The Silk Road

This past week has been absolutely amazing! As a group, all of us studying with the alliance here in Shanghai met up with those studying in Beijing and took a week long tour of the ancient silk road.Our trip began with a 20 hour train ride from Shanghai to Xian. In Xian we went straight from the train station to the Xian museum, which was loaded with interesting artifacts. After the museum we went back to a very nice hotel and crashed pretty hard. The next day started with the "8th wonder of the world" the infamous terra cotta warriors. Trust me no video or picture you have ever seen can do true justice to these antiques. We left the terra cotta warriors and went to the largest Mosque in China, and we were then given time to explore the local muslim area and taste their cuisine, which was delicious!!!After the market we caught a 19 hour train to Jiayuguan, on which I shared a cabin with some Chinese gentlemen who seemed to like to collect turtles. Jiayuguan is a largely industrial city, and the day after the train ride we got to see its 2 main attractions. First, a fort that has been there for 400 years, it was really amazing. Not only was it huge but they had some really fun attractions inside. After the fort we visited and climbed to western edge of the great wall of China, which was very vertical and a very tiring climb. After the great wall we took a 5 hour bus ride to the city of Dun Huang, where we were let loose to explore a night market filled with interesting food and even more interesting vendors. The next day began with going out into the dessert. Here we got to slide down sand dunes on tobagans, and ride camels around the sand dunes, a truly unforgetable pair of experiences. The afternoon we went to the Mogao caves, also known as the caves of a thousand budas. These contain many very ancient and very amazing budhist paintings and statues.That night we caught a 12 hour train to the city of Turpan. Turpan is the "lowest, hottest, and driest place in all of China" as our tour guide explained it too us. In Turpan we first visited the remains of an old village that was created over 2000 years ago. After the village was a famous MT. in China known as fire Mountain for its remarkable red color. Then after lunch we visited the home of a Uygar family. Uygar is a very prevelant Chinese minority which dominates the North Western area of China and is very prevelantly muslem. Their home was amazing and was even more remarkable because they, like many people in Turpan grow grapes and make raisons, both of which are amazingly delicious.We did not spend the night in Turpan, instead we took a three hour bud ride into the City of Urumqi, which is very close the borders of both Russia and Kazakstan, which can be seen very prevelantly upon arrival. In Urumqi we only saw a few things, and instead of structured time we were given alot of free lease to explore the City, which was very different then any other place I had ever seen in China. However we did see some amazing things as a group, including what is considered by many to be the most beautiful lake in all of China, Tian Chi lake. Here I climbed around the lake to find a 300 year old temple to the goddess of the lake. Near the lake we visited a model of how a traditional kazak family in China would live, which was really very interesting.The next day we visited the museum of the Urumqi which contained the well preserved bodies of people who had been found in the region and dated to have lived over 4000 years ago, a real sight to see. Our final stop on this long trip was the Da JiaBa international Bazaar, which is the largest international market in China. It was interesting, because quite often while their I felt like I was more in the middle east then in China, but many of the goods they sold were very interesting to look at.After the Bazaar we caught a late flight from Urumqi back here to Shanghai, which is beginning to feel more and more like home away from home.