Tuesday, June 16th - Dunhuang

I stayed awake until about midnight and then slept very well until almost 7 a.m. so the over night train worked well for all of us.  From 10 p.m. until about 7 a.m. it was very quiet.   There were also fewer stops and just generally less lights from towns and cities, as well as fewer tunnels, which caused hurricane-like winds in our cabin area.  I did have to go out and ask the smokers between cars to be quiet once about 11 p.m. as they were talking very loudly.  Since I didn't speak their language, a simple smile and hush signal seemed to work well and I never heard them again.  

Speaking of smoking, we were worried about how we were going to survive n China because there would be so much smoking everywhere.  Well, they just recently passed a law about smoking in public spaces and so far it has been great - no smoking in restaurants, hotels, shops, tourist attractions, trains, etc. so we are lucky.  There are still people smoking outside on the street and in parks but not as many as we thought there would be.  Now we'll just have to see how it goes in the other countries.

Now back to the train ride.  When we went to sleep we were in a hilly environment which was quite green and had lots of small fields with various crops.   When we woke up this morning we were in a flat dry landscape with very little vegetation.  The towns are much smaller and the homes look like they are built of dirt as they are just the same colour as the land.  Occasionally we pass a town where they obviously have tapped a water supply, not sure if it's technically an oasis, and then there are lots of trees around and some small garden plots.

The land at times is like a mini badlands - very dry and rugged looking with deep gullies running in all different directions through it, and cracks everywhere.  We assume it is wind erosion as we are supposedly heading into the windiest place in China.  Wind of course means wind farms and we've seen several of them.  The first one was huge with about 600 turbines (20 deep and 30 rows).  Then of course there were lots of power lines as well, probably taking hte electricity to the more populous areas of China..

At other times we have smoother sandier sections where you know the sand could start blowing at any moment and create a dust storm.  We are currently heading SW (I know from the compass in my camera) so off to the east there are low mountains or hills but the rest of the horizon just disappears into the sky.  Occasionally there are a few tufts of grass which I assume means that water, maybe even a river at time, runs through the area from time to time.

We have about another hour to go before we leave the train and head off on our next adventure.  More on that shortly.  Okay, "shortly" became several days but at least I am now back to it.

We got off the train in Dunhuang at 9:30 a.m., which was precisely on time as I think it was through its entire journey.  Our driver was waiting for us so we loaded up the van and headed to our hotel.  We had a bit of a wait in the lobby as our rooms weren't ready but we all put it to good use trying to get/send e-mails, which was a very slow process.  We finally got our rooms and then had about an hour to shower and change and get settled into our rooms.  Then we were off for a quick orientation to Dunhuang, a visit to some ATMs and lunch.  

Lunch was just around the corner from our hotel and it was a a small restaurant with about 4 tables.  We took the biggest and Richard, our guide, ordered for us again.  As usual it involved a big bowl of rice and then a lot of smaller dishes of meat and vegetables or just vegetables.  Our favourite was the potato dish with potato slices baked/fried in some wonderful spices.  It was a great change from the other dishes, which I think we are all getting a bit tired of.  Eating basically the same thing for three meals a day can get tedious.

After lunch we wondered around a bit but soon headed back to the hotel to get ready for the afternoon/evening event.  We went to the Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Spring and sand dunes.   We were all amazed that this spot was so close to town.   The sand dunes are huge and beautiful, and only a few minutes (5 km)                                                                                                                                                              from a very green city.  We did some group photos and walked around a bit, including from the entrance to the Crescent Spring.  There are huge sand dunes all around and yet right in the middle you find one moon-shaped spring and green oasis.  Apparently for years the sands have shifted but the spring has remained.  The dunes stretch for 40 km and stand over 100 m high so the spring is totally surrounded.  It is a very peaceful place and there is a pagoda structure and other buildings beside it.  At this point, it appears mainly to be a tourist trap.  I'm not sure if it served some other purpose in the past.

We all went for a one-hour camel ride over the dunes.  It was a rocky ride but very enjoyable, especially since there were hundreds of camels all following the same route. At the top, there must have been a thousand camels all resting while their riders went off to take pictures.  It is incredibly hot here so the camels are now moulting so they look pretty ugly to be honest.  Some of the "hair do's" did give us a good laugh though.

Following the camel ride some of the group started hiking up the sand dunes and the plan was to watch the sunset.  However, due to the heavy overcast there wasn't much of a sunset  Besides, our time was running out so they had to come down without any sunset pictures.  And they really did run down.  It may have taken 30 minutes to an hour to get up but they said it was only about 5 minutes coming down.  And they were totally covered in sand because it was windy at the top.  Those of us who did not climb just relaxed and took some pictures and did some snooping around the shops.

The Chinese have done a great job in developing all of these spots.  At this one you can take a helicopter ride, do some hang gliding, drive an ATV or Jeep, toboggan or snowboard down the dunes, etc.  And the facilities, meaning toilettes mainly, are fine.  They are nothing fancy but they are clean and they generally have at least one western toilet for the handicapped.  We suddenly don't mind being considered handicapped if it means we can avoid the squat toilets.

We drove back to town and, since it was almost 9 p.m. we had the driver take us (sand and all) to the market.  This is a large area with seating all through the centre and food stalls all around the outside.  We wanted something different so we had some naan bread (at least that was what we called it), long sting potatoes kind of stir fried, and the usual array of dishes to accompany our rice.  The dishes were good but they seem to be getting hotter as we move west.  We walked home totally exhausted and that concluded another great day.