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Published: July 31st 2011
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Leaving Kyrgyzstan we realised that China would mean a few things. For a start, it's huge, it's modern, it's not modern, it's full of people and it's really really foreign! Out of all the places we had managed to visit on this trip, we also realised that China would be the first real attack on all of our senses.
Driving along the Touragurt Pass we were warned to expect the worst from the Chinese border control. Thanks to that entry point being a rare place for foreign tourists to visit we were expecting full bag checks, hours of questioning and who knows, maybe the odd body search but alas it couldn't have been smoother. We were issued with immigration cards, our bags were x-rayed and we were welcomed in as if disembarking from a plane. That was shock number one.
Shock number two included driving into a land that didn't feel Chinese. The script looked Arabic and the faces remained distinctively central Asian. Kashgar, our first real city for a while, was in actual fact right smack bang in an area of China inhabited by the Ugyar people. With their own language, race and religion (Muslim) this was not
the China we originally had in mind.
Mingling amongst the people we wondered where we were - was this Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan? We're here in the middle of the desert with not a sweet and sour pork in sight, is this really China? That just goes to show you the diversity of this country, and how massively huge it is.
Anyway, back to Kashgar. This big city of about 350,000 people which is the the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was such a huge melting pot of smells and sights, the highlights definitely included the old town with all its sights and smells. Kashgar was also the place where we have had one of our most lived memories - a whole fried chicken. Now this trip for us has been mainly about food it seems and this was in the top ten. A whole fried chicken doused in a crunchy (KFC eat your heart out) coating and sprinkled with chilli and Chinese five spice. Yep we are still talking about it! But that was just the start of our introduction to Uygur food - add to that a huge casserole pot stuffed with slow roasted potatoes,
red peppers, shallots and chicken, cold chickpea salads and vinegar infused cabbages - a wonderfully delicious attack on our taste buds.
Our time in Kashgar was all too brief as we started to make our way across the Taklamakan Desert towards Turpan and Dunhuang. Our drives were long and dusty and included what may be our final bush camps of this trip. As China is now so developed with few places to pull over and have privacy we made use of the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere. We will miss bushcamping, it has become second nature and after experiencing a few 'less desirable' Chinese hotels we don't mind sleeping under canvas!
Our next stops at Turpan and Dunhuang (pronounced Don-Wang) were quick yet exciting stops as we are still making our way through the final few stops on the official 'Silk Road'.
Turpan is famed for is vine lined streets, one of Chinese premier wine growing regions with its countryside dotted with cage like buildings used to dry the grapes ready for the wine. It is also home to the Jiaohe Ruins, a city so old it's been around since 450AD till it
was finally abandoned thanks to attacks from some bully called Genghis Khan. We spent a few hours at the ruins and can't say there was that much to see but once again showed how the depth of China's history and culture.
Dunhuang was fascinating as it was the home to the famous Mogao Caves, unfortunately we couldn't take any photos, but it was breathtaking. Home to over a thousand caves, we thought Mogao would be a boring wax works museum of olden time living, but we were stunned to find each cave intricately painted in beautiful colours serving as Buddhist monestaries or prayer rooms. One cave housed a 30 metre Buddha surrounded by statues of warriors, goblins and disciples, we would have loved to have shown you photo evidence but it's one to Google.
Leaving Dunhuang and the Caves we made an impromptu stop at a small city called Jiayuguan so we could add in a sneaky camp stop at the foot of some of the remnants of the Great Wall of China. Now as we all now the Wall is quite long, well actually about 8,800kms long to be exact. And we were camping at the far
west end of the wall which was used to save the locals from the marauding Mongolian tribes, (apparently it worked).
Now this trip has been full of great memories and experiences and this was high up there, there are horror stories of the Great Wall near Beijing crawling with tourists and touts but we had the Wall all to ourselves - how many times can we say that say we sat on top of the Great Wall with a can of cheap Russian beer and toasted the sunset? Not many I'm pretty sure. However the night got even more eventful when we turned up at our tents to see blue flashing lights and the local Chinese armed response team there waiting. Don't worry we weren't arrested but were told very quickly we had to move on to a hotel which was no mean feat for the whole group to find a room for the night. The locals tried to persuade us they would hold a sit in to keep us in our camping spot but we thought it best we do what we were told! So all in all it was a crazy experience topped off by the Chinese
fear of foreign tourists being unsafe (hence being moved on from the campsite).
The next two stops on our mega trip through China were at Zhangye, can't really give you too much exciting information on this place but can give you a few little titbits of information. Firstly, every hotel we stayed in China was huge as apparently internal tourism is ...well ...going off the hook. Secondly, all hotel rooms can be rented by the hour. Thirdly, every room has a virtual smorgasbord of sex oils, condoms, new underwear etc. Thus, there is alot more that meets the eye to these Chinese hotels.
Zhangye did win the unfortunate award of 'worst hotel', (behind our hole in Sheki, Azerbaijan) but it made up for it with the award for most interesting dinner. It was here we were introduced to the Chinese hot-pot. Picture this - a table with a gas burner in the middle, we were brought a large steel bowl with a smaller bowl shaped in the middle. The outside was filled with a chilli oil, the inside filled with a delicious chicken broth. We were then bought a selection of veggies, noodles and meat on sticks to
cook in said oil or broth. Yes, Chinese fondue but delicious and so blooming hot it caused more sweating than Michael Jackson at the gates of heaven. Gorgeous.
Final stop to tell you about in Part One was the city of Wuwei, famous apparently for the bronze figure of a flying horse which we didn't see. Instead we experienced our first Chinese hamburger - chopped up marinated pork belly and onion served in soft muffin like bun. Who says we are cultural heathens? Ha!
Part two of the misadventures of Susan and Zoe in China on the way...
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Part 2?
Wonderful taster! But don't make part 2 too long in coming, we don't want to have too long! No serials like the Archers (just to date me!) Love you 2 xxx