All Along the Watchtower
Jiayuguan, China
So the Night Train to Jiayuguan was fairly uneventful. Somewhat more interesting was dinner earlier at the Botoh Coffee Shop, which is apparently THE place to be in Lanzhou. Coffee shops are the latest western rage to hit China. So if you take wicker furniture, red checkered table cloths, an extensive whiskey collection, crystal chandeliers, candlelight, waitstaff wearing hotel maid uniforms, 40's USO WWII black and white photographs, eel pizza (tasted like chicken) and of course a grand piano & pianist, and you have the Botoh Coffee Shop. Starbucks has it's work cut out for it when it gets here, which it will of course, as there's already one INSIDE the Forbidden City.
I met another chinese friend in the badly misnomered "soft sleeper" car on the train, a Mr. He something or other, whose english name happened to be....Angus. Naturally, after meeting my good buddy Raphael a few days ago, I was wondering how the hell he got the name Angus. And alas, in China, contrary to what I thought, but par for the course for the PRC, one doesn't get to choose one's own English name, your English teacher chooses it for you. So the poor guy is stuck with Angus. Nice guy though, he helped me out on the train when the severe car attendant demanded my passport for no apparent reason, and paid for my cab fare to the hotel. I promised to send him some fine tartan for his kilt.
Jiayuguan itself is a kind of squat little industrial city that traditionally marked the far Northern and Western border of the Chinese empire in Medieval times. It's situated in a mountain pass where all Silk Road traffic had to pass through on its way either into China or out into central Asia, and it's where the Great Wall quite literally ends. The main attractions are the Wall (which has been well restored here, and has more snakes and scorpions than fat tourists and hawkers) and a huge fortress that's also well preserved and restored. In China, Jiayuagan is almost a metaphor in an of itself as the end of the civilized universe with inhospitable barbarians in the West (turks & muslims) and North (Gobi & Huns & Mongols). The only real problem with Jiayuguan is that I was able to see all of the sights in about 3 hours and now have to kill the rest of the day, so it looks like I'm taking the early train to Dunhuang tomorrow.
Picture of the fort below (again, not mine unfortunately):
http://www.coxandkings.co.uk/img/fareast/tours/sre_jiayuguan.jpg
So the Night Train to Jiayuguan was fairly uneventful. Somewhat more interesting was dinner earlier at the Botoh Coffee Shop, which is apparently THE place to be in Lanzhou. Coffee shops are the latest western rage to hit China. So if you take wicker furniture, red checkered table cloths, an extensive whiskey collection, crystal chandeliers, candlelight, waitstaff wearing hotel maid uniforms, 40's USO WWII black and white photographs, eel pizza (tasted like chicken) and of course a grand piano & pianist, and you have the Botoh Coffee Shop. Starbucks has it's work cut out for it when it gets here, which it will of course, as there's already one INSIDE the Forbidden City.
I met another chinese friend in the badly misnomered "soft sleeper" car on the train, a Mr. He something or other, whose english name happened to be....Angus. Naturally, after meeting my good buddy Raphael a few days ago, I was wondering how the hell he got the name Angus. And alas, in China, contrary to what I thought, but par for the course for the PRC, one doesn't get to choose one's own English name, your English teacher chooses it for you. So the poor guy is stuck with Angus. Nice guy though, he helped me out on the train when the severe car attendant demanded my passport for no apparent reason, and paid for my cab fare to the hotel. I promised to send him some fine tartan for his kilt.
Jiayuguan itself is a kind of squat little industrial city that traditionally marked the far Northern and Western border of the Chinese empire in Medieval times. It's situated in a mountain pass where all Silk Road traffic had to pass through on its way either into China or out into central Asia, and it's where the Great Wall quite literally ends. The main attractions are the Wall (which has been well restored here, and has more snakes and scorpions than fat tourists and hawkers) and a huge fortress that's also well preserved and restored. In China, Jiayuagan is almost a metaphor in an of itself as the end of the civilized universe with inhospitable barbarians in the West (turks & muslims) and North (Gobi & Huns & Mongols). The only real problem with Jiayuguan is that I was able to see all of the sights in about 3 hours and now have to kill the rest of the day, so it looks like I'm taking the early train to Dunhuang tomorrow.
Picture of the fort below (again, not mine unfortunately):
http://www.coxandkings.co.uk/img/fareast/tours/sre_jiayuguan.jpg
posted by Miguel V | 12:13 PM
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