Wuwei was surprisingly interesting with its Confucius temple and the Letai Tombs of the Han Dynasty (where they found the 'Flying Horse')' and its 'reconstructed' drum tower. Quite obviously the rather small town is successfully working on its tourism spot image. Fortunately the tourism season was already over so my visits to the temples were very peaceful. In the morning it was fun to see big groups of people do aerobics on the main square to blasting music from 'ghetto boxes'.
The next stop was Zhangye. The road took me through a variety of landscapes with snowcapped mountains on my left, fields and then almost desert like stretches mostly at an altitude of around 2000 m which was not noticeable as the inclines were very gradual. Also there were the remainders of the Great Wall visible which in this area isn't that great. In fact what you see first right of the road then left are remainders of a relatively low mud-brick wall and in regular intervals so called beacon towers from which smoke signals were given in case of danger. The road quite unceremoniously cuts through between what apparently were 2 of such towers and for a while one sees the wall on the other side of the road.
What also was impressive in this part in the country and again further west were big solar power stations and also wind power seems to be a major target. Furthermore a high speed rail line is under construction from Xi'an to Urumqi and on to Kashi.
Zhangye's two main attractions are a formerly wooden 8 storey pagoda, which, however was destroyed by fire in the 19th century and was rebuilt 1926 but this time mostly in brick and a very nice Tibetan Monastery with a giant reclining Buddha.
About 220 kms further down the Silk Road is Jiayuguan which was the westernmost big castle and garrison built in the 14th century, also see this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiayuguan_%28pass%29
But I didn't spend much time there as I wanted to reach the oasis town of Dunhuang which is close to another highpoint of this trip the Mogao Caves and I still had to cover another about 300 km. Thanks to really good roads I was able to get there just before sunset inspected the local night market briefly and settled down for the night in a quiet side street.
The next morning I again got up early to drive to the caves about 25 kms into the desert. The history and background story to these monuments I find quite interesting and I recommend this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogao_Caves
Again, I was able to beat the crowds and was attached to an American/Canadian group with a very good guide from the local research institution. Of the about 500 caves we were shown maybe ten of the most interesting ones but I understand some groups see some different caves than we did simply to better distribute the damaging influence of people. Also taking pictures is forbidden I think mainly because they are afraid of flashes, but I was able to sneak a few out in those caves where there was enough light. Especially impressive were two huge (more that 20m high) Buddha statues. There is a very nice museum attached with a few of the caves as replicas but admittedly very well done where picture taking is allowed and in due course I'll show them on this place.
I left and went on through the desert and passed some leftovers of 'beacon towers', outposts in front of the Great Wall, a kind of early warning system towards Hami which was my next night stop but without much visible significance except for its melons. But now I was in Xinjian, China's Wild West. It was immediately recognizable as from one km to the next there were no more English road signs but only in Chinese and Uighur. It didn't matter much as my friendly lady from my Garmin GPS continued to advise me reasonably well. Even she got confused sometimes due to the outdated maps that Garmin still uses and that led to wide stretches of 'cross country driving' at least on their map. In reality the toll road was excellent and in fact was free as it was a high Muslim holiday.
Xinjiang is mostly Muslim which is visible everywhere, particularly when looking at the women who mostly wear head scarves and some are fully covered especially in Kashi…
In the morning I continued towards Astana a little archeological site where they found some interesting graves with mummies due to the extremely dry climate. The real interesting ruin town is a few kms west with the name of Gaochang. I chartered a little donkey cart to drive around among the ruins. The sheer size of it was impressive and here you can read about its history:
http://www.chinatouronline.com/china-travel/turpan/turpan-attractions/Ancient-City-of-Gaochang_332.html
But Urumqi was the real destination for the day and I reached it in the early evening. I had intended to stay at a hotel. When I got there about 8pm they told me that they wouldn't accept me because I was a foreigner. Many hotels in China appear to have that restriction as they are too lazy to register a foreigner. As I was standing at the reception a nice Chinese interfered in very good English and offered to help me find a suitable hotel. Soon a Chinese gentleman appeared who happened to be the manager of a hotel about 20 min away and who offered to take me. Interesting enough it was a second hotel of the same chain but with obviously les xenophobia. I invited my savior, a sales rep of a Shanghai glass production machinery firm, to a bottle of wine from my 'cellar' which we happily emptied at my hotel after which he took a taxi back to the first hotel.
There isn't much to see in Urumqi but her really excellent museum. I went there the next morning after dropping off my laundry and made a brief visit to the central shopping area which was not inspiring. The museum though was and gave me a nice insight about the numerous minorities living in this largest province of China. All exhibits are well presented and unlike the road signs well explained in English. A real delight! My guide book then suggested to visit the bazaar in the Muslim part of town which was disappointing also due to the fact that it was one of the highest Muslim holidays and therefore many shops and the bazaar closed.
The final stop before leaving China for Kirgistan is Kashgar in Uighur and Kashi in Chinese about 1450 kms from Urumqi, 1450 kms via toll road or about 1300 via the 'diretissima' over the Tian Shan mountains. My map showed a 'red' main road over the mountains but failed to state the altitudes to climb. The road started as a 4 lane divided highway for about 20kms, then another 20 kms 4 lane highway turning into 2 lanes becoming bumpy and after reaching an altitude of about 2400m the asphalt stopped altogether but the gravel road at least was less bumpy and the weather and landscape magnificent. At 3000 m I started to get worried as I saw snow getting closer and the road was still climbing and at 3500m serpentines started and there were practically no other cars anymore.
Well, at 4200 m I saw the crest but also some snow, ice and slush on the road. I tried to get over it with my momentum but the wheels started spinning about 300m before the top. So I very carefully rolled back onto the gravel not to get into sliding. I managed and rolled back to a wider part of the road where a truck had stopped watching my maneuvers. Another car arrived, saw the situation and turned around. I didn't like that idea as it would have meant to lose a full day as I had already covered about half the distance and it had taken me 3 hours.
Meanwhile the truck driver started to put on snow chains. With sign language he told me to back up behind him and I understood. I took out my towing cable, hooked it to the truck and slowly he towed me, I helping as much as I could with my engine, to the crest at 4280 m. This was the second highest point I ever have been with a car. Only the La Roya Pass in Peru's Altiplano with 4313m, over which I went in 1974 is slightly higher. The rest was easy. I unhooked, gave him a present which he first didn't want to accept and he went on down the south side to take off his chains again and I proceeded very slowly the first 200 m until the road became totally clean albeit very dusty for another 50 kms. Finally and after a military checkpoint which I passed without problems I reached Korla where I spent the night.
The next morning I woke up early and went on as soon as it got light which is only about 9 am in this part of the country due to the one time zone policy of China. The advantage is that it is still light till about 8pm despite it is late in the year. The distance to Kashi is almost exactly 1000 kms of which I intended to cover about 700 that day. The toll road is relatively new, so new, that the GPS didn't know it, but that didn't matter. I passed several mining sites where they mine various minerals mostly by open pit mines. Also you see big wind parks. Most of the landscape is desert but then there are suddenly forests, cotton fields, vineyards producing grapes and other agricultural products. On the right brown mountains accompanied me almost the whole time. After those 700 kms I reached a village which was heavily guarded by police and military and incredibly dusty. It was almost like fog. Heavily laden trucks went back and forth from a huge quarry type 'mine'. I have been unable to find out what they were mining. But it must warrant heavy guard. Staying there of course was out of the question but it was getting dark and I don't like driving in these countries in the dark. So as a compromise I followed a truck hoping the dust would stop and a village appear. The dust eventually stopped but no village for 150kms! There the truck and naturally I stopped and I spent the night.
The next morning, Tuesday I went the last 150 kms to Kashi and called our customer who will help me to get the necessary papers. We met for lunch and they took me for a tour around the city in the afternoon. There is not much is to see except the tomb of a former Uighur king and his family, the big mosque and the rest of the old city which they showed me from a distance as they advised me that the people living there were unfriendly to the Chinese and other foreigners. And my Chinese friends also were afraid of Islamist terrorists.
We then proceeded to check me into the company's hotel which is quite comfortable but 30km away from Kashi in a little town with nothing to do and see the way I came. That's where I spent yesterday and today Thursday waiting for the permit to go. Well, now I just got a call telling me that they have to send somebody to Urumqi with some papers (1450kms away!) and the earliest I could leave would be Saturday. But that probably won't work either as I was told they close the crossing on weekends.
But at least my blog gets another contibution and I hope you enjoy it.
So stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed!
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