right in the middle of the desolate village would be this great, beautiful, elaborate mosque. These mosques are actually a politically divisive issue...but we spent out time in the Buddhist region, so I'll stick to that.

Labrang Monastery (Labuleng Si in Chinese) is a large school of the Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism. They are called the Yellow Hats because they actually do wear these big, silly looking yellow hats. There are about 700 monks in residence at the monastery, most of them studying theology at one of the four religious schools housed within the monastery. To gain entrance to the school of theology, a monk must pass a very rigorous exam. Many monks spend years living and working at the monastery before they pass the entrance exam. Once a monk graduates from the school he has chosen, which may take many many years, he becomes a Master. Only specially chosen monks may be Lamas. Lamas are usually chosen from a very young age, many families choose to send their sons to the monastery, because they are said to be the reincarnation of a recently deceased Lama.

Our tour guide through the monastery was a monk who had been guiding tours of the monastery for many years and had recently been accepted to the school of theology. He didn't think he would ever become a Master, which gives you a sense of just how intense their studies are. The monastery houses 60,000 sutras (sacred Buddhist books) along with an extensive library of historic and religious books written in both Tibetan language and Hindi.

Our Tibetan Monk Guide

We were lucky enough to be there right when all of the monks, Masters, and Lamas gathered in the main hall for prayers and meditation. Their chants sound very strange, but listening to all of them chanting together was pretty cool.

Warm feet get in the way of proper meditation

It's pretty late here, and I'm getting a bit tired, so I think the rest of Tibet will have to wait for another time.
...I should have left you with a cliffhanger or something so that you'll be left wanting more...hmmm.......
AND THEN SOMEBODY SHOT JR!
Until next time!