Roadtrip Beijing to Dunhuang and looping back

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Your mention of staying an extra day to take care of some on-line work reminds me how amazed I was to find decent internet connections in remote places like that. I've read that the CCP prioritized installing satellite TV in rural villages 农村, even tiny ones, in order to try to include peasants/farmers 农民 in their ideological sphere. Not sure whether or not internet availability was an outgrowth of that. Maybe.  

 

Thanks for posting the photos and the account! This sounds like a very good trip. I never really believed Qinghai Lake 青海湖 was salty until tasting it for myself. 

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Day 16: Chaka to Golmud

 

I was a little worried about this one because it felt like we were really going off the map. And indeed, 45 minutes out of Chaka it was desolate and lonely, but quite exciting. 

 

Dusty roads and dustier truckstops

 

 

 

We started to see these windmills, I tried to estimate how many there were: 8 deep, a row every .75km, but they went for hours, there were thousands upon thousands.

 

We saw some tourist site on Dianping and decided to go for a little adventure. It turned out to be a total goose chase and would have really sucked to get a flat there in the absolute middle of nowhere.

 

 

 

Finally 7 hours later arrived in Golmud.

 

   

 

Wife was exhausted, I went on a two hour walk on my own around Golmud

 

 

 

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Those are some desolate stretches of road. Way off the beaten track. Quite an adventure! 

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Day 16: Golmud to Dunhuang

 

This long stretch(7 hrs not including stops) felt even more Lonely than the previous leg, but also was pretty exciting to be out in the middle of nowhere.

  

 

This was an absolute highlight to see these wild camels. I pulled over to get a look and they were just roaming , no master, and they looked particularly happy. I watched them cross to the other side of the highway and into an open area, then got back on the road.

 

 

This next place was kind of a disappointment. Supposedly an abandoned oil town in a Kazakh minority area of Gansu. It was built up to me by a few people and reading about it online, I thought it was going to just be an abandoned town in the middle of nowhere, but it was turned into a movie set for some horror movie shot there. It was hard to tell what was real and what was built for the movie. The scenery on the road in and out was nice, but the place was kinda lame, it was cheap so I guess I'd still stop if passing by, but kinda meh.

  

 

  

 

 

 Then back on the road and the final push for Dunhuang

 

   

 

 

[lordsuso]

Wild camels!!! 😲

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The roads look like they are in good repair. I like the video clip of the 18-wheel truck rolling along, eating up the miles. Thanks for posting!

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On 8/7/2024 at 11:37 PM, abcdefg said:

The roads look like they are in good repair. I like the video clip of the 18-wheel truck rolling along, eating up the miles. Thanks for posting!

The roads were great the entire trip. I can't remember a single place where we encountered a bad road. At least nothing visible - I have read about a couple of fatal road cave ins recently, though to do with flooding.

 

Day 17 & 18: Dunhuang

 

I've gotten way behind on updating, because work has been very busy the last 6 weeks.

 

Made it to Dunhuang, the target turn around point for the trip. 

 

     

 

  

 

 

These are all from the desert sand dunes geopark. I wasn't that crazy about paying 100rmb to go in, but I'm my mind that has always been Dunhuang in my imagination. It turned out to be pretty fun, we spent at least 3 hours playing around in the sand. I think one ticket is good for 2 or 3 days if you want to go at different times to take photos.

 

      

 

   

 

Next day we went to Mogao. We got there 5 min late to go on the first AM session, so we had to wait 2 hours to go to the next one. There are restaurants and coffee shops where you can eat/wait. Tour itself was good. Comparing to Yungang grottos in Datong, both had pros and cons: I liked having the guide(in blue dress above) to explain at MG, I liked being able to go into every grotto at YG, whereas MG you can only go into a few. The guide was very professional and friendly, her English was good and we spoke both languages. YG was cheaper and no need to follow any schedule. YG you can take photos, strictly no photos inside MG.

 

 

 

Bit of Chinglish

 

  

 

Was very hot. View from hotel roof with a cold 4 rmb Qingdao for the little shop next door.

 

 

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Day 19: Dunhuang to Yumenguan to Jiuquan

 

 

 

Road to Yumenguan each mile marker had stones set on them. 

 

    

 

Really glad we decided to take the extra hour or so to drive out to this place. Turned out to be as highlight of the trip. Un-restored and beautiful spot.

 

 

Furthest point on our trip before turning around and heading back to BJ.

 

 

Road to Jiuquan, very lonely truck stop and regretted not staying over night somewhere as it got dark right after leaving here and had to drive in the dark for several hours. Was a nail biter. Not to mention that we past a lot of scenery we couldn't see and some scenic spots that would have been interesting. We did make it without incident and the hotel only had the penthouse left, so we were upgraded to this crazy gigantic room with a library, bathtub, living room, etc.

 

 

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Any idea what the stones on top of the mile markers signified? 

 

If that Luxury Suite 套房 could talk, I'll bet it could tell some interesting stories about the VIP guests who stayed there before you. 

[language_lover]

This is such a wholesome thread to follow!

 

Keep it up. I really enjoyed checking in with your progress.

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On 9/9/2024 at 1:46 AM, abcdefg said:

Any idea what the stones on top of the mile markers signified? 

Finally some time to update this. My wife suggested it might be a Tibetan custom, possible relating to traveling safely. But that's not confirmed.

 

Day 20: Jiuquan to Zhangye

 

We didn't have much time in Jiuquan at all, checked out of hotel in the morning and wanted to be back on the road by afternoon. Went to the city museum, a walk around downtown and found a really good food street with lot's 饭馆 with outdoor seating and the weather was perfect. 

  

 

 

   

 

 

 

   

 

Drove about 45 min out of Jiuquan when there was suddenly a big, loud thud on the bottom of the car. We pulled over to the shoulder to take a look, but kind of hard to see anything. A yellow light had lit up on one the dashboard indicators. I was looking it up online to see if I could get anymore info and within 10 minutes a police car pulled up. They were very friendly and told us the next exit had lots of garages with mechanics, then they escorted us about 10km to that exit. We searched on 百度 maps and found a small garage. Very helpful mechanic, after spending 20 minutes or so, he told us he thinks a sensor type part was hit by a rock. He went on to say that they mainly service trucks and don't have parts like that and we should go to a bigger mechanic in the city of Zhangye. He told us it was not an urgent repair and that we were fine to drive for a day or two, but to have it checked before heading all the way back to 北京. He didn't charge us much for his time. Oh, and my wife had a lot of trouble understanding his strong local accent lol.

 

 

 

We drove on to Zhangye, where I had booked a yurt hotel near the ZY mountain area. Loved this yurt place! Outside of the city, fresh air, quiet, comfortable and inexpensive.

 

   

 

A local beer and some wine we bought back in 山西。

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Day 21: Zhangye to Wuwei

 

Had a good conversation with the breakfast guy in the morning in ZY. The national park was walking distance from the Yurts. Unfortunately it was an overcast day, but still enjoyed the ZY natl park. Busses take you around to different areas and you hop on hop off as you with, very well organized. 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

After the national park, we called the car rental company and they told us garage in the city that they work with. Really modern, professional garage. The mechanic said they did not have the broken part in stock and would need to courier it, which would require at least a day. The car rental company then instructed us to drive the car to their ZY branch in the train station underground parking and they'ed give us a different car. The whole thing took a couple of hours and we were given a free upgrade to a really nice compact SUV. Very satisfied with the whole car rental experience.

 

  

 

 

This is the car rental company we used

 

 

Once the car was sorted out, we continued on in the direction of Beijing to Wuwei. Really loved the 肉夹馍 roujiamo - or as many an expat calls them "Roger Moores" at various Gansu highway rest areas. Also good Chinglish. Saw lots of small, ancient sections of Great Wall along the way. You could stop at them in certain places, and I'd love to have, but were getting pushed for time. 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Arrived in Wuwei, checked in hotel , great value for around 300rmb a night, and had some dinner chatting with friendly locals

 

    

 

 

 

[lordsuso]

thank you for the new update summit, the sign got me haha. I saw a very original sign against drinking on the road, it had a 酒 character on it but the non-radical component was modified into a frontview of a car. Maybe its a common sign all over china but I found it interesting.

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Glad to see that Roger Moore appreciates that scenery too! The 面包店 really made me crave one right now. There's nothing quite like a fresh steamed bun, but none here in small-town Texas. The sidewalk vegetable sellers 小摊 and tables for casual al fresco dining are so Chinese, so wonderful. As before, thanks for this look! 

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Wow, I got so busy with life that I never got around to finishing this. I have a little time with the holiday, so let me try to wrap this up.

 

Day 22: Wuwei to Jingtai, Gansu

 

We stopped at the Wuwei museum and the Tiantishan grotto, both were ok. Jingtai was just a kind of stopover point. We got there in the evening and had a meal, wife went back to the hotel and I decided to go for a walk around the night market - I was a bonified celebrity!

     

 

Day 23: Jingtai to Yinchuan

 

In the morning stopped at Yongtai ancient city, basically in the middle of nowhere and very unspoilt ancient city in the desert. Getting closer to Yinchuan we got a bit of proper desert sand dune.

      

 

 

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Day 24 and 25: Yinchuan

 

Stayed at nice little budget hotel which had nice food we enjoyed dinner out in front of the hotel and the weather was ideal. Next day we visited a Ningxia winery called Legacy Peak - nice wine and the boss was very friendly and told us all about the winery over a tasting, there was a fee for the tasting, wasn't too expensive, I drank a lot of wine. You could also see ancient tombs right in his winery. Highly recommend LP if you're looking for a winery to visit in Yinchuan - call them first. Afterwards we went to the YC night market.

 

       

 

Day 26: Yinchuan to Yulin , Shaanxi

 

The next day before leaving YC , we had an excellent lunch that was recommended by the winery boss. I cannot remember the name of it, but it was kind of a hotpot with thick tomato stock soup, really tasty. Yulin was also just kind of a stopover, as we were needing to get back to BJ quickly. The hotel was really fantastic and pretty luxurious and only like 50usd a night, included a free ticket to the spa, which had 汗蒸， sauna and onsen. 

 

       

 

 

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Day 27: Yulin to Yangquan Shanxi

 

Leaving Yulin the next morning we went to the city's section of Great Wall called Zhenbei.  It was partially refurbished and partially original, very pleasant place to visit. Then we went to Hongshixia gorge, which had nice natural scenery and grottos. We then drove to Yangquan - neither of us had ever heard of it, but it was  halfway between Yulin and Beijing.  Finally, the next day we made the last drive back into Beijing.

  

 

        

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B-roll:

 

        

Not sure which is most surprising: Not a scratch or dent on the car, no flat tire, not one traffic jam(well until arriving back in beijing) , zero la duzis', nothing forgotten in a hotel, still married, no traffic violations, only saw one accident on the road the whole way (outside of golmud) . Did have the worst order of baozis in the history of baozis, however in Chaka). It was a truly fantastic trip, especially since we had the total freedom of driving and a full month to do it.

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Thanks for these! The Ningxia night market was lots of fun when I was there, some years ago. In addition to all the great eats, a small (6 or 8  people) itinerant opera troupe was performing a mix of western and eastern songs one evening. They would move tthrough different parts of the big square and pass the hat periodically. You just stood around them a while listening, eating your shao kao 烧烤 skewers, chicken wings 鸡翅 or corn-on-the-cob, then moved on when you felt like it. Warm spring evening. Stars overhead. 

 

Later, back in Kunming, I had an interesting private language teacher who was an out-of-work opera singer from Shanxi. She told me about growing up in a family of small-time performers who sometimes (between larger gigs) made the rounds of night markets like that, mostly in small and medium-sized towns. She said Ningxia, though larger, was always one of their "best" stops. She said people there were especially generous.