Silk Road, China 絲綢之路 (18 Apr - 3 May 2003)

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My family has been talking about traveling the silk road for some time. We eventually reconciled our schedules, and hired the service of www.travelchinaguide.com to arrange a private tour for our family.

As we got close to the planned departure date, the SARS outbreak was getting momentum and everyone changed their travel plans. We decided to go ahead with the original plan. As a result there were very few tourist "competing" with us in most of the places we visited. Of course some people jumped away from us at the moment they learned that we came from SARS infected Hong Kong.

It was a rewarding and fun trip. The only big surprise was food - it was much better than expected.

We traveled roughly like this:
-> flight to Xian
-> flight to Lanzhou
-> overnight train to Jiayuguan
-> overland drive to Dunhuang
-> overnight train to Turpan
-> overland drive to Urumqi
-> flight to Kashgar
-> return home via Urumqi & Xian

All the pictures were taken in color slides. Lots of the places are either desert or dusty places - therefore earth tone in nature. So I decided to turn all photos into black & white like.

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This little hill in Xian is full of history and legends.

In the ancient time, it was the place where "teasing the warlords with signal fire (烽火戲諸侯)" happened. More than 2000 years ago, in the Zhou dynasty, the king had a new concubine who did not smile. To make her smile, the king lit the signalling fire that was to be used only in grave dangers. When the concubine see the horses and armies rushing to help the king, she finally smiled. The king got what he wanted, but lost his credibility to the warlords.

In the structures at the bottome is the famous Hua Qing Pond (華清池), where the emperor of Tang bathed with Concubine Yang. Yang is one of the most famous women in Chinese history, who is also at the heart of a tragic story.

More recently this was the site of a mutiny that resulted in a united front of Nationalist and Communist against the invading Japanese.

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The terra cota warriors is a must see in Xian.

An ancient capital, Xian was the beginning and end of the ancient silk road in China (before the Ming dynasty.)

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After one night in Xian, we arrived Lanzhou by plane. There are a few cultural heritage sites near Lan Zhou that date back to the days when Lan Zhou was a major stopover for the ancient Silk Road.

On our way to one of such sites, Ba Ling Temple, we stopped over to buy strawberries. It was the one fruit that we found in abundance and very cheap near Lanzhou. Good quality also. Great treat for us because in Hong Kong strawberries are imported from US and Australia and very expensive.

While we were buying fruit, this old man just sitting there looking at us buying strawberries. And very happy to be photographed. After the picture, he even offered me his newspaper wrapped cigarette.

However the sight of tourists is getting rarer and rarer in the weeks to come, as the SARS scare reaching its height. Everyday we heard about how tourist has dried up.

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Lunch stop before visiting Ba Ling Temple.

Officers setup shop on the street to promote the traffic laws. I still don't understand how setting up desk and chair on the street side can promote the laws, but I guess that's how things work in the mainland.

(We will see even more strange government campaigns. Just read on.)

After I took a picture of the officers from the back, two kids near by promptly reported my activities to the police. (Who just brushed them off.) Pictured here are the two kid informants.

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Ba Ling Shi (Ba Ling Temple) is famous for the Thousand Buddha Caves. Few hundred still remain after hundreds of years of building and destruction.

The three pictured here are either preserved well or was restored.

There are quite a few signs that marked the location of caves now buried underground when they built a dam in 1968.

This is the never ending sad struggle in developing countries - that given limited resources and means available, the future and the past simply cannot co-exists.

You know your future generations will mourn about the loses. But without building new ways of life, there may not be future generations to speak of.

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27 meters tall, according to the information posted.

To the left of the giant Buddha is the stairs going up the the big cave on top where more stone carvings are found.

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We took an overnight train from Lan Zhou to Jia Yu Guang.

During the journey the captain of the train asked me to switch to another room because "Senior Management" of the railway company is traveling on the same train and would like to have my soft sleeper.

When we arrived Jia Yu Guang the next morning, we literally got a cold reception. Not only the weather was freezing cold, no one came to the train station to pick us up.

Jia Yu Guang is essentially an one-company town. Jiuquan Steel Mill is the biggest employer complete with its own farm, nursery, etc... Nearby is the famous Jiuquen Satellite Launch Center.

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During Tang, Han and the dynasties before Ming, the Chinese empire extended well beyond Jia Yu Guang further to the west, as evidenced by the pre-Ming Great Wall to the west of Jia Yu Guang.

However soon after Ming dynasty established its new capitol in Beijing, it reversed the open and expansionist policy, by sealed off trade routes and contacts with the outside world. Thus beginning of the 500-year long isolation (and decline.)

I don't quite know the reason for the reversal in policy. Story had it that the palace was hit by lighting and the Emperor took the event as heaven will and punishment, thus he started to reverse his policy to the other extreme.

As the isolation policy set on, the western border is retreated eastward to Jia Yu Guang.

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This is the general's quarters inside the very large fortress.