Gobi Desert, Silk Road and NW China

Abigail and I had the opportunity to go on a trip recently and left the rest of the family at home!  We went to North West China to the Gobi Desert. 

The first stop was to Jiayuguan to the Jiayu Pass. 

We saw a portion of the Great Wall.  We were told that this wall travels all along northern China and connects to the Great Wall that many people see in Beijing.  We were pretty far north so it was fairly cold this time of the year.

The actual place we visited was somewhat of a fort in ancient times.  The silk trade was very imporant to this area.  Many soldiers also lived in this area. 

The frist time Abigail got to touch the Great Wall.  The actual wall is made out of only clay at this part in the country.  Other parts the wall is mixed with stones.  The clay holds up so well here because it does not rain (we are in the desert!).

You can see a portion of the wall go off to the mountains.  In ancient times, one side of the wall was China and the other side was Mongola.   Now it is all China.

If we were there in ancient times, we would be standing outside China.

On to the sand dunes in Dunhuang...our favorite part of the trip...

The dunes were awsome.  HUGE!!!!  When you walk, you sink down in the sand.  To keep the sand out of our shoes, we were given the sand boots to wear.  We also had to wear scarves over our faces for part of the time due to the sand flying around.

Mingsha Crescent Moon Spring...

And we even got to ride our own camels...

We rode 3-wheelers to a part of the sand dune and went tubing down the dune.

We went to the night market in Dunhuang after a great show.

We didn't try any Bar-B-Q...but it sure looked good!!

We saw this store in the market area that we thought Roger might like...

All kids of dried fruit and nuts.

The next day we visited the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes.   The caves behind Abby used to house artists and monks

This is a copy of one of the rooms at the grotto.  We were not allowed to take our camera in the actual grotto's.  There is something like 360 caves at the gotto.  They are filled with art on the walls and statues of Budda, etc.  Most of the caves we were not allowed to go into.  The third larges statue of Budda is housed in one of the caves.   

The outside of the grotto

At the end of this day, we boarded a regional train for an all night trip to Lanzhou.  It was quite an experience.  It was like having a sleep over with about 75 other people most Chinese (who didn't speak English).  It was interesting to see how the Chinese travel.  We spent about 14 hours on the train and arrived in Lanzhou the next morning.

Abby got the top bunk...and I had the middle. 

A young man on the train was selling toys.  He came back and showed Abby how to use the one we bought.

Abigial had a great time on the train.  I think it was actually the high light of the trip.

At the end of the train experience...

On to try some famous Lanzhou noodles for breakfast.

The guy pulled and pulled until he had a bunch of noodles.

Abby thought the noodles were very good...even for breakfast! 

Can you guess what these are?  They are rafts made out of lamb skin.  They used to use these all the time.  Now they are used more for tourist rides. 

Famous statue in Lanzhou.

We made it all the way to the top of the city.  Seemed a bit fuzzy/hazy up there...