As our party of four boarded a westward train to Xian, our epic summer journey began. Below you can find short description of what we had done up until Xining (capital of Qinghai province). Xining is the starting point for most travellers intending to spend some time in Tibet and it is also called the gateway to the western part of China (the same is also said about Lanzhou, but as they are just three and a half hours train ride apart, who really cares?). Please read on!
In Xian we were welcomed by already familiar heat wave torturing China with temperatures well over 30 degrees of Celsius. After dropping bags at the Xian Railway station luggage room we immediately hop on bus (no. 306) to the first Qin emperor tomb and his guarding army of terracotta soldiers. This trip is made very convenient to accommodate huge demand of Chinese visitors. Bus no. 306 connects three main sites (Hot springs palace, Qin emperor tomb, and Terracotta army museum).
We visited only Qin emperor tomb and Terracotta museum due to lack of time and also because of our lack of enthusiasm to visit hot springs at 35 degree heat. Both sites of course belong to the UNESCO World heritage (and righteously so). Qin tomb is relatively calm place with plenty of pomegranate, pine, and other trees protecting emperor´s brain from brain-sucking birds (legends...). Tomb palace is not archeologically explored but it still offers incredible look at 2,000 years old irrigation systems and ceramics of Qin period of Chinese history. Whole 'hill' (burial place covering tomb and palace) is poisoned by mercury from protection mechanisms implemented against tomb raiders (there goes Lara...).
On the other hand, Terracotta museum is commercially explored to the utmost detail. New parking lots and stalls with shopping malls offer many souvenirs along the 500 meters long walk up to the museum. Three pits go from the smallest (pit 3 - called command center and including just few high ranking officers) to the biggest (pit 1 - including the whole army prepared to march) and are indeed awesome and worth every mao of 45 kuai student entry fee :) Museum also includes exhibition hall with nice exposition of bronze artifacts (still not sure whether real or fake), gallery of UNESCO sites around the world (for 'ticking' friendly travellers), and cool air of air conditioned halls as compared to outside hell. Of course, as an uncultural barbarian, besides the warriors (I hereby confirm that indeed each of them is different - at least in face details) I liked the most the 5-7m high marionettes from the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics.
After dinner and visit to exquisitely Chinese Great Mosque of Xian we hopped on the train again for an overnight journey to Lanzhou (back in 90s considered as the most polluted city of the world - I hereby confirm, although still smoggy, it is not the case anymore). Lanzhou was supposed to be our transfer station for Xiahe, which is grassland, religious, and very Tibetan place outside of Tibet. As usual nothing goes smoothly and upon our arrival we discovered that the whole Xiahe region is off limits for foreigners (nobody actually knows precisely the reasons). Disappointed and angered we turned around and without even visiting Lanzhou famous museum (hosting exhibits of 10,000 years old painted ceramics, original wooden Silk road message carrying wooden plates, and Roman coins found in the area) we started our journey to Xining.
Today in Xining we managed to have our best cake in China west of Shanghai and the best barbecue dinner in China (anywhere). Also we visited Beishan (local mountain with plenty of Budhist caves and temples) and literally eat the dust of sandstorm and soak in the water of rainstorm. Tomorrow our plan is to visit Qinhai Hu (Qinhai lake) - the biggest salt water lake in China and the ground zero for avian flu in China (we miscalculated our visit by cca. two weeks since most of the birds already flew away to their summer territories). Further posts will follow in couple of days - still do not know from where :)
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