Photos of Maqu can be seen here
The bus trip to Maqu was amazing, we went through some amazing mountains and climbed a long way. The countryside was quickly becoming grasslands as we were well above the treeline. Upon arrival a lot of people were staring at me and quickly after looking around I realised that I was the only white person in town. We grabbed a bite to eat some really hot noodles, you could tell we were getting closer to Sichuan. Then found a hotel and had a look around town.
You could really feel the altitude, just walking around we were becoming breathless. then there was a dramatic storm descending upon us, and with rain we jogged to some shelter. That night we played a little pool which seemed to be a Maqu past time as every second shop had a pool table in it.
Photos of Maqu can be seen here
Photos of Xiahe can be seen here
It proved hard to get a bus ticket to Xiahe from Lanzhou because it was the first day of the week long national holiday for ‘National Day’. So we decided to get a bus to Hezuo and get off at the turn off for Xiahe. The bus was easy enough, but I will never really get used to people smoking in the bus. One the the real contrasts between this part of China and the parts that I had previously seen was the amount on Muslims, I had never previously associated China with Muslims. There are over 20 million in North Western China which makes sense if you look at all the neighbouring countries.
When we came to the turn off we jumped off the bus in the middle of nowhere, it was a little crazy and cold and then we had to wait for a bus from the other direction that was going to Xiahe. With four other people we eventually decided to call a taxi which would cost about 10 Yuan each so that was good value. We had to meet them further down the road so we helped a nun carry her bags, the one that I was carrying felt like it was full of rocks or something, way to heavy.
When we arrived in Xiahe the nun asked us over for lunch the next day at her house, then it was off to find a hotel. Xiahe is pretty much one street down the middle of a valley with the very famous Labrang Monastery at one end. After we eventually found a hotel we decided to go for a walk around the shops, everything was soooo cheap that it is hard not to spend money. Weh bought a Gortex jacket for $30AUD, I picked up some beanies a scarf and gloves to help with the chill.
The next day we went to the nuns house for some lunch, it was a very Tibetan house, sitting on the bed to eat with lots of tea and way to much food. We ate a lot and had a look around. It was funny this house was quite out of the way and not much around but she had a satellite dish hooked up to her TV, just something you don’t expect every day. That afternoon we had a look around the outside of the monastery. One interesting thing was all around the monastery they had Prayer Wheels where people walk around and spin them, there are over 1700 of them and it takes about 90 minutes to do the circuit. After giving a few of them a spin we decided to wander through the monastery. All the main temples were closed but we found a whole lot of monks (children) playing around with a soccer ball and joined them. We spent about two hours there having fun, talking and showing them our cameras. That afternoon we climbed the mountain behind the monastery for a great view of the city, it was a really good walk that took us past some old ruins and some pray flags.
The next day we were going to try and get to Langmusi but decided a quick tour of the temples would be worth missing the bus. They had an English speaking monk to show us around and explain what everything meant. This was quite interesting and well worth doing if you are going to be looking at the temples. Then time came to get on a bus, and we decided to get a bus to Maqu which was most of the way to Langmusi.
Photos of Xiahe can be seen here
Photos can be seen here
Thursday – The next day we did not do a lot, I went to the gym in the afternoon with Weh and had a shave which was refreshing. Then we stocked up on some of the food we would need for our 28 hour train trip on Friday. Friday came and we slept in, not dangerously but probably about 30mins to long so it was a bit of a rush, we made it to the station, then had a little trouble finding the train and our carriage. The plan was to upgrade to a sleeper after a few stops and then have a snooze.
Boy were we in for a shock, the train was sweltering, we were in hard seats. Picture a one level train carriage full of seats facing each other, 6 on one side of the isle and four on the other. Then picture about 2 people and all their luggage standing between these seats. This was frustrating as I was in an aisle seat (something I soon rectified). When we boarded we found our seats but although they were consecutive tickets they were on opposite windows. Thinking we were going to get upgraded to a sleeper we sat together and didn’t ask others to move. When it became apparent that we were not going to get upgraded we shifted the two girls who had good ‘the slightest possibility of sleep’ seats on the windows with a table in front to put your head. They were not to happy but thems the blows.
We eventually arrived about 4pm the next day and found a great hotel for 40 Yuan! This was a real bargain with one shower and toilet (same room) that was shared with about 20 rooms. To get hot water you had to plug the hot water heater into a power board that was falling apart and rested under the shower!
Photos of the Great Wall can be seen here
Well I woke around 9 (probably a little late for what I was trying to do) and had breakfast of a big omelet. Then it was off to the wall, the section that I was hoping to do was about 80km outside Beijing so it meant some fun travel on random buses. The first bus was a mini bus for a little over an hour where my legs didn’t fit in the seat (not that it would bother anyone else). When I alighted from this bus I caught a taxi the remaining 75km round trip and this was about $25 AUS. I eventually made it to a place called Jinshanling and was going to do a 10km section.
On the drive in it was amazing you could see remnants of the wall on most of the ridges alongside the road. One funny thing was after being in the car with the driver for about 20km he suddenly put on his seat belt then 300m later we went through a police checkpoint then he took it off again. You don’t realise how high up the wall is, to get to it from the car park would probably be about 50 vertical meters because it is built on the ridge. When i embarked in my thongs I was told you wont make it to Simitar(end of the walk) in thongs. Everyone was wearing massive hiking boots(and some with hiking poles) that weighed a tone and you could see them struggling. The thongs were fine I never missed a beat.
The wall is quite a hard walk because it follows the ridge all the way. You continually are climbing up a steep ascent just to go down a steep decent then do it all again. I don’t think the section was 10km because I Was worried I would not finish before dark and ended up finishing early. One of the highlights were the turrets, most of them you could not get up the top, but I managed to rock climb up one that had a great view. Someone had a shady pile of rocks to help.
Along the wall I was met an Australian couple so we all walked together and had a good time. At the end they were setting up for a vogue photo shoot so it was the perfect opportunity to strut some of our stuff.
