niniane

10/14 – Dunhuang

Got to the train station rather early and got in line for the train to Dunhuang (which was delayed...yargh, but luckily only by about a half hour). We ran into a British couple that had been traveling for about a month and a half now (and will be traveling for a year in total) who we chatted with for a bit.

We boarded hard seat class (the lowest), which was okay seeing as we weren't sleeping and the train wasn't packed. (There was a bit of padding on hard seat class, and it was clean enough since people kept coming through to sweep up stuff. However, there was still the stench of the smokers smoking between train cars – ugh – as well as as the train progressed, the smell of urine from the toilets. Also, they packed two people onto benches that could only comfortably hold one and three onto benches that felt a bit cozy for two. It wasn't impossible, since generally we got the benches pretty much to ourselves, and only traveled for six hours, but an overnight journey in a packed car would be miserable. Heck, a packed car with 2 people on 10" bench and 3 people on a 14" one would be excruciating...especially as I'm guessing they also pack in standing people during peak season.)View from the train window.

Along the route, we went by some of the most barren parts of the world I've seen in my life. There would be sand with absolutely no plant life growing on it (never seen that before), and cracks and craters that looked the same, stretching out into a near endless horizon. It was like looking at the surface of Mars. Very peculiar!

There were occasional bits of plantlife, which people were growing cotton around. (Hand picking which looked like back breaking work.) The peasants also lived in brick adobe huts similar to those that I saw during my last trip to Xi'An (but which aren't there any more – clearly the peasants there have a much better life now!). It was rather sad. I hope that the development of China soon hits all those poor cotton farmers out in the middle of nowhere. (At least they have a train? That has to help somewhat, I'd think? Still, though, those poor women covered in shawls and scarves to protect them from the sun harvesting cotton plant by plant is fairly depressing...there was also a bit of squash and other foodstuffs, but mostly it was cotton, cotton, cotton.)

We knew we were getting close to Dunhuang when we could see grapes everywhere as well as buildings that looked modern. Then inside Dunhuang, everything was sparkly and new and shiny. (You can tell that this place exists only for tourism. Mom and Dad kept being like, “Surely they do something else...” and, yeah, they grow grapes, but that's about it. I mean, there's honestly nothing else you can do in this arid of a desert other than grow cotton, I guess. Like, didn't they see the towns around us coming in? Desert – great for preserving priceless nearly 2,000 year old artifacts, not so great for anything else.)

Anyway, we got a taxi in with a very friendly driver (she recommended the red wine, which we had later in the evening. It wasn't great, but it was also $5 and not Kentucky-wine bad, either, so possibly the expensive wine is pretty good, or at least okay.) who took us to get our Mogao grotto tickets. We got a set effortlessly, then started walking to our hotel. Along the way I saw a sign (in Chinese – pays to have studied so hard!) saying “train tickets” so I ducked inside and acquired bullet train tickets from a city near Dunhuang (where most of the trains go – unfortunately it's a 2 hour drive away, but there are frequent buses, so I've been told...) to Turpan. Yay! Now the last leg of the journey is acquired and I can rest contentedly!!!!!!!!

We checked into our hotel, which was glorious. The front desk women served us tea and handed us hot towels, as well as spoke perfect English. Then we went up to our rooms, which were immacuately clean, with good tea and fresh water ready for us, as well as beds decorated with adorable stuffed animals (on the bed and hanging from our walls) as well as fancy canopies. Very luxe! (While a bit cheesy, it's one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in...)

Just in case I needed a friendly cuddle. Note that Mom and Dad's room had *different* bears.

The hotel ceiling had a triple rabbit motif that is supposedly *the thing* in the Mogao caves. I didn't see it there, but hey, it's pretty, no?

Then we wandered down to the night market. It was still early, so most of the vendors were setting up. But we did manage to buy some of the local raisins and dried apricots (so good!) as well as (I'm guessing) local almonds. (All of which were astonishingly cheap considering how tasty they are. Well...this area is known for grapes.) We had a nice dinner of dumplings (less than $10 for all three of us...) then crawled back to our rooms.

Apsara in the city square. Tourist cities in China are super into whatever they're known for. So there aren't just *statues* of Apsaras (literally sexy flying ladies in Buddhism), they adorn the sidewalk and lights. When we got to Turpan, it was the same if you replaced Apsaras with grapes.

I know people complain endlessly about tourist-y places, but the more I travel, the less I really care. I like nice, clean, luxurious places where foreigners are loved rather than feared (which happened a fair amount in Lanzhou and Jiayuguan – you could see kids staring at us – especially my father – with a look of utter terror, like, “OMG, I've heard that westerners eat children, and here is one in the flesh, so don't show any signs of fear, or you know you're going into his stew!!!!!!”). It's not a bad deal to be spoiled.

10/15 – Dunhuang

Got up bright and early to have a fairly mediocre breakfast at the hotel. (Oh well...not all free breakfasts will be winners.) Then we took a tourist bus to the Mogao caves. The lobby was filled with a bunch of young men and women in super fancy historical costumes that seemed to exist mostly so people could get their pictures taken with them. It was a bit silly, but I did love the costumes.

Every high school student in town who is willing to cosplay has employment, at least...

Me with the male model.

There was also a very nice gift shop (classy gifts, although expensive ones...). At about ten, we went to a movie (very well done - it was in Mandarin, but they gave headsets that translated into a bunch of different languages to non-Mandarin speakers that was super awesome!) that explained how the Han Chinese had banded together to get rid of the Xiongnu (to be fair, they made it look like a rather tragic massacre – historically the Wusan, who the Han also massacred in the area, eventually became their staunch allies, so I guess it all worked out? Well, for the ones who lived anyway...) so that they could clear the area and have a nice route to get trade goods from Greece and Rome. (Incidentally the Xiongnu were probably the Huns, and the Chinese clearing out their trade route probably therefore caused Europe to be invaded. The More You Know.) Then there was another movie showing some of the highlights of the caves. Then we boarded a bus to take a 20 minute journey to the caves.

Outside of the caves from the bus. There are a LOT of them. Like, I think you could come back close to a thousand times and keep seeing new stuff.

From the outside (the only place we were allowed to take pictures), the caves just looked like a series of...caves. There were a few apsaras flying around on the outside, but nothing too phenomenal. We were directed to a special foreigner area (along with a Portuguese couple who, like the British one we encountered earlier were traveling for a full year) and waited for a guide to come along. She then took the five of us on our tour.

The main entrance to the Mogao caves and where the large Buddha (who is dressed like a woman - Hi Emperor Wu! - is housed.)

Some external apsaras.

I really like these guys. I think they might be the husbands of the apsaras (who are supposed to be musicians, I think? My Buddhism isn't the best, but I believe apsaras are essentially flying heavenly women who play music and are also typically wed to heavenly musicians. So they're GOOD GIRLS. Not on your beck and call for whatever. Get your mind out of the gutter. This is BUDDHISM.)

The caves themselves are spectacular. They date back to as early as about 400 AD and continued until the Ming dynasty (when the well dried up and the Chinese empire decided to move the edge of the empire back to Jiayuguan, essentially eliminating the importance of Dunhuang). Most of the caves have a very similar look. They are covered in paintings (the ceilings with Boddhavistas, the walls with either parables that Buddha told – such as one where merchants must dump all of their valuables to survive in the desert, which is like...IDK, our guide's English was better than my Mandarin, but not quite up to explaining all of the concepts she wanted to – or pictures of the past present and future, with the future being the Western Paradise) made of lead, Mercury, lapiz lazuli and turquoise. They are exquisitely beautiful even now.

A few highlights:

The endless pictures of verdant green paradises, with flying apsaras and celestial music.

Gorgeous, hyper realistic scuptures.

Ancient paintings of Buddha preaching to people who are clearly of all nationalities. (Clearly depicted as such. Big nosed, red haired dudes with bushy hair, dark skinned flat nosed people, people with slanted eyes and dark hair, etc. etc. Buddha is for EVERYONE, also, if you'd like to convert, please speak with Brother Zhang who'd love to tell you about the wonders of Buddhism!)

A sleeping Buddha (ancient) surrounded by 72 disciples (from the Qing dynasty, so comparatively modern – 72 being the number of Confuscious' disciples, so kind of mixing and matching here), some of which look sad – as they think he died – some of which were delighted as he's ascended to Nirvana.

A Buddha surrounded by a young disciple (who speaks) and an elderly one (who writes down his words).

A huge Buddha dressed in a feminine style, as it was commissioned by Emperor Wu (the one female emperor).

A painting of donors, the males on one side, the females on the others. The ones with the short sleeves are Uigher women, the ones with the long (including one in an elaborate phoenix headdress), Han. Behind the wives in black gowns are the daughters in brilliant red ones.

While the “popular” caves (the library cave, the cave with the huge Buddha) are immensely popular, and we were moving through crowds, for the most part, it was just the guide and the five of us, which made for an amazingly intimate experience. (I wonder if locals ever spend the extra 20 RMB for a foreigner ticket, seeing as they get a smaller tour? I would.)

The whole thing took about two hours. Then we bought souviners and went off to look for the museum. The museum could not be found, so we gave up and just went to the night market to buy food. WE found onions in pita, which sounds gross, but was absolutely delicious, as well as a cornbread pancake, and some kind of elaborate candied fruit and nut thing that was delicious, but insanely expensive.

There was the not-quite-museum museum which held documents from the library room that Stein didn't take with him. Many of these are from, oh, say, 756 AD or earlier. The importance of these cannot be overstated. A massive number of Buddhist documents (but also documents about science, religion, and literally everything else) were housed in the library room in a number of languages. Most are in Chinese, but there were also a number in Arabic, Uigher, and other languages. Most of what we know about Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism, etc. for instance, comes from these documents as much wasn't preserved. This isn't just a cool Buddhist temple. This is one of the greatest document repositories in the ancient world. It is literally an unburnt Library of Alexandria, just covering a different geography and time period.

One of the paintings from the library room.

Recreation (outside the caves) of the Uigher donors. Note that the women are in different outfits. That differentiates the Uigher women from the Han Chinese women. Rather like in Europe, donors liked having themselves displayed near what they commissioned. This is a GREAT way to determine what people were historically wearing. (And who was important.) They are all carrying offerings to Buddha.

A recreation of one version of Buddhist paradise. It's pretty. I want to go there...

More paradise! The caves were pretty high on paradise, pretty low on hell, I think because they hoped that this would encourage conversion. A LOT of Buddhist sites on the silk road pretty clearly covered major trading routes...so the monks were eager to impress upon people JUST HOW AWESOME BUDDHISM IS. And you know that whole thing about honey attracting more flies than vinegar..

I also bought a bronze apsara for my collection which I bargained down from 380 to 230 (which was still probably too expensive, but I really wanted it, and bronze is never cheap, and ugh. I still think I paid too much, but whatever.)

10/16 – Dunhuang

We'd planned to make it out to Crescent Lake and the Singing Sand Dunes that morning. However, every westerner we ran into seemed to think it was an awful, boring, tourist trap, so we made a last minute decision to go to the Western Thousand Buddha caves instead. (Which were about 35 km away, so doable in a half day.)

We found a taxi who took us there and arrived...an hour before they arrived. We wandered around the grounds (which included a small grape growing area, lots of trees, a mostly dried up river, and some caves that didn't seem to have anything in them), then bought a ticket when it opened and followed around a Chinese tour group. (Which was entirely in Mandarin. I tried to follow, and got the approximate years, when things were painted/repainted, western paradise, etc. but didn't entirely follow everything.)

The area around the caves was still gorgeous!

It was remarkably like the Mogao caves as far as the quality of the paintings/statues (very good) as well as subject matter (Buddhas and more Buddhas). I'm not sure that it was absolutely necessary, but it was fun seeing essentially the same thing at a smaller scale.

I snapped one illicit picture without flash. It's not great, but you can see that the recreations didn't add much. Most of it really is this freaking amazing...and there's SO much of it! SO MUCH OF IT!!!!

We got back to Dunhuang and went to the donkey meat and noodle cafe. (It wasn't all that great. Donkey tastes like horse/cow, so is pretty uninteresting, but the noodles were kind of gross. There was a faint rancid taste, so I didn't eat much.) Then we grabbed our packs and went on the great adventure of trying to figure out how to get to Liuyuan train station.

(Dunhuang only has one train station, with very few trains. This means that you have to go several hundred kilometers out of town to get to Liuyuan, which is on the bullet train route, to get almost anywhere. It's a bit frustrating. There is a bus station, but it was a bit of a hike from our hotel, and then it was another 2 hour drive from the bus station. Yargh!)

Anyway, as we were walking, a group of middle school girls followed me and were saying, “Oh, she's so cute! She's so pretty!” in Mandarin again and again. (Which was quite the ego boost!) At one point, after this had been going on for a bit, I turned to them and smiled, at which point they all started giggling hysterically. I was considering saying, “Ah, and what a beautiful group of girls!” but that seemed a bit silly, so I didn't.

As we were walking, a taxi driver came up and kept trying to offer to drive us to the bus station for an insane amount (it was either 14 or 40 RMB, which was crazy as it was a BLOCK away and the meter starts at 5...) We kept telling him no, and he kept following us and arguing as to how cheap it was with 3 people and hah. No.

Anyway, we made it, bought our tickets, then went out to wait. We were let in and were the only people on the bus...at which the bus driver started asking (in Mandarin) when our train was leaving. We had a lot of time, so eventually he told us that we'd be delayed a half hour. (I guess while he waited for more people – he got one more, so maybe not total waste?)

We drove through barren desert, desert in full fall colors, sand dunes (yellow and black), and after a bit under two hours, arrived at the train station. It almost immediately filled up with people...who all ended up on the same stop as us. (Despite that Liuyuan is literally the middle of nowhere. I'm going to guess that an entire train full of people were going to Dunhuang?)

We went through security again, and I kept being asked by security whether I had any knives, which made no sense, as I didn't have one. I kept thinking that it was my bronze statue, until I pulled out a pair of scissors (that I'd lost...so that's where they were!), which they confiscated after making me sign my name and take a picture of my passport (I guess to show that I was a bad person? Unsure...) It's funny in that it got through everything else okay...but then the ladies at this train station seemed especially hard core...

(I was soon to learn that this was because we were headed into Xinjiang. Everything is more hard core there...)

We arrived in Turpan to find police everywhere, dressed in riot uniforms (with the shields and batons and all that). They seemed pretty....unserious, though. (One slid down a ramp holding onto a buddy's hand.) It was all pretty unfrightening, although I suppose a sign that we weren't in Gansu any longer...