Off the beaten track!

In words of one show-off 'backpacker' from Norway, I will try to introduce to you Gansu - province of Gobi desert, Qilian mountains, and the last part of the empire that the Silk road caravans passed before entering no man's land of western barbarians. As already mentioned in other posts, our group of four travellers entered this province on the overnight bus from Xining to Zhang Ye. We planned to visit Mati Si (with allegedly lots of hiking opportunities), Jiayuguan (the last stronghold of the former empire with magnificient fortress protecting borders), end of the Great Wall, and Qilian mountains and theirs glaciers. You can see below how did we succeed.

Day like no other
Although previous day spent at Dalai Lama's birthplace was highly valued by all of us as so far the best one of our trip (due to its spiritual and 'natural' qualities), it was trashed by the day that followed. At two o'clock we arrived to Zhang Ye where we quickly found accommodation and slept sweatly till 9.00am. Afterwards we hopped on the bus to Mati He (a crossing 9km far from our ultimate destination). After unsuccessful negotiation of taxi (called by friendly farmer) fare - I personally think we overpaid but who cares when the fare is less than starting rate at any western European capital - we successfully negotiated our accommodation (10 kuai or 1 euro per person - I had never ever paid so little price for overnight stay - not including my homeless foyers at Scotland, New Zealand, in the US and Spain in no particular order :).

What followed was as surreal as any picture of Dalí. We waited one hour for a meal that ultimately smelled like puke (allegedly mutton and mushrooms), hiked in the best nature all of us have yet seen in China (not only were the waterfalls beautiful and magnificent, valleys deep with green, but also the meadows covered with yellow flowers were picturesque just like some Austrian postcard), had the photosession with bunch of Tibetan monks (all the so called 'supermodels' have no clue about the art of pose for picture), had dinner in traditional Tibetan tent with 100% original Tibetan girls, and danced with totally drunk Han tourists. Besides that, our Norwegian backpacker from the first paragraph, had an eye-to-eye discussion with one of the drunks each speaking in a different language (Chinese versus English). Obviously both had a good time as they settled their differences on a dance-floor. Tired and totally speechless we put ourselves with the vision of early morning wake up call in order to a catch bus to Jiayuguan.

Edge of the Empire
On our way to the ancient city, which still strongly resonates as the end of the civilisation in minds of most of the Chinese, we encountered our first herd of camels (50-100 heads strong). Same day we managed to negotiate visits to the fortress, through which caravans and expelled artists passed into oblivion, and the reconstructed last part of Great wall all for price of 60 kuai - 6 euros). For the first time we also experienced so called factory in the middle of nowhere phenomenon - here in Gansu and also in Xinjiang you can find factories churning up fumes of black smoke up to he sky. These factories are literally in the middle of nowhere without any city in their vicinity. Next morning came the highlight of my bargaining career so far as I managed to negotiate even lower price for cab drive to the glacier and back (each road c. 130km on gravel road). 360 kuai (36 euros) is 10 per cent better than two years old Lonely Planet suggests :) This puts me in good position to finally stop overpaying for fake market T-shirts and fabric market shirts.

The way up to the glacier is a story by itself. It is 4 hours drive with average speed of 40km per hour (in case you hire a taxi and not a four wheel drive Toyota). It follows gravel road for good 75 per cent of the way and offers some breathtaking (altitude caused and panorama caused) views. Of course our overweighted small cab overheated and cooling pipes exploded into face of our driver. Partial shower was delivered to me and our female Norwegian companion (no harm done to any of us). The most laughs gained speedy exit of our Norwegian backpacker as he was sleeping in the car. His reactions can be compared to those of a koala (slow and slower :). Anyway our humiliated driver (as he could not hold up to his end of the deal) called for help his family and manually repaired his car while we were offered family limousine (true Guangzhou produced BYD - Build Your Dreams). We took turns in pitying this car forced to drive entirely inappropriate roads.

Glacier is 4,300m above the sea level. We spent there good three hours hiking and exploring rocky country of Qilian mountain range and soaking in sunlight (therefore sunburned noses upon our return :D. On the way back we were fed fair share of dust from trucks transporting iron ore from local mines and resisted any attempts of our poor driver to increase the price. If he did not asked for it he would probably get it as we estimated that this trip put solid two years on his cars (usage-wise).

Sands of Dunhuang
As I already mentioned, western Gansu is mostly desert country with southern borders copied by Qilian mountains. From Jiayuguan we hopped on the bus to well known Dunhuang where we intended to visit those famous Budha grottoes at Magao caves. Again we succeeded in negotiating 'fair' price for tax hire - 120 kuai (12 euros) for three sites - Moon crescent lake and Mingsha shan (sand mountain on the outskirts of the city) and Mogao caves (30 km from the city proper). Although a bit disappointed by Crescent lake and commercialisation of the area by money seeking Han people, we found our breath swept away by the magnificence of towering sand dunes of sand mountain.

The greedy hawkers asked money just for use of ladders leading up to the dune top - which is pure exhortation and should be ignored completely. On the top of the dunes we could overview kilometers of sands leading up to the horizon. Furthermore, we witnessed meeting point of oasis and desert - wonderful sight. As this was my first desert I have ever seen, views made the strongest impression on me from all what we saw in Gansu.

Mogao caves were afterwards a little disappointing as Chinese reconstruction and preservation made their original features unrecognizable (curently, a modern meter-thick wall covers the sand stone in which are these caves carved). We undertook Chinese tour as no student discount was offered on foreign language tour although all four of us possess Chinese university IDs. The reason why did I for the first time shout on an adult man who completely ignored my modest and calm requests for explanation why rules of admittance are not followed (it is written that foreigners should pay extra 20 kuai for foreign language guide to the price of their ticket - which we were happy to pay). We visited 10 caves with various Budha statues from different periods and influences (from Tibetan to Nepalese, and from Qin to Tang dynasty) as well as cave 17 where great amount of ancient manuscripts were discovered and later exploited and exported to the safety of European museums (items left were lost or given as bribes to various official upon their transport to Beijing - only small amount of mostly less valuable scripts reached ultimate destination. All-in-all Mogao caves with their huge two Budhas (c. 40 meters high) are something comparable to combination of Leshan giant Budha (the worlds biggest) and Dazu caves and reliefs.

After the Dunhuang visit we boarded overnight train (soft sleeper) to Turpan, in Xinjiang province, where we intend to explore more. This soft sleeper was the first time in more than five days we got good quality sleep without any hustle (no bus or early morning wake up calls). Gansu province left fond memories in all of us as we were deeply impressed with its nature variety and fondness of its people. Turpan marks ultimately our last day of 'American' tourism for us (hiring the cars and letting ourselves to be transported around. This is mostly due to the fact that there are no other option and our schedule is thougher than though. More on Xinjian and its cities in following days. Enjoy!