11/30
Xi'an in generally considered the start/terminus of the famous silk road. We got up early and took the subway to the train station and then a high speed train to Jiayuguan in Gansu province. The train ride was interesting, passing some mountains and agricultural areas, some sand dunes, and some big cities. Upon arrival to Jiayuguan, we took a taxi into town. Unfortunately, we had a problem checking in. I had booked a private room at a hostel via a hostel booking website, but when we arrived, they didn't have any record of it. The girl wasn't good with the translator app, so it took forever to arrange to get something else. Dorms in China always seem to be male and female segregated, which we don't prefer, but we were willing to do this. However, they had these cool space pod things. They are actually pretty sweet and do look a bit like a space capsule. The door opens like and capsule and then inside the rectangular pod is a mattress and mirror as well as a charging station and way way to control the lights for different moods/reading. One of the light settings is a cool space-age blue.
We went out into the cold night for dinner at a clay pot place. We then tried to find something resembling a supermarket to get some tea bags and maybe good snacks, but there was nothing resembling a market save for tiny convenience stores. We had kind of a rough night because there was so much smoking in the hostel. In China, people just smoke like crazy and don't seem to follow no smoking rules at all.
12/1
We arranged for a private car to take us to the 3 famous Great Wall of China sites here, though the lady who was our driver didn't listen to my instructions of where to go first (I wanted to go to the fort first b/c the light would be best on the snowy peaks in the background). First we visited the "first beacon tower", which is the farthest west extent of the Great Wall of China. This farthest west tower sits on top of a high and sheer cliff overlooking a frozen river. This last tower is now pretty rundown as it has not been preserved and the desert is starting engulf it. From this tower, the great wall (adobe here because of the building materials available) runs east. The wall here has also been eroded and is now just over 9 feet tall as sand dunes are encroaching on it.. They have dug out part of the ditch in front of the wall to show what the ditch looked liked, but the rest of it is now filled in by sand. In the same area, we also crossed to the other side of the gorge by walking across a suspension bridge. On this other side there were some buildings and other things they have set-up that are traditional dwelling places from the great wall time period.
Next we visited Jiayuguan Fort (Jiayu Pass). It's a really cool walled fortress with several towers and views of high snow capped peaks with glaciers. Jiayuguan is the western gateway to China proper, and for the imperial Chinese, the beginning of the back of the beyond. It was of course important for safety on the silk road.
Lastly we visited the "overhanging" Great Wall, which snakes up a desert mountain ridge. There were views across the valley to the big mountains as well as to the factory filled city. There was also a little (little!) ski field where they made snow, since of course it's in a desert. For dinner we went to a delicious hot pot restaurant where you cook all sorts of items in either a spicy broth or a a tomato broth. We felt a small earthquake when we went to bed.
12/2
Got up very early to catch a train to Kashgar in Xinjiang Province. We were in a "hard sleeper" car, which actually has a soft mattresses with a pillow and blanket, In our berth we have 2 bunks stacked 3 high. Elisha was in the bottom bunk, and I was in the very top. Lots of desert scenery and windmills as we traversed across the desert landscape. We passed some snowy mountains as well. We continued along very flat desert in the Turpan Depression that is below sea level (2nd lowest place on the earth at 505 feet below sea level). At the city of Turpan (near Urumqi), we switched trains. Now we were in a "soft sleeper", which has just 2 bunks stacked 2 high in a berth with a door that can be closed. And, as on all trains, there is an endless supply of hot water for tea or noodles. After boarding we went to the dining car to enjoy a yummy meal and watch the scenery go by. After the sunset set, we retired to our bunks to read.
12/3
We arrived to Kashgar early in the morning (7:30am) and in the pitch black dark. Because the country runs on Beijing time and Kashgar is very, very far west of Beijing, the sun doesn't rise until 10am, but sets at 7pm (this time of year). It was very cold when we arrived. Because our guesthouse would be in a narrow and and carless street, we had the taxi drop us off a the mosque, a main landmark. It was dark and completely empty everywhere: not a person in site. We walked in the direction of our guesthouse, but were having trouble locating it because of course everything was listed in Chinese characters. Then we saw one Chinese lady all by herself and we walked up with our translator app, but turns out, she spoke English. She was a Chinese tourist our looking for breakfast. Her English name was Stella. She helped us find our guesthouse (Qingfeng Geya Guesthouse) and called the number at the door since the door was locked and the guesthouse owner (Mr. Li) was asleep. She came to the door and let us into the warm interior. The guesthouse was a traditional style with an inner courtyard, but covered). Inside there were 3 cats, including the extremely friendly xiao laohu (little tiger). He loved to hang out with us in our room and sit on our laps. After settling into our room, which was built in the traditional style (Central Asian looking), we made plans to heat out with Stella to the Sunday livestock market.
Kashgar (aka Kashi) is located in Xinjiang Province which is the place where the Uyghur muslim ethnic minority live. What China is doing to the Uyghurs--attempting to wipe out their culture by tearing down mosques, old city sections, and importing Han Chinese is a whole can of worms. Due to violence from the Uyghurs (bombs and such around 2013/2014), the province is more or less a police state with so many police and the most police stations I have ever seen. And of course, like elsewhere in China, they require to see/copy your passport at hotels, train stations, and subways. China definitely has lots of cameras monitoring everything at all times, but there there seemed to be SO MANY. Also, they have x-ray scanners for bags for entering the old town, shopping centers, some tourist sites, and other places. However, these seemed to be fairly lax now (except at the airport and train station) since the violence has been very quiet lately.
The livestock market only occurs on Sundays and it's where the local Uyghur and Taji people bring in their sheep, cows, horses, and camels to trade. The Uyghur people definitely don't look Chinese and look very Central Asian . They wear dark colors and fur hats. The bartering for animals is done in small groups using fingers and knuckles and ending with a handshake. The sheep here have major bubble butts of fat! It's pretty hilarious. Aside from livestock, other wares are sold and, of course, food as well. Most of the food is mutton or mutton based: mutton on a stick, mutton soup, mutton with noodles (laghman = the Uyghur noodles), and mutton steamed buns. But also lots of middle east style nuts and dried fruits (ex. raisins, goji bears, dates, apricots, and other fruits we don't know). And we also had some fresh-squeezed pomegranate. They also bake wood oven bread (naan) and have weak tea provided with every meal. After the lively livestock market, we rode the bus back to town to seek out the daily bazaar that we read was even more lively on Sundays. They have the saying "You can find everything at the bazaar except for milk from the chicken". We found some areas selling carpets and food (nuts/fruits), and other things, but nothing like we'd heard/read about. Then we learned that the large bazaar area had been torn down. I would guess the Chinese are going to build a new and modern one without the Uyghur history and character; however, that has not happened yet. We did find the huge area of rubble of the old bazaar on a different walk.
We next headed to the Kashi ancient city which has mostly been rebuilt/modernized (but in the old style). However, you can view some of the original ancient city from a platform where the buildings do look dilapidated and unstable. The building style is adobe. This viewing area might serve a purpose to the Chinese to prove that their tearing down of parts of the city was necessary for safety reasons. There are many places in the ancient city that we couldn't walk down (alleyways blocked by barriers) due to the demolition/construction. The remodeled areas, however, still looked really cool as they were built to replicate the old style. And in many of the buildings there were local craftsmen (ex pottery, musical instrument making, knife making, blacksmith, tea shops, etc).
Next we moved over the to walled old city. There are no vehicles here either. There are several main streets selling food, wares, and crafts and then more narrow alleyways leading from the main streets to residences. Many of these buildings--but not all--have also been remodeled, but again in the old style. We split with Stella in the afternoon and we walked around some more to get some views of the walled old city from afar and across a little lake. We also found the biggest (and legit!) supermarket that we would see in China (and our whole trip for that matter). We spent the evening hanging out with the guesthouse family (Mrs. Li) and her son and daughter and of course Little Tiger. We talked to Mrs. Li mainly via google translate, but her son knows decent English and her daughter is learning. She shared tea, dried fruits, nuts, and fresh fruits.
12/4
We had a breakfast of cornflakes and milk (first western style breakfast in a long-time, bought from the supermarket). Then we met with Stella and took the bus to the train station where we took a train to Shache (Yarkant) south of Kashgar on the southern route of the silk road. From the train, we could see some big snowy mountains in the distance. When we got to Shache we went straight to a restaurant to have pidgeon . It was surprisingly delicious, being a dark meat like turkey. We then proceeded to walk through the old town and explore the street bazaars. At one point we found a table tennis table and played a bit of ping pong with some locals. We also watched some Uyghur folks dancing. We visited a tea shop that was very dark and smokey and filled with only Uyghur men. They were playing Kung Fu moves on an old TV with a DVD player. In the teahouse we had tea and bread, which the local men broke into pieces and put into their tea bowls (tea is drank out of bowls).
We took the train back to Kashgar. Stella talked quite a bit to the conductor. He said foreigners rarely rode this train. In the past year he had only seen a group of Japanese (he didn't like them) and a group of Pakistanis.
When we got back to the train station, we took a cab. When we got to the city, due to me sitting on the side where the traffic was, I scooted across the backseat. In the process my phone fell out of my pocket. I noticed pretty much right away when I got out that my phone wasn't in my pocket, but the taxi had already sped away. I immediately began panicking. It's a big city (nearly a million people) with hundreds of taxis, and we had no idea who the driver was, let alone what taxi company it was. Keep in mind that my phone had all my photos from Nepal and the beginning of our China trip and also all the apps we used for email, texting, booking trains, hotels, translating app, etc, etc.
Stella remained pretty calm and called the police, and then we went over to some nearby police to talk to them while Elisha waited by the curb in case the taxi came back. The police we talked to summoned an English speaking captain from somewhere and he came to talk to me. But I figured all of this would do little good unless whomever got in the taxi next (or the driver) was a kind hearted soul and turned the phone into the police. On my phone I have a message that says "if found please call my wife Elisha at 208-xxx-xxxx" but of course it was in English and doesn't have the +1 country code. When I calmed down a bit, I had the idea of Elisha calling it with her phone, but not only was service a bit spotty for us, but I unfortunately had the phone on silent. I also searched, using Elisha's phone, how to track my phone. To do so I would need to log in to my google account. However, with 2-factor authentication, in order to log into my account, I would need to get a code sent to my (lost) phone. I tried to contact google-fi support, but, as I said, service was spotty and I couldn't connect. I had the thought of mom accessing my account from my computer at home, but she and dad were in Arizona with Grandma.
Having exhausted options for the time being, and it being cold and dark, we headed back to the guest house. I had the son of the Mrs. Li text a message to my phone in Chinese with his phone number in case the driver or passenger saw that notification. But then suddenly Stella came rushing into the guesthouse breathlessly saying the police had found it!!! I could hardly believe it, and in fact, wouldn't believe it until I saw it. But sure enough, a few minutes later, the English speaking captain and about 4 other officers stopped by with the phone!!! I hugged the captain and Stella! The police squad wanted to take a photo with me and the phone and them, all beaming proudly. Of course, we couldn't take a photo with our phones of the celebration because you can't take photos of the police in China. Wow! So unbelievable and such a relief. The phone is just so valuable to me.
You know how I said that the area has just so many cameras...well, based on when we said we got into the taxi and when we arrived to our guest house, the police were able to use the cameras to determine what cab we were in and then use the license plate (or maybe facial recognition) to determine who the driver was and then call him. Pretty incredible! It was now after midnight, but we all went out for laghman.
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