Thursday morning I vaguely heard the alarm, then Ray saying: “don’t go back to sleep.” So I got up, had a lovely hot shower, in the bug infested bathroom, and we went for breakfast. A buffet for Y10 each consisting of shredded carrots, cucumber and garlic pickles, bean sprouts, and noodles – all flavoured; with a little dough-ball and some sort of porridge….mmm! We ate our small quantity quickly and went out the hotel to look for some passport pictures which we needed so that our Chinese group visa could be split into individual visas. What a palava all the Chinese visa rules have caused, enough to dissuade anyone from coming here ..and sooo expensive! Its not even as if China is a highly threatened country. Anyway, across the road from the hotel a big sign said “Cake”, so we went in and managed to buy a currant bun, a coffee (hallejuah!)…haven’t had a coffee for ages, and a coke – no tea unfortunately. We left around 10 am. To catch the boat for our ride on the Lixjiaaxia Dam, a major dam along the middle-upper part of the Yellow River forming the Liujiaxia Reservoir. The dam is located down river from where the Tao River meets the Yellow River . The dam and hydro-electric facility are near Yongjian about 70 km southwest of Lanzhou .
The boat ride on the reservoir lasted about 3 1/2 hours each way and was quite pleasant. It wasn’t too cold and the rock formations of the gorge were quite stunning. The Bing Ling Temple Grottoes qre said to be one of the finest Buddist grottoes in China and because of their remoteness, they have been able to survive and also remain void of tourists. Over a period of 1600 years sculptors hanging from ropes down the steep porous canyon walls, carved 152 niches in the rock and sculpted statues into them. There is a walkway all around making viewing access easy. The art work was sponsored by the wealthy merchants who passed along the Silk Road . There was a magnificent 27 meter high statue of the future Buddha on one side of the canyon and on the other an enormous sleeping Buddha tucked inside a cave. We were also offered a jeep ride up the canyon to see a small Tibetan monastery but due to our time limit didn’t have time. We couldn’t believe that after such a long boat ride we would be limited to 1 hour to see the carvings. It was nowhere near enough time to absorb everything and we felt as if we were rushing around as if we had a boat to catch.. which of course we did…All in all, it was a pleasant boat ride, but the carvings were not really that exciting. All in all, it was another Chinese tourist attraction that left you feeling short of value for the money and effort expended in getting there.
After we got back off the boat around 8 pm we drove to Lanzhou (2 hours), had a late dinner, and checked into the hotel. A group of about 10 of us went out to a Karaoke Bar which is all the rave here. It ended up we were the only ones in the club, but the manager seemed happy to have us. Leon and some others learned how to use the computer and we listened to the songs, danced a bit, chatted, Maeve sang a little, Ian tried to pole dance and al in all a ton of fun was had. We left around 2 am and some others shortly after us. The remainder we hear (4 people) made it through to about 6 am, so not much sleep for them!!
4 comments:
I found Lanzhou on Google Earth. Seems like a big city, with lots of smog, unfortunately. South of it are very impressive terraced farms.
The area around Qinghai Lake looks a lot like Saskatchewan or Alberta. They even grow Canola there. I didn't notice before, but China has so few big lakes compared to our country.
I had trouble following your route before this. Should be easier now.
I was in Tim Horton's yesterday. While perusing the bins of muffins and doughnuts, I noticed a bin that said "Chinese biscuits" and thought how odd that was that I'd never noticed them before. As I was beginning to wonder what they might be like, I realized that it didn't say "Chinese", it said "Cheese". I must have had you two in mind.
Someone with a great deal of experience once observed that "adventure is discomfort, rightly viewed."
I imagine you can confirm that.
On the drive to work this morning, Andy Williams was singing "Moon River" on the radio. It reminded me of my huckleberry friends on the road somewhere in China:
"Two drifters, off to see the world;
There's such a lot of world to see..."
Andy says that the rainbow's end that you are after is "waiting round the bend", if not this one, then surely the next.
But the rainbow isn't the destination, it's the journey; and they don't happen without a little rain.
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