Turpan

Today we wake up to find ourselves in a new province: Xin Jiang(新疆）. Our destination today is the fiery hot city of Turpan（吐鲁番）. But someone must have been praying to the travel gods. We got lucky! The high was only 29 deg C!

We arrive at Turpan at about 7am Beijing time, 5 am local time. Again, the draw of a tour group our size is amazing. There was actually 2 beautiful Uygur ladies were there dancing to the drum beat of a Uygur gentleman, welcoming us at 5 in the morning!

After a quick breakfast, we set off for Bizaklik Thousand Buddha Cave（柏孜克里克千佛洞). Similar to Dun Huang, the caves are painted with Buddhist murals. Unfortunately, these murals are severely damaged and have little aesthetic value. According to our guides, the murals, if undamaged, could rival those of Dun Huang. One can only imagine...

The caves are located on the foot of Flaming Mountain(火焰山). If the name sounds familiar, it should! This is the inspiration for Flaming Mountain in "Journey to the West"（西游记）!

Now, there is of course no flames to be found in the mountain, but there is fairly unique landscape. On our next stop, we drove to a tourist center for the "most ideal photographic location for Flaming Center". Also in the center is the largest thermometer in the world.

The center is clearly milking its connection to "Journey to the West". On the walls of the corridors leading to thermometer are paintings of stories from Journey to the West.

The thermometer itself seem a little small. In fact, the one at Baker, California seems bigger! However, our tour guide keep insisting the one at Flaming Mountain made the Guinness Book of World Record. She's cute, so I decided to let it slide:)

The weather was cold enough that we were wearing jacket, but decided we need to lose it while taking pictures so that our friends will believe we are actually in Turpan:)

From Flaming Mountain, we went to Grape Valley(葡萄沟). This is probably the most blatant tourist trap on the entire trip! There was nothing to see except grapes hanging overhead. Having visited many vineyard in Northern California, I am just not interested.

Next, we visited a Uygur grape farm for watermelons and grapes. Again, the Uygur farmer clearly often have tour group visit. There was a long table where we all sat. On the table were Uygur hats that guys could wear and take pictures. We were served watermelon and grapes while there was a singing and dancing performance. Then we were asked to join in. Finally, the farmer ask if we are interested in tasting raisins...

He started by telling us the cheapest raisins from Xin Jiang are not fit for human consumption. Rotten raisins are soaked in chemicals or smoked by sulphur to preserve them, and then sold at a low price. Well, goods from China has been suffering from bad press lately, so I am incline to believe him:)

He then turn us on to raisins he cultivated. They are indeed quite sweet and tasty. Feeling a little guilty from the free watermelon and grapes, we decide we should buy some rasins...Sigh...I guess we fell for the oldest trick in the tour guide's book:(

After a quick lunch, we went to Jiaohe city ruins（交河故城). I usually enjoy visiting ancient relics, but the ruins here have abandon for so long that natural erosion has cause the entire city ruins to look like some random mud caves. I cannot help but recall a article by Yu Qiu Yu(余秋雨） about how fragile a city is.

The next spot requires is a large network of underground water canel call the Karez system(坷儿井). Since most of Xin Jiang is a desert, the only source of water is melting snow from the Heavenly Mountain(天山). Digging more expose canal to bring water from the mountain to Turpan is not feasible because too much water would have evaporated during transportation. Instead, underground canals were dug. According to the guide, the sum of length of all the underground canal together would exceed that of the Great Wall of China and is one of 3 ancient engineering marvel of China. It is indeed very impressive, but somehow not widely report(at least I was not aware of the Karez system before this trip).

Our final stop is at Emin Minaret(苏公塔）, a real life mosque which welcomes non-Muslim. The architecture clear is different from the Tang inspire building we have been seen through our trip, but did not have the onion shapes which we are familiar with either. The tower itself if made of bricks and has various patterns on it. Quite beautiful to look at. However, in terms of historical importance or artistic value, it cannot compared with some of the buildings we had seen thus far.

For dinner, we were treated to BBQ whole lamb(烤全羊), a Xin Jiang specialty. I know I have complained we were not able to get authentic local cuisine, but here I have to take back what I said. Given the size of our group, we were able to order 3 whole lamb. This would be difficult is I had traveled alone or even in small group. The lamb itself does not have a strong lamb smell, due to its feed. According to the tour guide, the grass in Xin Jiang has more alkaline in it, so it changes the taste of the lamb. I personally do not have a problem with the lamb smell anyway, and really enjoy the dish. The meat has a little cumin like seasoning on it, but most of the flavor comes from the lamb itself.

After dinner, we had a performance of Uygur dance/music group. This is suppose to be a professional group, but they have only 4 female dancers, 4 male dances and a band of 4 musicians. Consequently, the performers are forced to do back to back dance. I felt really bad for the dancers.

Crescent Lake, Dun Huang

This morning, we visited an attraction within Dun Huang city call "Echoing Sand Mountains, Crescent Lake". It is a somewhat interesting geological formation. According to our tour guide, the crescent shaped lake is formed due to the unique mountain formation in the area. The sand storm created a circuit pattern, just sparing the stream to form a sparking lake. The lake gets its water from melting snow atop Qi Lian mountain. Unfortunately, in recent years, due to global warming, there is less melting snow and parts of the lake appear dried.

The excursion became an excuse to play in the sand! We were encourage to slide down a rather steep sand dune. Supposedly, the echoing sand will make a loud noise. After consulting with our tour guide, he frankly tell us it is unlikely we will hear the sand. Bummer...

We also got the chance to ride a camel. The animal is fairly tame, so they walk slowly on the sand. It is still a fairly bumpy ride. I gain much more respect for ancient travellers who had relied on these animals to ferry them across the vast desert that is the silk route.

When we are in Gobi desert, the desert scenery is quite similar to the desert of Arizona. It is here at Crescent lake that we see scenery similar to those of the Sahara. While this is not a historic site, I did think it is a worthwhile stop.

In the afternoon, we went to what I consider the other most important attraction of the trip: the murals of Dun Huang at Mao Gao Caves. Our first cave is home of the North Buddha, where a large piece of rock is carved into a big Buddha from the early Tang dynasty. The entire statue is more than a few person high and is aw inspiring. The walls of the cave is covered with paintings of various scene of Buddha spreading his gospel and the surrounding disciples. All were vividly painted and the colors have survived through the ages extremely well

The second cave is home to the South Buddha. Here the craftsman has already master perspective and design carve the Buddha so that it appears even bigger than the North Buddha, which being actually shorter. The third cave is home to the sleeping Buddha. Here the Buddha is in his sleep soon before his death. His disciples are shown standing behind him, some frowning, some happy. Some of the disciples are depicted as statues and others as paintings. On the opposite wall is painting of 5000 little Buddhas. Each has its own facial expression and distinct features.

We also went to several caves from early dynasty where it was obvious the art is clearly Indian art and showing early signs of influence from Chinese art. Another highlight is the cave where the Buddhist elders had hidden their sutra from invaders. The sutra was later discovered and subsequently sold to museums from around the world.

One painting that I had especially wanted to see was the "Reverse playing of the Lute"(反弹琵琶）. Our guide told us that particular cave is too small to accommodate tourist. Sigh...

All in all though, it was a treat to see these priceless treasure. I don't usually buy souvenirs, but since we are not allow to take photos inside the caves, I broke down and bought a set of post cards of Fei Tian(飞天).

Travel to Dun Huang

After a relatively light day in Jia Yu Pass, we travel to Dun Huang(敦煌). The trip takes about 4 hours by train from Jia Yu Pass and another 2 hours along a really bumpy road by bus. Along the way, we saw a sand structure said to be remains of the Great Wall from Han dynasty.

The surrounding is the vast Gobi Desert again. It is on this trip where one starts to realize how big China is in terms of land mass...

At dinner, we were served camel's foot. The meat really has no distinct taste of camel, and I recall only it has lots of connective tissue, giving the meat a gel like chewy texture. I really can't say it is delicious, and since I do not know if camel is endangered, I cannot recommend the dish again.

We went to the local night market after dinner. It was targeted mainly towards tourists. There were skewers of lamb BBQ on the street that smells wonderful. However, wary of the hygiene standards of street vendors, we decided to pass...

Jia Yu Pass

Woke up on the train to some beautiful scenery: the snow tipped peaks of Qi Lian mountain (祁连山）sparked in the morning sun.

Today we arrive at Jia Yu Pass（嘉峪关）. Our tour group must be a big local draw, since there was an actual dance troupe welcoming us! Our tour guides said they are mainly retirees who are performing as part of their workout...but still.

The morning schedule is quite simple. We drove around Jia Yu Pass city, which is a newly created city for the nearby steel plant. Very clean and quite modern. There is a site for Ironman training/competition. Being a former distance runner, I took some picture in front of the running man statue:)

Our final stop before lunch was at the moon light glass factory. The famous Tang poet, Li Bai(李白）, once wrote: "Lovely grape wine served in Moonlight Glass, As I started drinking, the lute started playing on horse back, Do not laugh if I am drunk on the battle field, How many warriors made it back from the war?"（葡萄美酒月光杯，欲饮琵琶马上催, 醉卧沙场君莫笑，古时征战几人回） Moonlight glass was therefore forever associated with grape wine in Chinese culture.

We had all imagine moonlight glass are crystal glasses. Turns out they are made of a type of dark green color jade with speckles of impurities embedded in the stone. The jade has lots of iron in them, so the glasses can be attracted with magnet. The reason its call moonlight glass is when filled with red wine, the jade glass can be made thin enough that moonlight can shine through the glass, giving the red wine an amber color. Sigh...the real thing is never as romantic as imagination...

The main draw is the old Jia Yu Pass castle. Jia Yu Pass is west most point of the Great Wall during Ming dynasty, so it was an important outpost, and despite the harsh natural condition, the structure has survived well. The tour guide did a good job of explaining the details of the soldier's life in castle during Ming dynasty and the associated entertainment facilities, temple, offices for immigration and of course defence mechanism. A very interesting and informative tour.

The highlight was when we finally walk out the outer most castle wall. Looking west was the vast Gobi desert. Even today, one cannot see road or other man made structure all the way to the horizon. All the talk of the loneliness and uncertainty facing ancient silk route merchants as they left the confines of Jia Yu Pass suddenly seem so relevant...

Next to Jia Yu Pass is the Great Wall museum. Another relatively new museum, it does not have much in terms of collection, but did a very good job of describing the structure of Jia Yu Pass, its defences, its construction and such. A very good conclusion to our Great Wall visit.

Lanzhou

We arrive at Lanzhou after spending a night on the train from Xi'an.

Our first tourist stop is White Pagoda Temple. Frankly, not very impressive. The temple was build in Qing dynasty, so compare to buildings in Xi'an, it is REALLY modern. Also, it is not richly decorated or particularly refine. The saving grace is the view. From atop the temple located on the local hill, one can the Yellow river and both sides of Lanzhou city around it.

Ah yes, the Yellow river. Traditionally considered the birth place of Chinese culture, I finally got to see it for myself! Lanzhou city really does not have much to offer in terms of natural beauty or historical sites, but it does have the Yellow river. The city tries to milk it for all the tourist dollar it is worth.

The next attraction we visited is the "Mother of Yellow River" statue. A fine statue in its own right, but a tourists attraction? You gonna be kidding me! After the statue, we stop by a recreation of water wheel used by locals years ago to drive stone mills. The wheels are huge! More than the height of 2 person, but looked new and artificial:( We were also shown sheep skin rafts where people used to cross the Yellow river with. Since the Lanzhou stretch of the Yellow River is relatively up stream, the river is flowing very fast! I can imagine crossing the river being an interesting ride:)

The famous Lanzhou Ramen was served at lunch. We now have the disadvantage of being with a tour group. The choice of restaurant was probably made more for its capacity than for its food. The beef ramen has a slight numbing spicy kick to it, but did not have the depth of flavor that we had expected. Compare to pho, the flavor was almost too light. The noodles was handmade, but not too well. Some noodle strands are twice as thick as others! Sigh...

The afternoon's activity was a river cruise....like I say, milk it to death...Seriously, it wasn't bad, since it is early autumn and the winds were cool. There was enough sun to keep everyone nicely toasted though:) We saw people actually crossing the river on sheep skin raft, and the above mentioned White Pagoda temple, so it was quite nice. Just that I had hoped to see more historic sites on this trip.

Big Goose Tower, Shaan Xi Museum, Xi'an Museum

On our final day in Xi'an, we visit mostly museums within the city limit.

First stop is Big Goose Tower, where Tang monk went to India to get copies of the original sutra（取经） and conduct translation work. Many readers will find this story some what familiar. It is the story of "Journey to the West"(西游记）! The Tang monk is, of course, Tang San Zang（唐三藏）. No, he is not a fictional character!

Big Goose Tower is also know historically where after winning scholastic exams(考状元）, part of the celebration of the winners was to go atop Big Goose Tower and walk along Qu Jiang（游曲江）. Qu Jiang is now mostly covered up, but Big Goose Tower is still standing and one can even walk up its stairs to the top.

For me, there is an additional draw. Famous Tang calligrapher Chu Sui Liang（褚遂良）, wrote one of his most famous work, the "Goose Tower Sutra Preface"（雁塔圣教序）, which is being display at the foot of the Big Goose Tower.

From Big Goose Tower, we went to ShaanXi History Museum. We find the museum display technique a little old fashion, but it does have a lot of interesting artifacts. From Shang dynasty all the way to Tang dynasty, the collection is vast. I enjoy seeing things like tiger symbol(虎符). In ancient time, this is used as an authentication tool to verify the orders for the military, which may be stationed far away from the court, are indeed from the Emporer himself. I have only read about these artifacts in books and seeing it for the first time is quite exciting!

Unfortunately, the museum did not do a good job selling itself. While the collection is vast, they did not highlight their most valuable collection and we find the overall experience only average.

After touring ShaanXi History Museum, we went looking for a restaurant for lunch, but found most places occupied by wedding parties. Turns out Sunday was a great day for wedding base on Chinese horoscope! Also, the tradition was to have wedding celebration start before noon, so wedding lunches are especially popular.

We tried and few places and finally managed to snatch a table at Da Qing Hua（大清花）.

Da Qing Hua serves Manchurian cuisine, which is not the local cuisine for Xi'an area. However, I enjoy the food enough to talk about it. My favorite dish is sauced bone(酱大骨). Pieces of boned in pork legs are being served. The meat has been cooked in a brasing liquid, which make the thin layer of meat covering the bone "fall off the bone" tender . Disposable gloves were given to each diner to pick up the bones and eat using one's hands. The kicker is a straw used to suck the bone marrow and broth from the within bone. Delicious! Now I know why bone marrow is such a hit among chef's circle.

After lunch, we drop by Xi'an museum. Open just this year, the museum is brand new. We like the atmosphere of the museum. The floor of the main podium is a map display of Xi'an city size in different dynasty. In the ground floor is a large scale model of Chang An city in its Tang dynasty form. Both are quite impressive! The collection is smaller than those of ShaanXi History Museum, but the display made the best use of their collection to give the maximum impact. For example, there was a row of 10 Tang dynasty statues. While individually they may not be the most refine Tang statue, putting them side by side gives visitors a bigger emotional impact than having a beautiful Tang statue standing among random objects.

From Xi'an museum, we went by to Shu Yuan Men(书院门）, since I wanted to buy some calligraphy supplies. I got myself 2 calligraphy brush and also bought a "Fairness cup"(公道杯). This is a rather interesting cup. If wine is fill half way in the cup, it would not leak. However, if the cup is filled to the brim, all the liquid in the cup would leak out of a hole at the bottom of the cup! As engineers, we are debating the mechanism of how the cup works and got intrigue enough to get a souvenir:(

Dinner was at Dong Lai Shun(东来顺），a Beijing chain specializing in Beijing style steamboat. We had it on our previous trip to Beijing, so it was nothing special, but this is the point where we join our tour group for the rest of our Silk Route trip.

Huashan

We set off early in the morning to go to Huashan(华山）.

Huashan holds much draw for me because of Jinyong's (金庸）martial art stories. The top martial artist of their time challenge each other for supremacy atop Huashan(华山论剑：射雕英雄传，神雕侠侣）, the Huashan school of sword artist practice their arts （华山派：笑傲江湖）。 The list goes on and on...

At the foothill of Huashan, we took the cable car up the mountain. Had a quick cup noodle and walk up North Peak, which is the nearest peak off the cable car station. The trails are well paved, so it was quite easy to talk along, but the parts of the path is quite steep and requires some climbing.

Atop the north peak, a stone with carving of "Fighting for supremacy upon Huashan"(华山论剑）has been setup! We took pictures over there, knowing full well that the story is a work of fiction and the stone nothing more than a tourists trap. Still, we couldn't resist the temptation:)

From the north peak, we went back to the cable car station and walk towards the central peak. The path here is even steeper and holding on the the chain railings was probably the only way to walk comfortably. We saw several old man carrying goods walking along these paths and are greatly impress. One even stop by, stood on 1 leg and play the flute. All on a fair steep stretch of the mountain path. I am impress to say the least.

There is an old Chinese saying: "Once you have seen the 5 mountains, you don't need to look at other hills" (五岳归来不看山）. Huashan is one of the 5 mountains, but frankly, I was not that impress with the view. Maybe its the atmosphere, since there are thousands of others along with us, fighting to go up the path. Maybe its very commercialize, since there are tens of stores along the path, selling water, souvenirs and photo op. One never has the serene feeling of being in nature.

After descending from Huashan, we went back to Muslim street and tried another of Xi'an specialty: "Soup buns(灌汤包)”. The restaurant is call Jia San(贾三), which has been serving this specialty for over hundreds of years. The soup buns are somewhat similar to Xiao Long Bao, where the buns filled with beef or mutton filling, with a soupy both in addition to the meat. The meat is spiced with some cumin and other curry like flavoring and is delicious. We washed everything down with a pigs stomach soup, which is fairly light, thicken slightly with cornstarch and has a little Chinese herbs to rid the soup of bloodiness tastes. Dessert was a slightly sweet eight treasure congee. Very well balance dish. Definitely the best meal in Xi'an.

Call it a night early since we did walk about 4-5 hours on Huashan.