Day 19: Dunhuang to Jiayuguan by train

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No breakfast (or lunch) but an early start to Dunhuang station, which is modern, clean and beautifully ordered. The train was on time and we had 3 berths in a 2^ndHard Sleeper for the 4hr journey to Jiayuguan; they were airy, comfortable and very clean, brilliant; and there was a very tempting restaurant car, which only Maghnus sampled (Kevin and Christa wolfed the fruit supplies instead). Tickets were about £12.00 a head; toilets and all facilities in admirable condition.



BTW, that water beside the Jade Gate yesterday would have been the Shule He (river) which helped to feed the former extensive lake and marsh of Lop Nor, the atomic testing site in the 1960s. Sadly, Lop Nor is nowadays almost completely dry due to water abstraction upstream, but in its day it was key to the first stages of the westbound trade routes.



The fourth person in our cabin was a personable young foodie from Dalyan, he and Maghnus compared a lot of notes… and I was able to mention to Maghnus that his own 6^th cousin, one removed, was the famous War Correspondent Capt. Francis McCullagh, who reported on the Russo-Japanese war in Dalyan ca. 1904. I am to buy him a copy of the book.



The train ran through open, almost empty desert – we still cannot get over how ENORMOUS these deserts really are. They are not wasted however, theu are used for everything from oil, gas, mineral and construction materials extraction to (former) atomic testing, rocket launching, re-education camps (reputedly), military installations, the convenient base for transport, communications and power line routes, wind-farms, solar panel farms, the associated power and grid installations, archaeological research, wildlife and flora conservation areas and tourism potential. The wind-farms alone are staggering, at an estimate more than 1,000 giant turbines seem to constitute a farm, and the farms are numerous. Noted interesting symbol on the anti-macassar (spelling?).



Reached Jinjiang Inn, Jiauguan - £17.00 per double for 2 nights yet clean, comfortable, central and very well-run. Extraordinary value, I think we could live here permanently on our Old Age Pension. The town is not described as particularly interesting…. But oh yes it is! Very lively, many hundreds of shops ranging from fashion to food and produce. The market is simply wonderful, the range and quality of vegetables on offer is outstanding, plus plenty of street-food. Probably the single most extensive market we have yet seen. Lots of folk playing a board game (Chinese chequers?). A simply brilliant chance encounter with a pop-corn maker, which Kevin can only very dimly remember seeing as a child, and in a tamer version. This chap was heating the corn like billy-oh over a gas flame in a sealed pressurised metal vessel; at the operative moment he attached the red-hot container to a 5ft long bag (looked like sacking, hopefully not asbestos?) which had a metal container at the other end; he then “popped” the corn, which went off just like an artillery piece. A truly magnificent “boom” which in another context would have caused serious alarm, and a giant puff of smoke. The operator looked like Beelzebub’s Apprentice, blackened by soot and smoke, but incongruously (H&S!) wearing earplugs.



We slightly missed the bus for dinner, everything here seems to be on Beijing time so by 8pm restaurants were closing down; no odds, we went to the night market area and had an excellent Chow Mein and were in bed by 10.30.

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Photos

Train from Dunhuang
If this is 2nd Hard, it is no wonder folk in UK have had enough of private enterprise on the railways.

To make the desert bloom
These are very big generators, meticulously laid out in a perfect grid; I suspect that the total number in this one farm may well exceed 1,000 units

Melt waters, viewed from the train
Despite the temperatures (very high to folk from the Hebrides), most river water is still frozen. Here and there we see the first irrigation channels being opened, to a torrent of ice-blue flow from the mountains.

Part of the Great Wall of China
Viewed from a moving train, this section is very near the western extremity, close to Jiayuguan. One can see that it was not allowed to obstruct the line of the railway, although of course this particular line has been in place for many decades.

Just one stall, Jiayuguan market
A huge market, perhaps a couple of km of stalls in all.

Popcrn making 1
The operator is working on the "bomb" behind a screen; his bag is to his right and clearly visible

Popcorn making 2
The operator is tending the "bomb" over a roaring gas heater, his adorable daughter is in attendance.

Popcrn making 3
Here the operator (with ear plugs) is about to take his heated "bomb" from the gas heater and attach it to the black tube; after and explosion, all the popped corn is recovered from a vessel at the other end. Rather exciting, I wish I could have recorded the explosion.