I’m back in Beijing. Where to begin…the trip was amazing!!!! First off, I’m safe. Thanks to those who texted and checked on me while I was on the road. To those who emailed me, I will respond to your emails soon! I start training for the volunteer program on 5/23 and will be staying in a hotel with the rest of the volunteers. I will head off to Henan on 5/26 and will be there for a month but I’ll have my iPhone on me so stay in touch!
Here’s a brief summary of what happened on this trip (this post is only about the first day of my trip. It's taking up way too much time to upload the pix so I'll post about the other days later)
- Transportation used this week: camel, horse, motorcycle, car, bus, train and air plane. Let me know if there’s anything else I missed but should try ;)
- Climed a sand mountain in the Ming Sha sand dunes, crossed the Gobi desert and part of the Qilian snow mountains to see the 7.1 glacier.
- Saw three of the most famous Passes (customs in ancient China) in China.
- Broke one digital camera (the new Canon one) and one slr lens (the Nikon one)
- Spent most on entrance fees (it’s ridiculous!! Nothing’s under 100 rmb. I remember back when people could do a lot with 100 rmb…now it’s nothing! Current conversion rate: 1usd =6.6 rmb)
- Got chased by a Tibetan mastiff - scariest thing ever happened to me I think...
- Got free lunch and dinner multiple times because the locals kept treating me :)
- Made friends with backpackers from LA, India, Gansu, Anhui, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Sichuan, Shandong and Tianjin.
- Questions I got asked the most: Why would you want to travel along? Aren’t you scared? You’ve really got some guts to do this on your own. Where are your parents (most people thought I was 18 or 19. The oldest people thought was 22. Should I be flattered or sad that I still look like a kid?!)
So first I arrived in the Dunhuang airport in the middle of the Gobi desert. I was so excited to be in the middle of nowhere! And this is basically how I felt throughout the entire trip: by myself, alone, in the middle of no where…and super excited!
Here’s a picture of the gate of Dunhuang city. It’s typical for cities in western China to have gates like this. (took it on a cab so sorry for the bad quality)
The symbolic Feitian (flying apsaras, 飞天) statue of Dunhuang. There are paintings of these everywhere in the Mogao caves (the most famous buddhist heritage site in China, located in Dunhuang). In Buddhism, flying aparas only appear when the Buddhas are doing their sermons and reading the sutras.
My trip began with the Ming Sha sand dunes (鸣沙山). Ming Sha literally means “echoes of sands.” You can hear the sound of the sands echoing when there’s wind. In the middle of the desert, there’s the “Crescent Moon Lake (月牙泉),”which is a lake in the shape of a crescent moon. Because of its unique geographical location, the sands never get in the lake and the water has remained crystal clear.
I joined a few people to ride camels to the middle of the Ming Sha sand dunes so I could see the sunset. But unfortunately, a sandstorm swept through the desert and I didn’t end up seeing the sunset :( The locals told me that this type of stormy weather is actually rare in the desert there, but when it does occur, it's really bad for the crops in the fields. Just my luck to run into weather like this I guess! To me, the scariest thing about being in the desert is the sands blowing in my face and eyes. It was more painful than just traveling in the desert alone. I’ll get into more details later when I talk about my crossing the Gobi desert.
No one wanted to be the first one leading the camel team, so I did! It was my first time riding a camel but I handled it pretty well. They are such smart creatures! The locals told me that as long as you treat them well, they’ll do anything for you – pretty much like dogs. Each camel costs about 5000rmb and everyday they consume about 10-15rmb worth of food, which is a lot for maintenance.
Leaving everything behind and heading towards the famous Ming Sha sand dunes.
Yeah the sun didn't look too good...the storm was on its way!
My ride's got swag!
A camel trying to take a nap. Didn’t realize they nap like this…some woman was screaming: “omg, the camel’s dying. Help!” 汗 -_-
Are you kidding me? I need to climb up that thing to see the sunset?! Well, at least there were steps…
The storm's here!
You see those tires over there? I sat in one of those to slide down the sand dune. It rotated 360 degrees when I was half way down which was kind of wild…yeah, I thought I was going to end up with a mouthful of sand.
Riding a camel certainly wasn’t enough. I rented a “desert motorcycle” so I could see more of the sand dunes. The locals thought I was crazy (being a girl, tiny and everything) and one guy told me that even he has never ridden that thing before because it’s scary. Seriously though, it was similar to driving a car, except in the sands. I def. didn’t have any trouble maneuvering the motorcycle and I was racing across the dunes. Everything I did on this trip was super fun, but if I had to pick one thing to recommend to people, I’d say: ride the desert motorcycle! Race across the desert in the sand storms! Nothing beats that! Ahhh….so much fun!!!
My motorcycle buddy took these pix for me. I loved it there so much. If the weather was nice, the sands would look gold in the sun. Too bad the weather sucked…but I had plenty of fun already!
Check out the texture of the sands. The sands here are called: five-colored sands (五色沙). The colors are: red, yellow, green, black and white.
Finally made it to the Crescent Moon Lake. The annual precipitation rate is 50 mm, 48 times less than the annual evaporation rate which is 2400 mm. However, there is an under ground water source, thus why the lake has been around for (apparently) thousands of years.
A pagoda at the Crescent Moon Lake.
旱枣树. A special plant that’s only found in the deserts of west China. The tree produces dry dates. I had one at a local village house, it was pretty good. Imagine dates, but dry…lol
Made some new friends who offered to give me free tours of the city. I cannot stress enough how nice people of Gansu are. They are simple (in a good way) and extremely friendly. 纯朴，热情。So different from people from big cities! I was like, wow, Chinese people could be this nice?! (ok, is there a way to rotate images on blogger?! b/c its ridic that it doesnt have that function! i already spent so much time on this post and dont have time to reformat the images. photoshops on another computer...sorry for the trouble guys)
After getting back from the Ming Sha sand dunes, I visited the best restaurant locally for the famous “yellow noodles with donkey meat (驴肉黄面).” There’s a Chinese saying: 天上的鹅肉，地上的驴肉. Which means (ok my translation sucks so bear with me) when it comes to birds that fly in the sky, swan meat is the most delicious; when it comes to animals that run on the ground, donkey meat is the tastiest. And yes, donkey meat is the best meat I’ve ever had. Strongly recommended! I (P.S. my grandma made me eat deer meat today which she thinks beats donkey meat. But no, donkey meat is still the best!!!)
Local specialty drink: 杏皮水, “plum skin juice.” It was okay, just tasted like plum. Not a big fan.
I can’t believe I only finished the first day of my trip…I uploaded and went through thousands of pictures - took hours! I’ll post this one first and write up the other days later.
I’m so sleepy and tired, but HAPPY! Fei just arrived in Beijing (from RI) and I'm going to see her. YAY! I wish I could split myself into 10 people right now just to see how the people I need to see. So many people to see but there’s so little time. Maybe I should take a break after I get back from Henan then get on the road again? I really need some rest.
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