Sunday, October 15, 2006
XIAHE, TIANSHUI
A visit to the Tibetan monastery showed the truly unique side of Xiahe. We were part of a group of French people and two Americans, both with their own guides, but the English speaking onlooking monk kept quiet until it was obvious that the other guides knew little about the monastery. I prodded him to speak, thinking he was nervous of the language and he immediately took over and from then on the French party listened to him rather than their own guide. This was the second of two French parties we had met in town, the first was staying at our own hotel. I couldn't help wondering if the French presence here was something to do with the multimillion Euro campaign conducted to introduce France to the Chinese culture by Jean Pierre Angremy.
The monastery itself was fascinating. He took us around various temples, all of which were full of interest not least because the visibility was good in contrast to the Buddhist caves. He was full of information but it was hard to fathom the complexity of the Buddhist beliefs. Next day we met him in the street and, although in a hurry to get to the library and go off to another monastery to pray for a few days, he stopped to talk. Amongst other topics we asked him to explain the difference between incarnation and re-incarnation. He accepted that it was very difficult to describe the processes and admitted that monks of his own rank did not fully understand the procedures, since everything was under the control of the Grand Lamas. A surprising admission by an evidently committed Buddhist. We were impressed by his friendliness .
Next day we started on a round of the prayer wheels on the south side, and this time doing a spell of turning them. It was soon obvious why so many of the older people wear gloves for it is quite hard work to do this for the hour or so it takes to complete a round. That brought us to two other temples which we were able to enter unaccompanied for 10Y. The first was a temple which had been badly damaged in the Cultural Revolution and had been fully restored to its original form, the second had been so badly destroyed that it was razed and completely rebuilt. It was four stories high with golden roofs, as we climbed we got ever better views over the monastery and surrounding countryside.
By lunch time we had crossed over the reconstructed wooden bridge to the south side of the river, and were standing contemplating exactly which was the area non believers should not visit, when a young monk and his companion waved to us to climb up and join them. When we reached them we discovered that they were studying their English text books. It must have been at least two hours that we spent in that idyllic spot on the hill in full sunshine looking down over fields with crops and livestock, the river and its wooden bridge, the monastery and its temples, and, the town. An amazing rapport was struck up with a large sign language content. Two girl friends eventually joined them and then the whole crowd came over in order to join in a photo opportunity with two aged foreigners. We saw them again in town several times and it was as if greeting old friends.
Katrine, a French woman we had not seen before stopped us in the street, saying she had heard about us from others in her party. She like Anne Marie had spent a year in England, in her case in Bangor, we remarked on the similarity of their accents when speaking English but discovered that she came from Paris. She too was concerned about the Muslim presence in France, concerned about their attitude especially towards women in a country which prides itself on a secular state. She was concerned about the dilution of the French way of life, which she very much treasured. It made me realise what a large difference has occurred in England, due to immigration since the WW2, firstly with West Indians and then with Asians and now the Polish, a change still little apparent in Wales - which has only been invaded by us English!
I realise I'm writing too long after and that consequently I am not doing Xiahe justice. We couldn't even get up the previous posting on this machine so the overlap is uncertain. I will have to take another look when I get home with Joan's log and the photos. However there is no doubt that this was one stop which I would not omit, one which rivals Kashgar, Hotan and Tulufan.
We got up early the next morning to find that the French and Swedish minibus tour parties had already departed so we had breakfast alone for once. A taxi to the bus station yielded a ticket for a bus at 9.00 to Linxia, but the conductor didn't arrive by car until 9.30 and the bus did not depart until 9.45 and even then did a slow trawl of the streets looking for additional passengers. Such is the lack of urgency in small villages. From then on the journey went unbelievably smoothly. In Linxia the driver hailed a passing bus and we and some Chinese back packers transferred to a bus going onward to Lanzhuo. In Lanzhuo a lady taxi driver took us efficiently to the other bus station, though she was worried that I had asked her to take us to a bus to the other station when one was sitting right outside one.
TIAN SHUI We lost only a few minutes at Lanzhuo before setting out on the journey to Tianshui. Once again we noticed the heavy police presence which always exists at the entry to the toll road pay points. I should have mentioned earlier that all the new roads are toll roads though the fees even for a bus are small, usually around 30p. Maybe it's a convenient point to check vehicles but their interest in buses seems to stop with consideration that they are carrying the same number of passengers as held on the station booking, but the major concern is lorries.
We arrived far too late, almost midnight, at Tianshui thus placing a great deal of importance on the recommendation of hotels and restaurants by the guide book. It may be thought that a hotel in which all the water is hot is a sign of luxury, but read on. Noting, whilst checking-in, some concerns about water and the shower, I thought only to establish that they had hot water (conversations in Mandarin are even more difficult once off familiar ground!). What we didn't realise, until a little later, was that there was no water to flush the toilet and no water whatever available in the shower. Joan solved the immediate problem by filling the toilet bin with hot water and using that to flush the toilet. The pillows were stuffed with rice, there were holes in the pillow cases, and at first the duvets were not found. So out for the first time out came our sheet sleeping bags, which I had included after reading Polly Evans book relating to the condition to be expected from the bedding - for the first and only time she was right. (There was apparently no cold water in a large section of the town and by the look of resignation on the reception staff's faces this was an on-going problem, no wonder we were the only guests).
We were ravenously hungry but not knowing the city we had to choose whether to walk up or down the street in search of a meal. Of course we got it wrong and landed up finding the 'down and out' part of town and a restaurant pervaded by the choking smell of hot chilli. As usual they spoke no English and I was not in the mood to struggle over much with the phrase book so we settled for a large pot of food over a burner on built into the centre of the table. When the saucepan arrived it was filled with pork trotters, chilli and celery and not much else with no trace whatever of meat. It was followed by an out-sized bill. We slept surprisingly well and having solved the toilet problem were even prepared if necessary to put up with the room for a further night.
Next morning we found the town centre and very pleasant it was too, with a large pedestrian precinct (the first town centre in China where we have seen pedestrians given priority). Passing the Kai Yue hotel I went in to enquire about a room, expecting them to be closed to foreigners, and they immediately offered me a very large immaculate room for 146Y, again asking for a discount, you pianyi ma?, worked wonders for they had halved their list price to just £10!
We went on to find a superb restaurant Shi Guo Lao Dian, not far away whilst searching for the pedestrian area. One chosen on the same basis as always - a brisk trade with the local inhabitants, no confusion for we as usual were the only tourists in town. So our worst night was followed by our best day. The restaurant being so active there were always a huge variety of dishes to be seen on surrounding tables and we pointed to a different set for each of the next three meals. After the first meal we found a waitress who could helpfully write down the name of the selections in Pinyin, so we could ask for them again. The last time we ended up at 10 pm eating just in advance of the staff of around 25, who sat down thus occupying virtually all the downstairs tables, and ate together; owner, manageress, cooks, waitress and the girls whose only duty was to clear tables and make sure the customers tea cups were always full of high quality green tea. That to us emphasised the pleasant atmosphere that existed in this exceedingly well run restaurant and in strong contrast to the status ridden attitude in industrial canteens a few years ago in Britain, with Port Talbot steelworks being a case in point.
MAIJI SHAN CAVES
But it wasn't only the life support system that went right, for, on talking to various taxi drivers we found one prepared to take us to the Buddhist statues at Maiji Shan for 120Y, about 35 km away and that included a 3 hour wait whilst we looked around. Entry to the National park cost a further 85Y which included a large golf type electric car to take us a little nearer the historic site. Nevertheless that left us with a long stiff climb up a roadway to get to the point of interest.
From there we climbed the steep stairways to inspect the statues of Buddha which had all been constructed between 300 and 600 AD. The statues were housed in alcoves cut into the vertical rock face. In recent years they had added protection by wire mesh, to prevent contact by the visitors, and by wooden shutters to shut out the elements at night.
Thus we were seeing these statues exactly in the form they had been for centuries, exposed directly to the elements. The paintwork of course had taken a hammering from centuries of exposure, but the un-restored statues were still remarkably unscathed. The impact was stunning and we have no problem with considering this the best experience so far amongst the Buddha sites. There were quite a few Chinese visitors until, as I was about to conclude that we were the only foreigners, a small party of Americans arrived just as we were leaving.
LUOMEN and Water Curtain Caves (Shuilian Dong)
Buoyant once again we tackled the Water Curtain Cave the following day, which was over 100 km distant. Once again we had only the most fragmentary information from the LP and so set out for Luomen via a minibus to Gangu, the nearest we could get. This was a hairy ride into the mountains with high vertical drops on the side of the road, the ground had similarities to the sandstone pinnacles of the day before and the road went over all the narrow tops. The driver again hailed a passing bus and transferred us to a bus to Luomen at the crossroad in Gangu.
e there we approached a driver of one of the town's three wheeler taxis, a sort of Reliant Robin tuk-tuk . He offered to take us to the caves for 50Y return. I don't think he knew what he was letting himself in for, we certainly didn't, for there had been a wild flood in 2003 which had swept away the road to the site. Flood water had got behind the retaining walls, constructed of small rubble as I described earlier, and ripped the foundations away. The only sign of a once fine road were sections of the 200 mm thick concrete roadway laying higgledy piggledy in the river bed. So after the first few km on metalled road we had to take to a river bed in order to continue, which would have been hard work for a 4WD let alone this small three wheeler. We were only once marooned on a rock, and with the help of a passer-by were able to lift the car onto more level ground.
Eventually he gave up and said we would have to complete the journey on foot with an hour's walk up the river bed. It was well worth the effort when a huge carving in a vertical rock face was revealed still carrying some paint colouring, even though the only recent addition to the protection from the elements was a narrow wooden roof, to increase the effect of the naturally overhanging rock face. We wondered how they had got access to install the the roof, before reflecting on the far bigger initial problem of carving, plastering and painting the three Buddha.
Worried about having time to get back to our hotel we cut our visit short and walked back to our waiting 3 wheeler. Similar luck and friendly assistance from drivers and conductors saw us catch what must have been the last bus of the day from Gangu. Fortune follows the brave, and the reckless, and US so far!
I called Michael on the manageresses private mobile, because there was no way of knowing what initial codes to use on the bedroom phone (it turned out to be 6+0+ on this system to call a mobile). He would contact his girlfriend Wanglu in Xian and call back. As a result we left Tainshui a day or so earlier than we might have otherwise, for we had such a good combination of hotel and restaurant. Tianshui deserves to be on the tourist route, they are trying harder than any where else we have been. They have produced a tourist map of the numerous attractions in the area in Chinese, English and Pinyin, and produced various publications about the tourist and commercial attributes of the area of which we bought a copy. Instead it remains a back water and the Lonely Planet is particularly useless - as we have found on the majority of this trip. I never expected to say, that for in the past it has been very helpful. The 2005 Edition didn't even know one of their roads had been washed away two years earlier or that their choice of hotel was abysmal in a go-ahead city of infinite possibility.
A visit to the Tibetan monastery showed the truly unique side of Xiahe. We were part of a group of French people and two Americans, both with their own guides, but the English speaking onlooking monk kept quiet until it was obvious that the other guides knew little about the monastery. I prodded him to speak, thinking he was nervous of the language and he immediately took over and from then on the French party listened to him rather than their own guide. This was the second of two French parties we had met in town, the first was staying at our own hotel. I couldn't help wondering if the French presence here was something to do with the multimillion Euro campaign conducted to introduce France to the Chinese culture by Jean Pierre Angremy.
 |
| YEARLY COMPETITION of artefacts from YAK BUTTER |
The monastery itself was fascinating. He took us around various temples, all of which were full of interest not least because the visibility was good in contrast to the Buddhist caves. He was full of information but it was hard to fathom the complexity of the Buddhist beliefs. Next day we met him in the street and, although in a hurry to get to the library and go off to another monastery to pray for a few days, he stopped to talk. Amongst other topics we asked him to explain the difference between incarnation and re-incarnation. He accepted that it was very difficult to describe the processes and admitted that monks of his own rank did not fully understand the procedures, since everything was under the control of the Grand Lamas. A surprising admission by an evidently committed Buddhist. We were impressed by his friendliness .
Next day we started on a round of the prayer wheels on the south side, and this time doing a spell of turning them. It was soon obvious why so many of the older people wear gloves for it is quite hard work to do this for the hour or so it takes to complete a round. That brought us to two other temples which we were able to enter unaccompanied for 10Y. The first was a temple which had been badly damaged in the Cultural Revolution and had been fully restored to its original form, the second had been so badly destroyed that it was razed and completely rebuilt. It was four stories high with golden roofs, as we climbed we got ever better views over the monastery and surrounding countryside.
 |
| MONKS WAVED US UP |
Katrine, a French woman we had not seen before stopped us in the street, saying she had heard about us from others in her party. She like Anne Marie had spent a year in England, in her case in Bangor, we remarked on the similarity of their accents when speaking English but discovered that she came from Paris. She too was concerned about the Muslim presence in France, concerned about their attitude especially towards women in a country which prides itself on a secular state. She was concerned about the dilution of the French way of life, which she very much treasured. It made me realise what a large difference has occurred in England, due to immigration since the WW2, firstly with West Indians and then with Asians and now the Polish, a change still little apparent in Wales - which has only been invaded by us English!
We got up early the next morning to find that the French and Swedish minibus tour parties had already departed so we had breakfast alone for once. A taxi to the bus station yielded a ticket for a bus at 9.00 to Linxia, but the conductor didn't arrive by car until 9.30 and the bus did not depart until 9.45 and even then did a slow trawl of the streets looking for additional passengers. Such is the lack of urgency in small villages. From then on the journey went unbelievably smoothly. In Linxia the driver hailed a passing bus and we and some Chinese back packers transferred to a bus going onward to Lanzhuo. In Lanzhuo a lady taxi driver took us efficiently to the other bus station, though she was worried that I had asked her to take us to a bus to the other station when one was sitting right outside one.
TIAN SHUI We lost only a few minutes at Lanzhuo before setting out on the journey to Tianshui. Once again we noticed the heavy police presence which always exists at the entry to the toll road pay points. I should have mentioned earlier that all the new roads are toll roads though the fees even for a bus are small, usually around 30p. Maybe it's a convenient point to check vehicles but their interest in buses seems to stop with consideration that they are carrying the same number of passengers as held on the station booking, but the major concern is lorries.
We arrived far too late, almost midnight, at Tianshui thus placing a great deal of importance on the recommendation of hotels and restaurants by the guide book. It may be thought that a hotel in which all the water is hot is a sign of luxury, but read on. Noting, whilst checking-in, some concerns about water and the shower, I thought only to establish that they had hot water (conversations in Mandarin are even more difficult once off familiar ground!). What we didn't realise, until a little later, was that there was no water to flush the toilet and no water whatever available in the shower. Joan solved the immediate problem by filling the toilet bin with hot water and using that to flush the toilet. The pillows were stuffed with rice, there were holes in the pillow cases, and at first the duvets were not found. So out for the first time out came our sheet sleeping bags, which I had included after reading Polly Evans book relating to the condition to be expected from the bedding - for the first and only time she was right. (There was apparently no cold water in a large section of the town and by the look of resignation on the reception staff's faces this was an on-going problem, no wonder we were the only guests).
We were ravenously hungry but not knowing the city we had to choose whether to walk up or down the street in search of a meal. Of course we got it wrong and landed up finding the 'down and out' part of town and a restaurant pervaded by the choking smell of hot chilli. As usual they spoke no English and I was not in the mood to struggle over much with the phrase book so we settled for a large pot of food over a burner on built into the centre of the table. When the saucepan arrived it was filled with pork trotters, chilli and celery and not much else with no trace whatever of meat. It was followed by an out-sized bill. We slept surprisingly well and having solved the toilet problem were even prepared if necessary to put up with the room for a further night.
 |
| PEDESTIAN CENTRE TIAN SHUI |
We went on to find a superb restaurant Shi Guo Lao Dian, not far away whilst searching for the pedestrian area. One chosen on the same basis as always - a brisk trade with the local inhabitants, no confusion for we as usual were the only tourists in town. So our worst night was followed by our best day. The restaurant being so active there were always a huge variety of dishes to be seen on surrounding tables and we pointed to a different set for each of the next three meals. After the first meal we found a waitress who could helpfully write down the name of the selections in Pinyin, so we could ask for them again. The last time we ended up at 10 pm eating just in advance of the staff of around 25, who sat down thus occupying virtually all the downstairs tables, and ate together; owner, manageress, cooks, waitress and the girls whose only duty was to clear tables and make sure the customers tea cups were always full of high quality green tea. That to us emphasised the pleasant atmosphere that existed in this exceedingly well run restaurant and in strong contrast to the status ridden attitude in industrial canteens a few years ago in Britain, with Port Talbot steelworks being a case in point.
MAIJI SHAN CAVES
 |
| MAIIJI SHAN (Hay Stack Mountain) |
From there we climbed the steep stairways to inspect the statues of Buddha which had all been constructed between 300 and 600 AD. The statues were housed in alcoves cut into the vertical rock face. In recent years they had added protection by wire mesh, to prevent contact by the visitors, and by wooden shutters to shut out the elements at night. Thus we were seeing these statues exactly in the form they had been for centuries, exposed directly to the elements. The paintwork of course had taken a hammering from centuries of exposure, but the un-restored statues were still remarkably unscathed. The impact was stunning and we have no problem with considering this the best experience so far amongst the Buddha sites. There were quite a few Chinese visitors until, as I was about to conclude that we were the only foreigners, a small party of Americans arrived just as we were leaving.
LUOMEN and Water Curtain Caves (Shuilian Dong)
Buoyant once again we tackled the Water Curtain Cave the following day, which was over 100 km distant. Once again we had only the most fragmentary information from the LP and so set out for Luomen via a minibus to Gangu, the nearest we could get. This was a hairy ride into the mountains with high vertical drops on the side of the road, the ground had similarities to the sandstone pinnacles of the day before and the road went over all the narrow tops. The driver again hailed a passing bus and transferred us to a bus to Luomen at the crossroad in Gangu.
 |
| WATER CURTAIN CAVES |
e there we approached a driver of one of the town's three wheeler taxis, a sort of Reliant Robin tuk-tuk . He offered to take us to the caves for 50Y return. I don't think he knew what he was letting himself in for, we certainly didn't, for there had been a wild flood in 2003 which had swept away the road to the site. Flood water had got behind the retaining walls, constructed of small rubble as I described earlier, and ripped the foundations away. The only sign of a once fine road were sections of the 200 mm thick concrete roadway laying higgledy piggledy in the river bed. So after the first few km on metalled road we had to take to a river bed in order to continue, which would have been hard work for a 4WD let alone this small three wheeler. We were only once marooned on a rock, and with the help of a passer-by were able to lift the car onto more level ground. 
Worried about having time to get back to our hotel we cut our visit short and walked back to our waiting 3 wheeler. Similar luck and friendly assistance from drivers and conductors saw us catch what must have been the last bus of the day from Gangu. Fortune follows the brave, and the reckless, and US so far!
I called Michael on the manageresses private mobile, because there was no way of knowing what initial codes to use on the bedroom phone (it turned out to be 6+0+ on this system to call a mobile). He would contact his girlfriend Wanglu in Xian and call back. As a result we left Tainshui a day or so earlier than we might have otherwise, for we had such a good combination of hotel and restaurant. Tianshui deserves to be on the tourist route, they are trying harder than any where else we have been. They have produced a tourist map of the numerous attractions in the area in Chinese, English and Pinyin, and produced various publications about the tourist and commercial attributes of the area of which we bought a copy. Instead it remains a back water and the Lonely Planet is particularly useless - as we have found on the majority of this trip. I never expected to say, that for in the past it has been very helpful. The 2005 Edition didn't even know one of their roads had been washed away two years earlier or that their choice of hotel was abysmal in a go-ahead city of infinite possibility.
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