October 8, 2017

Golden Week! A week of holiday created by the coincidence of National Day (October 1), which celebrates the founding of the PRC in 1949, and the Mid-Autumn Festival, which takes place at the time of the harvest moon (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival).  As a result, many businesses, government offices, and all the schools were closed.  It is celebrated by festivities, many people traveling, and the eating of moon cakes.  They are everywhere!  There are 200 varieties of these stuffed little pastries, with new varieties being created every year.



We had a week off from teaching and used it to tour as much of China as possible with a group of about 50 English teachers in China--most part of the BYU China Teachers Program. We visited cities along the ancient Silk Road - the route established about 200 BC to trade silk for other commodities, such as horses.

Our route: we began by flying to the northwestern part of China--a very unique place in present-day and historical China 

We began our adventure by flying from Shanghai to Urumqi, relatively close to Kyrgyzstan.  Urumqi holds the record of being the most remote city from any sea in the world.  It also the largest city of China's interior and the of Central Asia.

She is called "Loulan Beauty"

It's the site of many ancient dwellings and excavations, including incredibly well preserved mummies dating back to 1800 BC, due to the dry desert environment. Many have their hair intact as well as cloth burial wrappings.

We took a bus ride to nearby Turpan and saw so many grape vines!  They claim to have the sweetest grapes in the world -- that they have been compared to California grapes and found to be sweeter.  Nearly every building has a ventilated drying room on top of the building, used for hanging grapes while they dry. The grapes dry in the hot air but not the sun, which is too harsh. We passed miles of 100-yard long greenhouses. One side of each greenhouse is earthen, and the other is open in the summer and covered with huge sheets of plastic in the winter.








The local market had stall after stall, each with MANY varieties of raisins, along with dried apricots, kiwis, figs, etc.
 

We visited an old Uyghur (ethnically Turkish and primarily Muslim) village. We wandered the streets and could even look in a few of the homes.  In this one, we saw the bed, which is basically a clay platform with blankets.  Notice the bed heater - a little stove with a pipe that goes into the clay bed cavity.  There is also a small, sleeping child on the bed.  His mom was in the kitchen cooking.  The houses are made from packed earth, and floors are dirt.

Speaking of beds, the hotel beds in China are HARD.  Evidently, hard is preferred here and the beds are like sleeping on a board with a sheet on it.  Much like the picture above, only not made of earth.

We travelled between two cities in an overnight sleeper train.  This was our first experience with this-- and was rather interesting.  Much smaller and more cozy than anticipated... and less hygienic.

We saw the Gobi Desert, up close and personal.

And experienced several lively street markets.

And interesting street scenes...

Yes, those are chickens on the back of a three-wheeled carriage.
The cardboard sign on top has the phone number you can call to buy one.

Some things never change!  This is a rest stop.  Notice the line for the men's toilet is about 3 people long.  And about 50 for the women's toilet.  The traditional Chinese toilet is not the "western" style that you can sit on; it's a squat toilet.  But that hasn't been our challenge - it's the smell.  In the rural areas, or tourist areas in general, the restrooms are not for the faint of heart.

Another visit was to the "Thousand Buddha Grottoes" or Mogao Caves.  More than 700 cave temples were built over a period of 1000 years.  They each have intricate artwork and Buddhas.  Photography inside is not allowed, but they were amazing -- even though we only viewed a handful of them.

On to Xi'an, the end of the Silk Road, and visits to sites there, including the Terra Cotta Warriors.  This is an amazing site, made more so by learning that all but one of the figures were broken up to prevent the Emperor who had them built from enjoying his afterlife.  What warriors exist have been (and continue to be) reconstructed piece by piece.  Humpty-Dumpty times 8000, with more being discovered. But those not already unearthed will stay underground until the technology is developed to keep their brilliant colors from oxidizing--apparently these clay-colored figures used to be very colorful but lost their color rapidly after being discovered.

There was a sign along the street that made us think of some we've seen in America - "No farmers, no food."  Except it was a tribute to the farmer who discovered the first warrior on his land when he was digging a well:

Outside of the Terra Cotta pits are street vendors selling all kinds of things.  The majority are pomegranates and persimmons, but one had a tank of scorpions and put them on shish-kabobs to grill.  But, we were in a hurry and skipped trying them....

Before heading back to Shanghai, we attended a dumpling dinner with about 15 different kinds of dumplings and a traditional song and dance show representing the Tang Dynasty. Great music and costuming!

This traditional dance is one where they unfurl, wave, and regather long sleeves.

And there were some special rose moments on our trip...

Caught outside the Imin Minaret, built in 1777.

Our blog would not be complete without sharing some of the signs we saw along the way:

This was in a hotel room--they didn't want us to slip in the shower, we think...

This was at "Flaming Mountain," an important
mountain in Chinese legend, and an
area where China is lowest in altitude
and hottest in temperature.