Jiayuguan – Dunhuang #5

(Im on a roll)

Dunhuang. Oh Dunhuang…a voice in my head said that I would’ve live here if I could. Lol that was how good the impression I get from this place. Everything was nice from the weather, people, the parks. Overall experience here was superb. We enjoyed it soo much. Easily because of the sand dunes! Ive never saw one in my life so that won me over fast. Lmao

We were at Dunhuang in the early morning. We creeped closer to Xinjiang by reaching Dunhuang. It was also one of the important Silk Road routes. We got a ride with a nice uncle who tried hard to understand us and translate app but he just couldnt get that we were asking about the attraction sites. He parked the cab at the front of the hotel and video called his English taught daughter to speak to us. We spent half an hour trying to get a ride with him to the sites in an agreement that he could understand…he apologized for language barrier and we were like nahhh we’re sorry too we are severely lacking by not learning at least conversational Mandarin before actually going to China without a travel guide 😂 we could understand simple sentences but couldnt reply back. With no local sim card to connect to Wifis…this would be the most important tip for a China trip when you’re not a Mandarin speaker. Get local sim card!! And install VPN (I have it) but without internet it’s kinda useless.

The empty boulevard in early morning

We checked in just for an hour of freshening up and wend out to get breakfast. The hotel was at walking distance to noodle places as well as nice looking restaurants. We decided to splurge a little by going inside this beautiful door to a fancily decorated dining area with uniformed waitress treating us to a welcome juice in tall glasses. Nice eh? The price werent too pricey and the food tastes good. A local guy who spoke fluent English greeted us while we were going out the building. He introduced himself as the owner’s son and wanted to know our thoughts about the place. He had with him a huge ass bike too. That was random, to notice he had a big bike but that amused me 😆 we walked out to the townspeople waking up and starting the day in full swing. There was a little traffic and there was a group of mixed age Tai Chi practitioners at one side of a busy street.

The cab uncle came by at the specified time to bring us to the Mogao Grottoes. We didnt know it was actually a 2 part trip through the museum where you will have a visual presentation of the history and parts of the Grottoes since it wasnt all preserved and opened to public. A large part was still in conservation, others were just too fragile to be exposed to the public. The modern looking museum also is where you take the shuttle bus to the actual site. As I said, these parks are just sooo huge.

The 1/4 chicken we ordered

The bus ride to the Grottoes

Mogao Grottoes are a network of underground Buddhist shrines built through 10 dynasties. The fact that it was quite recently discovered is mindblowing. It was there for a looong time buried under the desert. The arid weather preserves much of it that we can see today. The shrines are built individually with own styles. The decorations and the vanity of a shrine signify the owner’s wealth and prosperity at the time it was built. You can’t take photos inside so I have nothing to share but the outline of the caves.

One shrine that is set for public use unlike all the other shrines were the one by the only Chinese Empress Wu Zetian. She made her shrine for everyone to use regardless of their status in society. It was an impressive chamber to pray and offer offerings. The Grottoes are a strong example of the cultural and economic exchange of the East and West set by the Silk Road and even before it was recognized. The materials and technique used to build each shrine spanning 1000 years is a must see 😭😭

It was noon and we still have half a day to go for the sand dunes. I mean you can’t say you’ve been to western China and not see the sand dunes right?? We get a different driver for this trip because it’s farther away out from the city. We parted ways from the kind uncle. He was genuinely worried about how we, 2 women getting around by ourselves 😅

The moment we arrived at the sand dunes it was late, it was just so far and we were hoping to be lucky enough to arrive on time. The parking lot and the entrance werent close. We ran like crazy to see the ticket booth still opens. We get some of the last tickets because the place needed hours to ride the shuttles and trek the dunes. That’s why they will close around 5pm to avoid people getting lost inside when it’s dark.

I can’t tell you how mindblowing it was to me but I never thought about the scale of it. IT WAS LIKE A MOUNTAIN. Of cold prickly sand. There were camel rides as well but we decided to trek by foot.

The Crescent Lake!!

Sorry for the quality. Wish I brought myself an actual camera but I dont know if I could pack a heavy old Sony camera. I make a point to bring a camera next time…the amount of stuff I’d have taken from this place alone!! Spending 2 hours arent enough.

At 8pm we must get the ride to the train station which wasnt the one we were from when we arrived that morning (damn it was one of the best 12 hours of my life) it was at Liuyuan, another 2 hours ride out of the city. I researched the stations that were connected to Turpan / Tulufan in the type of coach that we booked. I couldn’t get through from other station. So we took a pricey and long ride into the night. Just pitch black one lane road…I still remember the numbing cold. After 2 hours, the sleepy Liuyuan, demolishing our need for a nice hot noodle bowls and little shopping before getting on the train. We felt unsafe staying outside the station. It was dark and empty. If you look around that area of the town was at the edge. There was nothing else.

Luckily the station had a number of people in the waiting room. We didnt feel so creeped out. A smiling female staff came to us to specifically explained the train numbers etc in English because obviously we looked like we didnt speak Mandarin. That lifted our spirit a bit. I dont know, the ride towards Liuyuan and the town itself were draining and it was nearing midnight. We boarded the train but found no available seats side by side. This was about a week doing this and it wasnt any surprise anymore. We took any barely empty seats we could find and said to each other, see you in the morning.

I forgot to tell you how it surprised me the first time I boarded the K train back in Jiayuguan. There were no assigned seats, people lie and sleep anywhere they could and their feet dangling in the aisle barricading you from walking through. And the smell? As expected, like feet 😂😂

One time I was in China

Hello cursed 2020! My country is also in a nationwide quarantine. Like almost the entire world. I feel a kind of connection with people unlike any other time. It’s always tragedy that brings us together right? Well since people are on social media often it’s like an endless block of neighbors in one place. So anyway, flicking through pictures of my 2018 China trip made me feel sooo omg I havent been travelling like that for a long time. In 2019 I focused on other things financially. I was like 2020 will be the Year. Who wouldve foreseen such a disastrous year??! Especially travelling security and finances. It would be a full 2 years from the beginning of the trip today.

I was only attracted to China for the western part of it. Im lame like that, I think that famous places are overrated so I tend to research on places that arent mainstream in my effort to feel special loool I get to see the things in my own eyes and decide how I feel about it. Famous destinations already has so many being talked about them so I lose interest in it. Lmao. Im drawn to central Asia since I follow a few insta influencers that was from those countries. Then I made the research about the Silk Road and read more about colorful histories of the middle kingdoms that oversaw so many cultural exchanges throughout centuries.

I realized China should be my first stop if I ever want to venture to the -stan countries tho. It took fairly a year to research and book everything that could be done pre flight date. Talked to my best friend/travelbuddy about it and convinced her to take a 2 week long holiday. We went flying north to Xi’an where it’ll be our base city before going westward.

Checked in a Xi’an modest hotel in an alleyway. We arrived around 11pm local time and had to pay 150cny just for a ride to the hotel. Post trip I realized it was a LOT but then again we had no choice. It was late and we were concerned abt safety.

I was still in my head, I didnt think we really made it to China. I just never dreamed of wanting to go here like in my childhood or anything lol it was a recent yearning that I have, and nurtured. Now that Im here I have to make sense of it. My friend and I toured the area around it the next day looking for a local breakfast. But holy shit my taste palette just.cant.take. the herbs in their noodles! It was tongue numbing and hunger cancelling. We tried to not be wasteful and munch our way through and looking squarely at each other. Continuing the walk about 20mins we reached a major area of the morning market. It’s near to Xi’an Muslim Street where all the tourists and locals come for halal food. The vendors are from Hui Chinese although there were some other different races spotted. At the time, I was so foolish and arent aware about Uyghurs or anything. Ive read about it but news are just news until you saw it yourself…

We were 100% touristy at that day, just sampling and eating everything we could get our hands on, and checked out Xi’an Mosque. It was beautiful but it wasn’t open to females. This is kinda weird but we talked to its staff and they allowed us to use and look around the prayer hall. There was no one inside except some religious school kids and their imams. We were greeted warmly to just see a Quran class went by.

To punctuate such a pleasant day, we end up ordering a dish of meat and rice that we couldnt finish (again) because of the damned tongue numbing herbs (again!) since we couldnt speak Mandarin we left it at that. I swear local waiters could see our faces swelled when we realized what we’re eating.