Oulin White

20 July 2009

Go WEST!

Posted by oulin under: travel .

I didn’t really know much about the big West of China. Taking up part of the Silk Road and heading north into Xinjiang was the plan to get to know about it. The beautiful Oasis Dunhuang gave me a chance to relax a bit from the frustration of my terrible experience in Lanzhou. We stayed in a little cottage inside an apricot farm under the famous sand dun (Mingsha Shan) in Dunhuang. The fine orange sand, dark blue sky and silver moon composed a breath taking picture in the evening. Since we entered the western time zone, the sun wouldn’t go down till 9:30pm or 10pm. People were very active in the evenings, hanging out on the streets, playing games in parks and, of course, shopping around at the night markets. You could see trees and flowers everywhere in the city. People were living so close to the nature. Houses a bit away from the city center were normally surrounded by trees mostly apricot trees. Before the sand storm started later that week, I was thinking it could be a place for me to stay for a while. But when the sand storm arrived, we could do nothing but just staying in. Everything would be covered by sand in no time once it’s exposed in air. I had to constantly wipe off the sand on my face and hair. It’s even hard to breathe normally. We were kind of stuck for two days in the hostel. The last day of our stay, we met two young British who have been traveling in the Americas and south east Asia for a long time and it was toward the end of their trip. They were taking the similar route into Xinjiang. It seemed that we might have some interesting travel companions.

Tulufan (Turpan) was relatively relaxing as well. Because of the heat, not many people were on the street. Grape vines were visible everywhere. Some streets were shaded by vines. Bunches of green grapes were hanging down. They looked like strands of jade pearls, shiny and luring. Putaogou (the famous vineyard area) was very much worth a visit. You would see traditional Uyghur houses along the road up the hill. Everyone had a big courtyard covered by grape vines. If you walked in one of them, you would find beds covered by colorful carpets and mattresses in the courtyards. People would be sipping tea and eating fruits on those beds. Baskets of different raisins would be lining up on the other side of the yard. The owner of the house would invite you to try the raisins and of course, he would also try to sell you the most expensive ones. I found the dark ones scented with roses quite nice, which were also the most expensive ones. It’s RMB160 per kilo. The owner wasn’t very content when we said we only wanted half kilo. These raisins became great snacks for the next two weeks especially during our trekking.

We were lucky to be in Xinjiang before the horrible riot on July 5. Wulumuqi was a very modern Chinese city. Hardly could find any minority characteristic in it. It’s also a big melting pot of dozens of ethnic groups living in it. I didn’t feel any tension between Uyghurs and Hans when I was there. People were quite nice to me in general. We took 4 days exploring the city and organized our 6 day trip to the northern Xinjiang with our new British friends. This trip included two days of horse riding across some of the most beautiful birch forests and landscapes in Kanas area. We all felt quite excited although it was a bit on the high end of our budget. While we were wandering around the city, the most fascinating thing was the way they made bread there. They stuck the dough on the inner wall of a huge clay pot with charcoals burning inside. When the bread was baked, it would fall on the bottom of the pot and the bakers would pick them out quickly with a long iron stick with a hook at the end. Abram took some interesting time-lapse of it. It could be nice to have a stove like that at home, huh? Anybody fancy some fresh nan? Yum yum…

Kanas was considered the fairy lands for many people. It wasn’t easy to get to. We’ve got to take a ten hour bus ride to Buerjin. We stayed there for a night stocked up food for the trekking then transferred to Jiadengyu the next morning where began the Kanas Scenic National Park. We made a stop at a remote Kazakhi village-Hemu before we went on the horse riding trip. Hemu used to be the summer homes for nomads in this area. As the tourism in the area started to bloom in the past decade, those lovely wooden houses were all turned into different home inns or shops for tourists. We hired our horses there as well, RMB150/horse/day. On a cloudy cold morning, we set off the trip we had been looking forward to in the past week. The landscape and weather were changing constantly. We were crossing woods, rivers, rocky plains, climbing up and down epic mountains. It could be sunny, cloudy, rainy, warm and cold within half an hour. But we were so excited we didn’t mind it at all. When we passed the rocky area and finally saw some flat grass land, we let our horses run. The wind was blowing our hair and scenery was falling behind rapidly. Nothing could feel better or more free than galloping on the horse. We were screaming and laughing so hard. At the end of the first day, we arrived at Black Lake a usual camping spot on this route. It was incredible. It was snowing! Some snow was still not melted beside the lake. We found it hard to believe it was in late June.  The temperature dropped to only 3 degrees in the evening. Lucky our sleeping bags were very warm thanks to KingKong – our guide J He took care of everything- setting up the tent, cooking, coordinating with the horse guides and locals nomads. What a man! I had never been on real camping before, no mentioned on a horse back riding across beautiful deserted areas for two days in a row. This was a completely new experience for me. I could have never imagined myself not having shower for 6 days but not complaining about it at all. Living in a material world had made me forgot the beauty of the nature and the pleasance of being in the nature. Too many attachments and desires in life prevented me to feel free. To live with limited belongings and experience as much as I could became important at this point of life. Kashgar was our destination after Kanas. The old town was disappearing rapidly everyday. It was odd to see Mao’s statue in the middle of the city. Propaganda banners could be seen everywhere. People didn’t feel free to talk about their opinion of the integration of the Han culture happening in this city. I could feel their sadness and disappointment deep inside. 10 days or so later my friends texted me about the riot. I felt very sad. Can two different strong cultures like Islamic and Chinese and their people ever live in peace together? Is there a way to resolve problems and hate caused by the history, politics and religions? Violence is definitely not the answer.

* for more photos please go to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37833026@N06/sets/72157621770080327/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37833026@N06/sets/72157621777129325/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37833026@N06/sets/72157621902423446/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37833026@N06/sets/72157621904685690/

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