The 5000 Project

The transition from Jiuzhaigou to Lanzhou was breathtaking, the terrain started with epically high snow capped mountains, slowly mellowed out to rolling green hills; then the grass turned yellow and in the distance large rocky mountains emerged. The people changed just as quickly as the terrain; we stopped at a tunnel entrance for about half an hour and had the opportunity to get out and look around – there was a family on horseback investigating the traffic jam from the vast field, they wore colourful cloaks and looked quite different from the standard han chinese; they almost looked european. They starred at us like we were the first westerners arriving on their soil.

The change only grew the further north we traveled, yet the han chinese (standard chinese) looked the same; it was quite easy to see how there could be racial conflict if the people categorize themselves in groups segmented by the size of their body and shape of their face.

We arrived in Lanzhou with no idea how to get accommodation, in these parts there are no hostels with dorms, only hotels and expensive hotels – reminded me of areas in south east asia. We befriended a chinese couple who were heading to the university area of the city, they mentioned that there are plenty of cheap hotels in that area, so we followed them on a public bus to the suburb. Unfortunately for us, all the hotels that they recommended did not accept foreigners; I got the address for a possibly hostel, except the information online was very old, we flagged a taxi and hopped in.

The taxi driver dropped us off on the side of a busy road and charged us $5 for the effort, we had no idea where we were but didnt have much choice but to pay and get out. Turns out he dropped us in the middle of nowhere. We admitted defeat and decided to check out hotels that we saw in the city centre that were most probably quite expensive, we were quite wrong. The first hotel that we arrived at had a very impressive looking lobby, we were told that a room with two single beds is only $8 – however the catch was that we had to stay only one night, because they were closing down the next day. Thats right, the entire hhuuggee impressive hotel was closing down for good, to get demolished, we couldnt understand why, until we checked out the room and bathrooms.

The room was ok, but nothing was maintained, everything was falling apart. The men’s communal bathroom was very disgusting, the shower was just a pipe coming out of a wall with no nozzle, the shower door was broken, bits of the wall were falling apart; it was quite evident that the building had to go. It surprised me how amazing the lobby was, when the insides were completely different; it made me think that perhaps many other fancy chinese hotels are similar.

The next day we took a train to Jiayuguan, becuse we didnt have much choice; also there is nothing interesting to see in Lanzhou other than a shitty beach on the side of a huge polluted river which requires an entry fee. Beer stalls in the streets at night were awesome, however.

The main purpose of stopping in Jiayuguan was to check out the great wall from the furthest point west, the town was actually built to support tourism for the wall. We arrived in the town via sitting train, which was a cheap but exhausting experience for a 10hr trip – there are people who pay even cheaper for a standing ticket, however they tend to push into the sitting seats; we had 4 people on a 3 person seat, impossible to get any sleep; especially considering we were in the section where the loud social chinese were, the ones who never seem to sleep but love talking louding and carrying on for 10hrs straight. They loved trying to communicate with us without knowing single word of english, usually this is quite fun, but not when we’re trying to sleep in an unsleepable position.

We arrived very sleep deprived and longing for a place to rest our heads, we took a taxi to the main area where hotels and the likes reside, first option was far too expensive (~$30 for a twin) the second option was a success, paying only $8 each, which we thought was acceptable for the situation. We unpacked and started to shut our eyes as our bodies hit the beds… when there was a knock on the door… the manager decided that we cant stay, we had no idea why, but we had to leave; looks like this is yet another hotel that doesn’t allow foreigners. Out in the cold again, I decided to get to an internet cafe to find some more options. Using the most excellent website http://www.wikitravel.org someone placed a note on the Jiayuguan page with specific instructions to a hotel that only has chinese characters for the name; we made it there and were welcomed to a twin room for only $6! after quite a bit of miming and bartering. Sensibly we named this day the rest day and planned our great wall trek for the following day.

The wall had an entry fee, as is expected, however it was quite impressive even though this segment had been reconstructed, they tried to hide it by putting hay with mud and clay (the foundations of the original wall) over the top of blatant brickwork. The wall seemed to connect the gaps on the outside of an impenetrable rocky mountain range, two additional walls branched into the mountains which were once used for scouting from the tall towers at the ends and to surround any army that would come through the narrow passage in the middle of the mountain range. The wall in this area of china was not actually used to prevent the Mongolians from entering, but to stop any western forces from entering the tang dynasty’s realm. This entrance was also the far north west section of the silk road for china.

We took a sleeper bus at 3am to a town in the gobi desert, an oasis town surrounded by giant sand dunes called Dunhuang.

So, we took a bus to Jiuzhaigou, further north – we saw more earthquake damage on the way but the bus ride was relatively cozy.

Due to arriving just on a chinese holiday (they have them constantly, it seems that government employees are always on holidays while the lesser classes work without rest) we had to settle in a chinese hostel for $8/night for dorm bed. Jiuzhaigou is one of the most active touristy locations in china, known for its perfect blue lakes and picturesque mountains. Unfortunately considering how well known it is, the entry fee is quite steep – $40/day ($60 without a student card) within the national park, outside of the very new town-stead.

The first thing we did was scope out the entrance to see if there is any way to sneak in, from our previous knownledge, with all public services, noone seems to mind if you manage to sneak in – it is pretty much certain that the chinese people never will. Unfortunately for us, we couldn’t find an easy way in, as the entrance covered the narrow opening of the large mountain ravine. We admitted defeat and purchased a ticket the next morning, however before doing so we managed to meet some helpful chinese backpackers who told us that there is a place to stay overnight and get the second night free by staying in a house within a tibetian village that resides within the national park. We jotted down the directions and copied a photo of the house (with chinese characters for the sign) to my new phone, in prep for the following days.

At first, Jiuzhaigou was depressing, a constant line of tour busses drive for 20min packed full of wealthy chinese – we had to take the bus as walking is discouraged from the entrance. At every stop the chinese would run out of the bus, take some photos, and hop back in the next bus. We made it to the middle stop, not far from the tibetian village; we decided it would be best to confirm accommodation before checking out the sights – upon walking to the village, a guard stopped us to check tickets, we later found out that they check only in the early mornings, for the first bus that arrives; we would sleep in the next morning to avoid this unneeded annoyance.

We arrived at the house and were greeted by an old lady who spoke no english, after a few minutes her daughter arrived and asked us if we would like to stay… for a small fee of $13 (however this includes an awesome dinner and breakfast). We accepted politely, trying to hide the urgency in our voices and headed outside to the simply incredible scenery… over the heads of an army of chinese tourists.

We took a bus right to the end of the east path, with the plan of walking all the way back. Discouraged by the frequent small patches of tourists at many stops, we came across an area where there are no stops for about 5km, however the forest path was blocked with a warning sign in chinese characters – we decided to ignore the sign and walk around it, it is difficult to know what it means anyway, when its not in english – perhaps it just had ‘hello’ written on it. That was our story for the authorities anyway.

It wasn’t ‘hello’, parts of the path were unmaintained, most probably because no chinese tourists bothered to walk this far – however the damage was very minor and still quite safe. The walk was very peaceful and scenic, well worth the mild rebalism. Now, its difficult to describe how beautiful this place is, you simply need to check out my flickr, or wait until I update these recent posts with images.

After a few hours of trekking, we came across a few buildings; we approached cautiously, hoping that they may have boiling water for our packet noodles that we carried within our packs for lunch. Two men in camoflaged army attire walked towards us, we were sure that this was not an area where we should be. The main guy, who had a few more insignias on his shoulders than the others, knew quite good english and offered us a drink of water – we took this opportunity to show him our noodles, he got one of his minions to take the noodles and prepare the food for us. There was a table tennis table out in the open, I took a glance at it and the man immediately asked me if i would like a game…. I said yes. We played for a while, everytime the ball missed the table, a soldier would be standing guard at each corner to pick it up and hand it back. It was quite a surreal experience. After eating the noodles and drinking the water, the main guy explained that during the winter they would climb the mountain behind us and collect plants to be used in distilling their own pijoe (~50% alcohol moonshine). We were impressed but still a little WTF about the whole situation, must be a lonely post in the middle of a national park, I assumed that they were there to help rescue tourists who attempt to climb heights without equipment, I’m pretty sure only stupid westerners would do things like that – like for instance, taking a path that has obvious warning signs.

We arrived back at the tibetian house for dinner and had a very comfortable sleep with the sound of heavy rain late at night. In the morning we woke to find that, due to the rain, there was now snow capped on the top of every mountain peak that surrounded the house, a very magical moment.

Making sure that we left after 9am, we attempted to walk back to the entrance, halfway we jumped on a bus knowing that it was too far to walk. We spent another night in the town, then took a bus to Lanzhou the next day.