Mongolia, Tibet, Islamic China

Hello again,

I left off last time smuggling Cosmo across the border from Siberia into Mongolia with a Russian Truck driver from Irkutsk who was drinking too much vodka. Vodka is a big problem in Russia and Mongolia. To test out the blogging video capabilities, here is a word from our truck driver sponsor.

And here are shelves full of the stuff, all vodka, in Ullan Battor, the capital of Mongolia (sorry for the sideways picture). I arrived by overnight train from Ulan Ude Russia (plus 12 hours at the border for no good reason). I only spent one day in UB, but for some insight into Mongolian life, please listen to The World A La Carte Episode on Mongolia. The place is former Russian, at which time Buddhism was squashed. Religion is now coming back big time. Here is a picture at Gandan Khid, one of the most important Buddhist sites in UB. Make sure you walk clockwise with those prayer wheels. My other brief impression of the place was that it was quite a bit less developed than Russia or China.

Here is the man Ginghis Kahn himself, large and in charge in the main square in the capitol city. And below is part of the suburban yurtopia, or you can call them gers. These perma-gers are all over the city, despite that they are nomadic creations probably more handy in the rural areas.

I departed UB on a train overnight, arriving at the Mongolian/China border town of Zammyn Uud in the morning. I piled off the train with all the Mongolian traders and followed them, pushing and shoving, onto a group of busses bound for the border. The bus arrived at the border then sat and waited until it opened. At the border were dozens of Land Rovers sitting, at the edge of the Gobi, waiting to cross.

The bus dropped me in Erlian (aka Eren, aka Erenhot) China, a large city just over the border. I dont think that China has any small cities. From Erlian I caught an overnight sleeper bus to Beijing. What is a sleeper bus? Here is a picture taken from a bottom bunk, in the middle, in the back. Thats 5 feet long by 2.5 feet wide. Your feet actually go in a wedge shaped box under the next guys head (who uses the wedge as a pillow). If you are larger than these dimensions (in length or width) you will have an uncomfortable ride. So I slept with my knees bent. Good thing the Chinese aren't wide. The other problem is that these busses provide bedding but do not keep it clean. There are stains from drool, sweat, etc. This is no problem (just dont use the bedding) except that they dont seem to turn the heat on. So it is like a rolling icebox. I suppose I could have used my sleeping bag... One other thing, make sure you take off your shoes as you enter the bus, and put them in the provided plastic bag (like a shopping bag).

I had been in Beijing 7 years ago, and remembered alot of bicycles. Now there were maybe 10% of those bicycles. Also, hardly any homeless. I think the city's efforts at cleaning up for the Olympics have been working. Except for cleaning the air. The pollution was much worse than I remembered...like Delhi or Kathmandu or Bangkok, where you can not see more than a few blocks.

My sleeper bus arrived at the convenient time of 3 am in Beijing, so I scratched my head in a McDonalds for a couple hours, and then joined the morning masses of people at the Temple of Heaven park on the south end of town. Only problem is there is no lighting in the park (sunrise was like 7am). The people go every morning to do their Tai Chi or whatever physical activity, part of which involves hooting and hollering in (what seems) strange patterns. This meant I walked around for a couple hours in the dark, running into bushes because I couldn't see, listening to Chinese folks yelping. Here is a picture just after dawn.

All of the bicycle traffic seems to have moved into the subway, which was sardine like. Here is an interesting pay-per use toilet vending machine in the subway area.

The compulsory picture on Tienamen with the Forbidden City behind (and a picture of Chairman Mao, whose Mausoleum is just in front of me. I'm sure he is happy that there are pay-per-use toilets just below him.

Another change in the city: previously there was a section of town called the Silk Road, or Pearl Market. This was a series of small stalls, just like souqs in Syria, the covered market in Istanbul, etc etc...anywhere in less developed places; the local equivalent of walmart. Lots of dirt and haggling. This has changed in Beijing. All merchants have been put in this new structure, a shiny new building where haggling is still allowed and you can still buy everything.

I also manged to get a visa for Kazakhstan while in Beijing. Same day processing. The letter of invitation requirement has changed to one where I wrote a letter inviting myself! The woman at the consulate window actually gave me a form letter and I just filled in the blanks! When will these countries do away with such silly games?

Speaking of the Silk market, one of missions on this trip is to see parts of the Silk Road. This historically started in Xian China, and was a series of paths (not one road) heading west to parts of the Middle East and Europe. The best remnants may be in Uzbekistan, but the history is all through the region. So lets start in Xian, by taking an overnight train there from Beijing. Xian is of course where the Terracotta warriors were discovered. The pictures always makes them look infinite...so here is my picture delineating the total area of the excavation. The concept and the carvings are as impressive as they sound.

Just as impressive in Xian was this Wal Mart. Those red and blue sale signs might look familiar to U.S. shoppers, but those hanging slabs of meat didn't remind me of anything in my neighborhood Wally world.

Next goal: Tibet. This should conjure up an image of a Buddhist shangri-la that is difficult to get to, requiring long overland trips from Kathmandu...and lots of paperwork. aka the TTP, Tibetan Tourism Permit, required of all visitors, and checked when boarding flights to Lhasa, the main city. This silly permit has been the bain of independent travelers for years...and the difficult overland routes have added to the adventure. However, between 2001 and 2006 a railway was built to Tibet from the province to the north (Qinghai). The Qinghai Tibet Railway (QTR) allows one to travel from Bejing to Lhasa in comfort, in 48 hours!

Travler forums had rumors that one can board the train without having purchased the silly TTP. In Xian I approached the ticket window to buy a ticket from Xian to Lhasa, and I was told that I needed the TTP...and the clerk pointed to a large blue sign on the wall of the Xian train station, in English, clearly stating foreigners needed the permit before they could buy a ticket. At the same time there was a hostel tout, a 20 something female who spoke some English, standing next to me...trying to get me to stay at her hostel. I asked her to buy my ticket and gave her my $$ for the ticket. Simple. Then I stayed at her hostel.

The next morning as I approached the train station to depart, I was terrified that some Chinese official would discover me permitless, and boot me into the cold Tibetan plateau. Actually nobody asked for the permit as I boarded the train. No one asked at any time during the journey. For the first few hours I tried hiding on my bunk so that the conductors would not see that I am a foreigner...but eventually I realized they didnt care. Another male in my room, a Tibetan Chinese, had a laptop and was playing shoot-em-up video games (in English, although he didnt speak any English). The conductors took interest in his games, and eventually my compartment was full of conductors playing video games. So they obviously didnt care about my permit.

Here is a picture of my train compartment. It is the same trains that are in the rest of China. You can sit in seats like a bus, you can pay more for 6 beds per compartment like this picture, or you can pay alot more for 4 beds per compartment. I chose this option. Note how high the top bunks are...that is someone's head reading the newspaper down there. The trains have a hot water tap for noodles or tea (like those in Russia), some have a TV (like this one), and the ones heading to Tibet have ports for Oxygen. This is because the QTR heads uphill...the majority of 24 hours is spent traversing the Tibetan plateau, which seems to reach 5,000m (17,000 feet). Here is some health information they hand out to prepare travelers. Please read it carefully so you are well informed of the health hazards of the trip.

Here is apicture just after Lanzhou, which is one of the top cities in the world for air pollution. Why can I not see the other side of this beautiful lake?

Actually this is the sort of pollution that covers most of China (and many other undeveloped countries, and was in the U.S. earlier this century). This is the real reason I may have needed oxygen... if it wasnt for the air pollution, it would be for the chain smoking Chinese! Although the air pollution cleared up on the Tibetan Plateau, the folks kept smoking. There is apparently a train rule that no smoking is allowed once on the plateau (to not interfere with passengers breathing at 17,000 feet)...but people were smoking continuously. In fact spending any time anywhere in China is like hanging out in a smoky bar constantly.

Nevermind that, here are some pictures from the Train to Tibet.

Those mountains reach 23,000 feet. Note the vehicle in front for scale.

Lots of yaks out there... and sheep...

Lasa: the center of Tibet, home to the Barkhor area around the Jokhang temple, and of course the Potala Palace. Here are some pilgrims walking laps around the Jokhang. The city is full of religious Tibetan Buddhists practicing their faith. Thanks to the Chinese, it is also full of Han Chinese (i.e. what we think of as Chinese, from Eastern China) taking over economically. I was looking for a couple specific buddhist deity statues, but all the merchants were Han Chinese, and could not tell me one deity from another. There goes the neighborhood....

Actually there are plenty of muslim in town also, aka Hui Moslem (Chinese Muslim).

Here is the requisite prayer flag picture.

A cheese and meat sort of place. Lots of yak butter too...makes for good candle burning...

and the famous Potala Palace. This thing is every bit as amazing as it looks. It is full of room after room of gold and jewel covered Buddhist deities, tombs of past Dalai Lamas, etc. It was formerly the center of Buddhist business, but of course the current Dalai Lama is in exile in northern India, hiding out from the Chinese man.

So I return to the train station to head out of town. One note: the station was apparently built with some likeness of the Potala..some think this is sacriligious... below is a picture, you decide. Actually I took this picture as I arrived at 7am to buy a ticket for the 8:30 am train out. There were huge mobs of Chinese and Buddhists pushing aand shoving at the doors waiting for them to open. This pushing and shoving in lines is rather standard practice in China, as well as India, and many other parts of the world. The Chinese excel at it, and it gets on my western nerves rather quickly. So I jump in and push and shove.

However at this scene were some Chinese police who needed to create order. Out came the batons and tazers. I did not see anyone get hit, but I did see some get tazed. The blue light had a neat effect in the predawn light. Anyway, they manged to straighten out the mob into 4 single file lines real quick. Anyone protesting (i.e. those waiting for hours who were getting pushed back in line) were shown the baton and sent to the very back. Impressive.

Eventually the officers noticed I was a foreigner, and let me go straight to the front to buy a ticket. (I had a similar occurence once before in Kirachi, Pakistan, with Joe and Strom)

One other note about the spirituality of the Tibetan Buddhists...some people feel the need to prostrate themselves in front of their place of worship. Some people do it repeatedly, laying face down on the dirt or pavement, arms outstreched in front, then standing up with arms overhead and repeating. Some people do it one body length at a time while heading around the temple, or heading to the town. Some do it one body length at a time starting hundreds of miles away on the Tibetan Plateau...taking years to reach Lhasa.

The train is faster.

At least this guy has company.Another plateau pic from the train.

Next mission: western China, aka Xinjiang province...an area interesting because it is largely muslim, is full of silk road history, and abuts the mountain of Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The far southwest of China is Kashgar, here is a map for reference. Note Kashi in the far west. Note Lhasa just below the C of China. Note Urumqi in the north. Note Xian almost in the middle, just below Lanzhou.

So I caught the train 36 hours from Lhasa to Lanzhou (very polluted place), then a train 24 hours west almost to Urumqi. Actually I disembarked in Turpan, a couple hours before Urumqi...a place known for grapes and intense heat in the summer. Not many grapes at this freezing time of year. I then caught a sleeper bus (ice cold and cramped, with dirty blankets, and strangely, Bollywood movies) 24 hours to Kashgar. Kashgar is full of Uighur people...an ethnic group that is muslim and lives in western China. The Chinese government (aka Han Chinese) want to populate western China with Han Chinese...so the Uighur are getting run over by Han, sort of like the Buddhists in Lhasa....

Here is a typical picture from Kashgar....and another with pomegranite merchants in front of the Sunday market... Kashgar is famous for its Sunday market, which has for centuries (since the Silk Road) been bringing together all sorts of people from this remote corner of the world. Now the market, which actually is there every day of the week (including Friday when I visited) has a covered structure, just like the new structure at the Silk Market in Beijing.

Some folks talk about history passing by...and the desire to witness disappearing cultures as one reason to travel. I guess these parts of the world would fit in that category.

Actually, the highlight of my uncomfortable sleeper bus ride to Kashgar was meeting Abdul, a Uighur man who spoke English. We talked all about the state of affairs of the Uighur people. He showed me his pad when we arrived in Kashgar. What you see is the extent of it...about 10 foot square. Bathroom is communal at the end of the alley.

I purposefully did not post the better picture of him because I have another story...Medical folks I need your help. He had just traveled to Urumqi with his wife to go to the regional major hospital for a surgery involving their infertility. He was given epidural anesthesia, then had a quick 20 minute procedure that involved one small cut somewhere in his left inguinal region. This is as much as I could make out from his story, given the small language barrier. He could have meant a small cut in the scrotum. Anyway, I have not learned of any treatment for infertility that resembles this . Have you? In fact, aside from the epidural, it sounds like they gave him a unilateral vasectomy. He said there were many other Uighur men at the same time getting the same operation, some with bilateral incisions. Something about this sounded fishy... did I mention that the Chinese man is trying to keep the Uighur man down?

Lest you forget, here is daddy Mao in Kashgar, presiding over the Uighur...

Anyway, onto a lighter topic. Despite much meat (like in the background of this next pic) the region is also famous for its Nan. Thats right, Tandoori, just like India. I love this food because it is vegetarian and hot (i.e. probably clean). Here is one pround merchant.

here is another Uighur man working the tandoori pit in Urumqi...

I took a comfortable 24 hour train back from Kashgar to Urumqi, then immediatley found an uncomfortable freezing overnight (12 hour) sleeper bus to the Kazakhstan border town of Khorgos. I arrived in Korgos at 5am, and through charades, realized that the Kazakhstan border was closed, maybe for up to a week, for Kazakh independence day! I took a 2 hour bus to the nearby city of Yinning, then another overnight terrible freezing sleeper bus to Urumqi (if you are counging, that is 6 nights straight on transportation). My only other option for getting out of the region was to fly, which I did not want to do. I like to travel overland! That is part of the fun for me! I had no other option, so to the Urumqi airport I go, and find an immediately departing flight for $240 heading to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (the flight to Kazakhstan was $100 more expensive).

One last picture of China. Someone is at least trying to become better at customer service....and I think it is working. Seven years ago I just got alot of looking away when I approached anyone in a customer service role. This time I actually was helped about 20% of the time. Long way to go... In Russia and other neighboring countries, people try to help despite the language barrier...they jump around with charades to help out...but not so much in China....again this is improving. At banks, supermarkets, etc, in front of the person who is supposed to help, there are now little machines where the customer pushes a buttom indicating their level of satisfaction with the transaction. The number in red is the cumulative score. I suppose you could choose the line with the highest score, and get the best service. Anyway, on my way out of immigrations at the Urumqi airport, I noticed that even the immigrations folks had this system. I asked if I could take this picture. Tell me, does anyone ever push the dissatisfied button when at the immigrations booth?


Thats all for now, from one end of China to the other...

Next update: a coupled of 'Stans, from sea to disappearing sea, maybe some Caucusus...