jiejie

The Silk Road is one of the legendary journeys across Central Asia and China. After years of lacking either time or motivation, this summer I finally pulled it all together and explored a large part of the Road that lies within the territory of the People’s Republic. (The ‘Stans will have to be on a future itinerary.)

General parameters of my particular setup:

Length: targeted at 3 weeks (21 days) maximum, Start Xi’an, June 15, end Xining (Qinghai Province), approximately July 4. Farthest western point was Kashgar, in southwest Xinjiang province.

Travel Style: Independent Soloist on a budget. Private rooms with bath, but not fancy. In order to see everything on the wish list, overland travel methods by train and bus would figure prominently, as some of these places are not served well (or at all) by flights.

Itinerary: (shakedown overnight train journey from Beijng)-->Xi’an (2 nights)-->Lanzhou (1 night)-->Zhangye (2 nights)-->Jiayuguan (1 night)-->Turpan (1 night)-->Urumqi (1 night)-->Kashgar and surrounding area (5 nights)-->Urumqi (1 night)-->Dunhuang (2 nights)-->Zhangye (2 nights)-->Xining (1 night). Total of 21 nights (19 hotel and 2 overnight train) on the road in provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang, and Qinghai. .

Another Adventure was scheduled immediately after as an overland route Xining-Chengdu, details in a future thread. Xining was selected as the logical changeover between the Silk Road and the Tibetan area adventures.

Omitted from Itinerary: From advance research, the following locations were eliminated, mostly for poor reward-for-effort returns on my own Travel Value Scale. My reasoning:
--Tian Chi (north of Urumqi). Has turned into a big tourist trap for Chinese bus tour groups. Overnight individual trips somewhat better, but scenery not worth the money and aggravation.
--Kanas Lake (north Xinjiang). Reports from the last several years are that this region has similarly been converted into a major attraction for Chinese bus tours. With new high entry fees and fairly expensive (or lengthy) access logistics, better value and experience in Karakul Lake area of south Xinjiang.
--Yining (Yili or Ili). Chinese rhapsodize about the beauty of the grasslands out here, but foreigners I talked to said disappointing, not that impressive. Later confirmed by my Kashgar guide whose family was from Ili area—said not that impressive.
--Korla and Kuqa. Two desert cities between Urumqi and Kashgar. Kuqa has a few things of historical interest but not enough different and unusual to cause me to spend another long period on a train (or desert bus) accessing. Korla modern and unenticing.
--Hotan (Hetian). Mixed reviews from people who’ve gone there, but generally not sufficiently different from Kashgar to warrant a special trip out there, and backtracking overland is time consuming; or plane out to Urumqi is expensive. Also, word on the grapevine was that Han-Uighur tensions were rising sharply in Hotan and I didn’t want to get in the middle of a potential violent boilover.
--Southern Silk Road. The long route back from Kashgar through Hotan to Ruoqiang, then back road into Qinghai province and to Golmud, then to Xining. Very arduous and time-consuming on a series of buses, even though roads have been improved in this area. Would have taken 4-5 days to make Kashgar-Golmud, time I felt better spent elsewhere. Some segments of this route also require foreigners to get travel permit.from the local PSB/police, and while obtainable, just an extra hassle I didn’t want. I had some unease about doing this route as a solo woman. .

Including all of the above into this trip would have realistically taken an additional 2 weeks of time. Distances are long out there!

Intercity Transportation Methods: Heavily overland-based trip. I had the time and preferred to replicate a modern version of an entire Silk Road journey

Train tickets:
1) Beijing-Xi’an, soft sleeper lower berth on the Z53 overnight express, 12+ hours, RMB 447.
2) Xi’an-Lanzhou, soft sleeper lower berth on the K861 early morning train, 8.5 hours, RMB 269
3) Lanzhou-Zhangye, soft seat on the T9205 seat-only day train, 5 hours, RMB124
4) Jiayuguan-Turpan, soft sleeper lower berth on the T193 overnight, 10.5 hours, RMB 357. (I hedged my bets for getting out of Jiayuguan, and also purchased the same type ticket for another journey the following morning, with the intention of later returning the ticket I didn’t want once I got to Jiayuguan and surveyed the situation)

All the above were obtained by me in Beijing at a remote ticketing office prior to departure, and purchased sequentially as the 10-day before departure sales period opened up for each. :

5) Urumqi-Dunhuang, soft sleeper lower berth on the no-letter 1086, 11 hours, RMB 307. Purchased by me in Jiayuguan train station when the 10-day period opened.

6) Dunhuang-Zhangye, soft sleeper lower berth on the K592, 7 hours, RMB 237. Purchased by me in Kashgar train station when the 10-day period opened.

This is a good example of a trip with lots of long distances requiring overnight sleepers for any hope at comfort or rest, and which are usually heavily subscribed. Hence, the importance of taking the time to grab the preferred tickets as soon as they come available for sale.

Intercity Bus tickets:
1) Zhangye-Jiayuguan, morning bus, 4.5 hours part surface part expressway, RMB 52 x 2 seats = RMB 104.
2) Turpan-Urumqi, afternoon bus, 2 hours by expressway, less than 3 hours, RMB 45 x 2 seats = RMB 90
3) Zhangye-Xining, morning bus, 7.5 hours by secondary national road, RMB 76 x 2 seats = RMB 152.

For comfort on long-distance coaches and to keep my daypack with valuables and computer close to me, I normally purchase a pair of bus seats, typically day in advance of travel.

Intercity Flights:
1-2) Urumqi-Kashgar and Kashgar-Urumqi.
Purchased online from www.travelzen.com about 15-16 days before travel. Doing so ensured decent early-bird discount prices (all-in RMB 560 outbound and RMB 620 return). Since I had already decided to omit Korla and Kuqa, there was no need to do overland. And the 24-hour train to Kashgar was not appealing to me, as I prefer to limit a single train journey to maximum 14-15 hours, even on an overnight sleeper.

Hotel Reservations: On this trip, reservations were generally made several days to a week in advance. I used the following booking services:
www.ctrip.com (Jiayuguan, Dunhuang)
www.elong.net (Xi’an, Urumqi, Kashgar, Xining)
www.sinohotel.com ( Lanzhou, Turpan)
walk-up (Zhangye)
included in Karakoram Highway tour (Tashkorgan, Karakul Lake, Kashgar final day)

All bookings were cancellable up to 24 hours ahead of time, nothing required prepayment, all were pay on arrival with some locations requiring a credit card for first night guarantee. Deposits were done mostly through cash RMB, refunded upon departure. I paid cash for all hotel rooms.

Travel Planning: This particular trip required a bit more advance planning than I normally do for China trips, in large part because of the logistical needs and acquisition of train tickets. And to a great extent, the desire to be in Kashgar for the Sunday Animal Market, so the trip was built around a date for this event, in both forward and backward directions. Scheduling between Xi’an and Kashgar on the outbound journey necessitated skipping one of the stops along the way to make the Kashgar Market. This ended up being Dunhuang...which is why it was deferred to the return, east-bound journey. In retrospect this was not the right choice (which I will explain later in the trip report).

Now on to the Tales!

jiejie

This journey actually started with an overnight train from Beijing West Station. Getting from Dongzhimen to Beijing West in late afternoon/early evening rush hour traffic was a 1.25 hour, separate adventure in and of itself, and the station itself was the usual madhouse, but once aboard, things were great. I had a lower soft sleeper berth in the Z53, with only 2 (1M, 1F) compartment mates, both clean and quiet. One untaken berth, very unusual. Our carriage was only about 2/3 full, extremely unusual. After a relatively decent night’s sleep, I arrived at Xi’an on time about 08:30.

Xi’an Main Station is still an overworked old dump—they’ve needed to renovate this place for years. Better yet, call in an air strike and start over. Found my way to the taxi stand and had to wait in the queue a bit, made chit-chat with my neighbor, very nice. Got a cab and found hotel without trouble—right down street running into station, only about 10 minutes by taxi but too far to walk with bags. Was able to check in right away, get set up, catch my breath, and then headed out about 11 am just as the sunny day was really getting hot.

I have been in Xi’an previously on other occasions and have pretty much seen all the normal tourist places such as the Warriors, Drum Tower, Great Mosque, etc. So this visit was pared down to a very minimal list connected to the Silk Road, only one of which I had not seen. First was a walk down to the Old City Walls, to take in the latest development, of which there has been a tremendous amount in the city in the last 5-8 years. It’s not nearly the dreary industrial dump that it used to be, at least not the central zone. But I had sort of forgotten how big and spread out Xi’an is, if you are on foot. I was so taken with my luck at having a lovely late spring day, with a blue sky and puffy little clouds, and little air pollution, that after getting near the South Gate, I realized I was about to fade away with heat and hunger.

After a/c cooldown and food, I headed over to the top of my Must-Do list and something that would get me into the spirit of the Silk Road: the Shaanxi History Museum (formerly called the Shaanxi Provincial Museum). This Museum is quite a distance away from my then-location at the South Gate, and an empty cab proved a fruitless search—which was to be a common theme on this trip. Time for Alternate Transportation, a pedicab driver who wanted a ridiculous RMB 30 but I got him down a bit to 25. He was a hoot and very curious about my life, and I found him slowing to a crawl just to prolong the conversation. But I couldn’t get mad at him, even though it took longer than normal. Got into the line for free tickets to the Museum, only to realize that after 10 minutes of crawling along with little movement, my time was being wasted in the hot sun. Switched to the pay-for-your-ticket line and for RMB 20, got in immediately. Note: As you look at the front of the Museum from the front (south) square, the Free ticket booth is on the left near the street, the Paid ticket booth on the right directly opposite. Normally there will be a queue at the Freebie booth, but none at the paid. You’ll need to show your passport if you want to do the Freebie. IMO, spend the RMB 20 and head inside to greener pastures (and friendlier air temperatures)..

This Museum is an excellent one; everything is well presented. This facility’s permanent collection focuses on everything up to the Tang Dynasty—in other words, up to the time Xi’an lost its status as the pre-eminent northern capital. Although I’d been here years before, I again went through the exhibits sequentially, noting that there were quite a few people here for a non-weekend. Although only some of the exhibits fit specifically into the Silk Road trip theme, I didn’t mind looking at everything else and once again, learned some new insights on Chinese history. After the main permanent collection building, I took a quick walk outside then went to the monograph exhibits—one of Shang culture and one of Treasures of the Tang Dynasty. Very few people were in these, which was a shame, as the Tang Dynasty treasures were brilliant. I think all the paid tickets holders had this included, but the freebie holders did not, so they skipped it rather than pay extra. Note: Yet another reason to get the paid ticket, as the temporary/rotating exhibits at this Museum are likely to be very worthwhile, whenever you happen to come. I spent a total of about 2-ish hours in all, and suggest that others planning a visit try to block out a similar amount of time.

Upon exiting, of course I couldn’t find an empty taxi, so asked a woman at a bus stop about possibilities to get back towards my hotel area, which she graciously told me how to do. Xi’an buses will get you there, but not in style. Come on Xi’an! You are a relatively well-off city. Yet your public bus rolling stock is a collection of outdated jalopies, worn out, non airconditioned, and a disgrace—even smaller, poorer cities have better physical equipment. And shall I also mention that most of these other cities have drivers that don’t keep slamming on their brakes and sending passengers sprawling in the aisle like dominoes. Sheesh, get with it and upgrade the buses along with the train station. OK, mini-rant over.

After an interminable bus ride that took me way out of the way down and around the Big Goose Pavilion, eventually I got back to the hotel. After a cool shower and leg/foot rest, I fell asleep but managed to get up in the early evening and walk over to the Muslim Quarter for some eats and ambience. On the way (again, on foot down side streets), I noted the new Subway line. Xi’an’s new system has opened with this first north-south line, and it goes to some useful places, including the North Train Station where the high-speed lines go. The Muslim Quarter was very crowded on a Friday night. I mostly stayed on the main pedestrian street and one side alley, snacking my way through dinner rather greasily but deliciously. After a bit of wandering with no particular purpose in mind, tried to find a taxi back to hotel but no empties. The bus system was completely inscrutable (or maybe my brain was nonfunctional at that point), so I sprung for another pedicab. RMB 30 non-negotiable. I had him take me over to Wanda Plaza shopping mall not too far from my hotel, so I could pick up some goodies at the large supermarket there, and also have a fresh Starbucks iced tea while musing about the Silk Road journeys of yore. This led to such interesting but rambling thoughts such as imagining Marco Polo stopping regularly for frappucinos as he made his way across the desert to Xi’an. Realizing I was exhausted and starting to lose the plot, I walked back to the hotel and called it a day.

jiejie

My first priority of the day was Hanyangling (Emperor Jindi’s Tomb) which is a relatively newer sight (opened to tourism about 2006 or 2007) that I hadn’t been to before. Emperor Jindi himself had nothing to do with the Silk Road, but his son, Emperor Wudi, was the fellow who really got the ball rolling on the Road’s development (reign 140 B.C. – 87 B.C.). It was Wudi who opened China up to trading and diplomatic missions both to and from Central Asia and points further west. (Wudi has his own tomb near Xingping called Maoling, but that was further west from Xi’an than I wanted to go and Hanyangling is considered the more interesting arrangement).

Based on information I had obtained the previous day, including from the Tourist Office, I decided to try to cheap out and use subway plus public bus #4, total cost of about RMB 10 to get out to the tomb, which is north of Xi’an and about halfway out to the airport. The walk from hotel to subway was interesting but smelly—as it went through Xi’an’s morning wholesale fish market (Noted to Self: avoid the seafood in Xi’an)—but the subway was very nice and clean with comfy a/c. Per instructions, hopped off at Zhangjiabao stop, which is a huge empty nexus in the middle of monumental boulevards, a cultural center, and government buildings. After getting 4 different suggestions for my bus stop location from four different people (typical China), I found the right place and the bus placard, after a bit of walking. Then waited...and waited... in vain for the 08:30 bus that never came. Finally asked a local lady waiting and she helpfully gave me a totally unintelligible explanation that I couldn’t understand, except that it was clear I was at the wrong bus stop for the wrong bus. In the end, I decided not to waste any more time and foot effort, and just get a cab. One came along almost immediately and took me out there. From Zhangjiabo, only took about 20 minutes and RMB 50 since it’s near the Airport Expressway entrance. From the center of Xi’an, probably double the time and maybe RMB 80-ish. The Tomb Exit is clearly marked off the expressway, then a drive of about 2 km to the entrance. Tip: GET A TAXI or car to take you to this place, it’s not worth wasting your time on the conflicting and convoluted public system. Note to Xi’an Tourist Authorities: Figure out what’s what with your special Tourist Bus Routes, and communicate to your employees staffing the information offices so they can actually help rather than send visitors on wild goose chases. Would be an extra-nice touch if you talked to your comrades at the bus authority to get those placards right at the bus stops. Grrr.

Once there, Hanyangling itself was great. Few other visitors were around when I (finally) arrived about 9 am. Admission is RMB 80 and there is an additional RMB 10 for the 3D movie (pay at ticket booth or inside at the theater). The tomb museum itself is interesting: underground and covering an entire multiple pit area. The one way path leads the viewer around and even over the pits, covered by clear walkway. You get covers to put on your shoes before you enter so as to minimize damage to the glass/plexiglas you’ll be walking over in some locations. Tip #1: It is very dark inside, so you need to take a small flashlight to read the descriptions next to the pits. Tip #2: Check your camera beforehand to see if it has a special ISO 3200 setting or something similar. Photography is permitted but not flash photography—and the latter wouldn’t do any good on most amateur equipment anyway. I found with the ISO 3200 setting, I could take decent pictures even in the gloom, sans flash. One of my favorite pits was the one with all the little rows of animals. This emperor was apparently a lot more interested in the domestic and gentle life rather than war, and the contents of his tomb pits reflect this. At the end of the pit exhibit, there is a 3D holographic movie about the life of the Emperor. It has presentation cycles of about 20 minutes. Outside of the museum, there is an open pit--covered with roof but no walls--showing excavation in progress. The actual tomb of the emperor himself is a large grass and scrub-covered mound, as is the empress’ tomb nearby. Those do not seem to have been excavated yet (or not for public viewing). The south gate/tower is under reconstruction until Sept 2012, so you can’t go down there but it didn’t look like one of the best features of this site.

All in all, I thought what was presented was great, but wished there had been more of it! The part of the site open to tourists is nowhere near the size and scale of the Warriors, but then, the crowds and the pesky touts aren’t there either. For those interested in history, I recommend a visit, and would allow about 1.5 hours at the site + 30 min each way to get there by taxi from Xi’an city. One could also see this place on the way to/from airport, if you had a driver or taxi willing to wait.

I did not have a specific plan to get back, but saw the mythical #4 Tourist Bus—decrepit and non aircon--actually waiting. Also the #10 Tourist Bus came while I was there. Then a taxi pulled up and let out 3 people so I got a ride back to Xi’an with that taxi, heading directly for my next stop the Little Goose Pagoda which has a fairly strong connection to the Silk Road. It was still only about 10:45. At the north gate where I was dropped off, there was the same dual-line arrangement as the Museum, for freebies (left queue, moving slow, need ID) and paid tickets (right queue, no wait, RMB 30 which I thought a bit steep). I paid up—I hate to wait.

The Little Goose Pagoda grounds, which I prefer to the Big Goose, is really more like a medium-size pleasant park with a few significant older structures. Lots and lots of gardens and trees rather than the typical concreted plazas. On a Saturday, lots of locals were there enjoying the outdoors, though it was clear and sunny weather and getting very hot. I like the main pagoda itself, but did not wish to spend additional cash or effort to climb it. It dates from around 700 A.D. at a time when the Silk Road was bringing not only commerce and diplomacy, but also various religions. One of the major historic structures at Little Goose is Jianfu Temple, which was an important Buddhist transcription center—I believe the third largest in China at the time. I also liked all the little “hitching post” steles with various human characters/caricatures carved on top. One negative, not unique to Little Goose, is how some of the buildings have been turned into souvenir shops masquerading as “folk art’ centers. I spent a relaxing 1.5 hours there, trying to stick to the shade. There was a new Xi’an Museum at the south end of the park but I took a pass on this, going back to the north exit again and then a 20 minute walk to just inside the south gate and lunch at a popular Chinese eatery, which wasn’t as phenomenal as I was led to believe.

The sun and heat was really draining, and having stupidly forgotten to put on sunscreen, my face/neck were pretty red from sun. Headed back to the hotel for another cool shower and curled up on bed again for a rest. I was really tired—what a slug!. I had half-hearted thoughts about going to see the Warriors again, then decided to punt them completely as it felt more like an obligation than a desire---and I’d already fulfilled that obligation before. Headed out for another walk around 6 pm when it was cooler. I had thought of heading down to the Big Goose pavilion area for dinner and to watch the evening musical fountain show at 21:00, but I had a very early wake-up scheduled to make a train the next morning, and couldn’t afford the time.

So unlike the usual frenetic Xi’an 2-day tourist visit, this one was pretty focused, relaxed, and contemplative.

Bottom Line: Xi’an is a rather crucial city to understand Chinese history, particularly prior to around 1400. Logistically, it is big and spread-out--so you must allow time to get between places when planning a trip, in addition to allowing proper time at the places themselves. It is very hot in the summer months, so if coming in June, July, or August, you may not be as efficient at packing in the sightseeing as you could be at cooler times of year. For the history buff, Xi’an can easily fill two or three full days of sightseeing (including 1/2 day at the Warriors), excluding travel to/from the city. For the non-history buff that wants to just hit the highlights, 1.5 days is enough. And IMO, the highlights include: Warriors (of course), Hanyangling Tomb, Shaanxi History Museum, City Walls (get on top if not too rainy or dusty), Muslim Quarter. I put the Goose Pavilions, Stele Museum, and other sites as less of a priority to the general visitor without a special interest. Of course, there are many alternative opinions about top priorities in Xi’an....or even whether Xi’an should be included on an itinerary. That’s a personal decision.

But to properly address the Silk Road, Xi’an is a must for either the start (westbound) or end (eastbound) of the journey.

PTravel

Great reports, JieJie. We spent around 10 days in Xi'an one winter and enjoyed it immensely. We felt the same about Big and Little Goose Pagodas.

Looking forward to the next installment.

8dimsum

+1^ Lucky to get these great reports!

mnredfox

+1. Now jiejie, what is the secret to getting so much vacation to finance these great trips?

trueblu

Having regretably not been able to explore China much yet, really enjoying vicariously travelling to these sites, and using your experiences to plan our own trips in due course.

tb

Chihster

Wow!!! Jiejie, you are awesome!! Wish I can do something like this one of these days!

^^

jiejie

My early train timing (about 5 a.m.) out of Lanzhou required a horribly early wake-up. The only bonus was being able to get an empty taxi immediately (amazing, at 4 in the morning!) and having zero traffic to fight my way through! And the emptiness around Xi’an rail station at that hour was as good as it ever gets. Although again, Xi’an main station is such an outdated and uncomfortable facility that the wait inside the overly warm and filthy waiting area seemed interminable. My train, which originated in Wuhan, was a little late getting into Xi’an so boarding didn’t start until 5. Got to my soft sleeper carriage to find 3 other people already there, still sleeping. Tried to stretch out and nap a bit until 8 a.m. Tip: Try to catch a sleeper train at its origin, so the berth will be freshly made-up rather than pre-used like my situation on this train.

The journey from Xi’an to Lanzhou is a medium length one—about 8 hours—and if overnight, is acceptable for getting decent rest. In the daytime, the noise and activity level is higher so while not conducive to good sleeping, it’s at least a relatively cheap way to get between the two, and it’s nice to have a space of one’s own to stretch out. Around 8, I finally gave up trying to sleep and got up to meet my compartment mates who were in various stages of eating breakfast: a Wuhan professor on his way for business to Lanzhou, a younger man, and older woman—all nice people. We talked off and on for about 2 hours then everyone settled back in for naps, reading, computer, etc. One of our interesting topics was the unusually bad air pollution situation in Wuhan where they had originated. While air in Wuhan is never great, there was a strange enough situation that the US Embassy had sent out special warning notices to citizens on the email message system. Rumors were that there had been some sort of major industrial accident, but officially per the Chinese government, it was due to farmers burning off the stubble in their fields. My Chinese traveling companies were scoffing at the government explanation. If you speak a bit of Chinese, you can really get some interesting “man-on-the-street” opinions from your impromptu traveling companions. Many truths are told in the Chinese train sleeper compartment!

I had made the decision to go straight to Lanzhou to make some logistics work out, and skip the city of Tianshui which is a stop part-way between the two cities in the interest of time. However, readers might note that Tianshui has a group of famous Buddhist caves, Maijishan Grottoes, which could be worth an overnight stopover on a Silk Road journey, a general East Gansu exploration, or an overnighter out of Xi’an. Xi’an and Tianshui are also well-connected by intercity bus using the expressway, which might actually be preferable to dealing with train seats and the ugly Xi’an main station. If seriously interested in Buddhist cave art (murals and sculpture), look into a visit to Maijishan.

In addition to Maijishan near Tianshui, Lanzhou has another cave and temple complex of Bingling Si, which is a bit of work to get to via a boat ride on a reservoir. Fitting this in logistically takes much of an extra day in Lanzhou, which I didn’t want to do on the outbound journey, so I skipped it with a vague plan to possibly stop by on the return journey, should I decide to route back through Lanzhou. All along the Silk Road, wherever Buddhists could find a soft enough rocky cliff to carve, they made cave grottoes and filled them with an assortment of wonderful artwork and artifacts.

Arrival in Lanzhou was nearly on-time at 13:00, and with a bunch of up and down stairs between me and the station exit, I decided to save my back by opening my wallet and giving the porter waiting on the platform RMB 10 to haul my suitcase to the front plaza with me following him. Good investment. A short walk to the taxi queue, which wasn’t very organized but wasn’t very long either, so quickly got a cab and had a rather hot ride 15-20 minutes to hotel. Taxis really don’t like to turn on the a/c here any more than they do in Beijing. My hotel looked promising from the lobby but less so in the room. Clearly, the hotel has seen better days and is in need of renovation, but for only one night, I decided to just stick with it for RMB 200. But I’ve had better hotels for less in China.

Lanzhou during Silk Road times was a reasonably important communications city and stopover. However, little evidence remains in the city from these times. The Gansu Provincial Museum has exhibits of some relevant pieces of this history, but I decided not to go there since I wasn’t in the mood, and there would be other museums on this journey to come. My free time in Lanzhou was limited to that afternoon and the plan was to primarily walk around the central city and to the riverfront, taking pictures. Also, I wanted to take advantage of that rarest of commodities—a beautiful blue sky day in Lanzhou! Lanzhou, due to geography and surrounding mountains, is famous for some of the worst air pollution in China (yes, even worse than Beijing’s), and as it is an industrial city, nice days are few and far between. So, rather than being inside in a Museum, it seemed a better idea to wander around in the Great (but Hot) Outdoors. It was also Sunday, which meant lots of local families would be wandering around and doing leisure things...which always makes for good photo opportunities.

I first took a walk down to the Xiguan Mosque, then past the big bus station and to the Yellow River. Which looked uninviting shades of brown, but the current was moving quite rapidly. There’s a great iron bridge across which is pedestrian-scaled so lots of walkers and lookers. The iron bridge itself is of relatively recent vintage (early 20th century) but is on the site of an early Ming dynasty floating bridge...the first bridge ever built across the Yellow River. From the bridge and the riverfront, there are good views of the Yuan-dynasty Baita Temple up on the hill opposite, though I decided not to actually walk up the hill to the temple as it was too hot and sunny. Then continued my walk in search of a food street I saw mentioned on the internet.

Lanzhou city isn’t renowned for much in the way of meaningful tourist sights, but it does have a reputation for good food. After checking out some restaurant storefronts and looking over my options, I chose a Hui BBQ place that looked like it did a lot of skewers. The Hui people are Chinese ethnically but Muslim religion, and on the Silk Road, you see them with increasing frequency as you move from Xi’an to Lanzhou to points west. Tip: if you are a rabid pork lover, best to get over it once you hit Lanzhou and head west. Pork starts getting harder to find. At any rate, in this restaurant I was obviously a novelty being a foreigner, and got quite a few friendly stares and smiles. I ordered a bunch of young lamb skewers, rice, and ganbian siji dou (spicy green beans, stir fried). My goodness, everything was insanely delicious, though a bit hot! Satisfying and easy on the wallet. Starting having pangs of regret that I wasn’t going to be staying another day, as I spotted a lot of little places I’d like to eat my way through! (Typical jiejie, always thinking about stuffing her face.)

Next I set off to find the nearby old Qiong Temple and Meeting House. Turns out, it was a big weekend local flea market selling coins and currency, rocks, tchotchkes, memorabilia, etc. And then Fate Happened—I spotted something I’d been looking for in Beijing for years but could never manage to find--a really cool, absolutely genuine, Cultural Revolution Mao alarm clock. The wood was beat up but the lady showed the mechanism still worked (manual wind and set). She wanted RMB 380 for it, which was way too much and likely my foreign face. I looked around some more through the market but didn’t see anything else like it, so went back, but couldn’t get her below RMB 250. So a deal was done, and I ended up with an unexpected purchase which I’d have to baby and cart around the rest of this trip, but would do so happily. Tip for the Shoppers: If deliberately looking for specialty items like this, flea markets and shops in smaller non-touristy cities are a much better bet than Beijing and Shanghai or major tourist centers like Guilin. In those places, the good, authentic stuff has long since been picked clean. Especially for items from Republic, War, and Cultural Revolution periods.

Then I headed down Lanzhou’s big pedestrian shopping street, which is mostly clothes. A quick-rising surprise sandstorm sent everybody running and me back to my hotel to call it quits for the night, after buying more water. It was at this point I started noticing the true shortcomings of the hotel room: besides being one of the smallest (I should have protested and gotten a bigger room but now too late) and having little artificial lighting, the shower was a disaster. It was an enclosed glass stall but as with so many things in China, just plain shoddily built. The floor sloped not to the drain, but to the rest of the room, which I discovered too late after covering the entire room with literally an inch of water. Oy. Decided not to call housekeeping and further disrupt my evening but mop it up as best I could and make do. I was to be out of there early in morning anyway.

Next morning I was up and checked out by 6 a.m. so it ended up being a short night of sleep. At this point, I just wanted to get to the train station and get the heck out of Dodge. With the hotel situation a sour note, I did not regret foregoing an extra day to “see” Lanzhou and what little it had to offer. Surprisingly, got a taxi outside the hotel with almost no wait, resulting in getting to the station earlier than I expected. Had to wait a bit but at least upstairs waiting room was reasonably clean and not too chaotic. A porter went around looking for bags and I offered up mine since I feared the dreaded up-and-down stairs across multiple platforms. Actually, a porter turned out to be unnecessary since my boarding gate ramped down to the nearest train platform. However, having the porter did allow me and other porterees to go through first, and porter lifted up bag into train, so I could get settled early. This train was a soft and hard seat only, no sleepers, as it was a daytime area-run train between Lanzhou and Jiayuguan. I had a few minutes to contemplate a brief overview of Lanzhou:

Pros: Good food. OK people.
Cons: Mostly unattractive city, general hotel situation (Lanzhou doesn’t have very good offerings), pollution (unless you get lucky like I did). Also Note: airport is a LONG way away from city and an expensive ride in, so use of train in and out is often preferable unless coming from a very distant city.

Bottom Line: Lanzhou, both in Silk Road times and today, seems mostly a place that people go to on their way to somewhere else, rather than a destination. In my case, that somewhere else was Zhangye, a little-known small city today but once important on the Silk Road.

Chihster

Jiejie,

Out of curiosity, being a (I presume) female traveling (presume again) by herself through some rather very local places/means, do you feel at any point "dangerous"? Is this a fairly safe traveling or do you recommend only for the strong-at-heart?

Thanks.

jiejie

You presume correctly on both counts. Response: I have found China to be one of the safest countries in the world for a woman traveling alone. IME, perhaps only Burma is safer. However, I still observe universal common sense precautions such as not walking down dark alleys alone very late at night, and keeping control of my surroundings (and drinks) in social establishments. I prefer at least a few people around when hiking in national parks and things--though with Chinese domestic tourism, that issue takes care of itself, as solitude is hard to find even when you want it.

The only place that I decided to forego, where being a female alone was a consideration, was the Southern Silk Road route. A lot of this was based on long bus rides in the middle nowhere and some sketchy places to have to stay on the route.

A strong heart is therefore, not a critical prerequisite to traveling alone in China, but a strong sense of patience or humor or both is, especially if not a Mandarin speaker. And it can get a bit lonely with nobody to talk to in your own language if on the road for long stretches in non-foreign touristed areas. But I don't find it all that challenging. In most of China, infrastructure is pretty good, a bed and food are always around somewhere, and in times of need, an appeal to any local woman will normally produce help. Just today I was waiting in a bus station and had a local woman come up to me, check my ticket, and make sure I was in the right place in front of the right boarding gate, and that the ticket-taker knew to "take care of me."

mnredfox

I am not female so will let jiejie answer this (or other single females traveling), but in general traveling around China by yourself (unless you've spent years in China and are pretty fluent in the language) is IMO a brave thing to do. But also VERY adventurous and fulfilling.

moondog

As you'll probably recall, I did the northern route myself 6 years ago during the May Holiday, but I started in Kashgar and came back east. Actually, my initial plan was to meet up with my friends there, spend a few days checking out the sites/mountains, and fly back, but when I arrived, I learned that my friends had already purchased a train ticket for me to go to Kuche... so off I went.

I was hoping to make it back to Beijing by the end of the holiday period (suffice it to say, this didn't happen), so I monitored ctrip on a daily basis in order to figure out which cities had the most practical flights to Beijing. At the time, Wulumuchi, Dunhuang, Jiayuguan, Lanzhou, and Xi'an were the only choices (if you get much further than Xi'an, you might as well stick it out over land).

I found that Lanzhou-PEK flights were a good value in comparison to the other choices, with Dunhuang being very expensive, though I will admit that its airport was the most conveniently located field I've ever seen in China.

Anyway, when I got to Lanzhou, I strategically booked a hotel right next to the airport bus stop (perhaps they have multiple routes, but the LP only mentioned one), enjoyed a day/night in Lanzhou (which, kind of reminded me of Hong Kong), and headed to the airport. The bus was in the same price range as airport buses in other cities (e.g. ~y20), the ride was very scenic, and the airport was as efficient as can be.

This post is a roundabout way of me saying that Lanzhou is a decent drop-off point for people who have seen Xi'an, and don't have a lot of time to spare.

Excellent reporting, by the way; I'm most looking forward to your Turpan installment.

jiejie

This day train between Lanzhou and Jiayuguan was completely full up, so I was glad I had advanced purchased (in Beijing) a ticket for soft seat. It was comfortable enough for the 5-hour journey to the small city of Zhangye and I had a window seat. Not too far outside Lanzhou, the industrial city gave way to a lot of bleak, dry, dune-less scrubby land (not quite a “desert”) interspersed periodically with reasonably lush agricultural fields. I am now in Gansu’s Hexi Corridor, the “bridge” between Xinjiang and Central Asia, and Eastern China.

Long ago, the main road of the Silk Road located itself by default in the Hexi Corridor, a relatively narrow neck of traversable land bracketed by the Tibetan Plateau and Qilian mountain range on the south, and somewhat lower mountain range and desert on the north. A map of Gansu illustrates this quite clearly. The Hexi Corridor, which extends from far western Gansu province on the west, to near Lanzhou on the east, is almost 1000 km and formed the backbone of the main Silk Road Route for centuries. It still maintains this function today in the modern PRC. Along the Hexi Corridor route, towns sprung up in places that had regular access to water, becoming the pit-stops on the ancient Road. Some, like Jiayuguan and Dunhuang, are still famous in modern times. Others, like Zhangye, which was also an old military garrison town known as Ganzhou, have been forgotten by most people except those in the immediate region. I got wind of Zhangye by doing some casual research and found it had at least four places that interested me, and was reputed to be an overall pleasant place. Curious and also wanting a place to break up the journey from Lanzhou to Jiayuguan, I put Zhangye on the itinerary plan from the beginning.

About 1.5 hours before getting to Zhangye, my seatmate and quite a number of others exited the train at Jinchang, which appeared to be an overgrown town with a lot of surrounding agriculture and a little light industry. I mention Jinchang because it is a little-known access point for trips to the Badain Jaran desert, via travel from Jinchang to Alashan Youqi by car. The Badain Jaran has humongous fixed sand dunes (bigger than those around Dunhuang) and is reputed to be a good trip. However, early in planning, I decided to pass on it since there didn’t seem to be any join-in groups, and I didn’t want to be alone out there with just a guide and driver. And I was going further west. If you want to see dune-style desert in China and aren’t heading out to Xinjiang, the Badain Jaran could be a more accessible and less expensive option, though expect it to take 3 days to make it worthwhile, and likely some camping will be involved. You can get to Alashan Youqi from Zhangye as well, but it adds time to the road trip.

In due course, I would continue my journey overland through the Hexi Corridor to Jiayuguan and then out the western end into Xinjiang, but for now, it was time to check out Zhangye.

Zhangye being a small city (maybe less than 300,000 people in the town itself), a narrative would typically be proportionally shorter than for a sight-heavy place like, say, Xi’an. However, since there isn’t a lot of usefully descriptive material out on the internet about Zhangye, I’m going to take the opposite tack and make my contributions to internet information comparatively longer to help fill the gap and shape some context.

jiejie

Approaching Zhangye, the landscape was much the same and not particularly inspiring, some light industry and lots of agricultural fields. The Zhangye area has a confluence of a number of streams (runoff mostly from the Qilian mountains) which makes agriculture a viable prospect in the normally dry Corridor. I arrived at Zhangye station not knowing what to expect and not having a hotel reservation, just names, addresses, and phones of a few hotels. Quite a number of people also got off the train here. I quickly found taxis outside—and saw that unusually for China, many drivers seem to be fairly young women, as was mine. I invited two young university students returning to Zhangye to ride along into town, and had her drop me off in front of Fushun Dasha Hotel in the middle of town, so I could take a look and perhaps get a room. She didn’t use the meter but asked for RMB 15, which ended up feeling about right given the distance. Zhangye railhead and station is several km north of the main city. The driver also gave me her card and based on the conversation we had enroute, told me to call her if I wanted to go to the Danxia Landform later for RMB 180 round trip, and advised me that the best time to leave Zhangye for Danxia was about 4:00 pm. (More on Danxia a bit later.)

Hotel Woes Strike Early in Trip!

Anybody who follows a Jiejie adventure knows that sooner or later, there is going to be a hotel problem somewhere. Guaranteed. On this trip, trouble struck fairly early. But a resolution happened by interesting method, which might be of use to somebody in a future similar pickle.

It was about 13:30. when I got to town, quite sunny and warm, and most of the streets had few locals about—likely eating and napping, like sensible people should do in summer midday heat. I went inside the Fushun Hotel to a crabby and disgruntled receptionist who told me rooms were full except for the “Executive Suite”. At RMB 180 a night, I told her I’d take a look first. Oh goodness, what a dump, even though it was a huge 3 room-suite! Thin walls, dirty, old, unspeakable mattresses, firetrap, smoky from other patrons—haven’t seen a place this bad in a long time. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. So much for (Chinese) online reviews that said it was a good hotel. Flew out the door to the street and went looking for next place on the list, the Zhangye Hotel. I had a map that pinpointed the place in an obvious location near the Reclining Buddha Temple (Dafo), and a phone number, but for some reason I couldn’t find it and they weren’t answering their phone. After wandering around a square looking puzzled, I approached an art shop where the proprietor responded to my question with a finger point to the beautiful square with sculpture and flowers, saying “Oh the old Zhangye Hotel used to be there, but last year we tore it down and put the square in.” Yikes! No wonder they weren’t answering their phone! Nothing I could do but have a laugh, a rest, and a cold water with the proprietor and lament all the silly situations I find myself in while traveling around China.

Next I called a couple of hotels on my list that were heading up the class scale—they were all full. Then I did what normal travelers in China do: I called ctrip’s English number, which I have programmed into my mobile. Unfortunately, ctrip had little in its database for Zhangye, just three in-town “best” and more expensive RMB 300-500 per night hotels (two of which I’d already called in vain). Ctrip had the same sad news I’d found out myself. Sold Out? In Zhangye? Whatever was going on in this place?! A call to sinohotel yielded the same, no joy there either. After pondering my options, which included that Old Standby Plan B of getting arrested by the police and having free room and board at their jail (OK, just kidding ), I flagged down an empty taxi, got in and told him my lodging trouble, and asked if he knew of any decent hotels. He said “Sure” and delivered me to the Jinshun Hotel right next to the West Bus Station, which happened to be exactly where I’d need to head out from in 2 days’ time--sweet. He waited while I took a look to make sure it was OK. Unlike the Fushun, the reception staff at this hotel were very friendly (no English spoken though) and happy to see a foreigner on their doorstep, showed me a room which was great for RMB 180—not huge but serviceable enough and clean, plus at least the shower had a catch pan so water didn’t get the entire bathroom wet. Basically, just a nice little local hotel. Signed on immediately for a couple of nights and told my taxi driver thanks (with a little extra for him on the fare). Tip: In smaller town China, sometimes when all else fails, asking a taxi driver for his suggestions is not a bad gambit for things like lodging and restaurants. A quick settle-in accomplished, and just before 15:00 I was out the door to take care of two errands and a look-see around town.

The First Afternoon Rapidly Gets Better

While I had done advance research on Zhangye—which didn’t take long since there isn’t much information out there either in English or Chinese—I hadn’t made any advance arrangements for sightseeing. However, before sightseeing there were two critical errands to be done: Errand #1 was to get clean clothes, as Zhangye was a designated Jiejie laundry stop. The hotel didn’t do laundry for customers, but one of the receptionists was happy to walk me 5 minutes down the street to a local hole-in-the-wall family laundry place that could do my 2 pants and 4 shirts for RMB 30 total, pick up next evening. Errand #1 accomplished. Tip: In smaller towns and cities, laundry is unsurprisingly usually cheaper...but also there are more likely to be independent mom-and-pop places that will do for reasonable per-piece price or by the kilo. So, if there is a small town or city on your itinerary and you have at least two nights there, make it a laundry stop and get the process going when you first hit town, since usually they can’t finish until next day.

Errand #2 was an exploratory walk from my hotel through the commercial area to the main public square, to get my bearings and to find the tourist information office at the square and ask about available tours or options to both the Danxia Landform Geopark and the nearby Buddhist cave carvings and temple at Mati Si. Each of these are about an hour-ish away from Zhangye city, in different directions. A very friendly young man (no English) was on duty and gave me the bad news that there just wasn’t enough demand to put regular group or join-in tours to these places. He suggested that I try a commercial travel agent around the corner and see if they had anything going. He also told me that backup options were taxi to/from Danxia and public bus to Mati Si. And he gave me a free map (Chinese-only) of Zhangye City and region. A quick visit to the very nice ladies at the travel agency produced the same problem, there just wasn’t enough tourism at that time where they could offer something that could be joined into by solos and couples. Errand #2 was a strike out, but I was liking the natives and there was always a Plan B, even if it would be more expensive for a soloist.

I decided that I really wanted to accomplish two sightseeing missions before sundown: The Reclining Buddha Temple and the Danxia Landform. Called my previous young lady-from-the-train station driver who definitely remembered me and said the offer was still on. I confirmed her price and made a pick-up time for 16:30 out front of the Buddha Temple, which would give me an hour to visit that before meeting my driver.