| In August 1992, myself and my wife,
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| | toiletries labelled Sham Poo and Foam
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| Caroline, arranged a trip to
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| | Poo. Lunch. Fourteen dishes. Duck,
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| post-Tiananmen China. It was in the days
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| | foo-yong, cucumber, cabbage, oyster
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| when the London China Travel office was
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| | mushroom chicken, coriander pork, steamed
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| on Cambridge Circus, opposite the Palace
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| | buns, steamed bread, rice, beef broth and
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| Theatre on Charing Cross Road. It took
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| | noodles, pork and green beans, pork and
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| me at least twenty books, a late-night
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| | sweet chili, chicken and squash, plain
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| Japanese television series and several
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| | noodles, water melon. Then to get the
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| months to plan and arrange the trip from
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| | essential torch for the caves. Houses
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| what was then our base in Balham, south
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| | huddled together. Wood stores for winter
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| London. In those days, you could arrange
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| | piled on top. View across the roofs like
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| the visit via China Travel and then, as
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| | a scrap heap. Ground level claustrophobic
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| long as the itinerary was lodged in
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| | stoneware maze.
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| advance, you could travel absolutely
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| | Cave day. Mogao Buddhist caves - closed
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| independently. Everything was pre-paid,
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| | from 12 to 2, full day needed for perhaps
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| but on setting off, we had no tickets or
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| | the most stunning sight on earth. 400
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| confirmed reservations apart from our air
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| | 'caves' (some cathedral size) in a
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| tickets in and out of Beijing. As ever, I
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| | sandstone gorge, between 400 AD to 1100
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| kept a journal of the trip, which ran to
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| | AD. Utterly dry, always dark, perfectly
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| more than fifty pages. A few years later,
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| | preserved. Everything painted. Tang
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| I condensed the experience to two sides
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| | period complex and colourful. A world of
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| of A4, ignoring rules of grammar and
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| | scenes by torchlight. Buddhas reclining,
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| syntax, and produced the following
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| | sitting, standing, posing. Thirty metre
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| ramble, a perhaps poetic impression of
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| | seated figure with thousands of unsmoked
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| nearly a month of travel.
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| | cigarettes and coins on his lap as
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| Ex-London while the Sun dissected Michael
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| | offerings. Shock of Qing-renovated cave
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| Jackson's nose and praised Boardman's
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| | with Taoist figures. Ghoulish features,
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| hooterless gold-medal bicycle. Air China
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| | contorted, and a face in the groin. 40
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| to Beijing, where taxis cost more than
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| | caves seen in the day, archaeologist as a
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| Lonely Planet predicts. A Chinese
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| | personal guide. Stunning. Fourteen dishes
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| character itinerary from one Tim Han of
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| | for dinner.
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| China Travel whilst fellow workers drool
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| | Desert bus back to Liuyuan. Always a
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| over televised lithe Afro-American
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| | fight for seats. Three dusty hours. Train
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| sprinters at the Olympics. Then to the
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| | to Lanzhou. 800 miles along Gansu-Qinghai
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| no-longer Forbidden City. Piles of local
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| | mountainous border. More black desert,
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| tourists to negotiate.
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| | then yellow earth. Jaiyaguan fort at the
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| Four hours of Xinjiang Airlines to
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| | limit of the Ming empire. Overnight by
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| Urumqi. Signs in Chinese and Russian plus
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| | train. Country changed. Mountain pass,
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| Uigur written in Arab script (a recent
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| | green rolling hills and stepped fields.
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| innovation). Land lines across Inner
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| | Wheat harvest in. Straw dollies like
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| Mongolia. Why and how so straight? Urumqi
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| | children at assembly. Houses still of
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| multiple-peaked. Piles of coal, scruffy
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| | rammed earth. Lanzhou a thriving
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| high rise, snow-capped Bogda Shen at
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| | industrial city. Thirty hours of travel.
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| street-end. Pavement fortune tellers,
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| | Walk by Yellow River.
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| traders. Food stalls. Women washing
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| | Fish in hotel restaurant tank all dead.
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| sheeps' stomachs in a stream, tripe
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| | Lanzhou bus expensive. 50 fen per trip.
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| kebabs. Uigur town now Han Chinese,
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| | Radios and knitting banned. Han dynasty
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| populated by Shanghai overspill, over
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| | flying horse and bronze warriors. Steamed
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| 2000 miles from 'home'. The second long
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| | carp with rape on menu. The fish comes
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| march.
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| | first. Train to Xian through yellow loess
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| Uigur breakfast. Hot sheep's milk,
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| | country. Deep furrows and gorges. All
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| Chinese tea, flat tomato bread, sugared
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| | flat land cropped. 500 miles overnight.
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| tomato and cucumber, pickled cabbage,
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| | Terra cotta warriors facing east to guard
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| thin congee, sheep's milk butter, two
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| | Qin Shihuang's tomb. Made in pieces.
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| giant sugar lumps. Uigur market. Fruits
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| | Assembled in situ. Partly excavated
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| amid a forest of hanging lamb. Chinese
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| | section where piles of dismembered limbs
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| market. Live vegetables and meats. Tank
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| | emerge from the earth. New terra cotta
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| over-spilling with energetic eels (unit
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| | warriors for sale from the factory behind
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| price). Self-knotting spaghetti.
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| | the museum. Exact replicas of originals.
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| Woman losing her gold watch at an illegal
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| | Wheeze at the thought of the whole thing
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| 'find the lady'. Policeman looking on.
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| | as a sham for the tourist trade.
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| Tears when the loss hits home. Renmin
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| | Xian, like all Chinese cities, a square.
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| Park for noodles and rocket-fuel chili
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| | Roads straight, intersecting always at
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| sauce. Bag slashers with finger-ring
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| | right angles. Ancient centre walled, Ming
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| knives on a crowded bus. Care needed.
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| | rebuilt. Old mosque exquisite. Xianyang
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| Car to Turfan. Fertile valleys. Barren
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| | nearby, with Seventh century Qian tombs,
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| mountains. Occasional snow. Road
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| | museum with another 3000 Han terra cottas
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| ploughed. Kazak yurts. Semi-sunken
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| | like a football crowd. Train to Beijing.
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| shade-making rammed-earth Uigur villages,
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| | 800 miles, 26 hours. Houses often caves
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| invisible at a distance save for chimney
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| | in valley side. Later immense flat land,
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| smoke. Steep downhill gorge, spectacular
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| | maize everywhere.
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| river, rocks, white water and slate-grey
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| | Temple of Heaven, Tiantan, and then
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| hills. Into Turfan depression,
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| | Beijing Opera. Pause for beer at wayside
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| snow-capped distance surrounding grey
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| | stall. Served by moonlighting trainee
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| stone pit 100 miles across. 42 degrees at
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| | stockbroker! Breakfast pickle amazing,
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| its base, 200 metres below sea level. Car
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| | like four year old camembert out of a
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| ahead leaving tracks on molten road. A
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| | shotgun. Takes the head off. Great Wall.
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| hefty gob from the driver irrigates. Gobi
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| | Mucho touristico, but still stunning.
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| means stones. Plenty here. And then
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| | Like climbing a giant ladder in places.
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| green. An oasis. A giant mirage?
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| | "I climbed the Great Wall" T-shirts,
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| Turfan. Latticed vines for street-shade.
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| | prices lower the further you climb. Must
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| Hanging raisin grapes. 15 yuan fine for
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| | be the air. Ming tombs dismissed by
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| casual picking. Hotel tea in galvanised
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| | guide-book. Wrong. Amazing barrel vaulted
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| buckets. Turkish-style dancing and music.
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| | rooms nine stories underground. Jade
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| Genghiz-sacked rammed-earth cities of
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| | doors, carved thrones, marble, marble,
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| Goachang and Jiaohe. Painted tombs and
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| | marvel. Reminiscent of renaissance Italy.
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| brick minarets. Flaming mountains. Karez
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| | Everlasting bricks etched with names of
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| underground irrigation system. 3000
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| | their makers. Souvenir jade boat for
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| kilometres of channels. 1500 years old,
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| | 55000 pounds.
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| gravity-fed from mountains at the
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| | White drapes over erotic statues in
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| depression-edge. Uigur culture's greatest
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| | Tibetan Lama Temple. Same bestial content
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| feat, and in full working order.
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| | in wall paintings. 24 metre gold Buddha
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| Bus to Daheyan. Two hours over bumpy
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| | through the incense-blur. No smoking
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| stones to depression-edge. Dump of a
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| | signs everywhere.
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| railway town. Coal heaps, box buildings,
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| | Mao's Maosoleum an emperor's tomb. Lines
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| waste land. Two women at war on station
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| | for queues painted across the square.
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| forecourt. Ramming victim's head onto the
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| | Feet pointing north towards Tiananmen
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| ground. Blood. Onlookers. Inaction. A
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| | Gate, upside-down feng shui. He is shiny,
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| tense town of resentful postees.
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| | waxy and painted about the face. Moving
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| 500 miles to Liuyuan in Gansu.
| |
| | lines file past on either side. No
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| Featureless flat grey shale stone.
| |
| | pausing. Outside, stalls with Mao
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| Spectacularly unique. Snow mountains to
| |
| | T-shirts, Mao key rings, cuddly toys,
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| the north. Utterly empty, save for
| |
| | post cards, magic lantern shows. Mao
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| smoking coal towns. 40 above in summer,
| |
| | Zedong candy floss by the armful. Then
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| 30 below in winter. Overnight by train.
| |
| | Great Hall of the People. Dining room for
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| Dawn reveals same massive scene, now in
| |
| | 5000. Now fast food for tourists. Great
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| brown.
| |
| | Hall chop sticks, cigarettes, T-shirts.
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| Arrive Liuyuan. Daheyan writ similar. 120
| |
| | Great Hall of the People cuddly toys.
|
| miles south across the desert (black at
| |
| | 2500 miles. Three and a half weeks. 5
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| first!), past remnant ramparts of Han
| |
| | destinations. 50 caves. 6000 terra cotta
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| Dynasty Greater-Great Wall. Camels and
| |
| | warriors. 1 each Great Wall, Forbidden
|
| dunes of Taklimakan, world's largest sand
| |
| | City, Beijing Opera, Mao Zedong. Hundreds
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| desert. Near Dunhuang oasis blossoms
| |
| | of tombs, temples, pagodas, parks,
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| again. Sand and scree suddenly crop and
| |
| | bendi-buses and bicycles. 3 silk shirts
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| tree. Feitian Hotel, with complimentary
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| | on the Silk Road. One amazing trip.
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