As many of you know, we have two lovely German friends who live and work in Chengdu, the capital of the province of Sechuan. Mirko and Olli visited us in Sydney in February and mentioned that they will be touring western China in July, so they offered us to join their little trip. There were a number of compelling reasons to accept the offer: 1) Mirko is a diplomat, so nothing can happen to us, 2) Mirko speaks fluently Mandarin, so we won't starve, 3) Olli is a good old friend of mine and always fun, 4) we can travel in our a private vehicle, so traveling will be more convenient. Most of the reasons turned out to be true, but reason number 4, the roads in China are shocking and traveling takes a lot of time (have a look at the pics). As we practically booked an 'organised' trip, Timo and I did not really look into where we would be going or what to expect. That's why we named the 19 day adventure: Katze im Sack Tour (pig in a poke tour).
After having spent 4 days in muggy Beijing, we flew to Chengdu where Mirko started the Katze im Sack tour with a personal airport pick up. Upon arrival we received instructions on what to expect: 19 days traveling, 6000 km to cover, spending every night in another hotel, crossing 4,000m high passes, passing military and police checks with the possibility of being send back, driving through tibetan grassland, desert, minority villages as well as Chinese mega cities.
So initially 5 of us (tour guide Mirko, us and two other friends of Mirko's, Olli joined later) started the Katze im Sack Tour the day before the total solar eclipse on July 22. Aim was to see the eclipse on a 3,000m high holy buddhist mountain (Emei Shan), yet, everything was covered in thick clouds and mist, so we witnessed darkness, but no solar wind nor corona. Nevertheless, it was a very mystical experience as there is a monastery on the mountain top and pagoda and temples disappeared into the darkness only to be revealed again 6 minutes later.
Our tour continued through the mountains of northwest Sechuan, a landscape that impressively shows nature's force. We were traveling in the rainy seasons, so massive swollen rivers destroyed and landslides blocked roads and buried trucks or whole villages. Roads under construction became mud slides and 200km sometimes took more than 6h to cover. Mirko's appeasement strategy was to say loudly and frequently: "This is China, this is China".
Once we were past the dangerous terrain of rivers and gorges we entered the dreamlike world of the tibetan highland (tibetan autonomous region of Sechuan). There old style architecture is still preserved, houses are still being build with mud and straw bricks and decorated with ornamented windows and doors. It all looks very romantic as we love to discover the 'old' China, yet mobile phones and 4WDs are ubiquitous. Young people and kids dress normal, only old people seem to dress in a traditional way, time will show if traditions can survive. Thanks to the economic boom, most villages have electricity. In most regions air and water pollution seems to be more of a problem, not to speak of access to education or health care.
We spent almost a week in the tibetan highlands, witnessing by pure accident temple festivals were everyone was dressed in their best sunday outfit (as we would say in German), a village excited because a worshipped Lama was passing by in a car convoy, a very big monastery (Labrang) from the yellowhat order where the number of monks is limited by the Chinese government. The Tibetans in general are very strong believers in Buddhism and religion is part of every aspect of life. Once we stopped to take photos of prayer flags and noticed women walking bent on the road picking something undefinable from the road. As we were approaching them, we discovered that they were rescuing earthworms from passing cars.
From the tibetan grassland we travelled west into the desert. Yes, this is China's part of the Gobi and there is also a lot of nothing and something, mostly passes to climb, snow capped mountains, muslim minority villages, and our favourite city Golmud. Golmud is in the middle of the Gobi, it only exists because mineral richness surrounds the town. The city looks like someone dropped a lot of concrete in a very big sand playground, everything is artificial, the city can only survive because of its umbilical cord of trucks bringing goods and water in and out of town. For us, it epitomises hell on earth. It is an ideal place to put inmates or detainees, a bit like one imagines Siberia.
In the middle of the desert there are several oasis, one of the most famous is Dunhuang. Famous for its strategic position on the old Silk road; the city marks the end of civilisation (Gansu province) and the beginning of the unknown (Takla Makan desert) and was one of the highlights on our Katze im Sack Tour.....to be continued...
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