Vacation Day 3-ish

I've lost track of time on this vacation. Much like our bus rides, the Gobi Desert just goes and goes and goes for miles, but the Gobi (戈壁滩) offers some pretty cool, albeit obviously staged scenic/historic sites.

But first, three more pictures from yesterday, all courtesy of Lisa He.


Us jumping at Crescent Moon Lake, Dunhuang.


Matthew (the) Archer


Camel ride #2

So today...

First, we went to see where the Mongolians live who don't partake in this Chinese ritual of faux tourisme. Because of a variety of factors (overgrazing, industrialization, increased energy usage, pollution, etc.) the farmers in the area are losing the little bit of arable land that they had to begin with, which translates to even more poverty and hardships.


After that, the bus driver dropped us off in the middle of the desert. Srsly. The middle of the desert. We ran around for a while, and then got back on the bus, bringing a pretty large portion of the Gobi back with us via our shoes.


Lunch was the yooj, some mediocre Chinese dishes with mantou bread (馒头) that's really good when dipped in the sauces.

Turns out Ejina County (or whatever it's called) has some pretty famous places. The Black City (黑城), the Red City (红城) and the Dead Populus Diversifolia Forest (怪树林). Despite the fake pottery and horse bones scattered around for what I can only suppose was dramatic effect, the Black City (pictured below) was the most striking of the three, at least in terms of Chinese-ness. It was really interesting to think about, as Teacher Li put it, the rise and fall of civilizations around the world. The Black City wasn't immune to falling, as you can see from these pictures. The Buddhist Towers in the foreground of the first picture, as well as the mosque in the last picture, have been renovated/completely rebuilt, but I think the walls of the city are legit Xixia-era.


After that, we went to the Dead Forest, which is China's way of telling people that environmentalism is important. The sign said something along the lines of "The dead poplar trees a like dead soldiers on the frontier...We need to be environmentally conscious." While that's obviously paraphrased quite a bit, it's true. And China's right (what?!). We need to step it up.


Finally, we got to the Red City, which ended up being a small square room with no roof. It was less than impressive, definitely not as cool as the Black City.



So tonight, we were looking for something to do. We found some rando Chinese man celebrating his birthday at a KTV place. Commence fun. :)


20+ hours of travel by train and bus tomorrow. :(

Update from Xi'an (if I live through tomorrow)

M