Out of the Desert
Chengdu, China
Ok, this is the third time I've had to type this because for some reason the they included a "power" button right beneath the delete key on this keyboard, very convenient....
Anyway, I'm finally out of goat stankonia and back into China proper (though not before half of Kashgar attempted to trade me everything they owned for my mp3 player - I was offered hats, watches, even something vaguely organic that I couldn't identify). Chengdu gets little respect and for most travelers is a stopover on the way in or out of Tibet, for example, my first visit here last year was just to spend the night with a retired geologist from Utah named Jerry, which everybody should do, I think. It's too bad because it's a decent place - cheaper than most big cities here, with a relaxed atmosphere and awesome, if satanically hot, food since it's the capital of Sichuan. It's got drawbacks, namely humidity and pollution, and the loudest goddamn cicadas I've ever heard, honestly, they make most chinese seem quiet, but a pretty decent spot nonetheless.
Closing the book on the Silk Road - was it everything I thought? Yes and no, it was a little disappointing in that it was all pretty damned modernized by now - but when there are dudes hitching up their donkeys at the blacksmith shops at the end of the line it's pretty authentic. It did have high spots - Dunhuang, Bingling Si, the Pamirs being among them. I also skipped a bunch of key spots (Khotan, Turpan, Korla) due to lack of time and attention span. Not sure if I'd do it again as my kebab capacity was breached, but I'm glad I did it.
Where to next? Tomorrow I'm headed west of here to someplace called Emei Shan, which is a complex of Buddhist mountains and temples and that kind of thing. Supposedly it takes three days to travel the whole route so I'll be out for awhile.
Ok, this is the third time I've had to type this because for some reason the they included a "power" button right beneath the delete key on this keyboard, very convenient....
Anyway, I'm finally out of goat stankonia and back into China proper (though not before half of Kashgar attempted to trade me everything they owned for my mp3 player - I was offered hats, watches, even something vaguely organic that I couldn't identify). Chengdu gets little respect and for most travelers is a stopover on the way in or out of Tibet, for example, my first visit here last year was just to spend the night with a retired geologist from Utah named Jerry, which everybody should do, I think. It's too bad because it's a decent place - cheaper than most big cities here, with a relaxed atmosphere and awesome, if satanically hot, food since it's the capital of Sichuan. It's got drawbacks, namely humidity and pollution, and the loudest goddamn cicadas I've ever heard, honestly, they make most chinese seem quiet, but a pretty decent spot nonetheless.
Closing the book on the Silk Road - was it everything I thought? Yes and no, it was a little disappointing in that it was all pretty damned modernized by now - but when there are dudes hitching up their donkeys at the blacksmith shops at the end of the line it's pretty authentic. It did have high spots - Dunhuang, Bingling Si, the Pamirs being among them. I also skipped a bunch of key spots (Khotan, Turpan, Korla) due to lack of time and attention span. Not sure if I'd do it again as my kebab capacity was breached, but I'm glad I did it.
Where to next? Tomorrow I'm headed west of here to someplace called Emei Shan, which is a complex of Buddhist mountains and temples and that kind of thing. Supposedly it takes three days to travel the whole route so I'll be out for awhile.
posted by Miguel V | 2:07 PM
1 Comments:
By "authentic", I take it you mean "poor".
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