We spent our last night in Xian at a cultural dinner theater where we enjoyed song and dance with performers dressed in lavish costumes representative of the Tang Dynasty.
Our meal as promised consisted of 30 different types of dumplings with shapes symbolizing the stuffing of each. Our favorite was the duck dumpling, and of course, these dumplings were in the shape of little ducks.
After dinner and the performance, we walked back into the ancient walled city of Xian where the city was alive with people strolling and shopping on a warm summer evening. The walls, guard towers and gate were lit up with lights adding a magical aura to the city where the Silk Road ended for eat bound travelers, and is the beginning of the Silk Road for west bound travelers.
WE BEGIN THE SILK ROAD,THANKFULLY NOT BY CAMEL
Days 7 & 8 Train from Xian to Dunhuang (dune wong)
Monday, June 16
We boarded our west bound train at 1030 am. Our 4 berth room consisted of 2 upper and 2 lower berths. A small table extended into the aisle from the window covered with a white brocade table cloth, red silk rose in a glass bud vase, and stainless steel thermal water pot. At each end of our car there was a toilet. The front of the car had a western seat toilet and the backend of the car had an eastern squat toilet. There was also one 3 sink washroom and a boiling water dispenser....all the comforts of Silk Road travel by rail. There was a dining car as well, but we had brought our own noodle bowls, so we only needed the boiling water.We traveled many miles before we left the city of Xian. The suburbs with high rise apartments and cranes raising even more apartments stretched out for as far as the eye could see, and finally gave way to farm fields in valleys where mountains began to rise up and were etched with active and remnant terraces for gardens, crops, and erosion control growth. As the mountains rose into cone shapes like a Chinese hat our train either snaked along a large river or plowed through numerous tunnels that had been dug through the mountains. Evidence was everywhere that the Chinese are industrious people, building bridges, more elevated rails for high speed trains, and roads.
Once we had passed through the mountains and mountainous valleys, the land flattened out and where there was still water, cultivated land and small family compounds became more prevalent. Adobe type structures with walls and very slight pagoda one sided sloped roofs predominated. The major cities where our train would stop to pickup and unload passengers were densely populated with high rise apartments, but the farther we traveled from Xian, the housing looked less attractive and more industrialized. We passed massive industrial complexes that were mining or refining petroleum and gas products.
While the scenery passed us by and the land grew drier and sandier, we read, chatted, and played cards.
Tuesday, June 17, Day 8 Gobi Desert
I woke up early this morning and took advantage of the quiet time to freshen up in the washroom. The scenery changed dramatically from dry farming to desert lands. We had entered the beginning of the Gobi desert. The desert is dryer than the Australian outback and there is nothing here to burn, just sand and a thin layer of black coal ash. Huge wind farms have been built to capture the desert winds, and solar farms to capture the desert sun. The sky is hazy here most of the time.
We checked into our hotel at 10:00 am in Dunhuang, a green oasis of a city about 3,000 feet elevation intersecting the Gobi and Tengery Deserts, had one hour to freshen up, go to the ATM, and buy some lunch to take with us on a three hour drive through the desert out to the Yardang National Geological Park. Along the way both coming and going we will be seeing many sights including remnants of the Great Wall, As we drive there is a green fence that runs endlessly through the desert to keep the wild camels protected. Our day guide estimates there are 100 camels. Seems like a lot of fence to protect 100 camels, when the seas are being fished to extinction.
A yardang is similar to a sandstone hoodoo found in Bryce National Park. After having been a lake 70,000,000 years ago, the sandstone has been eroded by cold moist temperatures in the winter and sandblasting by the winds. Using your imagination or that of others, we could see the guarding Gate Lion and the sphinx.
Our next stop was the earliest attempt of building the Great Wall in the Gobi desert by Han Dynasty in 169 BCE. It is made from mud, sand, mortar and reeds. Some of it still stands, most has collapsed and been reclaimed by the desert.
Our last stop of the day was the castle or west gate of the silk wall, a place where Marco Polo most likely crossed through on his way to Xian. Very exciting to see.
After our National Park stops headed back to Dunhuang with a stop with a short hike through the sand dunes to Crescent Spring Lake, a place where Silk Road travelers could drink sweet .
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| Shades of Sand |
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