Gansu and Qinghai trip

Returned back yesterday from a 9 day adventure into northwestern china. For those with lots of time on their hands, you can read a looong recount day by day from Sheila (who has way too much time on her hands) on her blog at http://sheila.nomadlife.org who I travelled with, along with Michelle and Chris (also both Brits)

In brief we went to the Silk Road and saw some ancient-ish tombs from those who died on the ancient trading route, we saw the end of China (and the Great Wall) by most descriptions (beyond is just desert and the Chinese didn't really bother about that, that much) -so now I have seen both ends of the 5,000km wall. We also saw desert; at the end of the wall, and in qinghai- a province that is mostly tibetan, but also partly muslim (and not very chinese) and rocks. We saw grasslands and 2 important Tibetan Monasteries (1 that was more used than the others, both containing photos of the Dalai Lama which is illegal in China, but they were slightly hidden). We also went hiking up some high mountains, with ice, waterfalls and some other ethnic minorities (who fed us sheep and dodgy local alcohol).

As per typical Adam trips, lots of time was spent travelling (which allows one to see lots of the country and great scenery from the bus or train, or plane) and a fair amount spent eating and chatting and having fun amongst the 4 of us (although Michelle had to leave early to return to work). It was a great, fun, trip and the photos are already up on the imagestation site. The highlight was maybe the oasis in the desert by the great wall, or the icy mountains.

It was interesting that most of the areas were tibetan or muslim; but there was little of their language written anywhere...the only signs of the culture are in their dress or their language. Quite a few did speak chinese, and thus this lack of local lingo signage is understandable but there was an eerie sense of the people and the place not really belonging together any more... i am not sure if they will lose their language, clothes or religion or not, whilst they become more chinese or more modernised.

We enjoyed talking to a few tibetans on a bus ride who asked "Do you think Tibet is a part of China?", received an answer from me of "What do you think?" and promptly burst out laughing as to leave no doubt as to what they think. And the most important thing I learned on the trip? filling a girl with food leaves her happy.... never did i realise the truth of "the shortest way to a woman's heart is through her stomach"; be it prawn crackers (Michelle) or hot pot (Sheila)!