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