The most Western End of The Great Wall

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The trains had been booked and the day had finally arrived, I was so excited, no matter how much I travel and to how many different places I still get excited by it all. It had been a busy couple of days before leaving and our train departed Lanzhou which was just over an hour away and 840pm. In the morning I had been at school and in the afternoon private tutoring, Ben was ready and waiting so as soon as I had finished tutoring we could be off to the bus station to leave for Lanzhou. Kindly Cindy, Daisy’s mum (the girl I tutor) took us in the taxi to the bus station as we had no idea at all where it was. And that was that the trip began.

Arriving in Lanzhou we easily took a taxi to the train station, it seemed busy and we weren’t really sure how far in advance we needed to be there so we quickly bought a KFC from outside and headed in. To actually get into the train station we needed our ticket and passport, had our bags security checked and our tickets checked again and again. Our first stop was Jiayuguan, about 12hours on the train. We had booked a hard sleeper and it was perfect we got on the train, chilled for a couple of hours then fell asleep and we were there in the morning.

Not long after we got on the bus I got speaking to a Chinese girl who lived and studied in Lanzhou and who was heading home for the Moon Festival, Ben got talking with a Man U fan who was from thee town we were going to, there he would be meeting his wife and father-in-law. The night on the hard sleeper was actually not that bad, the beds aren’t overly big but neither am I so I found them quite comfortable. Kindly the guy offered to take us to a hotel. This can sometimes be a good thing or bad thing, the problem been you don’t really have much say in how much you are paying for the room. He took us to a business hotel and we managed to haggle the price down to 250rmb for the night excluding breakfast but as we were leaving at 4am breakfast wasn’t really necessary. The room was nice and been away a week we would only need to book into hotels twice, most of the time it was night trains.

So after showering, we found a nice, cute little back-street hut where we ate breakfast. They served us some kind of soup stuff that may possibly have had some tofu in it but really it could have been anything. Anyway we had it with some delicious steamed buns and Chinese pancakes. I love it when you find the little shacks that all the locals go to and no-one ever expects a foreigner to turn up, there always the best. The reason we were visiting Jiayuguan was to visit the most Western part of the Great Wall, so after having breakfast we organised a taxi to take us on a tour. Within minutes of asking at the reception the taxi was outside waiting, it cost 50rmb per place we wanted to visit, we wanted to visit three places, The Great Wall/Jiayu Pass and the Weijin Tombs. Our first stop for the day was Weijin Tombs, they were interesting but less than I expected. We were only allowed in one of the tombs, there is some amazing artwork on the stones, and each individual stone has a different picture on it representing part of their lives at that time. Unfortunately you can’t take photos inside but then we visited the museum where we could take photos. They believe that natural light and flash light will over time destroy the painting and they want to preserve them for as long as possible. The museum was really good, it replicated some of the paintings in the tombs and gave you some actual information that you can’t get from a guide who doesn’t speak English.

It was then off to visit the Great Wall, we arrived at this place and were charged our 25rmb entry fee but then we were really confused. We could see the wall but didn’t really know what we had paid for, we walked up these steps and you could turn left or right, we turned right but it was barely a walk and we were at the end, we were almost ready for heading back before we decided to see what was down the other end. When we walked the opposite way we realised we could walk up onto the Great Wall! Many parts of the Wall are reconstructed and this part was no different, in fact you could clearly tell by the flag stone that was sticking out. But we walked up it and the views from the top are great! One thing the Great Wall is fantastic for is taking photos, lots of photos, photos of the wall curling through the mountains, photos of people on the steps and the watch-outs, photos of the amazing views from the watch-outs and so many more. It was so much fun making our way up to the watch-out without any other tourist in sight, one of the best parts about (ok there were a couple of other people some of the time, but still…) it was that you could relax, not feel rushed and take photos without people in them that you really didn’t want in them. It was nice to just imagine what that wall meant to people hundreds of years ago and to dream of been a part of that past for a few minutes.

Our next and final place to visit was the Great Wall park, we weren’t really sure what it was exactly and we could find little to no information about it near the entrance other than it cost 120rmb to go in. We had been on the Wall so instead of paying to go into something else we enjoyed walking around the market outside and the stone park. We were happy with what we had seen in Jiayuguan and had really enjoyed the day and if you pay to go in everything it becomes expensive and boring too. After heading back to the hotel we wanted to have a walk around the park before finding somewhere for dinner.

The park we had passed between the train station and the hotel so we just headed straight back down that street and found it pretty easily. They have some beautiful parks in China but sometimes they really have the most random of things in them, in this one at the entrance it had two statues of Father Xmas and two of bunnies holding a ball. The weather was nice and sunny so we took the time to do what the Chinese do and sit around in the park doing absolutely nothing. For dinner I wanted noodles and Ben wanted rice, a local police officer asked if we were looking for anywhere in particular and in the end a lovely lady showed us to a nice little cafe. Somewhere between eating rice and noodles the lady thought dumplings would be a good idea, she showed us two cafes more or less next to each other, the problem is however that unless you can read Chinese you have no idea what you are ordering and apart from a couple of words I can’t read Chinese and neither can Ben. Anyway after asking us again what we wanted and us saying again rice and noodles she took us into the dumpling restaurant and ordered our food for us. Surprisingly it wasn’t just a plate of dumplings, it was more like a dumpling hot pot, and it had mushrooms, noodles and other things in it too, very delicious. I love it when Chinese people order for you, you just get something you would never order ourselves and its always delicious.

In the evening we went to hunt out the night market but never actually managed to find it, so really it was just a long walk around the town, but at night all the lights were lit up and the streets became more alive, it’s the best time to just walk and watch the Chinese. We bought popcorn and took it back to the hotel ready for a short night’s sleep in order to get up at 330 for our early morning train to Dunghuang. Although Jiayuguan is definitely not the most interesting of cities, it’s quite similar to Baiyin other than it has a part of the Great Wall there it is a great city to visit for a day.

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