Tuesday
June 17, Ganzhou Hotel, Zhangye
Today I go from Lanzhou to Zhangye. As usual,
all the worries about connecting transport - in this case my first trip on a
Chinese train - melt away. Everything very efficient, just had to think of
airport-style security and organisation. So I end up a good hour early at the
station. The only info in the station is the train number, no platform, nothing
else. My ticket has carriage and seat number and it's all very sorted.
There was a fascist on cleaning in the
'departure hall'. She had a big broom and was going around the whole waiting
room sweeping under the benches, waking people up and getting them to move all
of their stuff. She comes down my aisle twice - first time I see her and move,
second she is shouting at me from the other side. People are clearly pretty
irritated by it all, but she's loud and she's got the uniform! I'd swear she
was recycling the dirt to show that her job was important - I think it just got
moved from one part to the other. Why she couldn't have been doing this earlier
in the morning is beyond me.
And so to the train trip. I really enjoyed it.
This is an amazing landscape, both natural and cultural. We are travelling down
the Hexi corridor, a narrow neck of land with decent ranges of mountains on
either side. This has made it the gateway to China if you are coming from
central Asia, and the towns along the corridor have a lot of history connected
to that.
It took a long time to get out of town. The
railway is lined with many derelict warehouses, stained with the dirt of
trains, some old apartment blocks, many of them very square in a brutal,
communist kind of design sense. And as we move out, also many new apartment
blocks springing up. I also notice a number of pretty decent sized mosques with
minarets. I heard the call to prayer for the first time yesterday in Lanzhou.
The Moslems here must be worried about the bad press they are getting from
further west.
The haze, pollution, whatever is thick today,
even though the sun is shining, it sticks around this valley like a soup. The
whole city is cloaked in dust, there are piles of rubble and rubbish
everywhere. Rapid urban growth LEDC style, I guess, although there is not the
same chaos that you see (feel) in India. There are many many chimneys some very
high, spewing huge columns of smoke, I guess some of them were brickworks, but
I think others were probably burning coal for energy. Some surreal silhouettes
as you look into the sun - a giant ferris wheel and a giant statue set against
huge stacks of apartment blocks a long distance away. Dark satanic mills in the
bright sunshine?
By 8.10 (we left at 7.45) we are out of the
city and into the corridor, and all there is room for is the Yellow River
(Huang Ho), transport arteries and a bit more. The river has carved at least
part of the corridor out, and it's looking suitably brown, silty and fecund (if
you could call a river that!). We finally cross it about 35 minutes after
leaving Lanzhou station.
The Chinese love tunnels, let's leave it at
that. We are in some big ones today, I gues when the corridor gets crowded with
hills. There were lots on the highways being built in southern Gansu as well. I
don't mind them either, since they give me a bit of shade. Unlike everyone else
on my side of the train, I have elected not to pull the shade and instead am
bathed in hot sun but I have a view. Since the first hour or two of the trip is
due north I am being a bit of a sucker for punishment - aah, the life of a
traveller!
As we travel, the natural landscape really is
a stark contrast between the lush green of the river valley, where there are
irrigated fields, trees and villages, and the dry, brown, thirsty hills an
mountains that surround us on both sides. The rocks and mountains are (often,
not always) highly stratified in several places with layers of red and brown,
dry as dust. As we move west, the corridor opens out, the green melts away and
before you know it, you're pretty much in a rocky, parched desert. Spectacular!
Many of the hills have very rounded tops, this can be such a soft landscape in
places. Sometimes the spurs that run off the tops have a silky sheen, like
brown silver velvet.
My travel companions - baby doll is dressed in
pink/orange jacket and white blouse, with not quite matching pink/orange shoes
and a sparkly pink/orange headband. Jacket done with the top button only, black
glasses, she looks 15 and doesn't like the sun (who does?). Then there's
sensitive student in jeans and sneakers and a yellow t with black glasses.
Across the way 4 others are asleep after 30 minutes curled up next to each other.
At Wu Wei we get joined by Mao's favourite worker who's got a gigantic sack of
something which he proceeds to place between the seats, thus taking up
everyone's legroom except his. All in aid of the revolution no doubt.
I'm listening to Common One and the line be still in haunts of ancient peace. Be
still. I wonder where my haunts are? I need these places. I am searching
for a haunt - where is it? Where is my home where I can walk and feel
surrounded by the ancients and know who I am? Where do I go for sustenance and
contemplation? Is this why I love travel and hanging out in and around
churches, temples, ancient cultures and constructions, sacred spaces? Because I
don't have any of my own? Because I have no mystic space? It ain't why why why, it just is.
The Great Wall - this was built to keep out
the marauding hordes of Mongols. The documentary series I am watching says that
the key thing was not how high it was, but that it could keep out sheep and
goats, without which the invading armies could not eat and survive (there being
no other food around).
So we make it to Zhangye, I'm out of that
train and join the flow to the exit, get a taxi without much hassle and before
you know it I'm in my room in Ganzhou Hotel, having negotiated the awkward
check in. I watch West Germany absolutely demolish an abysmal Portugal 4-0 and
then it's out to check things out. I find the faux-Qing food street and the
ticket office quickly and so I'm thinking that I might as well do Danxia today,
given that it's around 3.30. Big negotiations later, and my woman driver is
taking me out there.
Things get progressively worse as we go -
there's a big wind, the trees are splaying furiously and there are spits of
rain. The clouds have set in, there is unrelenting grey and I'm thinking maybe
I should have held off. When we get there, we get put in a shuttle and taken
around. Well as we drive through it's clearly an incredible place. Even in the
mist and the grey, the colours are pretty good - red, yellow, grey and brown. I
guess you could get to gold from the yellow, blue from the grey and maybe some
white bands in there as well, but all of the promo photos have been heavily
zhuzjed (sp?!) and they just look fake.
I get the feeling that they're pushing us
through, but in the end we get given a lot of time at each place, and they get
gradually more and more spectacular! Even better, the sky clears and the sun
comes out, just a wee bit, so it's fab! I'm just amazed by landforms and the
colours, an incredible place that I would have spent a day exploring if I could
have. One of the kids I spoke to had parents who were geologists and so she
knew all about the place. Apparently the danxia landforms in Yunan are pretty
good, but it's a bit of a theme park with cultural stuff going on as well.
Sometimes just keeping nature natural is all you need (she seemed to be
saying).
I'm paranoid about how long I have at each
place and not missing the bus to the next one, and so I latch on to 'blue girl'
and 'green boy'. She has a bright blue jacket which creeps into several of the
photos; he's got a boston celtics basketball shirt on. In the end, I meet quite
a few of my bus group, breaking the ice when they ask me to take a photo at one
of the places at the top. In fact I meet several groups of students. Very
friendly and very interested in me and pretty good english. One group are from
all over the east coast and on holiday for 10 days or so. Another group have
just graduated with degrees and are taking a holiday before the next chapter of
their lives.
One guy in particular wants to talk. He's just
finished his degree in Economics and is going to Texas for a Masters. He's
amazed at the amount of time I have to travel and how I do it all, as well as
the fact that I am doing it on my own and, especially, in this part of China (I
get this consistently - why do you want to come here?!). He's a nice guy and I give him my email and suggest that
if he comes to NZ... It's just nice to speak english again, and he was helpful
with times and translations.
So now I'm in the faux-Qing food street and in
a restaurant which is pretty busy. There's a maitre'd (is that how you right
it?!) and she's very friendly and very efficient and she works the room really
well. Not a word of english spoken by her or anyone else at the place. However,
the picture menu looks great and we get by. I'm surprised that the word 'beer'
is not understood, thought it crossed all languages like coca cola and
mcdonalds and apple but guess not. I get up and go to the fridge to show. I've
chosen possibly the worst table, completely surrounded by others and I get
gawped at for some time. The restaurant is playing "If" which I
thought was pretty cool (albeit on sax) but then it follows with "Every
sha la la la" so I shouldn't have got too excited!
Food comes fast and it's good. Harbin beer
arrives with a little Tuborg shot glass. Pork bits and fried rice with omelette
(thought I'd ordered plain rice but there you go). However, I need to remember:
§
don't order anything with bones - how
will you eat this with chopsticks and everyone looking?
§
nothing that needs cutting (see above),
always, small, bite-sized thingys
§
get the small plate dude, cos the
helpings are big
§
and sit where you can watch rather than
be watched
All this is kind of travel eating 101 but it
seems to have bypassed me tonight. Ah well.
Everyone is surprised that I am (a) travelling
on my own and (b) travelling on my own in Gansu. Certainly I am the only person
eating alone in the restaurant, which when you think about it is all set up for
groups (large plates, lazy susans, large tables) and I envy everyone their
friends and conversation. I guess my diary is my conversation, my factotum and
whatever else.
Back outside, I shoot some faux-Qing buildings
and then head home. The air is cool and friendly. This is a nice city,
certainly this part of it, and I am feeling very good. Point for point, one of
the best days on the trip!
Wednesday
June 18, Ganzhou Hotel, Zhangye
Well, go figure, the hot and dry desert is now
cold and raining. Feeling really pleased that I went to Danxia yesterday, and
today's plans are probably just to hole up for a while. I'll spend a lot of
time at the giant buddha, get some pastries and see what the afternoon brings,
maybe go to Mati Si then.
Breakfast - free and unexpected - a complete
disaster. Nothing that tasted nice! Addmittedly there were eggs and maybe a bit
of toast but no jam or butter, no coffee (weak tea-flavoured hot water), not a
lot of interest really, although there were plenty of dishes. I got there at 8
and most of it had been picked clean while it was hot and there was no effort
to put out more for people who wanted to come later!
So it's cold and wet, I get my tablet, camera
and jacket and decide to go for a walk to the Buddha temple. And who do I see
but yesterday's taxi driver who wants to take me to Mati Si (in the car
yesterday she would not do this, and gave me a number to ring). Well long story
short, we negotiate a rate probably a bit better than yesterday, and suddenly
I'm setting off on a 5-hour adventure!
It's an interesting landscape, with a mix of
tree-lined roads and irrigated fields, the result of a systematic effort to
prevent sand creep/desertification, and then also desert-road like conditions -
flat expanses of tundra and bits and pieces. And then things get really
interesting. The clouds clear a bit and there are huge mountains with snow on them. Wow! These are the Qilian (sp) Mountains and form the southern boundary of
the Hexi corridor. They are stunning and I am so pleased I decided to come on
the trip. Never mind that the clouds closed in, the rain started up big time,
and I didn't see them again!
First up was the highlight of today's trip -
the Thousand Buddhas Caves. The very first one I went into was spectacular -
better than anything at Binglinsi. A giant standing buddha under renovation and
then columns of buddhas, all with different hand positions. Very interesting
kinds of smiles, too, not the Chinese, not the Tibetan, something more Indian.
I loved them! The caves and buddhas were developed between the 5th and 14th
centuries, so probably a bit later than Binglinsi. The setting is stunning - as
I go to explore more grottoes there are none the size of the first, but there
are incredible stairways cut into the rock with amazing views out over the
valley (unfortunately almost completely clouded over!). Each stairway ascends
to yet another group of grotttoes, with statues very similar to those found in
Labrang and Langmusi, except that this time I can take photos! I now quote from
the ticket: Firstly built in Eastern Jin
Dynasty (317-420), North Matisi Grottoes are the highlight of the entire Matisi
Grottoes. Cut on the palisades of almost 100 meters in 21 grottoes of 7 stories
in the shape of a pagoda with the Bodhisattva Lvdumu enshrined worshipped
inside, "Thirty-three Layers of Heavens" are the representative of
the Matisi Grottoes and Hidden Buddha Grottoes are the vastest among its kinds
extant in China." Yes indeed. The signs called it the Bodhi Pagoda
(the hall with the buddhas) and Tavatimsa Grottoes (the staircases and
installations).
We then check out various other bits and
pieces, but none compared to that first one:
§
Temple
of Buddhahood Victory - climb some steps and this temple
seemed to have some monks quarters to one side. It's raining hard by now, but
the prayer wheels and a couple of (recent?) paintings are notable.
§
I think we missed going north of the
village into the hills and seeing the Mati
Si North Caves, but my driver insists (not that she would know, she's
constantly ringing someone to find out - clearly her first time here) and then
we follow a car with other tourists, so that proves she was right. Hmmm...
§
The Palace
of King Gesar is actually a series of grottoes and a gallery of horsemen of
recent construction in a grotto. Pretty missable, except that it is dry!
§
Finally a much more traditionally Chinese temple that doesn't have a sign
and I don't think is on the usual tourist path. I liked it and it had a great
setting in the mist, with all the Chinese-style extra appointments - fountains,
stelae, ceremonial buildings, the works - this style of temple seems to me to
be much more about superstition, but that's just me. There was an old lady and
an old man who were probably the caretakers and there was a tour group going
through who latched onto me for photos and fun. They were from Guangzhou, which
I think was on the coast (as were the group from yesterday - guess that's where
the money for tourism is).
Then it's all over and we're back on the road
home. Get dropped off at the Great Buddha Temple at around 1.30 and look
through there for an hour or two. The buddha is in a wooden temple that was
built in 1098, making it very rare and very unique. Inside is a 'sleeping'
buddha that is 35m long. Actually his eyes are at least half open and I loved
the expression on his face. He has 'it'. There are a stack of others who have
achieved enlightenment ('arhats') standing at either end and overlooking him;
around the walls are murals.
There are other buildings to explore - I liked
the earth stupa from the Ming Dynasty but the galleries of found objects were
also impressive, especially the one with the sutras (written scriptures) that
were uncovered. Apparently there were 6000 scripts donated by Ming Emperor in 1411
that are still here! Got a nice shot of some wheels. Random! The best bit about
the whole place really was the peace and quiet. There were groups there, but
it's a big complex and there's lots of space just to think your thoughts and be
at peace. Nice and definitely worth getting to.
And so to dinner - was going to go to one of
the restaurants, but the Muslim kebab stand at the faux-Qing entrance was too
nice. A husband and wife tag team do an amazing job - he cooks and turns, she
puts sesame and spicy sauce and then hands them back about 3 times over; she
then transfers from the metal spikes to smaller sticks, which then go into a
dish and a wrap or into a cup. I have two each of a sausage (say pork), stuffed
pasta and chicken. Absolutely delicious. Best meal I've had this trip in its
own way. I munch these walking down restaurant row and then decide to head back
on a small quiet street running parallel to the main drag. So my evening out:
kebabs, watching some guys laugh and laugh when one of the fell out of a kiddy
ride machine, watching mother and daughter laugh as they play badminton on the
footpath, saying 'hello' and 'I'm very well thankyou' to some passing cyclists
(adults) who say "Hello" and "How are you?". Walking past a
cycle shop, a police station and a supermarket where I buy some cacao pies,
icecream, yet more beer and some biscuits. Oh yes, folks, nothing but healthy
food going down here!
Back to the ranch to consume and watch the
endlessly naff Chinese TV football show. Basically Channel 5 is devoted to
programming the world cup all day every day. I'm getting caught up in it all
but the studio work is very cheesy.
No comments:
Post a Comment