Want to know what it feels like to be a celebrity? Well, join us on an expedition in China! We have featured in more photographs in the
last couple of weeks than we can count.
Wherever we stop the truck we immediately pull a crowd of curious
observers, and the photo shoot commences.
Even when the truck is rolling, cars pull up alongside and cameras are
thrust out the windows, accompanied by smiles, waves and “hello”s. We have been met with friendliness, openness
and a welcome that has surprised many, but above all curiosity about our
journey – where we come from, and where we have been and are going in China.
From the crazy night market in Lanzhou where our last update
finished up, we headed for Xi’an, a city of 5 million people. The city is a great place to spend a couple of
days, with fortified walls surrounding the old city centre, the stunning Drum
and Bell Towers, delicious dumplings in the Muslim Quarter and a surprisingly
relaxed feel (although the terrible traffic is testament to the city’s huge
population!) Plenty of flashy
department stores or narrow market lanes, for those seeking retail therapy; or
massages and feet-cleaning courtesy of small fish (quite an experience if you
haven’t done it before!) for those seeking therapy of a different kind.
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| The Bell Tower - stunning at night |
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| A demonstration of Tang Dynasty music and dance |
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| The light and music show at Big Goose Pagoda |
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| Drums at the Drum Tower |
Just outside the city is one of China’s most well-known
attractions, the Terracotta Warriors.
The Warriors are just part of the world’s largest tomb, a complex that
stretches over 25sqkm in total (twice the size of Hong Kong!). Only re-discovered in 1974, it is
archaeology in action as the ruins are still being unearthed and restoration is
continuing even within the huge Pit 1, the most impressive of the three pits
open to the public. It is a magnificent
sight, and even those who had been before wanted to see them again – the pace
of change in China is such that a visit 4 years ago can be completely different
from a visit today!
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| Introductory video in the round |
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| The impressive Pit 1 |
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| Intricate decoration, even down to individual hairs |
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| The Archer |
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| Yet to be restored... |
Yan’an, on the banks of the Yellow River, is a hugely
important destination for “Red Tourists” – for 13 years from 1935, it was home
to the headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party, and many of the ideologies
and policies were formulated in the city and its surrounding hills. Today, the city is visibly proud of its important
role in the communist history of China, the largest and most impressive
building in town is the Revolution Museum, and souvenir stalls sell Chairman
Mao memorabilia - from t-shirts to posters, books, statuettes, playing cards
and almost anything else you can think of.
Coming from Xi’an, where foreign tourists abound, it was clear that this
was a town much less used to foreign tourists!
Our hotel was a mix of modern and traditional – some rooms having the
traditional kang beds which function
as both bedroom and dining room, with small tables on the end of the bed and
stoves acting as bedside tables.
A delicious banquet dinner was organised, an unsuspecting
couple of us fell victim to Sophie’s Dumpling Game where our Chinese language
skills were tested; dumplings were the penalty for those who failed (although
since the dumplings were quite yummy, it wasn’t too much of a penalty!)
From Yan’an, we headed into the hills for a very different
experience – a night in a cave house.
Remarkably, it is estimated that up to 3 million people in Shanxi still
live in cave houses. The small village
we visited is now home to around 40 families, and we were welcomed into their
houses; wandering the village, sitting in the courtyard, and seeing the way of
life in the village it seemed almost as if we were in a different country. This has happened to us a couple of times on
this expedition, our visit to the Tibetan town of Xiahe was another example,
and just serves to highlight the huge diversity that exists within China that
we have the opportunity to experience on this journey.
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| Jill, Hazel & Colleen |
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| Bob & just some of the school girls who were staying in the same home stay! |
The charming town of Pingyao was our next destination, where
we stayed at a lovely (albeit a tad noisy!) hotel with a beautiful courtyard
decorated with red lanterns. Enclosed by
city walls, the town has some interesting museums to explore, a lovely Taoist
temple (watch out for the slick extortion performed by the monks though!), and
great shopping for those stocking up on a few (more) souvenirs and gifts. A very nice spot to enjoy for a couple of
days, and a great place to celebrate Sophie’s birthday with a hot pot dinner
and happy birthday on a loop (including a rendition involving cats meowing to
the tune which had to be heard to be believed!).
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| Our hotel in Pingyao |
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| Street food at the night market |
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| The Taoist temple |
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| Our hotel's courtyard at night |
Datong is a big industrial city, and although it has some
attractions to keep you busy in town (the new old-city walls, temples and the
nine dragon screen), the big ticket items are just outside the city. We started with the Hanging Temple – a feat
of engineering that left many a knee quivering as we climbed the stairs and
looked down at the wooden poles suspending us above the rocks! Jill, Karin & Marienne did well to
overcome their fear of heights (a fear that Marienne unfortunately only
remembered once she was at the top with no way back!), although they were
definitely glad to be back on solid ground at the bottom!
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| "Join hands and work together to protect heritage!" - with Gerti |
Dating back hundreds, and at times thousands of years, China
is home to some spectacular Buddhist art in grottoes and caves, and we had
already visited two of the most impressive – the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang and
the Bingling Si Caves in central China – but the Yungang Grottoes near Datong
were swiftly placed at the top of the list by most, their 16+ metre Buddhas
(without scaffolding!) seemed to swing it into top position.
When you think of China, what do you think of? For most of us, the Great Wall must feature
as an iconic image of China, and our visit to the Jinshanling section of the
Great Wall surpassed all expectations, particularly as we were there at
crowd-free times. It was absolutely
stunning and a fantastic penultimate stop on our epic journey.
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| Jill |
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| Celebrating the end of an epic expedition |
And so, to Beijing.
After 88 days, 9 countries and 14,733km, our journey was drawing to an
end. But first, no visit to Beijing
would be complete without seeing the Forbidden City and Tianenmen Square, so
that’s where we headed to the next morning.
Although it seemed as if the entire population of China had also chosen
to visit that morning, the Forbidden City is stunning, and we were lucky enough
to see it under bright blue skies (quite unusual for smoggy Beijing).
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| Tianenmen Square |
We celebrated the end of our journey with a delicious Peking
(Beijing) Duck meal, preceded by a slideshow of some of the incredible sights
and experiences we have had along the way.
Speeches were made, poems read, and countless toasts were offered to the
journey, to doing things people never thought they could do or had never done
before, to the crew and Sophie the Wonder Guide and anything else anyone could
think of. Helpful tips were shared, to
be passed on to the next groups, and we all looked back over the past 3 months
at the exploration and adventure we have shared. How to summarise a journey like this? There’s only one word that can sum it all up –
EPIC!
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| Watching the slide show |
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| Lots of laughs at dinner |
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| Sophie |
From Odyssey, a big THANK YOU, goes out to the Hopping family, who have now travelled with us on a couple of expeditions, Bob & Hazel recommended us to Marienne; and to
Marienne for finding a great group of people to join us for 3 months of
exploration and adventure along the Silk Road.
We are looking forward to the reunion at Karin & Ted’s house
already!
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| Bob & Hazel Hopping - two of our Extreme Overlanders on this trip |
