Blogs from Zhangye, Gansu, China, Asia

Left the hotel to discover that the frantic pavement-destruction frenzy had reached our own front door. We had decided to take a local bus about 60 km to the south, to visit a much-bruited “Geological Park” on the road to Sunan. Seemingly the rocks are of interesting eroded formations, and being layered sedimentary rocks topped with conglomerate are amazing after rain, which highlights the contrasting colours. We, of course, have not seen a drop of rain in 22 days so were not too hopeful. The bus journey was quite good fun (although the wc facility in the rather smart bus station was utterly wodious). We were eventually dropped off at what seemed to be the entrance to WallyWorld, with an enormous carpark (8 cars including staff) and a giant plastic Fred Flintstone-style imitation rockface. In for ... read more

Hi All, With some time to kill before catching our train to Lanzhou we went to Dafo Si, Giant Buddha Temple, which has the largest wooden reclining Buddha in Asia. The temple itself is very big and was originally built in the 11th century. The Buddha itself is a sight to behold, although no photos were allowed, but it was the temple buildings themselves which steal the show. The intricate eaves and roofs are really wonderful and I almost fell down some stairs whilst looking up.. Our desert adventures are over. It has been great to travel down the old silk road and visit the oasis cities along the way . Highlights were the stunning artwork of the Mogao caves, The Ming dynasty Great Wall and the stunningly beautiful mountains of Danxia. A really beautiful part ... read more

Since leaving Hong Kong we've felt a bit rushed for quite a lot of the time. Booking trains and hotels in the high season takes more advanced planning than we're used to, especially in and between Shanghai, Beijing and Xi'an. We then had a couple of one night stays after longish journeys. So we're now going to have at least a couple of stops that are a day or two longer than they need to be for the things we're going to see. The first of these is Zhangye. We were happy to see the back of Lanzhou and leaving from the massive, new, almost empty West Station (more platforms (25) than daily departures (13)) was a pleasure. We had no idea that the journey over and through the Qilian Mountains was going to be so ... read more

GREAT WALL CAMP: Distance: 131 Kms SubT. 2706 Kms Bal 9,775 Kms Road Condition: terrible Weather: atrocious Time in Saddle: 8 hrs Av Speed: av. 20 kph. Av Cadence. Rpm Elevation: 1550 m : Decent 500 m Calories burned : ? Today was the worst day. Started out in sunshine, which shortly afterwards turned overcast, then fierce headwinds 40kph min. Evidence of how windy the area was, is by the hundreds of wind turbines. The road was a constant uphill gradient, so by lunch my energy was zapped, but still had 60 Kms to ride. Two hours later stopped in a remote shop, picture the pub in Werewolves of London and you are close. The scenery was bleak at best all day, again the Moors and Oz outback combined. Then the rain started making the road ... read more

Last year I spent a week in the Gobi Desert of Inner Mongolia, China, and I met quite a few Chinese tourists who showed me pictures of a place in Gansu Province where mountains were a palette of warm colors. This place was Danxia, 45 km from Zhangye and I knew it would be on my bike route for 2013. So here is Dan Xia Geopark. It is a unique place and I spent the whole day with my mouth wide open, dazzled by this unique scenery of red sandstone. The colors of the mountains look fake, as if a child had used gigantic color pencils on them. Erosion and wind have shaped marvelous looking cliffs with different shades of red, yellow and brown strips of sedimentary rock. Pictures are worth a thousand words so I’ll ... read more