Bye bye Dunhuang - Now with photos


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Asia » China » Gansu » Dunhuang
January 4th 2008
Published: January 4th 2008
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The last of Dunhuang



Photos have been uploaded but no labels have been given to them as this stupid Russian keyboard won't let me, its complicated, but at least you can see them!

I have been all over the place in the last few days! My last day in Dunhuang was pretty low-key while also intense. I woke quite early and packed my bag ready to cehck-out and catch my train later that night, but first I had to make sure I could extend my visa.

I headed to the PSB and to the 'Aliens' section and explained that I wanted to extend my visa but I wanted it done in one day, I was given an approving nod and a visa extension form to fill out. I filled it out but had forgotten to bring a passport photo with me, so I left my passport with the PSB lady and headed back to the hotel to get a passport photo. Once back, and with the photo glued on to the form I was told that she would bring my passport complete with new extended visa to the hotel at about 3pm, which was fine as I planned on catching the bus to the train station around 5pm anyway. As I walked away, leaving my passport in the hands of the PSB I couldn't stop myself from feeling a little apprehensive, 'god I hope this works.'

On my way back to the hotel I stopped off to get a Chinese hamburger from the markets, those things are damn tasty, and by the time I got back to the hotel I had fifteen minutes before I had to check out. I sorted out all my stuff, made sure I had everything, used the facilities (who knew when I was going to see another western-style toilet?!?) and then headed down to reception. Just as I got there a policeman came through the door with a package which turned out to be my passport, with an extended visa!!! It was back, and it was 3 hours early! Since my original visa was a mutli-entry, they re-issued me with a multi-entry which meant the cost was more than I was first quoted but the benefit of this visa is that it doesn't have a maximum duration of stay and it is valid until July. That means I can come and go until July and stay in China as long as I want until it expires! Pretty fancy! Just a shame that I was planning on leaving China for Kyrgyzstan soon.

After this success I headed over to the bus station to find out what time the bus left for my train, which I must explain. Dunhuang has only recently got its own train station, up until last year trains still ran to a town that was 130km or so northeast to a town called Liuyuan and then you had to bus it down to Dunhuang. Unfortunately, the day that I wanted to leave for Urumqi the only trains going that left from Liuyuan, so I had to catch a bus for two hours to Liuyuan. My train left a 8.47pm, so I figured on leaving around 5pm but the only bus leaving for Liuyuan was leaving at 4pm. I bought the ticket and figured to myself that Chinese buses usually run half an hour to occasionally an hour late and stopped off along the way for more people so I figured it would take a little longer than two hours to get there and hopefully wouldn't have to wait so long.

When 4pm arrived I made my way over to the bus station and found my 'bus'. It was a minivan that had more rust than the proverbial rustbucket and already had a few people crammed inside it like sardines. I went to put my bag in the bag and found that the boot area had been halved as makeshift seats had been welded into place and the little room that was left was taken by plastic bags filled with bones. I tentatively placed my bag on top of one of the bone bags and hopped inside. Amazingly we left on time and only stopped once outside the station to check to see if anyone else wanted to go our way, we were off with only ten minutes of time wasted, if we kept this up I would be waiting at the station a long time. However, we had only gone for about half an hour when tragedy struck, the bus began to make an awful grinding noise and then suddenly stopped. We broke down. The driver got out and did the usual glance and head-scratching, as I sat there and thought 'at least I won't have to wait at the station as long.' However, after five or so minutes of the driver doing the same thing, and us being on a road bordered by nothing but desert and not having been past by another car once, I began to worry, suddenly I wouldn't mind waiting for my train as the fear of missing it won over. Thankfully, the driver somehow managed to find just the right thing to tweak and we were back on our way! The rest of the drive was one of the bumpiest ones I have ever had, the road was pockmarked with gigantic pot-holes, holes that would have rivalled some of the moon's craters and for some reason our driver neither slowed-down nor avoided these holes. When we arrived at Liuyuan station (amazingly two hours after we left!) my back was aching and my head was a lot softer on the crown.

I waited the time out watching the tv in the waiting room and before I knew it it was time for me to check-in and board my train. The ride to Urumqi (or Wulumuqi which is its Chinese name) was pretty easy, although my sleep was a little disturbed but thats not unusual on Chinese trains. We arrived at Urumqi at 7am and as I hopped off the train I was smacked in the face by the cold, it was freezing! Why didn't I get my gloves out of my bag before I hopped off the train? My plan was to head to the ticket office to try and buy a ticket to Kashgar for that afternoon, I didn't really want to stay in Urumqi if I didn't have to. I found the ticket hall and was pleased to find it warm but gobsmacked at how busy it was, out of 18 ticket counters 12 were operating and each counter had a queue 20metres long and none of them were fast-moving. For the next hour and a half I queued, hoping that I could get a ticket and hoping that I had enough cash to pay for the damn thing! I found myself at the front of my queue and managed to actually ask for the ticket in Chinese! No phrasebook for me, that was until she asked me something that I didn't understand, how do you like them apples smarty-pants? I stammered that I was sorry but I didn't understand and in English she asked me if I wanted the fast or slow train, sheepishly I replied in English 'fast please'. I had enough money for the ticket and was surprised to find that it left a lot earlier than I expected, at midday, which meant that I only had three hours to find my way into the city and find a bank where I could get USD.

I had previously thought that Urumqi, the last major city I would see before I got to Tashkent in Uzebkistan, would be the best place to get some USD which I apparently need for when I travel in Uzbekistan. I left my bag at the luggage deposit and headed out into the freezing cold, once again cursing myself for leaving my gloves in my pack. Outside of the station, across the road, a building was on fire, not a small building and not a small fire and there wasn't a fire-truck in sight. I stood and watched with the other amazed masses for a while before I tried to find a bus heading into town, not having much luck and freezing I decided that some vigorous walking would warm me up. I walked into the centre of town and found the main branch of the Bank Of China which I was told handled foreign transactions, which it does, it just doesn't let you withdraw USD you have to change yuan back into USD and you can only do this if you have exchange receipts. Bugger. A quick read in the Central Asian LP and my fears were allayed by the fact that I could get USD in Tashkent, not sure why I hadn't read that bit before but at least I had some more money and knew that I could get some later.

I slowly made my way back to the train station, stopping off for a quick bite to eat, and made it to the station just as my train was being checked-in. It seemed that all those people from the queues earlier were going to Kashgar, the train was packed to the gills! And it was a two-storey sleeper train, so there was more people than normal! The train journey would take 23 hours and I passed the time having pseudo-conversations with my 'roomie', a woman who lived in Kashgar and a man who was a reporter for
Ice scrapersIce scrapersIce scrapers

These workers were all over the Urumqi streets, removing ice from the roads.
CCTV Xinjiang adn was from another compartment but had taken an interest in me and wanted to know everything about Australia.

I arrived in Kashgar at 11am this morning and got off the train and noticed that it was snowing but it was by far warmer than Urumqi, Dunhuang or Jiayuaguan, so I was happy.

On to the next blog which is my first afternoon in Kashgar!

Matt out

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