Welsh Davids Silk Road and beyond: 4 and 5 July – Jiayuggun and Zhangye (China)

We did not leave Dunhuang until 9.30am being told that it would be too hot at our next stop if we arrived too early. Desert on both sides of the road, a two lane road with no hard shoulder for miles and miles, and still on the G30 route. As we went further East the scenery changed now and then to green spaces, trees and the ubiquitous power lines and wind farms. On the approach to Jiayuggun City and through the city itself there was plenty of green areas with modern buildings to be seen with a huge industrial area seemingly designed to be on one side of the city instead of being spread everywhere as is he norm in the West.

Then we visited Jiayuggun Fortress which was part of the great wall of China and had been restored so that it looked like Legoland had helped them in the reconstruction process. The repairs had been done with modern bricks and materials so that it really did not look like the Great Wall of China as I remember two previous visits to different parts of the Great Wall near Beijing. It looks as if it has been repaired only to be a tourist attraction and not to represent the Wall in reality.

Views of the Jiayuggun fortress

A short distance away was a reconstituted section of the Great Wall, and this I climbed, all the way to the top.

Looking down

Tom at the very top

A building over the river (when there is water)

The mountain over which the wall was built

From climbing the wall it was not far to another section where repairs were also being carried out to the Wall, which, at this site, had a gap cut out of the wall for vehicles to pass through, which we did also, and camped for the night behind and at the foot of the Wall.

China, Jiayuggun, Great Wall, Camping (4)

Camped along the Great Wall

Snow on the mountains

The following morning we left for a four hour drive (and saw snow on nearby mountains) to Zhangye and the Ganzhobubi Nguan Hotel where the part we were put into had been newly refurbished and still had new beds and furniture blocking one staircase. In some of the guide books some hotels advertise as having hot water from only 8pm, strange, as I would have thought that that fact would keep people away unless they mean that other hotels do not have hot water.

In the afternoon we went as a group to the Buddhist Temple and then kind of split up. Tom and I went looking for a tower nearby and climbed to the top. The views were of a normal city and not worth taking photos of as it was no different to anywhere else.

The City Bell Tower

Buddhist Temple

A street cobbler

Later I walked about five kilometres looking for a monastery and on asking two student if I was near found myself in a taxi going the opposite way as they said that I was walking in the wrong direction. We ended up where I started from, at the Buddhist Temple. I told them it was the wrong place and when saying the name of the monastery again they understood as said that it was near to where I had walked to then wanted to take me back again. I explained that I had run out of time, they paid for the taxi, and I went and had a meal. As it was a Saturday night I went out again thinking that maybe something would be going on in the centre of the city and maybe the monuments would be lit up as well.

The place was jumping! There were hundreds of people doing line dancing; others doing break dancing and traditional dancing; there were singers and men doing Chinese calligraphy on the pavement slabs; skateboards and cycles were being used; people were doing different exercises; this all in the central squares and with family groups everywhere. And yes, everything was lit up as well.