Blue sky days, snowy peaks and the Great Wall
Monday, May 4th, 2009
Leaving Dunhuang behind us, we travelled back east through the Hexi Corridor along the silk road to Jiayuguan, a place I’ve wanted to visit for several years. Jiayuguan’s 13th century Ming Dynasty fortress marks the end of the Great Wall of China, and some time ago I had resolved to see the Wall in as many different locations as possible, since I’m rather fascinated by it. Not only did we visit the fort, but also another stretch of wall that was quite beautiful in the rocky barrenness of the surroundings. We walked along the wall for about half an hour and were the only people there; by contrast, the following day for the May 1 holiday 150,000 people went to the Badaling section near Beijing. As for the fort itself, it was imposing and impressive, but our experience was merely OK, as it was cold and windy and there wasn’t any blue sky in sight, so the promised backdrop of snow-capped peaks was absent from view. Perhaps my high expectations going in played a role, too.
In contrast to this, we barely had any expectations for the remaining places after Jiayuguan – Zhengye, Mati Si and Wuwei. These were all afterthought destinations that we only added to our itinerary after gaining more time due to our expulsion from Gannan prefecture earlier in the week. But travel is what it is, and often the places you enjoy the most aren’t the ones you had been most looking forward to when you began. This was the case again in Gansu as these last days turned out to be the most enjoyable of our little excursion, with three consecutive blue-sky days, some surprisingly impressive sights and a bit of time spent at the foot of snow-capped mountains.
In Zhengye, we were fortunate to visit a Buddhist temple at a time when a monk was leading a group of robed followers in a chant inside the temple, followed by a procession around the temple complex outside. The Buddha statue itself inside the temple is the largest indoor reclining Buddha in China at over 30m long, and the unrestored wooden temple was a delight as well – in all, the whole place had a great medieval feel to it, and was one of the highlights of the trip.
From Zhengye, we went to Mati Si with the vague idea that there was some kind of Buddhist monastery there that might make up for our missing out on the Labrang Monastery in Xiahe. It wasn’t actually an active monastery but another ancient temple complex – still, it was extraordinarily carved into a vertical cliff face, complete with ancient staircases inside the cliff for access to the top caves. But what made Mati Si the single most enjoyable destination of Gansu was that it is nestled in the shadow of the Qilian Shan mountain range to the south that forms the border between Gansu and Qinghai provinces. While this wasn’t a patch on what we saw in Nepal last year, the sweeping panoramic views, the snow-roofed Chinese temples and the dripping icicles combined with the sunshine and blue sky to create an idyllic winter destination.
Sadly leaving Mati Si behind, we stopped in Wuwei long enough to admire the pagodas and towers, and visit a local produce market, before setting off for Lanzhou and the flight back to Guangzhou. Just at the point when we were congratulating ourselves on how well things had gone over the previous few days, we were quickly brought back to the reality of being foreigners traveling in China. After taking 12 buses in Gansu without incident, for the 13th and last ride we were refused tickets on account of us not having a special type of insurance that is technically required for foreigners in the province but which had not come up at any point in the previous 10 days. Of course, no one at the bus station can sell you this mandatory insurance, or knows where you can obtain it, or how much it costs – but somehow despite this they will not sell you a ticket without it. In the end, when we showed them our existing travel insurance, they let us on the bus. But it was a good reality check that, just because you can ask for a hotel room and order beef noodles in Chinese and get by in a province where virtually no one speaks English, China is still China, and you never know what roadblocks will appear around the corner.
But overall, the Gansu experiment was a great success. We were very disappointed with being forbidden to enter Gannan, but you can also access it from Sichuan province to the south, so perhaps if it opens up we can still visit it one day without having to retrace our steps through Gansu. But for now, we’re back in Guangzhou, and back to work for me.
Today at the holiest Buddhist shrine in the country, That Luang, the most important annual religious festival in Laos took place – Boun That Luang. We woke at 5:15am and took a tuk-tuk to the temple to be there by 6am and were joined by a few dozen foreigners and thousands of Lao worshippers (maybe 10,000?) in what was one of the highlights of our short trip so far. For the full moon of the 12th lunar month, monks from all over the country have descended on Vientiane in recent days. The Lao faithful, many dressed in their best clothing, arrived at the temple before dawn and took their spots in the courtyard – we did the same. It was still dark when we arrived but the temple was illuminated, giving the place an atmosphere of anticipation. Hundreds (more?) monks were waiting inside the courtyard and out with their empty alms bowls in front of them; but they would have to wait a little while longer.
While the alms giving was taking place, many monks had to scoop all the sticky rice out of their bowls into containers behind them to stop the overflow and by the end, they had so much stuff that they each had to haul it away in large plastic garbage bags. It was wonderful to be a part of such a beautiful ceremony, yet another reminder for me of how peaceful this religion is. It was also the best chance I’ve ever had to photograph Buddhist monks without the usual inhibitions, so I was very pleased about that.
Nick