China — a Silk Road journey

I had wanted to do the Silk Road again for some time and finally talked my husband into going. Since I planned on spending 30 days, I added a few places to the beginning of the itinerary that I had not yet visited.

An unexpected start

Things did not go quite as I had expected, however, as on our second day in Shanghai I had to take my husband to the hospital. He had bronchitis. The English-speaking doctor at the Huashan Huanyu Health Care Center checked him out, took blood tests and gave him the medicines he needed, all for a cost of 340 yuan (about $40). The whole thing took one hour.

He felt better the next day as we were driven to Zhouzhuang, 1½ hours away, where we were to spend the day and one night. We had been there five years before, and what a quaint place it was then. It was still beautiful, but it was so full of Chinese tourists we could hardly move on the narrow lanes.

Gone also were most of the stands and shops selling freshwater pearls, paintings and all kinds of “stuff.” They were replaced by small restaurants and shops selling delicious ham hocks, some packaged for tourists to take home. What a change!

A dying tradition

The next day we flew from Pudong’s huge new airport to Luoyang. Since 9/11, travelers in China are not allowed any liquor in their carry-on bags, so our bottle of Scotch was taken, put in a Styrofoam box, strapped shut and shipped with the luggage (it is allowed in checked bags).

The Longmen Grottos (pictured above) near Luoyang were about the best I have seen in China. Situated on the Yi River with beautiful scenery, it was well worth the stop. However, the Eastern and Western Han tombs were not worth the effort.

The highlight of the afternoon was a visit I had requested to a cave dwelling where a 94-year-old woman, with her feet traditionally bound, lived with her family. She had moved there as a bride when she was 17. The place was charming, with a large courtyard and rooms all around.

The two dwellings next to it were abandoned. I suppose it is not the style for the young people, and once this lady is gone, this place will be abandoned as well.

The White Horse Temple was okay, as was the museum, but the walk around Old Town was interesting.

Contrasting views

Flying to Xining, we had to backtrack to Beijing, where we changed planes and picked up Stanley, who would join us for the rest of the trip.

I had seen the five other great Tibetan monasteries and was looking forward to seeing Kumbum, or Ta’er Si as it is also called. It was not at all what I had expected. It must have been magnificent in its day, but now it is more like a museum or a tourist stop than a religious site. Local Han girls dressed in beautiful costumes served as monastery guides, and the monks were clipping entrance tickets.

What a treat Qutan Monastery was after Kumbum. It was built in Ming style and features beautiful murals from the Ming and Qing dynasties. The few visitors there were leaving as we arrived, so we had the place to ourselves.

Serendipitous stop

Back on the road again, my husband had spotted a mud village and we did one of those STOP THE CAR things. We were invited into a home, and soon the neighbors started to drift in to see what was going on. The rooms surrounding this home’s courtyard were filled with vegetables and flowers plus a henhouse, a goat and a large pig with a piglet.

When we arrived, the lady of the house was hanging the clothes that she had washed in her washing machine. She graciously offered us tea. Needless to say, the drive to Lanzhou took all day instead of the five hours it was supposed to.

Lanzhou

The highlight of Lanzhou was the Binglingsi Grottos — almost as good as the Longmen Grottos — situated in the beautiful countryside. Lanzhou is one of the most polluted cities in China, so we were lucky to be in town on a weekend when what looked like chemical factories were closed.

Since we were only three people traveling together, we had been spared the mandatory two shopping stops a day that everyone complains about. We almost had to ask to shop.

In Lanzhou, we were taken down the main street with modern shops on both sides. However, we wanted the local market, Huang Mao, and finally found it — full of gourds, paper cuttings and “antiques” of all sorts, all at great prices. We stayed until it got dark and closed.

Dunhuang

Dunhuang is an absolute madhouse, as they have an average of 4,000 tourists a day who come to see the Magao Grottos. Visitors get to see only 10 caves, and we ended up with a feeling of being shuffled through.

The sand dunes outside of Dunhuang are a fun place to go to, as we did in the late afternoon. There were lots of camels — of course, available for rides — and all sorts of modern vehicles to maneuver around.

People climb up the dunes (about 1,000 feet high) on steps and then slide down on wooden boards. Porters carry six boards up at a time for two yuan per trip, and the rental fee per board is 10 yuan apiece, so someone is making a lot of money.

That night, after a long day, we finally broke down and opened our Styrofoam box.

Dining

The food on previous trips had always been very good. On this trip, however, it was not (in most places), whether it was Chinese or Middle Eastern. We asked for the local bread (nan) and noodle soup more than once, which was excellent.

When we were taken to a local restaurant at the train station near Dunhuang before the overnight train to Turfan, I refused the cold dinner they put in front of us — an act unheard of, for me. Again we asked for, and got, a delicious noodle soup.

Turfan

The train to Turfan was comfortable and spotless and had a friendly staff. Passengers had to go through a security check, just like at the airport. This time, alcohol was allowed.

Turfan is probably my favorite city on the Silk Road. It is small, with no airport; the only way to get to or from this town is by train, car or bus.

When we got into our hotel room, I spotted a big thermos full of hot water. I had missed this at all of our other hotels, where instead there were modern water heaters of some sort or another.

My husband had purchased an MCI phone card at home to use in China. He tried everything to get the thing to work but with no success. Yet, when we went to buy some water in a small shop across the street from the hotel, we discovered we could use the phone there for almost nothing. E-mailing from Turfan was also difficult.

The friendly people of Turfan are mostly Muslim and either Uighur or Hui. Our guide for Turfan and Urumqi, Alimjan, was by far the best guide on this trip. He was courteous, helpful, friendly and just plain terrific.

I had planned on staying two nights at almost all of the cities we visited and felt sorry for the people on the bus tours. As we walked to breakfast in Turfan before 7 one morning, I counted 15 big buses at the hotel, most of them loaded and ready to go. I don’t know how they do it — up at 6 and ready to go by 7 is not my idea of getting to know a country.

Turfan got very hot in the middle of the day, so we saw the sights in the early morning or late afternoon. I found the ruins of the ancient cities of Jiaohe and Gaochang very interesting, and the scenery going to the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves was very nice. The caves themselves were in bad shape, but it was worth the ride.

Turfan is famous for its grapes, and while Grape Gorge looked like it was meant for tourists, is was charming with walkways covered in grapevines full of grapes plus stalls selling raisins.

There is a lot to see in Turfan. One thing that impressed my husband was the Karaz, a 2,000-year-old water system that carries melted snow from the distant Tian Shan mountains into the city via underground canals.

Kashgar

Kashgar’s Sunday market is not what it was 10 years ago. Back then it was fantastic and full of life. Now the animal market has been separated from the regular one, which is larger but, to me, not as interesting. The market was all spruced up and the charm was gone — boy, was I ever disappointed.

They also were paving the streets in the old part of town and building a “shopping mall” around Id Kah Mosque. I wonder how many of the quaint streets full of handicraft shops will be uprooted.

Ten years ago I had taken some pictures of a family I had visited in Kashgar, and on this trip I had brought the photos with me. I knew the family lived near the Abaka Hoja Tomb, but I had no address. With the help of our guide, we found them.

You should have seen their faces when I gave them the pictures — all smiles, to say the least. One of the photos was of an old man (shown in the April ’95 issue of ITN, page 94). The man had died five years before this visit, but his widow was still there. She had never had a picture of him before.

On to Urumqi

Urumqi is a big, modern city. The one thing I was eager to do was go back to the Urumqi Museum. Ten years before, I had seen the 3,200-year-old mummified body of a young woman there. At that time she was laying uncovered on a sort of platform. I could have walked over and touched her. Now she was covered with a plastic dome, at least.

Another “to do” in Urumqi is to take a ride up to Heavenly Lake in the Tian Shan mountain range.

Hong Kong

We made a one-day stop in Canton, as I like to take the hydrofoil into Hong Kong — a nice 3-hour ride down the Pearl River. Instead, we had been booked on a flight. We were dropped off at the airport at noon, two hours early for our 40-minute flight, and arrived at our hotel in Hong Kong at 6 p.m. I was not happy.

The train is now the best bet for speed, as it takes about one hour and 40 minutes from downtown Canton to downtown Kowloon.

Hong Kong is still building skyscrapers, and it doesn’t look like an end is in sight. It also has become expensive. The one thing that had not changed was my tailor, both in cost and quality. I highly recommend Pete’s Fashions & Optical (57 Peking Road, 3rd floor) in Kowloon.

The particulars

I had, as usual, planned my own trip — where to go, when, hotels and things I wanted to see — and Iweeta McIntosh of McIntosh Tours (Richardson, TX; phone 800/232-4462 or visit www.mcintoshtours.com) put it all together.

The cost of the land portion was $4,601 per person, including hotels, all meals in China, breakfast only in Hong Kong, transportation, guides, car and driver, visa, two extra bunks to have our own compartment on the train and airport taxes. Not included were tips, laundry and personal things.

All the hotels were nice, though somehow the rooms in the 3-stars were bigger and nicer than at the 4-stars.

We used frequent-flyer miles to get to and from China. Iweeta, who has been my travel agent for China for 10 years now, was terrific, as usual. I recommend her highly.