This is the end of the Great Wall of China - allegedly. It's another one of those 'it can be said to be' type descriptions, but it kind of looks the part, and even if there are further older wall segments out in the desert, this is the end of the main body of the classic Great Wall. It's known as the first pillar and stands literally right on the edge of a big river gorge in the middle of the desert that looked absolutely amazing in the early morning sun.
I'd arrived in Jianyuguan, the mouth of China, that very morning on an overnight train from Yinchuan. It had been a long ride through Ningxia and most of Gansu province to get here, passing through the desert and mountains overnight in my drive to reach Xinjiang, which I'd rather not have done, but you can't see everything. I slept well though and was reasonably fresh when I got out of the train and sat down to eat my breakfast. Of course I was immediately accosted by various taxi drivers wanting to take me on tours for the day but I just sat and ignored them until the price was low enough. My eventual choice of driver agreed to take me around four local sights and get me back in time for a bus out of town to Dunhuang at 12.30pm!! I had anticipated spending a little more than 6 hours here but if it was do-able, I'd do it.
The first pillar of the Wall was our first stop, and was my first taste of real desert. I had imagined rolling dunes, but this really wasn't the case. It was just a flat expanse of nothing, scattered with rocks and the odd bush or bit of litter, broken only by the familiar sight of the low-rise earthen remains of the Great Wall approaching from the east. There was an empty museum and viewing platform underneath the pillar, and a crappy fake prehistoric village that owed more to the Flintstones than anything else but once I passed those by the views of the gorge and the desert running up to the sheer edges were well worth it. I got told off by my driver when I got back for taking too long here, and we literally raced away to our next destination, but in hindsight it would have been well worth spending a little more time exploring here, and it was the best that Jiayuguan had to offer me.
We sped on across the desert, skirting Jiayuguan town and the huge fort that guards it, towards a reconstructed part of the Great Wall known as the 'Overhanging Great Wall'. Along the way we came upon a man riding a motorbike with what looked like a big shaggy carpet strapped to the back. I was wondering what on earth it could be when as we passed it went 'baaa'.
The wall at this point looked brand new. It was also quite confusing as it appeared to run in three separate directions. It wasn't particularly great, but the views from the top back across the oasis and expansive desert in one direction and then the Black Mountains in the other were pretty decent. Once again I was against the clock and made it up and down again in just 40 minutes, recovering some time lost at the gorge. We then headed back in the direction of the fort we had passed by earlier.
Jiayuguan Fort was the last major stronghold of the Chinese empire of old to the west and guarded the narrow pass between two roughly parallel mountain ranges that formed the country's only real route out to the west. It was this way that the Silk Road passed on its way from Xi'an to the west - which I was also to follow in the coming days. Anyway, it was pretty expensive to get in, mostly empty inside, and built in 1988.
Well, most of it was anyway. The tower above and the wall it stands on certainly were in any case. These were apparently reconstructed with little else to go on apart from copying other buildings elsewhere in the country and referring to some random documents. It does look quite good to be fair, and if I half-closed my eyes and forgot that it's actually six years younger than me I kind of got an idea of..what...it....might.......have......... . . .Nah. Not really. Nevermind though. It had a good museum. And it had camels, although I didn't get a ride, which was a shame.
Last destination were the Wei Jin tombs, of which there are thousands out there in the desert, dating back to AD 200-420. They are known for their well-preserved brick wall paintings and one is open to the public along with a little museum. You're not allowed to take photos, even without flash for some reason, but I didn't see the harm and took one anyway. The paintings were quite good really and depicted a lot of period scenes and details, but in total only really took about 15 minutes to look around.Then it was back to the bus station to await my bus to Dunhuang. One town, four sights, six hours. Not bad going really!
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