| ABOUT
THIS TRAVEL
Northern China
17 days, Dec 05- Jan 06
CHINA
INTRO
Kind of travel: I and a sweet girl through
a wholly independent travel
When:
23rd December 05- 8th January 06
How
I moved: train, train and still train apart of a bunch
of times riding buses. Taxis in the cities are a convenient
(0.8-2 euro) and safe way to move around
Freezing
or baking?: freezing of course: Urumqi :-15C!!! Unlike
Russia most of the times inside the trains, hotels and
public places you'll be still shivering
Where
I slept: half of the nights on the train and the others
in hotels. Sleeping trains are comfortable and very safe, while
hot water in hotels is often unavailable (despite what they
say you!!). Usually both the places are far from being warm,
bring your own sleeping bag!
What
I liked: the approach of the people is laid back and
dodgeys are rare. Travelling by train is fun, while getting
the ticket can be a bet :-) I loved the food and had great laughs
trying to communicate with the waiters. The frozen Saharan-
like dunes in Dunhuang are impressive and. the great wall is...
great!
What
I disliked: people spitting his catarrh everywhere
(even on the train), the reservation system of the train tickets,
the crowdy queuing to access at the train platform, freezing
in the hotel rooms and the awfully smoky internet cafe'
How
much daily: travel in China is not expensive, even
far from a south Asian budget. Anyway consider the east coast
is the most expensive part of the country. Our costs: hotel
(double room: 6-18 euro), sleeping trains (12h in hard sleepers:
14-25 euro) and food (2-7 euro) = 20 euro/ day/ person
Dangers/
hassles: frankly to me the country appeared very
safe and not even the taxi drivers tried to cheat me. Of course
bargaining is always an issue but far from being a real hassle.
Beware crossing the streets since cars seem to have no brakes
for pedestrians
What
you do need: sleeping bag and wear warm! A pocket Chinese
phrasebook + learning to count in Chinese can make a huge difference
especially buying the tickets (personally I attended an evening
Chinese class)
THE
TRAVEL
Landed
in Almaty (ex Kazakh capital), we spent one day hanging
around the green frozen city before catching the train
for the long trip to Urumqi. To get to the
border, to change the train wheels (the Russian rail gauge is
wider) and to reach Urumqi turned out to take 33 hours. The
train was quite empty, warm, and comfortable, so apart of the
10 hours waiting at the border, the time flew away.
The
Kazakh landscape scrolling through the window was surreal: an
endless desert covered by snow shaped by the wind.
In
Urumqi the wind made us feel the real cold inside our bones.
Although not among the best cities I’ve ever seen, it has
been an interesting entry point to China, first of all for its
muslim influence that makes Xinjiang an unique Chinese region.
One
night on the train and few hours on a jumping minibus led us
to the oasis of Dunhuang. Well worthy the visit
for the Buddhist caves (“Mogao caves”) but overall
for the frozen “moon crescent lake”
surrounded by the
huge Saharan like dunes: don’t miss the place!!!!
One
night more on the train and we got in the grey and polluted
Lanzhou, from where we arrived in the most rural town
we have visited in China: Luomen. 18.00 pm:
it was bloody dark when we got off the train, no street lamps
and no paved road. We negotiated the price of the room in the
small hotel of the town including three buckets of damned hot
water. The day after we visited the canyon (“Lashao
Si”;) and its monasteries nearby the town.
We
spent the New Year’s eve in Tianshui,
three hours by minibus from Luomen. but at midnight it seemed
very few people knew about the new year.
5h by
trains and we reached the tip of the silk way: Xian.
Frankly I didn’t get mad for the terracotta army here in
Xian, maybe due to the coldness or maybe just because of my
too big expectations.
While
something quite funny happened afterwards in the snowy Taiyuan:
we were visiting the pagodas when some Chinese guys, geared
with their photographic outfit, insisted for some pictures of
us and of course we agreed. We almost forgot about them in the
next two days while visiting the cold Pingyao, but coming back
on the train, a group of youths run to us flapping a newspaper:
a picture of us greeting to the camera with the pagoda in the
background was stamped on it (see
it!!)
In Beijing
unfortunately we were short of time for exploring the city but
we didn’t miss the trip to the Great
Wall: I promised you, it has been really “great”!!!
By the way, would you guess
how you can descend from the mountains of the Great Wall?
By rollercoster obviously!!
Alby
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