At The Wall's End

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!

More Ningxia Sights

The next morning I met up with a taxi driver who I'd previously arranged to drive me around some of the more remote sights near Yinchuan. She was very friendly and even brought her young son along who had some homemade baozi for me. First up were the ruins of the Western Xia tombs, the mausoleums of the rulers of this kingdom which controlled quite a large area here about 1000-800 years ago. One of these tombs has been turned into a tourist attraction with a decent museum, and this is where we went. What's left these days are the earthen remains of the main pagoda-like structure and the surrounding enclosure walls, gates and guard towers. I was really looking forward to seeing these tombs, but the actual tomb on show was a bit disappointing I found. There were no information boards to tell you what was what and the whole site looked a bit dug up and neglected. I knew though that this was just one of many such tombs dotted about the plain here and what I really wanted to do was explore these too. So, I told my driver that I wanted to go for a walk, gave her my number just in case and set off along a little path towards a gap in the bushes surrounding the sight. I followed a little road for a while and soon saw in the distance two more of these conical tombs right next to each other. Great, I thought, and set off towards them. It was a whole hour before I eventually reached them. With the land being so flat and not personally having much in the way of depth perception, they really hadn't looked so far when I set out. I really wanted to see them though so had pressed on long after I should have turned back. Besides, I was the one paying for the taxi, so I'll go where I like! Even with this in mind though, I knew I had to catch a train later and make it to a few more sights that day so spent as little time at the tombs as I could spare. The emptiness of the area around these sites made it all seem quite bleak and desolate. I couldn't quite work out whether I thought they were impressive monuments to me or just lonely ruins, which was a bit strange. In common with the wall at Yulin there were pieces of brick and glazed roof tile scattered everywhere in the dirt between the scrubby bushes, so of course I took a small piece back with me. While I was looking around my driver phoned to see where I was, and although I was able to tell her roughly where I was and that I'd be another hour yet, I never managed to get the message across that I'd really like her to drive along that little road and pick me up! I was knackered when I finally got back to that car park after pounding back along the road as fast as I could and was glad to be able to sit down while we drove to the next sight.The next sight was Gunzhongkou village, in the Helan Shan mountain range. I didn't see where the village was to be honest, but there were a couple of small temples on the mountainside and a small nipple-shaped pagoda, or dagoba, or whatever, on one peak which the taxi drivers son and I climbed up to.
Good views from the top but worth paying for? I don't think so. We then drove on to the twin pagodas at Baisikou. These were previously part of a whole temple complex that has been completely destroyed leaving just these two towers stood on their own in the middle of nowhere at the base of the mountains. Again there was nothing else to really see here so I took a few photos and we moved on. We were then due to visit a valley full of ancient rock carvings, but time was running short. The long walks at the Western Xia tombs had cost me and I had to get back for my train. So reluctantly I told my driver to take me back to Yinchuan and the station, where I caught my train out to Gansu and Jiayuguan.

Yinchuan

Seeing as I'd accomplished so much in that one day in Yulin, I decided to press on the very next day and caught a bus out to Yinchuan, capital of the tiny province of Ningxia. I get the impression that this little province is left off the itineraries of many people, and the province itself is quite poor as a result of this and encroaching desertification, but it has a wealth of sights and I spent a good couple of days here taking them in. Again my bus ride from Yulin followed the Great Wall, or what was left of it. I never again saw stretches of the wall in good condition. It's not inconceivable that it will disappear one day but then, in the middle of nowhere who'd miss it?I liked Yinchuan a lot. It's a provincial capital, so has plenty of facilities and entertainment, but is also still fairly small and comfortable. It was friendly and attractive too. It took me a little time to find a decently priced hotel that didn't have electrical outlets right next to shower heads but once that was done I could explore. First up was Bei Ta, a monastery and pagoda on the edge of town. This place was completely empty when I was there but impeccably maintained. The pagoda itself is about 300 years old and has a little exhibition of photos of other styles of pagoda inside. I couldn't read where they were all from, but I recognised a fair few that I'd visited myself.
Back in Yinchuan town I visited the Ningxia Provincial Museum. This is set in another former monastery and was pretty average. Ningxia is one of a handful of provinces in China dedicated to a minority group - in this case the Hui, a muslim group descended from Persian and Arab traders who moved in along the Silk Road to trade with China many centuries ago. It was truly ironic then that this is what passes for an exhibition on Hui culture in the Hui's own museum. I have to say I laughed out loud when I saw the wispy beard stuck onto an old shop mannequin. Maybe that's why I couldn't focus my camera. It was ridiculous.
Some of the other exhibits were alright, but I've seen better. There was another tower to climb though, which was fine. I spent the evening checking out some possible destinations and planning my itinerary. Thanks to my extended stay in Beijing awaiting my visa I'd all but kissed goodbye to the possibility of going all the way out west to explore the huge frontier country of Xinjiang as there just didn't seem to be time to fit everything in. This was a huge disappointment for me as this province was one of the places I'd always wanted to see. However, I'd made good progress these last few days and after a few hours research on the internet I decided that if I skipped a few little places along the way I could squeeze in a few days on the eastern side of the province before flying out to Shanghai. I'd never make it to Kashgar and the lakes and mountains along the road towards Pakistan but a small taste is better than nothing at all and besides, I'm sure I'll be back one day. So it was with renewed enthusiasm and excitement that I went to bed that night ready for a day of full-on exploration and travel to come.

The Great Wall: Take Two

My trip out west roughly parallelled the route of the Great Wall and each day I could glimpse it's remains at least once. I passed it leaving Beijing and criss-crossed it again between Baotou and Yulin. Here just ten minutes or so out of Yulin there is a restored fort and beacon tower called Zheng Bai Tai. It was quite an impressive structure, but essentially empty. Far more interesting were the remains of the Great Wall here that ran out from the fort on either side, so Gao Xiang and I set out to explore it.The remains of the wall here are slight. The brick lining had long disappeared, probably robbed away for building material, and all that was left was the earthen core. Over the years this had been eroded away or indeed removed completely. Sometimes the best you could do was attempt to play join-the-dots with the watch-towers and walk from one isolated square tower to the next. One tower we came to had had it's base cleared to expose the lower few courses of bricks and drainage channel that had been preserved under the fallen rubble and earth. All the spoil from this little excavation had been just pushed to the side and as I scrambled round past this my inner archaeologist was reawakened and I spotted something in the dirt. I reached down and pulled out a little piece of pottery with a nice little pattern on it. I looked around and found more. And then more, and more again. It was everywhere, along with bricks and plenty of animal bone. I was never a fantastic archaeologist, despite 4 years of trying, and in any case I was more at home with bits of bone than pottery but I could tell that some of this stuff was old. There were plenty of modern pieces but also some genuine archaeological material. I was very impressed. It was good fun too. Before anyone accuses me of archaeological rape, all the pieces were from the spoil and therefore completely out of context with the monument itself and as such relatively useless for proper archaeological analysis...probably. We had quite a good collection in the end, and this photo is just part of it. They were too good to leave behind so with a pocketful of cultural relics, we went on. We were diverted away from the wall just then as a brickworks had been built across the site, completely erasing all traces of the wall at that point. You can see a watch-tower and some small remains of the wall just across the void that had been created for the works. One cool thing about this diversion is that as we skirted the gap we discovered some cave houses in another small depression just next to it. They had been abandoned for some years and were missing doors and windows. Some had damage from subsidence and erosion but they were really interesting to have a look round. Just another part of the local cultural heritage that I was lucky enough to experience here.From the cave-houses we made our way back to the wall and followed it for a little way more before returning back to the tower and catching a taxi back into town. Not bad for an afternoon!

Life In A Northern Town

My long overnight 5-in-a-bed bus ride across the Inner Mongolian plains brought me to Baotou for 5 in the morning of August 2nd. There isn't really very much to see in Inner Mongolia so I didn't want to hang round much and was on another bus to Yulin, in northern Shaanxi, an hour later. What was interesting at Baotou bus station was that all the signs were dual language - Chinese and Mongolian. China seems to take good care of its minority groups and promotes them well (while still keeping a good firm hand on things) and I've come across many different minority groups and cultures throughout my travels, but up here and throughout my journey to the far west of China this became more and more apparent than it ever had been elsewhere. I think that's what made this part of my trip extra special for me, along with the usual amazing landscapes and monuments...I arrived in Yulin for midday and after a shower went off to explore. I didn't know very much about this town, except that it's an out-of-the-way northern town with some well-preserved yet not overly restored original features. This was enough for me to add it to my itinerary and was a good decision, I think. It has a fairly modern centre which was quite average but when I branched off the main drag I came across a 'restored' tourist street of completely new old-fashioned shops complete with bell-tower and ornamental wooden gates. These were so new that they were still putting on the final coat of paint as I walked past. The area was pretty dead. Obviously Yulin is not yet on the tour routes, but it intends to be. It was a shame that around this little area you could see that original buildings had been demolished to make way for all this development. This is the problem with rapid tourist development in many areas it seems; knock down the old and build a Disney-version of what used to be there before.I walked straight through all this and came to the city walls. These made the trip worth it alone. The walls still stand round a good half of the city, mostly still at near-full height and most retain their outer brick layer, even if this is in a pretty poor state of repair. Parts were already being cleared to be rebuilt and I felt extremely lucky to see such a sight in original, untouched condition. I appreciate the need for repair and restoration, and these walls do need it as they really didn't look that safe, but there was something special about the sight that you just didn't get in other restored walled towns like Pingyao and Xi'an.Also quite cool was the opportunity to take a look around a normal northern town. It was pretty dry and dusty, and all the buildings were a fairly uniform shade of grey, but not in an unattractive way. I walked up a hill to one side of the town following the walls and around this side of the town there was still quite a lot of original low-rise architecture. I was having a great time just walking up and down these little streets, just wandering wherever I fancied. It was along one of these streets that an old man and a young lad passed me walking down the hill. They made some comment about foreigners and I gave them a wave to say hi. A few minutes later the young lad came back up the road and asked me where I was going. I told him that I didn't know, so he asked me again, 'where do you want to go?'. I told him 'nowhere' and tried to explain that I was just walking. He didn't quite get it though and ended up following me around for the rest of the day. I was a bit non-plussed by all this but he seemed nice enough so I let him. His name was Gao Xiang, and he was a Senior 2 student. His English wasn't great, but he'd run home to grab his notebook so he could practise with me and that was cool.After discovering an amazing double gateway surviving in the mudcore wall that was all that was left at the top of town, we walked together back down to the main centre of town to catch a taxi out to Zheng Bai Tai, a restored fortress on the ruins of the Great Wall which runs past Yulin. This was cool enough to warrant a post of it's own, so read on...