We never meant to hurry our way through China and we haven’t, but three weeks has a habit of rushing itself along. We are in Dunhuang right now, on the edge of the Gobi Desert. This was all part of the re-planning we did whilst we were in India and what a re-plan that was. By the time we board the train for Xi’an the day after tomorrow, we will already be just over halfway through our time in China.
Apart from our ‘unscheduled’ stop in Lanzhou, we have only made two stops. Our first was just outside Zhangye, where we visited the Danxia Landform, or ‘Rainbow mountains’. I hope that our images do it justice.
Instead of staying in the city, we chose to stay in a yurt close to the gates of the geopark. The pictures of the yurt looked amazing on ‘trip dot com’, but our taxi took us into a town that looked as if it was either, in the process of just being built, or just being demolished. After our two days we concluded it was both.
Pulling up outside what didn’t even look much like a hotel…
This must be wrong!
Eventually out came a man and he pointed at a picture of a yurt on his phone, the exact picture we had seen. We reluctantly unloaded our luggage with a sick feeling in our stomachs. Our friendly host ushered us down the side of the building. Right enough there was a compound full of yurts. We still had a faint feeling of having been duped, until he opened the door of our yurt. It was exactly like the picture we’d seen.
Nothing in the description on the internet justified the romanticised notion that we had built in our minds. Nowhere had we been promised a place in the desert, under the stars and it was none of those things. Yet this was one of the best rooms we have stayed in on our trip so far. It was off-season and we did have the compound to ourselves. Added to that we were chauffeured around for free and, had I not insisted upon paying, we would have been driven the forty minutes back to the railway station on our day of departure for free too.
Danxia Geopark. We were in awe of the ‘rainbow mountains’, even although our first day was overcast, which is not among the best conditions. It does seem like mist and murk have followed us about everywhere, a bit like in Europe, where every landmark we visit is covered in scaffolding - just for our visit.
The second day, the sun shone and we saw Danxia!
To top it all off, just across the street from our yurts there was a wee restaurant with another super friendly host. We ate all our evening meals there and she made Vanessa some fried eggs for breakfast on our last morning
Today we are in Dunhuang. Surely you’ve heard of it! The Mogao grottos? Neither of them? Don’t worry, nor had we and unfortunately we cannot share much of our visit with you. We’ll spare you the one hundred thousand words that our pictures could have told you.
The first of the caves was carved out in the 4th century and most of them within a century or two of that. These caves are fabulously painted, as had been most of the caves we visited in India. Here, however, it’s not just scraps of painted figures hinting at what once was. The walls could have been painted this century, not fifteen centuries ago. The state of preservation here is attributed to the arid climate in this region. Whatever it was that kept this alive for over fifteen centuries - amazing. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures inside the caves, so all we can show you are the scraps that are left on the outside.
We arrived in Dunhuang at around 5pm, at a rather grand hotel on the edge of the city. We haven’t had any laundry facilities since we landed in China. Our hotel in Beijing did offer laundry, but at nearly the cost of our room and at that time we didn’t have that much. Danxia had none. Here in Dunhuang there wasn’t the usual laundry bag with inflated price list, so we gulped and enquired at the desk. ‘We have a laundry room on the 2nd floor that you can use for free’. We’ll have to see that!
The room opposite 2406 has two rows of washing machines and tumble dryers, complete with laundry liquid and steam irons (if that’s your thing). As the socks I was wearing probably needed a potato peeler to remove them, our first task was laundry. The night market and food would have to wait. Time, weariness and hunger were against us, so we didn’t bother to wait for it, out to the night market and sort it later.
Down in the lobby and a young woman offered to get us a taxi. She appeared to be having some difficulty, so I said we’ll just ‘Didi’ it (the Chinese Uber). Half an hour later we were still waiting. The problem, I reasoned, is that where we wanted to go was not quite close enough to walk (it was, we just didn’t feel like it), but the fare was 5 yuan (55p). Now, I don’t know anybody who would get out of their chair for that, never mind out of bed. Luckily a taxi pulled up outside the hotel dropping someone off. She was like a hare out of the trap. I don’t know what she said, but he took us even although it was clear he was reluctant to.
The food stalls at the night market were a hoot. Sheeps heads were de rigueur, varying only in their grotesquerie. We fancied something barbecued as our mouths still watered at the sight of anything resembling the mutton we had in Lanzhou. There were two sets of skewers by the barbecue. We asked - ‘mutton and donkey’. I am certain we pointed at the mutton, but I’m sure we got the donkey! They were unmistakeable! We needed more beer to wash that down and found ourselves in a pretty cool bar considering we were in China.
During the evening our thoughts turned to the recurrent theme of our trip - transportation and how we were we going to get around and see the sights we wanted to see. We had tentatively enquired at hotel reception, without any definitive answer, so we thought we’d ask the barman. The discussion was soon hi-jacked by another customer and a proposal of 800 yuan (400 a day) ‘agreed’. It seemed, reasonable? Anyway, I asked the barman if that guy was indeed his friend. ‘Translation’ returned ‘Just a customer, so the same’. Contrary to that statement he contacted his brother and came up with a proposal of 700. I felt uneasy and said we’ll see.
Time to head home.
Out on the street and my earlier conjecture was confirmed. Taxi was there with ‘For Hire’ lit up, so we jumped in. We showed him the address. There was no courteous communication through translate here, but a very clear ‘eff off’, I can pick up a better fare than that! Out we get and standing on the street contemplating a weary walk home.
Not for long. A taxi almost screeched to a halt and ‘hailed us’. Tentatively jumping in and showing our hotel address - no problem. So, here we were, a really friendly taxi driver - What if… Tomorrow? The Magao caves - that’s just on the meter, 120. Next day? 400.
Here we are in a country where the most trustworthy people we’ve met are taxi drivers!!
China - what country.
