China - Gansu Province

Trip Journal From 21st Of May - 28th May 2005

We crossed over into Gansu Province on Saturday 21st May. Gansu Province is said to be one of the poorer Provinces in China. This was noticeable straight away with the road conditions, back to a snails pace with lots of potholes to be avoided. We drove through rugged gorges, through lots of tunnels following one of the tributaries of the Yellow River, along side the river ran the railway line constantly busy with passenger and goods trains. The high hills seemed barren, with an absence of the heavy cropping we had seen in other provinces. The plains had wheat crops, soya beans and Lucerne growing, the mix of greens making a wonderful vista. We are constantly in ore of the scenery; every day is something different and more impressive than the day before.

Today was also the day that Jo and Janet departed so the group is now down to 3 vehicles and 7 people including Li our Guide.

The housing is noticeably poorer and made of brick and mud construction. The hills have many caves carved out of them. Li tells us it’s where the peasants used to live. Water buffalo have been replaced with horse and plough and there are many goat herds, and we have also seen some sheep and local transport is a donkey and a cart. Made all the guys mouths water at the thought of some lamb on the BBQ.

We stayed in a hotel car park at Dingxi, most hotels only charge between 5 and 20 Yuan (80cents to $3.00) a night and offer very secure parking with a guard on duty 24 hours. We decided to bypass the centre of Lanzhou, after we came out of a tunnel and saw the heavy pollution hanging over the city, apparently they have even bulldozed down some of the hills surrounding Lanzhou to try to ease the pollution problem.

About 80kms from Lanzhou is Bingling Si also known as Thousand Buddha Caves. We took a speed boat ride on the Liujiaxia Dam up the Huang He River to the caves. The cliff formations were amazing, the contours interesting after years of erosion, making stunning reflections in the calm water .Arriving at the Buddhist grottoes we were met by a flurry of hawkers selling their wares which is usual at popular tourist spots. There were 100s of caves and they contained many statues and sculptures, the most impressive being the 27mt high statue of Maitreya the future Buddha. The setting was really spectacular. As we drive we are amused by the wording on some of the road signs, Tool Gate = Toll Gate, Slon Doon = Slow Down.

Monday May 23rd is Johns 50th birthday and we celebrate by going out to the local restaurant in Yongdeng, not many places to choose from in this small town. We had a great night arriving back at the camp site at 11pm. Its all down hill from here for John!

It was a leisurely start next morning, we visited the local market to stock up on fresh produce as we knew we had days of desert driving ahead of us. As we headed west across Gansu Province we noted the villages were getting poorer, the land more barren and we are now surrounded by snow capped mountains. We are at an elevation of 2974 the highest to date.














Pauls turn to be in the lead today and he would have to get 10 out of 10 for picking the nights camping spot, the best to date. We camped under the Great `Wall of China near Feng Cheng Bao. What a highlight that was in the middle of nowhere beside the wall the Gilian Mountains covered in snow as a back drop with goat herds nearby. When we thought it couldn’t get any better than this it did. A local peasant farmer’s wife appeared from nowhere and befriended us and was just so pleased to see another face I think. We were invited into her home to visit. Her and her husband lived in a cave. We crouched to enter the cave dwelling, she was so proud of the window in the side of the cave. We crawled through an opening to the side and had to sit on her bed. The yard had pens to hold the animals, chooks, a donkey and cart and the herd of goats which were all put into the yard at night . It was such a simplistic life, a pile of dung used as fuel ready to put on the fire for heat and cooking. The next morning we were awoken with chatter and peering out Ruefee we saw the couple all dressed up to the 9s in their Sunday best bearing gifts of freshly cooked dumplings and bread. We all felt very humble as they had so little. We all would have liked to spent another couple of days there but time didn’t allow.

We drove for miles through the Gobi Desert. For the first time we could camp and wake up bright and early without an audience. While driving we encountered swarms of bees! We found it very unusual to see them in the middle of the desert. It wasn’t till we passed through a toll gate and encountered some trucks that we realized they were transporting millions of bees. As Paul said - think of the nightmare, 10 million bees let loose. Toll gates were a nightmare as there were swarms of bees hovering around. And my window had decided to throw another wobbly so I had to get out of the vehicle to pay our toll. Both Li and Paul got stings I was just lucky. As we drove through the desert we passed small green belts (oasis) scattered along route. The small villagers using every bit of fertile land to grow crops.

We visited Jiayuguan Pass Fort and Museum at the beginning of the Hexi Corridor and the western end of the Great Wall of China which is situated 1800 mt above sea level. The fort consists of inner courtyards, temples and watchtowers scattered along the wall. The wall was started in the 7th Century BC and continued through the many dynasties and stretches 25,000kms. With the building of the Great Wall the Silk Road opened up and so trade prospered between the west and China. It’s great to see the rebuilding of the wall as the earlier parts of the wall we saw and camped by were in bad need of reconstruction and were starting to crumble.

Our camping spots in the desert have been great, despite the strong winds and dust storms we encountered. This province has been so interesting for us, the Great Wall, the Gobi Desert, but I guess the highlight would have had to have been our visit to the cave home.

Today on May 28th we crossed into Xinjiang Province

Return To Journal Page