The Last Boast - Part 1: China

"Your major is traveling." - Marjory, my friend Wayne's cousin.

*****


BEIJING
Beijing is pretty much the city built around the center of the Universe: Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The whole city is based around these monuments. And for a city with half the population of Canada (and this is 2005 statistics), it is remarkably spread out. Wide avenues, giant buildings, and grandness on every scale. And it is all currently under construction (estimated date of completion: the 2008 Olympic Games, which I guarantee will be spectacular).

Lazy day in the park.

Beijing breakfast: steamed dumplings and warm soy milk, all for $0.50.

The Temple Of Heaven was under renovation last year (but we still paid full price). Now its open to the public (and we still paid full price).

XI'AN
For a city firmly on the tourist trail (Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai are the Big 3 of China), it still feels quite quaint. I knew this place would be awesome when I stepped out of the train station at 5am and was greeted by a massive wall and its North gate, which surrounds the 'old city'. This year, though, we arrived at the more civilised time of 8am. Because I had been here before, I spent time trying to find the friends I made on my last visit. One of them was Bill, my Muslim homie, whom I had befriended when his mother asked me to help her son practice his english. Bill is 10 year old, and is quite a genius for his age. I bought him a Vancouver t-shirt, which he politely declined until he had his mother's approval. I managed to find his mother's store, which has since halved its original size (one side convenience store, the other a bubble tea shop - delicious). He took us to the local park where we played catch on the jungle gym and had races down the slide (yes, two 26 year olds playing catch and racing down a slide with a 10 year old kid). His mother then treated us to the best dumplings we had on our trip, made fresh in front of our eyes.

Bill was not the only friend I made last year. I also met a number of university students more my age when I found myself stuck in Xi'an for an extra night because the train I wanted to Shanghai was full. Alex, Daniel, Jack and Helen befriended me on the bus to Hua Shan mountain, and we climbed it together from 11:00pm to make it for sunrise. We meet them again at their university, which is quite impressive. They treated us to kebab with all sorts of weird yet wonderful meats, before taking us to the 'musical fountain,' which as wussy as it sounds is actually wet, chaotic and loads of fun (Rayner Recommended).

Biking around the wall of the old city. This is one of the gates of entry.

Bill, The Yone and myself in the park. And yes, corrupting the innocents with my Flatbed t-shirt.

XIAHE
Xiahe is the most important place of pilgrimage for Tibetans outside of Tibet. It is also major stop for nomads wishing to stock up on supplies. It is an interesting contrast between three distinct groups of people: the Han Chinese, who look, well, Chinese; the hardy Tibetans, who live on a windswept plateau at 16,000 feet and the nomads. It wasn't an uncommon site to see Tibetans prostrate themselves around the monastery, which took me about an hour or so to walk, which is a testament to their religious beliefs. We did a day trip to the grasslands, seeing a few small sites along the way (and yes, all of them did have entrance fees). The highlight was a monastery, which we didn't actually see, instead being invited by a monk into his quarters for tea and tsampa, a Tibetan delicacy made out of barley flour, yak cheese, yak butter, and hot water.

Outside our guesthouse: shoesmiths apply their trade.

Tibetan doors. Mikey likey.

The monastery.

Goats hanging out.

LANZHOU
This was more a place where we found ourselves for 8 hours before our train left later in the day. It is a strange place, located in the center of a valley, and spread out thin throughout it. We bid our time by walking around it, seeing the famous Yellow River (tick), taking in a few performances in a park, and playing a few games of pool on the street, and finally settling into a beer garden right in front of the train station. It is also worthy to note that the people here were extremely friendly.

Pool on the street, with some young fans.

JIAYUGUAN
A lonely outpost that marks the Westernmost point of the Great Wall, Jiayuguan is truly in the middle of nowhere. Just desert and mountains.

Lets play a game called 'Shoot the Mogul invader.' I'm 2 for 3 so you better watch out.

Jiayuguan fort.

DUNHUANG
A prosperous tourist town where my first impressions were that it looked like a Chinese Las Vegas (more for all the lights than casinos, of which there were none), we entered late in the night after our bus broke down on the way over. It is most famous for its caves, which showcase the development of Buddhist art from the 3rd century onwards (if you received a postcard from me, this is where the paintings on it originated from). The caves, impressive as they were, wasn't the only reason we went to Dunhuang. Just outside the small city there is another attraction just as impressive:

Fricking Huge Dunes Of Doom

Hell yeah!

My little friend.

"Hello. My name is Yonatan and I am a turd. Look at me. Weee!"

Going down a dune - easy work.

Going up a dune - two steps forward, one step back.

TURPAN
The center of grape production in China, Turpan was the first stop where we didn't feel like we were in China anymore. We were constantly tormented by a Mr Arkin Mehmet, who wanted us to go on one of his tours and seemed to find us whenever we were eating. How many times do we have to say no!?!?!?! We ended up hiring a taxi for a fraction of the cost, and he was extremely happy to take us, shaking our hands afterwards with a big grin on his face. We bought some local wine and tried the soft icecream sold by vendors on the street.

Jiaohe ruins. Planet Of The Apes set?

The Yone tries a new desert swimming technique.

URUMQI
The furthest point from the sea on earth, Urumqi is the last real Chinese city we visited. It is big, pulsing and like any other Chinese city, constantly under construction. In this case, the main artery through the city was all but closed off, ripped up and being reconstructed. Its like if Sukhumvit in Thailand or Georgia Street in Vancouver were closed off in their entirety. We used Urumqi as a base to see Tian Chi, or Heavenly Lake, staying at the Xinjiang Fruit Group's flagship hotel.

Yoni gets down and dirty with his ice cream sundae.

The furthest place on earth from the sea.

Heavenly Lake. Looks like Banff.

The Temple at Heavenly Lake. Yoni likes stairs.

KASHGAR
After a 24 hour train ride we arrived in Kashgar, in time to see its world famous Sunday Market. This place does not look like China, and there has been an active separatist movement to make Xinjiang province into its own separate entity (much like Quebec in Canada). But the Chinese government no likey, and for a place as far West as you can get from Beijing, it has one of the few remaining Mao statues standing loud and proud upon its pedestal. We sampled pigeon kebab, wandered around the Sunday Market and old town, and watched all the activity outside of the mosque at sunset, with children running everywhere with blow-up balls, playing catch , and generally living life.

The Mosque - the center of Kashgar.

The Sunday animal market. Apparently a goat goes for $20.

The daily Sunday Market, not to be confused with the weekly Sunday Animal Market.

Taking a donkey taxi through the old town.

The Chairman Mao, ridiculously out of place in Kashgar.