Black Road
A Silk Road Trip, or I Gobbe in the Gobi, China, 1992, by Philip Spires
In August 1992, myself and my wife, Caroline, arranged a trip to China after Tiananmen. I was in the days when the London China Travel Agency at Cambridge Circus, opposite the Palace Theatre on Charing Cross Road. It took at least twenty books, a late night Japanese television series and several months to plan and organize the journey from what was then our base in Balham, south London. In those days, to arrange the visit through China Travel and then, if the schedule was submitted in advance, you can travel absolutely independent. Everything was pre-paid, but in return, we had no tickets or confirmed reservations, in addition to our airline tickets in and out of Beijing. As always, I took a diary of the trip, which lasted more than fifty pages. A few years later standards, the condensed experience of the two sides of A4, ignoring grammar and syntax, and produced the next trip, perhaps a poetic impression of nearly a month's journey.
Ex-London while the sun dries the nose of Michael Jackson and praised Boardman hooterless the gold medal in cycling. Air China to Beijing, where taxis cost more than Lonely Planet predicts. A journey of a Chinese character Tim Han Chinese colleagues travel as fast TV drool over African-American sprinters at the Olympics. Next to that is no longer the Forbidden City. Heaps of local tourists to negotiate.
Four hours of Xinjiang Airlines from Urumqi. Signs in Chinese and Russia, written in Arabic alphabet Uighur (a recent innovation). Land lines through Inner Mongolia. Why and how what is right? Urumqi multiple peaked. Piles of coal, very high unkempt, covered with snow Bogda Shen-sac street. Floor diviners merchants. Food stalls. Women washing in a stream sheep stomachs, tripe kebabs. Uygur Han Chinese city now populated Shanghai overflow, more than 2,000 miles from "home." The second long march.
Uighur breakfast. ewes hot Chinese tea, tomato bread flat, tomato and cucumber with sugar, pickled cabbage, thin rice soup, butter, sheep's milk, two lumps of sugar giants. Uighur market. The fruits in the middle a forest of hanging lamb. Chinese market. Live vegetables and meats. Tank shed excess energy eels (unit price). Auto-spaghetti knots.
Women lost his gold watch to an illegal "find the lady. Police are looking for him. The tears when he gets home loss. Renmin Park noodles and chili sauce fuel rocket. Bag slashers with knives, ring finger on a crowded bus. Care needed.
Car to Turfan. Las Vegas. Barren mountains. Occasional snow. Way plow. Kazak yurts. Semi-sunk to overshadow Uighur people rammed-earth, invisible from a distance with the exception of smoke from the chimneys. Steep canyon below, the river spectacular rocks, white water and gray slate hills. In the Turfan Depression, distance snow surrounding gray stone well over 100 miles. 42 degrees at its base, 200 meters under the sea level. Cars ahead of leaving tracks in the way of casting. A strong drop of the waters driver. Gobi means stones. Much here. And then green. An oasis. A mirage giant?
Turfan. lattice vine-shaded street. Hang raisins. 15 yuan to choose either casual. Hotels tea in galvanized buckets. Turkish-style dance and music. Genghis looted rammed-earth cities and Jiaohe Goachang. Painted tombs and minarets of brick. Flaming Mountains. Karez underground irrigation system. 3000 miles channel. 1500 years old, fed by gravity from mountain peak to depression. greater feat Uighur culture, and in full working order.
Dahey bus. Two hours over bumpy stones to depression on end. Dump a railway town. piles of coal, box buildings, waste. Two women in the war against the lobby of the station. Ramming victim's head against the floor. Blood. Viewers. The lack of action. A tense town of posts resentful.
500 miles Liuyuan in Gansu. Flat featureless gray slate. Spectacular unique. Snow mountains in the north. Completely empty except for coal city smoking. Above 40 in summer, below 30 in winter. Overnight in train. Alba reveals massive scene, right now in brown.
Arrive Liuyuan. Dahey action similar. 120 miles south across the desert (black to the top!), Beyond the remaining walls of Han Dynasty Great-Great Wall. The camels and dunes Taklimakan, the world's largest sand desert. Near Dunhuang oasis flower again. The sand and pebbles suddenly crops and trees. Feitian Hotel, with articles labeled toilet Sham Poo Poo and foam. Lunch. Fourteen plates. Pato Fu-yong, cucumber, cabbage, chicken, oyster mushrooms, pork, cilantro, steamed buns, steamed bread, rice, beef broth and noodles, pork and beans, pork and peppers, chicken and squash, plain noodles, watermelon. After obtaining the essential torch caves. Crowded houses. Wood stores for winter piled on top. View over the rooftops like a bunch of junk. The ceramic floor level claustrophobic maze.
Cave day. Buddhist Mogao Caves - closed 12-2, on everything you need to perhaps the most impressive sight on earth. 400 'caves' (some cathedral-size) in a sandstone gorge, between 400 AD to 1100 AD. Completely dry, always dark, perfectly preserved. All painted. Tang complex and colorful period. A world scene by torchlight. Reclining Buddha, sitting, standing, posing. Thirty meters seated figure with thousands of not smoking cigarettes and coins in her lap as offerings. Shock Qing's cave-renovated Taoist figures. features macabre, twisted, and a face in the groin. 40 caves seen on the day, the archaeologist as a personal guide. Impressive. Fourteen dishes for dinner.
Desert bus back to Liuyuan. Always a struggle for seats. Three hours dusty. Train to Lanzhou. 800 miles along Gansu, Qinghai mountainous border. More black desert, then the yellow earth. Jaiyaguan strong on the edge of the Ming Empire. Overnight in train. Country changed. mountain pass, green hills and terraced fields. The wheat harvest dollies in. Straw as children in the assembly. Homes rammed earth remains. Lanzhou a thriving industrial city. Thirty hours of travel. Walk around the Yellow River.
Fish tank hotel restaurant all the dead. Lanzhou bus expensive. 50 fen per trip. Radios and knitting prohibited. Han dynasty warriors and bronze flying horse. Steamed carp of rape in the menu. The fish is first. Train through Xian yellow loess country. Deep furrows and ravines. All land flat cut. 500 miles during the night.
Terra cotta warriors facing east to protect the tomb of Qin Shi Huang. Done in pieces. Gathered at the scene. Partially excavated section where piles of dismembered limbs emerge from the soil. New Terracotta Army sale of the factory behind the museum. exact replicas of the originals. Wheezing in the thinking of the whole affair as a farce for the tourist trade.
Xian, like all Chinese cities, a square. Straight roads, always intersect at right angles. Ancient walled city, Ming rebuilt. Old mosque exquisite. Xianyang near Qian seventh century tombs, with another 3000 have terracotta museum as a football crowd. Train to Beijing. 800 miles, 26 hours. Homes often caves in the side of the valley. Later vast flat land, corn everywhere.
Temple of Heaven, Tiantan, then the Beijing Opera. Beer break in the next post. Used by moonlighting stockbroker in training! Breakfast pickle incredible, as four years old camembert out of a shotgun. Take the head off. The Great Wall. Touristic lot, but still awesome. Like climbing a giant ladder in some places. "I climbed the Great Wall" T-shirts, the price the more low-rises. Must be the air. Ming Tombs dismissed by the guide-book. Incorrect. Amazing barrel vaulted rooms nine underground floors. Jade doors, carved thrones marble, marble marvel. Reminiscent of Renaissance Italy. Eternal bricks engraved with the names of their creators. Souvenir jade boat for 55,000 pounds.
White shades Dalai erotic statues in Tibetan Temple. The same content bestial murals. 24 meters gold Buddha through the incense-blur. No Smoking signs everywhere.
Maosoleum Mao tomb of an emperor. The lines for the tails painted in the square. Feet pointing north toward the door Tiananmen, the opposite of feng shui. He is bright, waxy face painted. Move parade lines on both sides. There is no pause. Outside the posts, Mao T-shirts, rings Key Mao, stuffed animals, postcards, magic lantern. Mao Zedong cotton candy of the stroke. Then Great Hall of the People. Dining for 5000. Now fast food to tourists. Great Hall sticks, cigarettes, t-shirts. Great Hall of the People felt.
2500 miles. Three and a half weeks. 5 destinations. 50 caves. 6000 terracotta warriors. 1 out of Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Beijing Opera, Mao Zedong. Hundreds of tombs, temples, pagodas, parks, Bendi-buses and bicycles. 3 silk shirts in the Silk Road. An incredible journey.
About the Author
Philip Spires
Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya
http://www.philipspires.co.uk
Michael, a missionary priest, has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician, exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a church worker, has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet, a teacher, and the priest’s neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however.
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