Go-go-go through the Gobi!

We found ourselves this morning, at 5am, in the little town of Jiaru, about 25 kms away from Jiayuguan.  Together with a Norwegian traveler named Goren, we rented a cab that took us to Jiayuguan.  Jiayuguan is located in Gansu Provence, and gained its fame in being the place where the Great Wall ends (or starts, depending on how you look at it) and marked the end of China and the beginning of the barren, wild west.  The town is basically an oasis, surrounded by the Gobi Desert to one side and the Qilin Mountain Range on the other.

 

After a failed first option, the four of us settled ourselves into a lovely mock Qing style hotel that's situated inside Jiayuguan Fort Park.  A quick shower later, we headed towards the fort.  Not much of the original wall or the fort remained because most of the original wall in that section was built of sandstone and clay.  In fact, most of the fort was reconstructed in the 1980s.  However, I felt that the reconstruction was pretty good, given the conditions.  For me, what was most impressive about the fort was its setting.  To the north lies the barren flatness of the Gobe Desert, to the west lies the jagged, impressive snow mountains of the Qilin Mountain Range.  I love the harsh beauty of barren landscapes, so I was in cloud nine.

 

When in the Gobi Desert, one of the best ways to experience it, besides riding the obligatory camel, is driving a go cart around it!  Goren was gun-ho on renting a go cart that went "60 km an hour" for a "2 km" drive out to the Gobi and back.  When asked if I wanted to join in or not, I of course had to jump at the opportunity!  The first challenge when riding a shady go-cart through the Gobi Desert was to get it started.  After 10 minutes, the man who owned the cart finally got it started.  Off we went!  With Goren driving, flying we went, a maybe 15 km an hour (far shy of the 60km it supposedly can go), doing loops and crazy swerves galore!  ...for half a minute till we reached the "2 km" mark, which really was maybe 1 km at best.  Then the cart broke down.  Goren and I couldn't stop laughing as we walked back to where we started.  A third of the way through, the man who owned the cart drove up to help us restart again.  This time, I was the driver!  The cart was surprisingly stiff, but I still managed to do loops and such, before I eventually landed us in the out-of-bound territory where the cart promptly died again.  Once again, the man came, started the cart for a third time, and we finally made our way back.  Even though the ride fell far short of verbal promise, it was such fun!  Besides, who can say that they drive a go-cart in the Gobi Desert everyday?  ;-)

 

After the fort, we grabbed lunch in town before heading for the "hanging Great Wall".  This section of the wall (climbable because it's been restored) is again, like the fort, set in a pretty amazing location - up a jagged mountain.  The jaunt looked pretty daunting at first, but when actually climbing it, it took only about half an hour, 45 minutes max.  Not nearly as hard a climb as the wall at Simatai or Shanhaiguan.  Also like the fort and unlike the section of walls around Beijing, this part of the wall was constructed mostly out of sandstone and clay, thus giving it a sandy brown color instead of the gray bricks most people think the wall should look like.

 

When we once again "conquered" the Great Wall, we headed for a complex of tombs that's located in the middle of the desert.  These series of tombs (about 1,000) were suppose to be built for early settlers around the area, people directly or indirectly involved with the silk route.  What made them special was the frescoes painted within the tombs - dozens of painted bricks in each tomb depicting everyday life, everything from plowing fields, to baking bread, to having sex - er, I mean baking bread, I swear!  Currently, only one of these tombs are open to the public, about a dozen or so excavated, and still hundreds more laying around the general vicinity of where we were in the Gobi.

 

After almost breaking all of Chris's possessions by accidentally throwing his back down the stairs (it really wasn't an attempt to break his mobile phone so he can stop texting, I swear!), we headed back to our hotel.  While Goren worked on some documents, the two Brits and myself headed out to find a way to watch sunset over the Gobi.  We eventually ended up at a pagoda, the same point where I passed on my go cart.  The boys started playing frisbee with the owner of the go-cart while I hung around and drank beer and hung out.

 

The most impressive part of that late afternoon was when Adam managed to throw the frisbee onto the roof of the pagoda.  We tried desperately to regain the prized possesion, including poking at it with a pole, me sitting on Chris and poking at it with a pole, and finally, Chris sitting on Adam poking at it with a pole.  20 minutes, and a few broken tile later, we finally had success.  Adam almost had a natural high when Chris finally jumped off of him. 

 

Before the sun completely set, it was also time for us to head back before it got too cold.  By this time, the main gate was already closed, so we had to walk around the fort and the wall to find a way back in.  At one point, Chris tried scaling the Great Wall.  However, his failure just demonstrated why the Great Wall was so great - and also at the cost of leaving a big concave, gaping hole on the wall.  I still can't believe he broke the wall.  Smooth.

 

Finally, we found an opening in a ditch, by the Great Wall Museum, that led to the other side of the of the wall (where our hotel was).  While watching Adam squeeze through, Chris and I noticed some crystallization on the rocks in the canal.  Chris pointed out that it was some salt crystallization.  It wasn't until I noticed several pieces of discarded pieces of toilet paper that I figured out that it was indeed salt crystallization - from piss!!  Truly disgusted, I scurried through the opening and out of the ditch as fast as I can.

 

Dinner was at Jiayuguan's night market.  Not nearly as impressive as Xining's night market, it did still offer some pretty decent food, such as squid kebabs, naan kebabs, sichuan hotpot, and Goren's sheep head kebabs.  I now know that when eating sheep head, the throat & brain is the least desirable part (at least for a Norwegian).

 

Under the clear night sky, I also learned to identify Mars & Little Bear, thanks to Chris.  Now that makes 4 constellations I can find (3 depending on the season).  Sweet!