This finds us in Ulaan Baatar capital of Mongolia hanging out for a few days while we wait for oyr Russian visa to "go active". In fact we leave on Sunday evening for Lake Baikal.
We have not long returned from 12 days in the mid west & Gobi desert. What a trip!! Toughest that we have been on but really rewarding at the same time.
However as usual I am getting ahead of myself. I think that I left off in Zhongdiane China which is in the South west close to the Thibetan border. We went there as it has thibetan style temples - the best in China & the closest to the real things (well so they say). Zh. is 3400m asl & the mountains surrounding it are really spectacular. But the landscape is barren & colsd looking. Lots of yaks in all directions & also horses & goats. We stayed at a local hostel & went out to the best of the temples. It did look a lot like those you see in photos from Thibet. But the chinese are giving it a make over so I don't think that it will be as true to life in a couple of years time. Already the monks were starting to cater for the tourists. They chanted when tourists were around & it was pretty ordinary. Not all the monks were involved & you could see that they were pretty bored with it all. There were donation boxes everywhere & the whole thing had a packaged feel about it. But some of the art treasures were great. Like the Wheel of Life. This is the buddhists way of depicting heaven & hell. Hell was pretty terrible. People getting pushed into flaming pots, being cut up but swords & axes, swallowed by gruesome looking beasts & it even showed some poor guy getting his family jewels cut off. I got a real cold feeling in my nether regions when I saw that. So we Christians do not have it alone for imaginative ways of showing hell & all the pleasures that await. Some great statues of Buddha in his various stances - sitting, lying, standing etc. The temples were all dark & gloomy with lots of insence but I think that is how it is in Thibet. They did not have any services going but lots of people prayed at the statues & made multiple donations of course. Wewalked back to town thru some fields where the local peasantry were working. They seemed quite cheerful even though the work they were doiung was real basic (hoeing, reaping, digging & the like) & it was wet everywhere.
Zh was a nice place though. They had a big village square & every night people gathered, the music would play & all would start to do these old folk dances. Great sight - young & old & even some tourists (guess who).
So a good time was had by all. We left Zh for Panzihua (Border of Sichuan province) on a sleeper bus. Now this time we were smarter & got beds near the front. So I managed to get a bit of sleep & leah did much better. But the 'loos along the way were no better. Talk about the pits - well they were!! So for me a 12 hour ride & hanging on all the way. I just couldn't face them.
In Panz we got a train to Chengdhu. We opted for soft seat which was not too bad but hard sleeper would have been better. At least you can lie down. Soft seats are not adjustable & the carriages fill p with all sorts of people trying to grab some space.
Ch wasn't too bad. Home of the Panda Breeding centre which we visited. They are really cute animals esp the young which are remarkably playful. But if ever an animal is doomed to extinction in the wild it is the panda. Think about it. It has a very limited diet - like bamboo & nothing else. Bamboo is really low on nutritional value. They live solitary lives so don't get together that often. The female is in oestrus only 2 days in a year & most males are not sufficiently well equipped to ensure successful conception, even if he did get to her at the right time. So nearly all the babies at the centre are born as a result of AI.
Also took a trip out to see the tallest Buddha in China. Over 90m high - he was carved out of a sandstone cliff alongside a river. Lots & lots of Chinese tourists there but it was pretty spectacular. Ch is a big city. Development all over the place but as with nearly all cities we visited it has very high air pollution. In fact one day was particularly bad. You could feel it in your throat & most people wore masks. It's probably best not to know what you are breathing in. But Mao square & the central shopping centre were very modern. They did a great fountain display at nightfall in the square which went on for an hour or so.
So now on to Xian, this time in an overnight sleeper. Very enjoyable esp as we took a lot of food & drink on board & could pig out. Xian was all about the Terra Cotta warriors of course. But the town has a lot going on as well. The old city is surrounded by this high (restored) wall & has an interesting Muslim quarter, complete with mosque. Also a Bell Tower, a drum Tower & some very old pagodas. Xian used to be a town on the Silk Route so these things have been around for a long time. We spent some time walking the streets & seeing the sights. Outside the city walls though Xian is just another big Chinese City with all the attendant issues.
Now the Warriors. We got there by local bus (#306) from the train station. Best way to go - all the tours stop at various places along the way so you don't get full value at the site. Amazing place isn't it. I loved the special exhibit where they had two 1/2 life sized sets of chariots on display. The detail on the horses, drivers, chariots etc was astonishing. Just superb. Pit 1 where they buried all the soldiers was also great. It's hard to imagine that they have only uncovered about 1/3 of all that there is there. Pits 2 & 3 were also good but didn't have to same sort of impact as Pit 1 where you had row upon row of soldiers lined up with their horses. And they were all set up in battle formation.
To get to the site you drive past the emporers mausoleum. It is a big mound about 1.5km away from the pits. They have not started excavating that yet as they don't think they have the technology to handle it well enough. I would love to be around when they do. Ponds of mercury, crossbow traps, gold galore - all sorts of speculation about what is inside.
From Xian another sleeper train to Shanghai. Leah & I were in seperate compartments for this leg. We booked a little late so did not have any choice. We had to go to Sh to get our Russian visas. Which proved to be no problem. We had bodgied up Letters of Invitation & little else (no itinerary for example) but the visas was processed the same day & the guy wished us happy travels. So different from other peoples experiences in Beijing (or NZ or Oz for that matter where staff seem to go out of the way to be unhelpful & rude).
We liked Sh esp the Bund & the old Quarter area. We spent a day getting to/from Szushou & then only had about 90 min there. The crowds were horrendous - we had a hard seat train ride - never again. Managed to get into a small pagoda there & climb to the top but that was it. Finish that & it was straight back to the station to get our train back to Sh. We like Nanjing Street E - best shopping street we saw in China. All the big brand stores & the street in fact was a mall. People everywhere. Also spoent time at the Museum in Peoples Square - very good. Loved all the old paintings that they had on display. I could go back to Sh quicker than most other places we have visited in China. It wsn't as polluted & seemed to have a more laid back atmosphere.
Now off to Beijing - this time a soft seat as there were no sleeper berths left. We stayed west of Tianamen square close to one of the Metro lines. Beijing was all about getting our Mongolian visa & doing a bit of shopping. Visa successful & shopping also - at the silk markets. We also visited the Lama Temple north of T Sq which was very good. But I did not like Bj too much. The people are very aggresive esp ewhen they want you to buy something. Also the old spitting habit dies hard & air pollution is still a big problem. How things will improve for the Olympics I do not know. But they have to do something - westerners will not put up with bad service, rudeness (by our standards) & bad hygiene. A real challenge for the authorities!!
So it was on the train to Mongolia. A 30 hour trip in a four berth sleeper. We took on enough food to feed the train & were sharing with Ali from Glasgow & a Mongolian lady who must have been taking back half Chinas fruit & vege output. She filled up our compartment with apples, bananas, tomatoes, oranges & other things which I just can't off hand remember. When I saw that I couldn't help thinking - so maybe its true what they say about Mongolian food after all.
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