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Published: November 1st 2007
Getting Back on Track
My unexpected, month long trip to Mongolia put my travel plans a little askew and I found myself in an awful hurry to get to Nepal. This is not to say that I was keen to get out of China, for that should be implied after six months of lethargic bumming around in that wonderful country full of grotesque inequalities and startling contrasts, as I was instead rushing towards a pre-arranged meeting in Nepal.
After crossing into China, Marjie and I headed directly for Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia. I had already been through Hohhot and had found the city itself to be rather plain, however, it was a logical first stop inside Chinese territory. Somewhat surprisingly though, we had a fantastic time in the city as we actually took some time to explore its more remote sights.
To begin with, we drove into Hohhot rather late in the evening and were spoiled with the night-time light show that is the main street. In a miniature Vegas style extravaganza we were surrounded by neon, even as we drove across the river, as every building was lit up more garily than the last.
Temple Gardens
The gardens around the temple in Zhongwei.Even the massively overblown administrative buildings put on a modest show so as not to be ignored amongst the glitter. Nearly rivalling Shanghai for hedonistic glamour, Hohhot put on a wonderful show for two weary travellers returning from the Mongolian wilderness.
Around the city we found a wonderful temple which more closely resembled Mongolian Buddhism than any Chinese religion and in the rear we came across a five towered pagoda which contained a primitive star chart carved onto a stone slab. Further afield we came across a delightful park with its requisite amusement park and lake, and Marjie managed to lose herself in a magical Mosque within the Muslim quarter. All round, Hohhot was a vibrant city full of friendly people (we visited during Golden Week, the national Chinese holiday week) and beautiful places. Despite this, we were keen to escape to new places and the following day found us trailing the Yellow River westwards towards the small province of Ningxia.
Welcome to Ningxia
Ningxia is a relatively new province, created in 1958 as an autonomous region for China’s Muslim minority. Although the majority of Chinese Muslims live outside the province, Ningxia is almost entirely populated
The Yellow River
Dunes on the right, fertile lands on the left. by the minority group. Mosques appear almost constantly alongside the highway, with minarets seeming to be constantly within eyesight of each other. Mostly intricate buildings, the mosques combine elements of all Chinese cultures, with purist Islamic buildings sitting beside clearly Chinese styled buildings that can only be discerned as mosques by the crescent spire and occasional turquoise dome.
Better yet than the mosques, Ningxia holds the most wonderful foods in all of China. Bettering Xi’an’s Muslim restaurants in sheer quantity and variety, the eateries of Ningxia throw out noodles, breads, stir-frys, barbeques, and spice-infused heavenliness in staggering proportions. The decision of where to eat each night became almost unbearable as each hole-in-the-wall restaurant threw enticing aromas indiscriminately towards us.
The reason for heading to Ningxia was to trace the Yellow River along its course as it cuts between the fertile Chinese plain and the deserts to the north. The bus ride turned out to be less scenic than expected as the highway traced some distance away from the river, nevertheless, the barren and rocky mountains that rose behind the floodplain gave a surrealistic tinge to the drive. The collection of approximately 4,000 coal-fired power plants, that were built
so close by one another so as to give the impression that the entire world could draw power from them, also gave the drive an interesting edge; literally dozens of smoke-stacks were visible at a time. The Yellow River is colloquially known as “China’s Sorrow” because of its tendency to flood large parts of China the year after it failed to provide water, thus resulting in massive droughts, however, the cause of the name appears to have changed as the ludicrous number of dams built along its course have controlled its flow while the plethora of power plants must be turning its waters sour.
Our first stop in Ningxia was the capital city; Yinchuan. The city itself was pretty and friendly with wide boulevards, a massive central square and a general air of nicety, but the local attractions were limited. We visited the central mosque, finding little inspiration besides the large scale models of Mecca, but soon found ourselves heading onwards. The lack of a westernised bar that would play the Rugby World Cup for us also might have had an impact on our decision.
Rollercoaster of Buddhism
What is it that makes a Buddhist temple
Pagoda in Hohhot
At the nice temple we visited. special? What defining features should be striven for when constructing these places of worship? Towering pagodas, intricate roof tiles, exquisite sculptures, forbidding entranceways, and a plethora of golden statues are usually considered to be the necessary elements of these buildings, yet in the city of Zhongwei this was not enough.
How about adding non-consistent religion to the temple? The temple in Zhongwei was simultaneously Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian, not to mention the Capitalist section in front where even the Pigeons could collect your money (that is not a joke, a photo with a trained Pigeon cost one dollar). Even then the temple wasn’t complete. What else could be added to this oddity?
That’s right, you guessed it, or as is more likely, you didn’t guess it at all. The temple had a theme park. The park was neither large nor particularly well themed, particularly given the non-transferable nature of the Buddhist theme in regards to adrenalin inducing rides, but it stood inside the temple grounds nonetheless. Dodgem cars, spinning cups, little monkeys attached to bicycles, an oscillating pirate ship, and even a rollercoaster were there to be found. Each ride exuded an almost overpowering lack of anything at
English Graffiti
Even on a revered temple in the middle of Inner Mongolia, China, you can find poorly thought out English graffiti. all to do with religion; not that I would have expected them to.
Marjie and I though that to fully understand the necessity of the theme park, and to comprehend precisely why it was placed inside the temple rather than in the public square on the other side of the fence, we would have to ride on the rollercoaster, five times. The thrill of the air rushing into our faces, along with the rain, was exciting enough for me as roller-coasters aren’t my favourite pastimes, particularly when the coasters in question are forty years old and sitting in what is clearly not their intended location, but when I realised that I was sitting in a machine designed for Chinese sized children and that I could touch numerous moving parts (including other sections of the track) the excitement transformed into terror.
Thankfully, the ride finally finished and the two of us giddily wandered away from the theme park and into the temple proper only to find that there was more intrigue to be found. For some reason unbeknownst to me the people of Zhongwei had built a bomb shelter underneath the temple. Thinking on this, I pondered on how
Smokestack Town
From the bus heading west near the Yellow River. I think I counted 36 different powerplants in this photo. well a four hundred year old wooden structure constituted a think enough shield from bombs, or for that matter how practical it is to build a shelter underneath a pre-existing and culturally important structure, but there it lay in spite of me. However, the shelter was no longer required thanks to a general cooling of world anticommunist sentiments so the people of Zhongwei had gone about the tedious task of converting it into a haunted house.
Hmmm. . . yes. That’s exactly what a temple needs. However, in a moment of remarkable clarity the Zhongwei temple planning committee actually managed to come to a consensus for a change so that the haunted house was consistently on a Buddhist theme (with only a hint of Taoism). In the subterranean passageways below the temple, small edifices and rooms had been gouged from the rock and are now filled with characters from Buddhist hell. A grotesque man with a hyenas head would stand over a sinner as he extracted some vital innard, or a pair of monkeys would saw another sinner in two. Generally speaking, a scene of horror would be suddenly lit up in muted psychodelic colours while stiff movements would
Monkey Magic
In the themepark. bring the characters to life. In every scene there was an overseer, a respectable looking Buddhist man in charge of dealing out whichever punishment we were viewing at the time, and throughout the entire house we could hear the wailing screams being played in the first room. Actually, some of the screams became quite funny thanks to the poor quality recordings. It sounded as though a group of teenage students had been employed to wail into microphones about how horrible it was to have to pretend to like Cold Play.
Towards the end of the haunted house the theme changed, well one room was an odd one out at least. Room after pathetic room of poorly animated devils and wailing soundtracks certainly put us off guard for the room which showed a stairway to enlightenment while blaring classical music at shockingly loud volume. Christmas lights led the way up the stairs towards a statue of the Buddha as he look down upon us and presumably carried out some kind of judgement.
Finally we reached the end of the haunted house and much to our relief we headed for the exit. This was when we found the true horror:
the door was locked and we had to back-track through the entire shelter in order to get out.
Reading back over this section of text I find it hard to believe that the temple exists. Nobody in their right mind would conceive of such a place, so thus I must conclude that the temple is one giant joke. But then again, if rollercoasters, Pigeons and tentatively religious themed haunted houses are enough to get kids back into Buddhism then we can’t blame them for trying
Shapotou Dunes Make For Holiday Fun, Except in the Rain
Outside of Zhongwei there is a large tourist attraction at the small village of Shapotou. The attraction sits on the Yellow River at the point where the deserts to the north-west (towards the Gobi) collide with the waters and form gigantic, steep-sided sand dunes. The tourist attraction operates around the theme of taking money from parents by encouraging children to have fun. Here is a quick run down of how it works:
Playing around on the dunes is technically free, but getting a chairlift to the top is not (and being Chinese, not too many people will be walking up),
Stelae inside the Temple
At least some sections of the temple were normal. and neither is sliding down the dunes on a toboggan (20 kuai for that pleasure). Camel rides, horse rides, a swimming pool, a zipline across the river, bungy jumping into the river, a jet boat trip on the river, rafting on the river, or lazily tubing down the river also costs a large chunk of money, as does eating, drinking and most other enjoyable activities in the area. To put it simply, I'd go broke if I ever took a child there as just occupying their time would cost in excess of a weeks salary even if they didn't have expensive tastes.
Thankfully though, it was a rainy day when we visited so the place was almost totally devoid of tourists which meant we could explore the beautiful dunes in peace. We restrained ourselves enough so that we didn't pay for any of the "rides" but we did try running full pelt down the side of the sand dunes (I won the race by a good thirty seconds). Had we been there on a different day then it probably would have been a whole lot less fun.
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Annette from Tropicaltravel.net
non-member comment
Great insight
I loved reading someone's personal take on a trip through these places. It helped me get an idea on how it would actually be, rather than the travel specialist's take on things. Can't wait to read more on your travels.