After a very long border crossing from Kyrgyzstan, we finally arrived in Kashgar (Kashi to the Chinese), another silk road city. We spent two weeks crossing toward Tibet in the end of June/early July. Almost seven months later, I'm reviewing these photos. This was the autonomous Uighur region, so the natives were predominantly Muslim and signs were in 4 different languages (Sanscrit, Russian, Chinese and English). China's approach to this region (as it is for other non Chinese areas) is to encourage internal immigration, and to build infrastructure.
 |
Cafe/meeting place at our hotel. One of a few places
where tourists were allowed so we were meeting up with lots of the\
other overland trucks. |
 |
Headed to the people's park. Of course Chairman Mao was
central... |
 |
... but there was this fellow in blue silk pyjamas and a sword
leading a rousing group of Tai Chi |
 |
| and local musicians playing traditional music |
 |
| lady in traditional Uighur dress dancing along |
 |
| cool devils on the roller coaster |
 |
| and dragons guarding the bank |
 |
| the ancient town. Not restored at all. |
 |
| Heading down the Karakorum highway to explore |
 |
| workers' quarters for the major hydropower project |
 |
lake side. Unfortunately, construction delays meant no
time for exploring. Well, we did get less than 30 km from
the Pakistan and Afghanistan borders... |
 |
| And a night in a yurt. |
 |
| early morning view from the loo |
 |
Through our travels there would be displays like this -
message being drive more cautiously so
you don't crash. |
 |
Very cool, very old silk road city.
Preserved from the cultural revolution because it was so far
away from Peking. The dryness of the desert has also helped
to preserve. |
 |
I appreciated the minimalist way of restoring this site. The
ruins have been (and continue to be) excavated. There are signs
with some descriptions, but no attempt to rebuild. |
 |
| Love the picture sign |
 |
| dragon fruit. Delicious |
 |
| These flowers love the desert. We found them in Australia as well |
 |
Dunhuang. Chinese acrobat show related to the caves of the
Thousand buddahs. This lady is an apsarah. |
 |
| Pre show entertainment |
 |
Great good guys and bad guys fight complete with
explosions |
 |
Caves of the Thousand Buddahs. Preserved by distance from
Peking. Couldn't take photos inside to preserve the
paintings. |
 |
I purchased one of this artist's paintings on rice paper.
He has permission to copy/adapt the cave paintings |
 |
A few of us headed out to see the western bits of the Great Wall
Also these fascinating rock structures. |
 |
| Chinese tourists |
 |
Our tour was unilingual Chinese. Except that the young Chinese
men all wanted to practice thier English. The youngest was still in
high school and he had learned English through the internet - complete
with American accent. This was one of those "can we have your photo" moments. |
 |
Western wall. Thousand years later you can still see the brick shape
(And the straw the bricks were made of) |
 |
| Fortress to guard from invaders |
 |
We were creeping through the back streets of Dunhuang
to climb the dunes to watch sunset (rather than paying to do it the
official way) and caught two off duty camels |
 |
| Lou taking photos. I had decided I was more than high enough. |
 |
| My refreshments got delivered by airmail |
 |
| The start of a glorious sunset |
 |
| Footprints in the sands of time |
 |
Coming down because the clouds are getting in the way of the
sunset. And it is blowing sand... |
 |
| Which got in my lens and caused problems for a while |
 |
| Daniel our guide |
 |
When you have a lens full of sand, you get interesting
creative photos |
 |
| And a peek at more camels coming home for the night |
 |
Golmud. Waiting to get permission to head to
Tibet. |
 |
| On our way |
 |
| First prayer flags |
 |
| Where's my iphone? Heading to the border... |
No comments:
Post a Comment