China

Exploring the sleeping giant

We entered China on the 1st of September and the last 2 weeks here have been frustrating yet interesting, the landscape barren yet beautiful. Western China is nothing like the Eastern China we know from movies and postcards, at best a distant relative to Beijing and Shanghai. Most of the areas we have driven through has been desolate wasteland, dominated by the Taklamakan desert that we’ve been skirting around. The culture is different too with a strong Turkish and Central Asian influence still lingering from a bygone era. Where China is most evident out here is with all the construction and industry. One minute you’re driving through a desert, the next minute you’re in a city of 500,000 people that looks like it was built last week with tree lined avenues, wide footpaths, silent electric scooters and enough construction going on for another 250,000 people to move in next month. The financial boom that has hit China has turned Western China from an agricultural society to being heavily urbanised within a very short period of time and it is apparent when you walk around with new shops still setting up in a market stall fashion and traffic still using footpaths as a third lane. Westernisation has slapped China in the face and it’s still getting back on its feet.

 

 

River running into Lake Issyk Kol

Scenery just after we entered China

On the way to Kashgar

Heavy industry in the west

and the never-ending construction

 

 

My entry into China was done with my usual grace and coordination, tripping over and pulling out the power cord that went to the customs ladies computer as she was processing our driver Wills entry. Pissed off customs lady and mishap aside we all managed to get in only to realise that we had 2 more sections to get through over the next 60km, having our bags scanned twice and our passports checked 3 times. We battled our way through herds of sheep and finally made our way to Kashgar.

 

Crossing the Taklamakan desert

No smoking, for obvious reasons

A small whirly-wind crossing the desert

One of the many cities that have sprung up from nowhere

Nuclear power plants are quite common also

 

 

Kashgar was an easy introduction to China, a large modern city where we stayed at a flashy hotel right next to the city square. After relaxing, restocking and trying some local food we headed east into the desert. Now our destination from Kashgar was not entirely certain as although we had our China visa our Tibet visa had not even started being processed. Stuck in a bit of a limbo we headed towards Dunhuang near the Mongolian border and after 6 or so bush camps we reached our destination. Here we got to visit our first real tourist attraction, the Magao caves. They are a collection of approximately 700 caves full of paintings, statues and carvings of Buddha including a very impressive 35m Buddha carved straight out of the mountain. Built between the 300’s and the 1200’s they were abandoned when Dunhuang fell off the Silk Road Route only to be rediscovered at the start of the 20th century. Although pricey it was a well set up and interesting site.

Wind turbines all across the desert

Our campsite for the night

A brilliant full moon

Raised railway lines under construction between Dunhuang and Golmud

 

 

 

The rest of our time in Western China has been frustratingly long drives with very little to see. On a positive front our Tibet visas have been issued and we are rushing south towards Lhasa with our China guide and now a Tibetan guide as well. Unfortunately we are now almost 2 weeks behind schedule and face a tough decision as to how we spend our remaining time as we still need to finish on the same date, the 21st December. The most popular option at the moment is to just stick to our itinerary as planned and finish the trip in Bali, skipping our 2 weeks in Australia which suits me just fine. The rest of the group plan to continue into Australia independently from there. All this could change however as the only road into Nepal has been blocked by a landslide for the last month, fingers crossed it is clear by the time we get there.

Photo courtesy of Tim

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