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Published: March 17th 2018
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Ying and Yang stones
Why every stone has to have a name.... 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 a penny, in for a pound – we went in and were ushered into a vehicle which accelerated away at some speed, past a frozen river and after a mile or two depositing us the start of an approved walk. Our driver intimated that the various rock formations all have special names, like “The Louvre”, “The Castle”, “The Laughing Toad” etc. He
The Pavement Up-tearing
There are literally millions of neatly laid bricks; for some reason they are ALL being ripped up at the same time, presumably to be replaced. How odd not to do one street at a time, or something more measured. went to especial lengths to mention “Ying and Yang” which was thoughtful of him; although as Maghnus pointed out, nobody mentioned the “elephant in the room” – the fact that roughly 35% of the formations look like giant willies.
We set off, and it was an excellent walk, far more challenging than one might expect at a popular venue; we were mostly between 5,500 and 6,000 feet and the hundreds of steep steps certainly took the chill off the air. The mountains themselves were very like the ones that had so impressed us between Turpan and Kuche, and the scenery therefore was quite outstanding. The organisers have tried hard to deserve their AAAA rating, but in high season there must be a horde of visitors and unfortunately the staff do not seem to spend the winter clearing the limited but unsightly litter. As an aside, most of the litter is paper which has evidently been used for lavatorial purposes, and it was only too obvious that the paper lasts much longer than the ordure. Which raises the question: if people clean up after their dogs, why not themselves? The pooh itself could be left, but surely it
Another stone
They could not think of a name for this one, or for two hundred more just like it. is not asking too much that people carry little pooh bags into which to pop the paper, for suitable disposal later on?
We explored the whole area, must have walked five or six kilometres and eventually headed for home. A bus was due “in ten minutes” but, after waiting an hour, we walked to a neighbouring village and caught it there. The run home gave us a chance to observe the agricultural activity; obviously the area is mostly desert, but every inch of cultivatable land is in production, subject to irrigation being available. The fields are very small, many are one quarter of an acre, so mechanised equipment is either tiny or unavailable. Many fields have been devoted to silviculture, sometimes for timber, shade or environmental needs and very often for fruit (we suspect mulberries). In many places there are very substantial polytunnels; these are used only in winter (at present there are lots of strawberries), and consist of a back wall and end walls of substantial adobe, about one metre thick. They have hoop frames to the front for the plastic, which can be folded back in summer. The work is intensive and the womenfolk play
their full part; we also passed a mart, but the only livestock we could see consisted of sheep (mostly entered as individual animals) and a few horses.
Back in town by about 4.30pm; no breakfast or lunch at all, so collected a bottle of wine for a pre-prandial and hope for something good later. Noted (as in other cities) the water bowsers going around sprinkling the road surface, presumably to try to lay the dust. In some places, we have noted shopkeepers with (literally) teapots of water doing the same thing around their premises and street, could not but wonder why not use a larger container? Also noted the ladies who sweep the streets, cycle around with miniature dustcarts, sweep the mud pavements where they are not solid surfaced, pick up fag-ends and even tiny bits of rubbish off the road, and also tend the miles and miles of kerbside flower beds and shrubberies.
For dinner (starving) had an excellent “hot-pot” locally; earlier on we had investigated a high-end liquor store – nearly everything was imported. Black and White and J&B whisky was about £20 a bottle, but they specialised in wines and had
Farmers' fields
Difficult to photograph from a bus, some are one acre, many are much smaller. Levels are critical, for irrigation. No fences, no wire, no hedgerows and every field is cultivated to the corner - there are no headlands. some really good stock (prices to match, around £150 for some of the better stuff). We settled for Zixuan “Dry Red Wine” by Gansu Zixuan Wine Co, not bad at all, and very dry indeed.
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Martin Byrne
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St Patricks Day
The Six nations, The Triple Crown, The Grand Slam, what a great celebration on St Patrick's Day. Hope you have persuaded your friends in China to take up Irish dancing and drink lots of Guinness. Love Martin and Ann.