Dunhuang is a city in the Gansu province of China situated right on the edge of the Gobi Desert. This was our first time in a proper desert, and we were excited to see some camels and sand dunes. Joined by our pack of Silk Road friends we visited some ancient ruins of the Great Wall of China. It was interesting imagining ancient Chinese guards manning these desolate outposts at the edge of a vast desert. They considered anything West from there the edge of the world.

We had to fulfill our need for camels and sand dunes and Dunhuang had just the place for it. Known as Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Moon Spring, this place is beautiful and also truly crazy in the way Chinese tourist spots tend to be. Picture a picturesque oasis nestled between towering sand dunes. Then picture thousands of tourists covering said dunes and an endless line of camels walking a loop through the dunes, sand buggies driving on pre-built tracks and a nighttime desert concert with drone shows and dancing. It was full on, but the majority Chinese crowd was in such good spirits, and they danced and sang their hearts out to the music as the sun set over the sand dunes on the edge of the Gobi desert. 

Jiayuguan was filled with Silk Road history, new friends and a few too many beers! Named after Jiayu Pass, the first frontier fortress at the west end of the Ming dynasty Great Wall. Situated at the narrowest part of the Hexi Corridor (a narrow stretch of traversable desert between mountain ranges) which acted as a natural funnel for merchants and enemies.

Our first evening in Jiayuguan was an emotional roller coaster. We arrived at our hostel late in the afternoon feeling pretty exhausted from a long travel day. We hadn’t seen much of the city, but we had driven through some weird industrial areas on the way to the hostel, and the vibes were a bit off. 

After resting in our room for a while we forced ourselves to go and explore, and found some electric scooters to rent. We hadn’t managed to get them working up until this point, but this night we were successful and we rode our little yellow scooters into town to a night market. At the market we had our first Uygur food experience, and it was a proper feast. We had huge plates of meat skewers, bowls of roasted peanuts, delicious cucumber salad, and lots of beer. It must be a rare occurrence for foreigners to come to a local market, and we were treated like celebrities. We had strange dishes brought for us, beers given to us, and a lot of Baiju (a strong local spirit). It was a fun night, and a great reminder that when we feel weird about a new place, the best thing to do is to go out and explore. 

When we arrived back at our hostel I got into a deep conversation about geopolitics and history with an Australian guy called Tim. It was nice to talk to someone else with a similar culture and sense of humor in such a remote part of the world.

The next day we had a jam-packed day of sightseeing with our new friend Tim and our friend Felix from Zhangye. We ended the day back at the market for a repeat of the night before, this time with our friends joining us. Jiayuguan was a great mix of history, friends, delicious food and some fun nights.

We started our long journey west following the Silk Road across China on a very comfortable train ride from Xining to our first stop, Zhangye. This was our first high-speed train in China and definitely the nicest train we have been on so far this trip. It was a D class train which is the second fastest class of train in China capable of travelling around 200-250 km/h. It was only a quick two hour journey but we travelled over 340km.

That morning was spent exploring the lowkey streets of Zhangye. The public workout spaces in China are incredible, they are like a fully equipped gym with hundreds of different workout machines all free to use. We were walking around in the heat of the day, but even so there were still people doing a workout. I’m sure it would be absolutely packed in the mornings and evenings. We were saying how this kind of thing wouldn’t be possible in the US or in New Zealand as all the equipment would get destroyed in no time.

There was a famous 1000 year old Buddhist temple known as Dafo Temple. It is home to an enormous reclining Buddha statue. It was interesting seeing the Chinese influence on Buddhism here, with noticeably different styles of architecture and painting. The statue was very impressive, being around 35 metres long, and surrounded by statues of Boddhivastas.

The main attraction in Zhangye is the famous Rainbow Mountains which are about an hour's drive out of the city. We arranged for a driver through our hostel and a vanload of us headed there that afternoon for sunset. We made friends with a lovely girl called Bing from Hong Kong. She was on a week-long holiday in mainland China and was actually following a similar route to us, so we would be able to see her in some of our next destinations! We had no idea what we were getting into and it was only once we arrived at the ticket office megacomplex (the building itself would be similar in size to many New Zealand airports) when we started to realise what we were in for. The carpark was enormous and so were the crowds of mostly domestic tourists. We managed to get our tickets pretty easily and were soon on a bus from the ticket office to the first sightseeing stop. The systems in place here were outstanding, there were hundreds of buses looping around the national park dropping tourists at each site and picking up more. There were people whose job it was to organise the queues, much like a ski liftie at a busy ski field, and the buses were all full. Everything was working surprisingly smoothly considering the huge crowds and people were queuing in an orderly and calm manner. Given the crazy amount of people here we really didn’t have to wait in queues for long.

So what was all the madness about? Well the mountains are very beautiful and I can see why so many people flock here. Also we were there during the Chinese summer holidays at sunset which definitely contributed! However it was still a real shock for us to see so many tourists on a random weekday. We later learnt that China has a tourist attraction rating system which uses a five-tier scale, from A (lowest) to 5A (highest), to evaluate and categorize tourist sites in China. The mountains are ranked 5A, the same as the Forbidden City and Terracotta Warriors and makes it a major drawcard for Chinese people.

Bing was an excellent photographer and took some amazing photos of us. She was rather unimpressed by our boring camera poses and gave us some new ones to try. Being tall was a big benefit here as we could hold up our phone and camera to take pictures above everyone's heads. We met a lovely German couple called Felix and Franzi who were the only other foreigners we saw the entire time. They were on a road trip from Shenzhen (near Hong Kong) where they are living and studying their masters. As fate would have it they were also following the Silk Road but in a rental car instead. We were collecting a group of friends all following the same route West through China, and were very excited to see the landscape begin to change as we entered the Gobi desert at our next stop, Jiayuguan.

We felt like we had been transported to another world on our visit to Tongren, so it was a little surreal (and a little sad) coming back to Xining. This visit was short, just one day before we started our journey along the Silk Road. We were starting to feel a little more comfortable with how to “do” China and had a really nice afternoon and evening exploring the city. 

We enjoyed Jianbing for breakfast again at the same spot as last time, and gradually coaxed the owner's daughter to start practicing English with us. All of the kids learn English in school, but it is very rare for them to have any foreigners to practice on. This has resulted in a few brave souls starting a conversation to only then make a mistake and run away laughing! We try our best to always make time for these kids, they often have never interacted with a foreigner before and despite being a bit shy, usually are very polite, interested and friendly. 

Something they do very well in this country, much to my delight, is post cards!! Especially in the touristy areas, it’s not uncommon to find whole stores basically devoted to the things. Not only do they have postcards, but it’s also very common to see tables full of stamps. These are often very intricate and people carry around journals collecting stamps from different places in the country! I think this is also a big thing in Japan. So we happily spent some time in a lovely old store, stamping and writing and whiling away the hours. I hope as a loyal reader of the blog you are on my (intermittent) postcard list, but if not, please send me a message with your address and I’ll make sure you’re added! You might also remember a while back while we were hiking Manaslu, we talked about the caterpillar fungus that was being harvested by the locals and sold to China? Well, we had now come full circle and the street was lined with giant plastic model caterpillars and nearly every store had them for sale!

We were making our way towards the main mosque in the city, Dongguan Mosque. As we got closer, we could definitely feel the growing influence of both the Hui Muslims in the area. Stalls selling Nang breads, mutton and beef kebabs, and so many fruits were becoming more and more prevalent, and we ended up in a bustling and lively market leading up to the mosque. The mosque itself was very beautiful, an interesting blend of Islam design features and Chinese architecture that I hadn’t seen before. This is the largest and most important Mosque in Qinghai Province, and also one of the four major mosques in North West China, and it’s been through a lot to still be standing today! It was established in 1380 under the Ming dynasty, but has endured multiple reconstructions due to political upheaval and resulting destruction. The mosque is heavily used, it regularly welcomes 50,000 worshippers on Fridays and up to 300,000 during major festivals! We were visiting outside of prayer time, but it was still amazing to see the big courtyard which is no doubt often filled. In 2021 the main green dome and minaret domes were removed during China’s broader sinicization campaign, with the aim to make mosques look less foreign influenced and more traditional Chinese. I thought this was a bit disappointing on first read, but further research shows this was actually initially built in a more traditional Chinese style, and the minarets and domes were added in the 1990s, influenced by Middle Eastern mosque style. Even if the intention was to align with history, the community was generally unimpressed at this change and what it represented, the broader sinicization of religion in China with the goal of maintaining social harmony, national identity and limiting foreign influence. 

That evening we were wandering a park in the city somewhat aimlessly, and were again just shocked at what we found. This was quite a big, formal square like area with lots of manicured gardens and lots of different areas. It backed onto the museum and the art gallery and was very central in town. There were groups of people everywhere, on a random summer Thursday evening, and it was just amazing. There were community orchestras, choirs, dance groups, exercise groups, people walking, playing cards and just enjoying their public spaces. We love this aspect of Chinese culture and are excited to experience more of it when we travel east in a couple of months. 

We left Xining the next morning feeling so excited for what else we had to experience in China. We knew for now things were going to get more remote as we headed west, but Xining had got us absolutely buzzing for our return to the country in October, particularly the big cities.

We weren’t quite ready to leave Tibetan culture behind just yet, and had a plan to visit a town near Xining called Tongren. This town is home to a predominantly Tibetan population and is close to the border with the Tibetan Autonomous Zone, while still being accessible without special travel permits. We were particularly excited about this town as it is known for being the home of Buddhist Thangka art, a beautiful traditional style of Buddhist painting which we saw throughout Nepal and Tibet.

It seemed fate was on our side, and as we were having lunch in Xining we started chatting to a lovely man (via translation apps). He told us he was from Tongren and was heading there that evening. After some more discussion he offered us a ride with him, so we rushed back to our accommodation, packed in a hurry, and next minute we were on our way to Tongren with our newly made friend རྩྭཐངབུཆུང (who spoke no English). The drive was beautiful. It followed the yellow river up towards the Tibetan plateau, crisscrossing over huge bridges and passing straight through mountains via long tunnels. We were getting more of a sense of the infrastructural prowess of China. They don’t build roads like we do in New Zealand, instead they build their roads directly, and if there is a mountain in the way they tunnel through it. At times it felt like we were going from tunnel, to bridge, to highway on repeat!

We arrived in Tongren late that night and met his friend for dinner at an amazing yak noodle restaurant. The hospitality of the Tibetan people continued to amaze us, as our new Tibetan friends insisted they would pay for our delicious dinner while we chatted happily about Tibetan Buddhism over translation apps. We slept that night at his friend's place in the spare room. It was so special to be welcomed into someone's home so easily, and it didn’t feel weird at all, actually very comfortable. 

We said our goodbyes the next morning after we were given breakfast and a private tour around the local Tibetan monastery in town. A huge thanks to རྩྭཐངབུཆུང for your amazing kindness! Safe to say we were pretty amazed by the generosity and hospitality of the people we had already met in China. That evening at dinner we got chatting to a friendly Tibetan monk who told us it was his dream to speak English and visit another country one day. He was very stoic about the depressing reality that he likely wouldn’t be able to leave China in the future since the Chinese government makes it almost impossible for Tibetan people in China to obtain any passport. After exchanging WeChat contacts he insisted on paying for the meal and went on his way. Every time this happens we truly try our hardest to pay, but they are insistent, and culturally it would be considered rude to not accept their generosity. 

Another highlight of our time in Tongren was two walks of Kora around the monastery. One was an evening walk where we got a little lost, but led us up a path above the town to a panoramic view point over the whole valley. The second was a morning walk with so many locals, where we were constantly being told where to go in what order and felt so welcomed into the community. There is nothing like Kora around a special monastery to feel the spirit of the Tibetan community, and it has quickly become our very favourite tradition in the Tibetan Buddhism religion.

On our final day in Tongren we managed to catch our first local bus in China out towards a nearby monastery. We caught the wrong bus but it dropped us close enough, and with a 10 minute walk and a hitchhike down the road we made it to our destination, the incredible Wutun monastery on the outskirts of Tongren town. We walked inside one of the many Thangkha art studios in the area and immediately started chatting to a young monk called Jiayang who lives in the nearby Wutun monastery. Turns out the owner of the studio was his father, Master Tashi Dangzhou who had been painting Thangka art for over 30 years. Over some tea we had deep conversations about Tibetan Buddhism via translation apps and our new monk friend asked us if we wanted to see the monastery? 

So began our private tour of the monastery. Doors were unlocked and we were given access to all the beautiful stupas in this incredible monastery. One of the stupa rooms housed the official Guiness World Record certified largest statue of Avalokiteśvara, a bodhisattva (enlightened being) in Mahayana Buddhism revered for embodying compassion. It is hard to compare, but this monastery was just as beautiful as any that we saw on our Tibetan tour, largely due to the incredible selection of Thangka art covering the walls. After our tour, our friend invited us for lunch with his family that lived just outside the monastery. So we found ourselves in a traditional Tibetan family home eating the most amazing selection of meat, noodles, and vegetables. The lamb was so tender and delicious it’s making me hungry writing about it. His wonderful family were so kind, and his mum wouldn’t let us stop eating with the quote “Eat more now so you won’t need to have dinner later”, and of course we obliged! We ended up buying a small keepsake (a tiny Thangkha necklace painted by our monk friend's father) to remind us of this incredible day, and to say thank you to this lovely family welcoming us into their home, showing us their art, and giving us such an incredible tour of the monastery. Tongren was such a special way to close our Tibetan chapter and it really goes to show the kindness of the Tibetan people that we were looked after so splendidly.