Arrival in Shanghai

Shanghai: Sunday, 9/29
Sunday was one of those days you can't help but look back on fondly. Not because we saw every major site, or or had a really good night out, but simply because we strolled the town with no itinerary at all.

We arrived at 10AM at Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport, and because it's the national holiday and all, we went straight to the train station to try and get our train tickets to Hangzhou for the following day. We hopped in a cab, and with the aid of a phrasebook we were on our way to the train station. We arrived 30 minutes later and began our search for where to buy the tickets. This would prove to be much more difficult than anticipated. As we emerged from the underground parking lot we were dropped off in, the first thing we saw were huge metal barriers preventing us from entering the train station with a long line of people weaving their way through them, tickets in hand, like a ride at disneyland. We knew right away that unlike any train station we were familiar with, at this one you don't buy the tickets inside. So, we asked a random person on the street in broken Chinese where we might buy our tickets. She pointed ambiguously one direction, and we obediently followed. After wondering for a bit we entered a building that looked more like a shipping office than anything, but it did say something about tickets from what we could decifer. We walked up to the teller who ignored us and said something in Chinese. A woman walked up, paper in hand, and exchanged it along with money for a ticket. This happened 2 more times, both times equally ignored, before we realized this wasn't going to work. We went back outside and called Jessica's family friend, Ann, who lived in Shanghai to see if she might be of some help. She didn't know about buying the tickets, but she did know Mandarin, so we got her to ask one of the guards receiving tickets where we might buy ours. He wrote something in characters (assumably where and when we wanted to go) and again pointed ambiguosly the opposite direction we had gone previously. After a bit of navigating we arrived at what appeared to be a ticket window (long lines, many teller windows, people with cash in hand). So we got in line. After a moment, I decided it might be best to ask just to be sure. Sure enough, the guard standing near by took one look at our Chinese instructions and pointed back the direction we came. A bit frustrated we started our treck back to where we'd first arrived. We asked another train employee who, as soon as he began giving directions, we immediately contradicted by another employee. They argued then decided we should go back to the first place (the shipping office) to buy our tickets. We left, disheartened, but willing to give it another shot. This time we took another approach: a young person who hoped would speak English. He didn't. But he did point a new direction. Having no other option, we were off. After a 5 minute walk we arrived at an office with a title translated in English "soft-seat train tickets." We went inside to find 5 train station employees standing around in an airconditioned room. We showed them the paper with our destination in Chinese, to which they replied "no tickets." We attempted to ask when there might be tickets, but every time we asked they just responded "no tickets no tickets no tickets." Failure. He directed us to a bus station nearby. We walked over there to an accentric woman yelling at another traveler in Chinese. We asked about tickets to Hongzhou, and she informed us we'd have to come back tomorrow: you can only buy bus tickets the day of travel in the same way that you can only buy train tickets from the train station you plan to depart from, meaning it is IMPOSSIBLE to plan ahead, unless you fly. This being the National Holiday, where everyone in China travels, I guess it was inevitable that this would happen. Buy hey, we're optimistic.

That was our first 2 hours in Shanghai. A hell of a welcome, right? Suprisingly enough, Matt, Jessica, and I weren't discouraged. (this might be because we didn't sleep the night before having been out until 3 at a "TBC intercultural event" where we met with our tutors and host students at a local bar where a few people on our program performed live). Anyway, dilerious as we were, we jumped in a cab and headed off to our hostel. This was an excursion in itself in that our cab driver clearly didn't understand the way street numbering works (the street numbers increase or decrease depending on which direction you go! who knew?). He got within a block of our hostel (1072 something something road). He stopped at 917 something something road (the numbers were increasing before we stopped), looked around, and proceeded to begin reversing down a one way street. We thought this peculiar but being exhausted and being in China, we let it go.. for a little while. He reversed down the street for a good 2 blocks before admitting that he had no idea where we were, and asked us to call our hostel for directions. We tried to tell him all he needed to do was go straight, but he wasn't having it. So he called the hostel, and sure enough they told him the same thing. So, driving forward this time, we were on our way. We got to 1012 before he decided he had absolutely no idea where he was again. He asked us again to call the hostel, but this time we all started pointing (admitedly rather violently) toward the hostel we could now SEE. He drove at a snails pace for another block for stopping in front of our hostel, thorougly confused.

Given our first 3 hours in Shanghai, on only the two ours of sleep we got on the plane, you'd think we'd be ready to strangle someone by now. But, surprisingly even now, we weren't. We strolled up to our hostel, got the key, dropped off our stuff, and left ready to start (or maybe restart) our day. We got directions via subway to The Bund, Shanghai's famous promenade and were on our way.

As stated as this post began, the rest of our day was fantastic. We got off the subway, mapless, and began our walk to the bund. Along the way we stopped in local shops, grabbed some lunch at a hole-in-the-wall noodle place, got some coffee at a French patisserie, and spent around an hour wondering a 7 floor bookstore before finally making our way to The Bund.

The Bund
Somtimes its better to use someone elses words to explain something. Lonely Planet: "Beijing has the Great Wall and Xi'an the Terracotta Army, but Shanghai has its Bund, a magnificent riverside sweep of masonry that grew with the rise of Shanghai and impassively watch the city's decline and renasissance... Nowhere else in Shanghai are the ebbing symbols of Western hegemony so deftly contrasted to the monuments of China's growing clout" pg. 10, "Shanghai Encounter," 2008.

The Bund


Probably the most interesting thing about the Bund was not the Bund at all, but the hundreds of Chinese police surrounding it. As we walked, we encountered numerous groups of 20-30 Chinese police officers standing around either waiting or preparing for something. As we walked we saw some with shields and helmets, and others with just little wooden chairs and boxes of water bottles. They seemed to also be guarding major venues, such as The Peace Hotel. One small section, the north end of the Bund was also closed off with police tape witha round 50 policemen sittling around inside the taped off area. We never found out why there were so many cops, I guess it just goes down as one more thing that has bewildered us in our short stay in China thus far.



Next we walked down Nanji East street to People's Square. This is the street famous for its shopping. Its a pedestrian walkway surrounded by first class stores (meaning they were well out of our price range). It was fun anyway, and we snapped a few pictures along the way.

People's Square


Around 6:30 we caught a cab to meeting Ann, Jessica's family friend for dinner. Ann works in Shanghai as a representative of Weight Watchers. Why would you need Weight Watchers in China you might ask? Well, apparently, 25% of the population is overweight. Conveniently McDonalds was introduced not too long ago. As was KFC, Burger King, Papa Johns etc etc. American culture is flooding the world. Great.

Anyway, Ann was a really cool lady. She gave us lots of info on what to do and see while here in Shanghai (much more than we could possibly see), and treated us to a really good dinner complete with a bottle of wine. After dinner we caught the subway home and turned in early, having been up for what seemed like days.

Shanghai Itinerary

ok so i failed miserably on getting caught up on everything before leaving for Shanghai. i had really hoped to have the silk road done and a few other little excursions i've gone on, but it just didn't happen. so, for now i leave you with my itinerary for the next week. i'll be back next saturday with some updates.

SUNDAY: Shanghai

MONDAY: Shanghai – Hangzhou
-Hangzhou = hiking and camping

TUESDAY: Hangzhou

WEDNESDAY: Hangzhou – Suzhou – Tongli
-Suzhou and Tongli = China's venice

THURSDAY: Tongli – Suzhou – Shanghai

FRIDAY: Shanghai

SATURDAY: Shanghai - Beijing

i know that's rough and incredibly vague, but i have to leave for the airport in 4 hours and i still need to pack.

so that's all for now, i'll see you in a week!

Silk Road Highlights

Picasa Album for this post:
Silk Road Highlights

So since I fell so far behind on blogging I'm gonna give you guys the highlights of the silk road in favor of getting to the more recent stuff. As always, check out the pics.

Xi'an
We arrived in Xi'an at 9:20AM via our 20hr train ride. I felt relatively rested despite my 6AM TaiChi wake up all. We took a quick bus ride to the hotel, which was really central, and had lunch on our own.

Historical Context: Xi'an
Unlike our previous 2 towns, Dunhuang and Jiayuguan, Xi'an exists for much more than just the sites around it. Xi'an served as capital to 11 dynasties over a period of 4,000 years, mostly notably the Western Zhou (11th century BC - 771BC), Qin (221BC - 206BC), Western Han (206BC - 24AD), and Tang (618 - 907). So, needless to say, there's a lot of history here. Actually, in one respect anyway, its similar to Rome. They started a subway a few years ago, and are having a lot of difficulty getting any where with it because everytime they start somewhere they unearth remains of the city from the past 4,000 years. Nowadays Xi'an is still capital to the Shaanxi Province, and host to 8 million people (a medium sized city by Chinese standards).

After settling into the hotel and grabbing some lunch we were off the bike the city wall. Xi’an’s city wall is unique in that it has been completely preserved. At 14km (9 miles), it still completely surrounds the inner most part of the city. Anyway, we walked over and up to the top of the wall as a group of about 20 or so and rented our bikes. It was a pretty leisurely ride as we had an hour and a half to finish the 9 miles.

Probably the coolest thing about Xi'an were the Terracotta Warriors.

Historical context: Terracotta Warriors
Qin Shi Huang became the first emperor of unified China in 221bc. He feared death so much that he spent much of his life after unifying China seeking immortality. He also believed that death was a continuation of life on earth, so he had his mausoleum contructed. It was 22,000 square meters and housed 8,000 lifesize warriors and horses, thus the Terracotta warriors were created. Most of the people who created the tomb and those who knew of its location were burried alive with the emperor to preserve the secret. This was affective, as the tomb was not discovered until March 1974. Much of the tomb still has not been unearthed because there is no current technology to effectively preserve the contents of the tomb.

We were actually lucky enough to meet the farmer who happened upon the tombs while digging a well. He worked since then to help publish a book on the warriors and was having a book signing the day we were there. I was lucky enough to get the book signed. Woohoo!

They also sell replica warriors at the museum. They are made exactly like the warriors were 2,000 years ago and take a total of one month to make. I bought one thats about 2 feet tall. Check him out:



Shaolin Monastery: Luoyang
Yes, the same Shaolin that produced Jet Li and Jackie Chan. It's known world wide for it's training in martial arts and that definitely showed when we were there. It was pretty toursity, but there were a couple things that made it worth it. First was the Pagoda Forest. The Pagoda Forest is a collection of pagodas, each one dedicated to a monk who led a disguished life at the monestary. The other was, of course, the Shaolin Kunfu show! Words can't really describe what that was like so make sure you check out the pics!

Longmen Grottoes: Luoyang
The longman grottoes were really cool because, unlike the Mogoa Caves, or "the cave of a thousand buddhas," we were allowed to take pictures!

Historical context: Longmen Grottoes
The longmen grottoes are a series of 2345 caves with 2800 inscriptions, 43 pagodas, and over 100,000 Buddhist impages. Construction began in 316AD. In 2000 the area was listed as an UNESCO World Heritage site. According to UNESCO, the grottoes are "...the perfection of a long-established art form which was to play a highly significant role in the cultural evolution of this region of Asia"

Thats pretty much all that can be said.. they were fascinating. Here's a pic to give you a little taste:



We finished our 12 day trip with Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia.

Mongolian Grasslands
Everyone was really excited about getting to stay in a Mongolian Ger with a host family. It was to be the culmination of our tromp across China in our first days in China. Unfortunately, we were in for a bit of a disapointment. The Gers were actually on the grasslands, which was really cool.. but it was a resort. Granted, not your traditional resort (there was no running water in the rooms), but we did have two beds and a TV placed in a modernized Ger. We also didn't get to stay with a family, but with our roommates instead. So, our first impression was pretty negative, but things perked up quickly. We started with a visit to "Obo" which was a Shamanism Altar. Traditional Mongolia didn't have any modern organized religions, but they did have Shamanism. Shmanism refers to a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spiritual world. Groups of people would generally have a "Shaman" who could do this for them. That's the quick and dirty. Anyway, we got to check out an Altar. We were given white scarves upon our arrival to the grasslands and were now told that if we walked around the altar 3 times then tied our scarf to it then we could make a wish. Most of us did it, although i'm pretty sure I walked around four times.. so maybe i countered any wish i might have made.

Anyway, the Shaman Altar was cool. We had a couple hours to kill before the "Mongolian Wrestling and Horse Race," so we did what anyone would do: threw down some ultimate frisbee in the grasslands. The only problem there was that the grass was littered with horse droppings. We picked oura seemingly safe place (actually using the bigger droppings as sideline markers) and played. One enthusiastic person we were playing with (*cough* jeff) dove for a frisbee.. directly into a pile of shit. He slid through it starting from his chest down. Luckily most of it was dry.. so it wasn't TOO bad. :-P

After frisbee it was time for the horse race. We all lined up in anticipation. We were sitting there talking while they ran in circles, assumably warming up. We looked up to see them returning the horses the the stable and asked what was going on. We were informed that that was the race. They ran in circles a fair distance away from us and called it good. For most part we laughed it off, attributing it to one more thing in China we may never understand. Next came the wrestling. This is one thing that followed through. Not really because of the wrestling with the mongolians.. they actually didn't really take it seriously and quit almost immediatly. What was fun is we got to put on the armor they wore and wrestle each other. This lasted for about 45minutes until dinner.. and the pictures are definitely worth checking out. Here's a little preview of my match:



Dinner was one of the most unique I've had in China thus far. This is probably because along with the standard fried rice, steamed vegitables, and tea, a whole lamb was served. That's right.. the whole thing, on a plate. Well, rather on a cart. We did a little ceremony where we elected a king and queen to take the first bite including 3 bowls of Bijiou (like vodka, but 60% alcohol and tastes TERRIBLE). After their 3 BOWLS of Bijiou, we were allowed to begin the feast. We were each served different parts of the lamb. The meat I got was indistinguishable, but it was damn good.

After dinner we had a Bonfire party. I can't imagine a better way to finish our trip. It began with some traditional Mongolian performances. One, with a "horse head instrument" and electric keyboard in the background was especially cool. Another one was a 15 minute dance where a girl had 4 bowls stacked on top of each other on her head for the length of the performance. Next, a few people from my group had arranged to give a couple performances. By far the funniest and most interesting was probably the impromptu "Soldier Boy" dance we did. The performance we gave was pretty standard, but what was so cool is that one of the Mongolian dancers joined in, having never seen the dance before, learned it, and improved upon it. By the end she was at the front leaving everyone else in awe. Again, for most of this the pictures will say more than the words. After the formal performances an all out dance party broke out. We hooked up an iPod to the stereo system and about half our group and all the Mongolians had a dance party. It was an incredible experience. The night ended with a group of us singing songs around a fire burning in an old barrel. It really was an unforgettable experience.

Well, that's pretty much it for the silk road. Sorry for skipping out on the details, but its time to get caught up, and we still have Shanghai to talk about!

Picasa Album for this post:
Silk Road Highlights

Silk Road Day 3-4: Jiayuguan

Day 3: Jiayuguan
We kept Jiayuguan pretty short. We stayed there just long enough to see a couple things, sleep, and leave for Xi'an. We started the day with at 8:30AM with a 5 hour bus ride to Jiayuguan. Like Dunhuang, Jiayuguan is mostly famous for the sites around it, not the city itself. On day 3 we were lucky enough to see Jiayuguan Fort.

Historical context:
Jiayuguan Fort is at the western most part of the Great Wall. It was of enormous strategic importance because it controlled both the military and the trade link between China and Central Asia. The desert extends much further, but the Chinese stopped here because beyond this point "lay barbarian country, a place of perdition, fit only for exiled officials and banished criminals." - the packet TBC gave me

The fort itself was pretty cool. Walking around there were a few touristy things to do. I generally avoid them, but who can resist shooting a bow and arrow off the wall of the western most point of the great wall?


[Photo by Andrew Hargrove]

I missed. But I mostly blame that on the sand storm that hit us right when I bought my arrows. I was aiming a good 10 feet to the right hoping the wind would blow my arrow straight. Instead it shot left and almost hit someone walking along the left side of the wall (oops).

After that we walked around a bit. By this time, like most times, I'd completely lost track of our tour guide. We're provided with one everywhere we go, but within 5 minutes of getting somewhere I stop to take a pictures, and lose them in doing so. Anyway, I made a guess on where everyone was, and ended up being right. I unknowingly wandered out the outter most gate, and in doing so, I saw what every exiled official and criminal saw, nothing. Right as you walk through the gate you're about 10 feet under ground looking up a stone path, so literally all you see is sky and desert, with some distant mountains. It was kind of intimidating. But I made my way up the path and found everyone else. And, as is standard anywhere tourists go, there were a couple guys trying to talk us into renting a horse. To where, I have no idea.. I guess we could have gotten lost in the desert for a while, that would have been fun.

That's pretty much it for day 3, we got some dinner and went to a "reflection dinner." Which is us eating a free dinner and faining an "educational reflection" about our activities thus far.

Day 4: Jiayuguan - Xi'an
We woke to a 7AM morning call and as usual, we hung up and went back to sleep for another 45min. We checked out of the hotel at 8 and hopped on the bus to visit the Weijin Tombs and Hanging Great Wall.

Weijin Tombs
The Weijin Tombs sucked. I'm usually willing to look for a positive in anything, but we were bussed 45 minutes to no where, where we waited for 30 minutes, so that we could see 3 small underground tombs that the tour guide knew nothing about so she made guesses on what she thought the symbols on the wall meant. Yes, it was cool to see a thousand year old tomb. It was not cool to be led down a shady hole in the middle of the desert in China.

The Hanging Great Wall
In contrast, the Hanging Great Wall was awesome. It was rebuilt from a pile of rocks in 1987, so it looked pretty much brand new. I know, it's a little touristy, but it was still cool. When we got there they told us we had 30minutes then we had to leave for Xi'an. We were advised not to try to climb to the top: it's far, and we don't have time. We did it anyway. A few people literally ran down the wall, and part of the way up. Me being a little less ambitious, I walked quickly, skipping steps. I guess first, you should see a picture to get an idea of what we were dealing with:


[Photo by Andrew Hargrove]

Having gotten little sleep in the past 2 weeks, and being generally out of shape, about half way up we slowed down.. to a stop. To be fair, we probably got about 3/4 of the way up, but at that point we had a hell of a view, and we didn't want to be stranded in Jiayuguan (where is that exactly?), so we made our way back down, taking a few pics along the way. Some of them are definitely worth checking out, so see the picasa album at the end of this post.

Now its time to talk about something that really made our trip special.. a 20hr train ride. To be honest, it really wasn't all that bad.. but it's definitely worth talking about. The first thing I need to address is that Chinese people DO NOT do lines. It's not that they're inconsiderate (ok sometimes i really want to say they are, but its all cultural right?), its just that they don't really do lines. When you're trying to get from A to B, you try and get there as fast as possible. When entering a train station and boarding a train? That might mean an old lady throwing an elbow as she walks straight past 10 westerners ignorant enough to wait in line and puts her stuff in the x-ray machine on top of yours then strolls on through. (yes, that was me who got the elbow). It also means that getting on a subway, hailing a cab, getting a seat, ordering your food, or paying for anything, it's not yours until its in your hands. This especially applies to getting a seat on the subway. If it's crowded, and sometimes even when its not, its a dangerous maneuver going for a seat. You may well end up getting taken out on the way there, or at the very least uncomfortably sharing it. Same goes for getting on or off the subway. There's a limited time to do either, and it doesn't change if there are 20 people outside the doors trying to get in while 20 are trying to get out. Its a free for all. You lower your shoulder and run for it. Awesome.

Okay, so back to the train. It might best be explained with some pictures first:

Its customary to sit, stand, lay, eat, whatever on whoever's bed. We took full advantage.

[Photo by Andrew Hargove]

My Bed. Dimensions: approx. 2ft x 6ft


The common area, hallway, dining room, bedroom, and storage.


But really it wasn't bad at all. I was feeling pretty sick, so right when I got on the train I took a benadryl and passed out from 2 until 9:30. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware that they turn the lights off at 10PM. So I got up, stretched and was ready to grab some food and play some cards when.. the lights turned off. Having just slept for 8 hours I wasn't really ready to go back to sleep. So I did what anyone would, I took two sleeping pills and slept for another 10 hours. Actually, I didn't sleep for 10. I would have, but I had a nice elderly Chinese lady start her TaiChi exercises next to my head at dawn. This is combination with Chinese people seemingly having only having one volume: LOUD, I woke up at 6. So, to be honest it really wasn't THAT bad. I got a lot of sleep, recovered some, and was relatively relaxed (allbeit with the aid of pretty strong sedatives).

Oh, I forgot to mention something: the bathrooms! This is something that really can only be explained with a picture:



This one is actually nicer because there's a sink. The other one was just a faucet that went onto the ground, and eventually into the hole in the ground, or "squatter."

That's it for Jiayuguan, next we're off to Xi'an, home of the Terra Cotta warriors!

Picasa Album: Silk Road Day 3-4: Jiayuguan

Qingdao Beer Festival

[note that there is a post for the first days days of the silk road that shows up BEFORE this one, even though it was posted after]

I just got back from the Qingdao (also written Tsingdao) beer festival. Qingdao was really interesting because it was a German city until after WWII, so most of the architecture was German. It was also the Germans who introduced beer to China in the first place (big surprise right?). So this is an annual 3 week festival where international and local breweries get together to throw a massive party with live performances, concerts, drinking games, etc.

We got it at around 8 on Friday night, to find that our hotel had given away one of our rooms. We had the confirmation including a guarantee that the rooms would be available until 10PM, but they gave it away anyway. So we had 15 people between to hotel rooms. We took the two rooms, for which we were explicitly told that no more than 4 people could sleep in each. We agreed, then got into the elevator with 15 of us anyway. I guess the shady parts of China do pay off sometimes for foreigners. We ended up saving about a thousand kuai by only getting two rooms, which went into a communal beer fund for the weekend.

We didn't go to the festival because it was 800 kuai (roughly $115USD) to get in. What they were doing at the opening ceremony that was worth that much money I'll never know. Anyway, we just went to a local place near the hotel. They were charging 25 kuai for a Tsingdao beer (the same beer as the city), which is outrageous because its usually 5-7 kuai, 10 max. They told us that its special because its in Qingdao, which was obviously bs because the bottles were exactly the same. Its really common for people to make up blatant lies in an effort to extort foreigners out of large sums of money here in China. No matter where you are, as a foreigner you have to bargain for a better price. So we did some work on them and instead were able to get one bottle of Jack Daniels and one bottle of this Russian vodka for 500 kuai including all the mixers and everything. Both bottles were sealed, which is also a big deal in China because they water down everything. Most shots and mixed drinks are more water than anything.

Anyway, that was just to give you an idea of what it's like any time you go anywhere in China. Always ridiculous prices followed by some hard haggling and finally a decent deal. Luckily, my Chinese is getting better pretty fast because I have to be able to speak enough to haggle on anything, even just a water bottle on the street.

Now to the actual purpose of this entry: the beer festival!
We got there around 12:30. It was essentially a fair crossed with a beer garden. There were prominent German beers as well as Tsingdao and other Chinese beers. Each brand had its own area, some with concerts and some with other attractions. After a few beers we thought we should bring some American drinking games to China. So we got some cups and setup flip cup. There are two teams, one on each side of the table. Each person has a cup with beer in it. The first person starts by drinking their beer then sets it on the edge of the table and tries to flip it so that it lands top down, then the next person on their team does the same thing. The first team to finish flip all their cups wins. This, unsurprisingly, got a lot of attention. We had a crowd of Chinese people around us taking pictures and posing with us.

On a side note, this festival had AWESOME kabobs: shark, crab, deer, etc. All of it was phenomenal, thus its all we ate all day.

After that we wondered around and settled at another to play some beer pong. We didn't have ping pong balls, but being the innovative college students we are, we used bottle caps instead. This ended up being considerably more difficult than anticipated, but it was great because we drew even more attention. The local newspaper showed up and took pictures for a while, including a big group picture with a bunch of Chinese people that joined in on the games. Its amazing how in China westerners are almost like celebrities. Everywhere we go people take pictures and stare at us in disbelief.. as if they've never seen a non-chinese person before. We have one Nigerian guy on our trip. He was recently on the subway and a chinese guy came up to him, rubbed his finger on his skin, and was shocked that no black residue came off. What can you do but laugh in those situations?

After the beer pong we walked to the beach that was about 3 blocks away. The sand was redish and the water was warm, so we had a good time.

Later that night we went to a seafood restaurant that ended up being a Tsingdao pitchers of beer restaurant. They were so busy that the only thing we got for an hour was beer. Then we ended up getting some more interesting food: whole shrimp kabobs, snails, chicken feet, etc. It was awesome. After about 2 hours there we went to a club and finally got back around 3. We caught an 8AM train back to Beijing and arrived safely at around 2:30.

That's it for now. I didn't bring my camera (for obvious reasons) but the newspaper is supposed to email us some pictures, and a couple other people took pics as well. So i'll add those in as I get them. I'm also slowly but surely working my way through the silk road trip, so stay tuned for those posts as well!

The Silk Road, Starting with Dunhuang Day 1 & 2

Our trip (about 65 people including our tour guides and teachers) began on August 31 in Dunhuang and ended on September 13th with our arrival back in Beijing. To go into every detail of the trip would not only take hours to do, and it would probably be incredibly boring to read. So, I'm going to focus on the highlights.

Throughout my blog I'll try and include some historical information to go along with the pictures and observations, so if you find history boring or a complete waste of time, feel free to skip any section labeled "historical context."

Historical context: The Silk Road
Beginning during the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), and flourishing in the Tang dynasty (619-907), the silk road exposed China to the influences and styles of the outside world all the way through the 1400s when travel by ship became more efficient. The name "Silk Road" was coined by the Romans, who called it "Seres" - the land of silk.

Day 1 &2: Dunhuang
If you wikipedia Dunhuang, you'll find that it's classified as an Oasis town, which couldn't be more accurate. From within the city you can see that you are surrounded by nothing but sand dunes in all directions. The city seems like it really only exists nowadays for the few tourist attractions nearby, most of which we got to visit:

The Gobi Desert
We spent the first night camping out in the Gobi desert. Having never really spent any time in a desert before, I wasn't really sure what the big deal was. Man, was I in for a surprise. The trip getting there was interesting enough. We took two tour buses down a long dirt road. Unsurprisingly, the dirt road wasn't made to accommodate tour buses, so the bus ride felt like a small boast in choppy waters. Once we arrived we were told to put our tents somewhere in the vicinity, which some interpreted differently than others. Most people setup little neighborhoods near where we were dropped off with a clear view of civilization on the horizon. But a few people decided they'd push it a little further and wonder out into the Gobi to setup camp. I went what I thought was a reasonable distance out and setup camp with my roommate, dan. Yes, as roommates we even got to share a tent, which clearly wasn't designed for two 6ft Americans. Anyway, a few people wondered out even further and if you know anything about the desert you'll know that it gets pretty windy at night, especially if you setup camp on top of a dune. A couple girls found this out the hard way:



We found their tent the next morning in an irrigation canal about a quarter mile from where they originally setup camp.

We had a couple hours to kill before dark, so we decided to go for a little hike. We went to the highest dune we could find, then started doing what anyone would do.. flips down and off the dunes!



Probably one of the coolest things about camping in the desert is that there's no light pollution for miles around: perfectly clear skies! I had never seen so many stars in my life. We could see all the satellites passing overhead, and every once in a while we even saw a shooting star.


[Picture by Andrew Hargrove]

It was such an unbelievable experience that I thought that sleeping in a tent just wasn't worth it (plus it was pretty cramped). So I grabbed my sleeping bag and setup right outside the tent, with my backpack as a pillow. It was rumored that all the bugs and animals come out at night (scorpions?). Stupid or not, I slept outside anyway. And it was totally worth it.. until around 3AM when the sand storm hit. Not only was it FREEZING, sand was getting.. everywhere! I almost moved into the tent.. but at that point I was committed to sleeping outside, so I put my hood on, dug down deep into my sleeping bag, and stuck it out. It wasn't a huge deal, because we had to get up at 4:15AM anyway to see the sunrise.

Camel Ride at Sunrise
So we were told that we were going to wake up at 4:15 and take a camel to the top of the nearest dune to see the sunrise. We were not told that that meant packing up our tents and sleeping bags in the pitch dark desert so we could take a bus some where else for the camel ride. With some minor problems (including fishing the tent out of the irrigation canal), we were off. We got to the new destination with plenty of time before the sunrise, but little did we know that camels aren't nearly as well-tempered as horses or other comparable animals. They keep the camels in groups of 3 or 4 tied together, so if one's having a bad day none of them move. The first two camels i got on happened to be the one that refused to go, despite our guides yelling at them in Chinese. So I got on my third camel, and he seemed a little better, he went just fine. The only problem was that I didn't get my foot in the stirrup before we took off. So as we were going along I kept trying to get my foot in, and every time I tried he would try and buck me off. Needless to say, i never got my foot in the stirrup, which made for an uncomfortable 30min ride up the dunes, but it was totally worth it.



Once we got to the top, or near the top, we had to walk the remainder of the way on wooden stairs built into the sand. It doesn't look far, but trust me, dunes can be deceiving.



That was a bit of an excursion, but we made it to the top, did the whole sunrise thing, then mounted the camels and made our way back down. We then rode our camels to

Crescent Moon Lake
This is a small freshwater lake that formed inbetween sand dunes. It has been a vital source of water for thousands of years. Now it is little more than a pond, but its still kind of a big deal because its a lake in the middle of the desert.

Crescent Moon Lake

[Photo by Andrew Hargrove]

If you look closely there is a "TBC" spelled in people on the lower left side of the picture. TBC = The Beijing Center (my study abroad program). I'm the top part of the C.

Later that day we went to the:

Magao Grottos (caves), or "Cave of a Thousand Buddhas"
We aren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was essentially 450+ caves that were carved into the mountain by people who traveled the silk road, especially Buddhist Monks. Most of the caves were covered in Buddhas, with thousands of little Buddhas about an inch in size carved into the walls, hence the title "Cave of a Thousand Buddhas" - actually a bunch of caves with thousands of Buddhas.

Historical Context:
After about the 11th century the Mogao Caves were forgotten, until 1907 when Sir Aurel Stein discovered them. He excavated the caves, and among the findings was the Diamond Sutra, the world's earliest printed book. For the next few years many westerners came and "excavated" the caves - stealing everything inside with little awareness of what it was and taking it back to their home countries.

That's pretty much it for Dunhuang. Next we're off to Jiayuguan, a 5 hour bus ride away.

Picasa Album for Dunhang Day 1 &2

Images of the Silk Road

so i figure its time to move away from facebook and start to share a little bit more of my travels with everyone.

right now i'm in beijing, china, so most of my posts and pictures will have to do with that. if i have time, i'll also include some of the best of europe from earlier this year.

i'm going to include some of my favorite pictures along with each post here, but if you want to see the rest they can be found on picasa:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Sca787

so, you might be asking yourself: what's up with the title, "protect heritage: don't take pictures!" well, here it is:



i just got back from my 13 days on the silk road, and needless to say, i didn't get much sleep. so when it came time to come up with a witty and interesting blog title.. i had nothing. so, i looked to some of my pictures for inspiration. i wanted to use some standard chinglish (chinese translated directly to english with little or no understanding of what it actually means).. but, as you will see below.. they tend to not make much sense. instead i settled on the one above.

other examples of chinglish:







the last picture was in the elevator lobby of a 4 star hotel. every accommodation you can imagine, yet they weren't able to get a proper translation

anyway, i'm off to start the recovery process. so for now, i leave you with some of my favorite pictures of the silk road, with much more to come.

Gobi Desert

Gobi Desert



Hanging Great Wall

Terra Cotta Warriors

Pagoda

Shaolin Temple

Longmen Grottos