October 30, 2021
Hi all - Happy Halloween!!!! I know, I know....it has been a looong time since you have heard from me, and for that i am sorry....i had a terrific summer here in china...but it was a bit weird because i was not allowed to actually travel out of country....this past week was my one year anniversary of being here in beijing and it feels a bit weird for me to have been in one country for a continuous year....not something i have done in a long, long time.....i did take the chance to travel all over china this past summer, hence why it was a great summer....but i have decided i need to be able to get to the states this summer to see my mom, brother, other family members and friends....so i have signed a contract for a third year, but if they say i cannot travel to the states come may/june, i will be breaking my contract....my bosses already know this, but i am hopeful i will not need to do that....all that being said...last summer was great and next summer will be in the states....
below are pictures from the first of the four trips i took...i am hoping i do not overload people with pictures, but china is a huge country, with different landscapes, an immense amount of amazing history and lots of fun places to visit and experience...this summer on my first trip i traveled the silk road from xi'an to kashgar....later i also visited datong, which is about 2.5 hours by high-speed rail outside of beijing...i also went to nanjing and shanghai...and finally, i did a food tour in the yunnan province from dali to lijiang.....all incredible trips with awesome people, sights and food/drink....this update will only look at pictures from the first trip and hopefully, i will get another update out soon....each trip just had so many highlights i cannot just pick a few pictures....sorry....so here are the images from trip number one...the silk road....xi'an to kashgar....enjoy :)
my silk road trip was HUGE....we started at the beginning of it in china and finished it just 100km from the tajikistan border....about 3800 km of travel...trains, planes, buses and lots of fun...this is a picture from the deserted city wall of xi'an...it was a super hot day and we were there in the height of the heat...but it was still amazing to see almost no one there...the tourism of china has definitely taken a huge hit from covid and keeping their borders shut....we rarely saw other expats traveling...but the chinese are making the most of it and traveling their own country...which is a good thing for the business...but just weird when you are used to seeing tons of tourists from around the world at the different historical sites...the chinese were also shocked to see us everywhere we went....our tour guides had to always explain that we worked in beijing and had been there and had not come from overseas....we also were traveling before chinese schools were out for the summer, which we benefitted greatly from...everything was a lot less crowded....
including the amazing muslim market and area of xi' an....this is bread we had later on the trip, but here is where we started to see it....also tons of fruits and vegetables....a delicious stop on the trip...
of course we visited the terracotta warriors...i had not been here since 2008, and some of it has changed... much more tourist-focused with pathways to follow and some more of it has been put together and cleaned up...but i was surprised at how much really wasn't different since i was last here....and yes, they are still amazing and incredible to experience....
this is a picture of the warriors as they piece them together...it is a complete jigsaw puzzle due to the site having been destroyed by the mongols who found it first...plus, some of the dirt above the burial site has crushed the warriors into pieces in places...but to see what they have put together is incredible, as well as to see how much they still have to go....the emperor qin shi huang really was dedicated to being protected once dead....each of these is full human height and individual for the soldier they were created of...so different hairstyles and facial expressions and jobs....it is amazing....and i am sooooo glad i got to see it again....
from xi'an we flew to zhangye to see the part of china i was most excited to visit....the rainbow mountains....i have taught them for many different classes, whenever i have had to teach about rocks and the rock cycle..so to see them with my very own eyes was a moment of pure magic....unfortunately we were not there on a very sunny day, so what you see is without the sun shining...just imagine what it could look like...the boldness of the colors....stunning.....
what you are looking at is sedimentary rock that is located where tectonic plates collided (55 million years ago)....making the rocks twist and turn and make these amazing layers seem like they are facing the wrong way....the reason you get the colors is because of iron and other minerals in the rock....the main red color comes from iron and it "rusting" but the yellow comes from sulfur in the rock as well....there are other colors here all from different minerals, but due to there not being much sunlight, you can't really see them....it is still a stunning place to visit and yes, i used one of my own pictures this year when i taught about the rock cycle and sedimentary rocks!!!!!
the further west we went, the closer we got to the gobi desert and animals and foods started to resemble things closer to a desert community...including camels...these are actually 2-hump camels - called bactrian camels....i am not sure i had ever seen a 2-humped camel...so i decided to take a picture with this one....nope, i did not ride them....i have been on a camel before and really did not enjoy the ride....
we got up really early one morning on the trip to watch the sunrise at the gobi desert...it was actually a full moon the night before....so the image above is the full moon setting over the desert....the hills you see are all sand dunes....amazing!!!!
here comes the sun over the desert....tons of folks were racing to see the sunrise on a camel...i just wanted to watch the sunrise and see camels....i did not combine them...it was an early, but beautiful start to the day :)
this is shot of me with one of our guides....hassan...he was our uyghur guide in urumqi....the reason we are having watermelon in this spot is because this is where we had to have a covid test along the side of the road....it was really hot and the medical folks running our test site felt bad for us because we were in the heat for about an hour trying to get the tests done.....things here in china are quite regulated and at this point this was my 4th covid test in 36 hours....china has a zero-tolerance for covid and is doing everything its power to not have covid here....has it been successful???? i am not really sure...we are having a slight outbreak again and are up to around 30 cases now...one thing i do know is that it certainly has put a damper on my traveling life....
one of our most beautiful stops on this trip was at heavenly lake outside of urumqi....what a beautiful day and view...we did not climb to the top of the mountains but had a great cable car ride up and down one of the peaks to get this shot....the red messages in the foreground are all wishes people have left there....most tourist stops of china will have a spot where you see these sorts of messages....people leaving wishes and hopes on red wooden cards...or wooden cards with red ribbons....red is the color of luck here in china....
here is a shot of me with the tasty bread at the night market in urumqi....it is a very meat based culture, but the bread more than made up for it for me...yummy!!!!
when we finally made it to our last stop - kashgar, we headed west along the karakoram highway to see the beautiful Pamir mountains....we stopped along this lake by the side of the highway....besides seeing a baby camel! the other side of the lake was sand dunes....the landscape in this area of the world was just so surprising and mind blowing.....at this point we were about 100km from the tajikistan border....
we also had chinese lunch in a yurt by the highway and mountains....we were told this was next to karakul lake, but in the end i do not think that was the truth, as that lake is located in tajikistan, and we definitely did NOT cross a border....we are not allowed to leave china afterall....well....you can leave, but it is super difficult to get back in....so i am actually not sure what lake we saw...but it was pretty....
we were in kashgar the day before the celebration of 100 years of the communist party in china...so this was a group in front of the gate to the old city, recording a song and dance for the big video from around china the day before the holiday....kind of weird when you think about what is happening in that part of the world with the indigenous groups....i am pretty sure majority, if not all, of these folks were han chinese...not indigienous...but you never know.....even though this area of china is mostly indigenous chinese...like the uyghur people.....
walking through kasgar's old, walled city was like walking in a muslim location....the markets and alleyways and people - both in dress and in stature....it was wild...it didn't really feel like i was in china....here is one of the stalls of the market...if you look closely you will see a ton of different types of raisins...it is amazing how many different kinds there are....who knew?????
this is one of the uyghur music stall owners....he was playing a traditional uyghur guitar called a rawap...he took no notice of us and was completely enjoying his day...it was terrific....
another site we visited was the tomb of the fragrant concubine of the qianlong emperor....this was in the afaq khoja mausoleum in kashgar....it was said she was allowed by her father to become the concubine of the emperoroonly if he promised to return her body to the family tomb after she died.....he was so smitten by her beauty that he actually agreed to the stipulation and did return her body to her family mausoleum...it was similar in shape to the taj mahal...but nowhere near the size...plus, it had amazing green mosaic on the outside....we were there before any other tourists and had the place to ourselves....very peaceful....
this had to be one of the final shots of this set of pictures....even if it was not at the final stop....we found a map that showed the length of the silk road and here you have all of us that traveled together on this trip except one friend....you can see me all the way to the right at xi'an and claudia all the way to the left pointing to our last stop of kashagr...approximately 3800km/2361 miles.....it was an amazing trip filled with excellent travel partners, history, interesting people along the way and amazing food and drink....another trip of a lifetime for me and i am grateful for being able to do this trip this past summer......
but of course the last picture of the trip had to be me with a chinese/uyghur beer....rather light in taste, but really cold because our awesome guide hassan called ahead and had the restuarant put the beer in the refrigerator....most times the chinese drink their beer room temperature...but this day was around 39C/102F in temperature and i had already melted once.....the food in the uyghur restaurant was some of the best on the trip.....just amazing!!!!
again....i am sorry i have not been in touch with an update in a looooooong while and hope to get the second installment of summer out in the next few days.....we'll see...hope you have all had a good start to your fall/spring....the colors here in beijing are popping....we have a lot of trees that go yellow and lots of ivy on the buildings in places that go red...so it has been rather nice....we also have had a lot of blue sky days in the past two weeks...for which i am thankful for after some of the rainiest july, august, september and start to october months....thanks again for your patience and if you have any questions, please send them my way....
Happy Halloween and Peace Out...Dani
