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Published: July 13th 2009
The last time I wrote I was in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. Today I'm in Yinchuan, the capitol of the Ningxia autonomous region in northern central China, and home to China's Muslim minority, the Hui.
I arrived two nights ago after a ten+ hour train ride and found my way to Ningxia's only hostel. I befriended a 27 year old Chinese man named "Tony" who was traveling with his wife "Sandy", Tony's younger sister, and both their mothers and fathers. Sandy had two masters dagrees relating to international relations and communications and both of them were about to start their Phd. work in the fall (their english was excellent). Yesterday we went to an ancient part of the Great Wall in the nearby desert that was used as a defense against the Mongolians during the Ming dynasty. There were no bricks in the wall, it was completely made of clay and carved out of the surrounding rock formations.
We made our way through a canyon until we came across a guide who took us inside a system of tunnels 3km long in the canyon. This ingenious system was used by the Chinese army to sleep, plan, and defenend against attack. As we walked into the tunnels - which were at the most 3 1/2 to 4ft wide and just barely over 6ft high - the desert air disappeared and we were surrounded in dark, cool air. After exploring the first level of tunnels we decended lower into the underground system with darker and cooler air surrounding us. Remember Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom? Remember the first scene were he's walking through the temple avoiding all sorts of ingenious death traps? The Chinese had similar ideas. The lower level of these caves were full of traps, intact, but safely disarmed. There were at least six different pits full of sharply pointed spikes (some of them still had the skeletons of enemy soldiers who fell to their unpleasent death centuries ago). There were wooden boxes flush with the floor that if stepped on would have released an overhanging spiked metal ball that easily weighed over 50 pounds. This place was great fun.
After returning from our trip and taking showers the family and I went out to a night food bizarre. There were many tables with all sorts of food shops surrounding them with lots of happy people eating lots of . . . interesting things. I got to experience the supprisingly tasty, yet somewhat regretable texture of lamb's hoof. Next we went to another group of shops in an alley were we ordered spiced mushrooms, green peppers, and soup (it went along very nicely with the Chinese beer and Baijiu (a rice/grain alcohol with similar alcohol content to whiskey). There's a Chinese Buddhist saying that goes something like this: Food and drink will flow through you, but the Buddha will always be in you heart. This saying is helping me get passed all the meat, beer and Baijui that the Chinese love to feed their guests.
When we returned to the hostel one of the employees said something about Hohhot and my room. Confused I walked into my room to find Dan, a Dane who I met at the Hohhot hostel and who just happened to be in the bed next to mine. Small world indeed. Dan has been studying in China for quite some time and he speaks fairly well which is great when, for example, you're trying to find an internet cafe. In the next few days Dan and I might try to hike into the nearby mountains to a large Buddhist monestary, then make our way down to Sichuan provence.
I'll update again before I leave, peace!
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Elsbeth
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Good Fortunes
It sounds as if you are really enjoying your adventure! What fun to meet up with a family and spend some time with them exploring the Great Wall's defense system. It sounds as if you had an incredible time and what luck to find a guide to take you through the tunnels. Were you able to take any photographs? I love your descriptions of all the various dishes at the night food bizarre. Such great coincidences to meet up with Dan again and have someone to explore the mountains and the Buddhist monastery you want to see. I am having fun looking up each city you visit on the internet, reading about them and seeing photos of the each area. Happy exploring to you! Love, mom OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOO