Posts From China

There has been much talk in the group about todays onward journey on the Laos-China Railway to the city of Kunming. This is a very new rail link and there is little info available on the internet about it. In particular there is little info available about the exact procedure for the boarder crossing. So the whole group started the day with anticipation.

Our first stop on this morning tour agenda was Yuantong Temple a complex of Buddhist temples built around Dianchi Lake. Apparently the temples are in different Buddhist styles although I did not catch the names of the styles but there were evident differences even to the novice Buddhist-observer like me. The lake in the middle of the complex was home to many fish and turtles and they appear to survive on the copious treats dropped into the lake by the numerous visitors. It was a nice relaxing place, with well tendered gardens. Even though it was more Buddhas it was a beautiful setting.

Our excursion today was to a Wolrd Heritage geological feature 1.5 hours drive SE of Kunming called the The Stone Forest. It is a region about 300 km square of fluted limestone pillars which were part of a sea bed 270 million years ago that had since been uplifted and eroded to their current shapes. Some of the region of limestone pillars has been turned into a recreational park with impressive facilities including a substantial fleet of small electric buses for moving large crowds around the recreation area. Today the visitor crowd seemed mostly to be local Chinese tourists, and numbered many thousands.

Another day on the train, this time from Kunming (population approximately 9million) to Chengdu (population approximately 21 million). We were on a Dclass train, China's second fastest train class, capable of speeds up to 250km/h, though today we did not experience speeds over 170/h. Never the less the journey took 8.7 hours (9:50 to 18:30) inlcuding stopping at 8 stations for at least 5 minutes each. Thats an average of about 137km/h. On top of that much of the route was through mountainous terrain, and I mean through because again a significant portion of the route was inside tunnels. From a railway technology point of view this was an amazing journey.

Today was Panda day, and then an overnight train to our next stop the city of Xining (the capital of Qinghi Province and a stop on the old silk road), and it is also the first of two consecutive overnight trains that will get us to Tibet. But let us start with the Pandas. Chengdu is the home of the Chinese Panda Breading Program and this program is accommodated in a huge complex close to the city. Within this complex there are extensive facilities to accommodate very large crowds of tourists wanting to see the famous Pandas.

We arrived in Xining about 8:30 in the morning, met our local guide and walked to a nearby hotel where we were to have breakfast after our all night train ride and where we had rooms for the day. As we were going to catch another overnight train at 21:50 this evening. After checking in we were adviced that we could get to the breakfast room by taking the elevator to floor -2 and follow the signs. For a little while this seemed like strange advice as floor -2 was the parking garage. But with a little persistance we found the breakfast room on the other side of the garage.

I have combined Aug 27th and 28th into a single entry but will provide separate photos for each day. On the 27th we were at the Lhasa train station by 9:00am for a 10:00am overnight train back to Xining. In addition I was not feeling well a condition I ascribed to the altitude. Fortunately we had an entire 4 berth cabin to ourselves so I could sleep all day and again all night while Nina played games on her phone, edited recent photos and took in the expansive views of the Tibetan plateau. That was about the sum total of the 27th.

Today was to be a short day of sightseeing and activities as we had another overnight train to catch this afternoon. The first item on the agenda was a visit to the cities museum which apparently has a high ranking amongst Chinese museums. At the time I was not sure what that meant but might expand in a later post.

We arrived in the city of Urumqi late in the morning and went straight to our hotel in order to freshenup a bit after the night on the train. At the risk of stating the obvious Urumqi is part of the "wild-west" of China and has a population of Han Chinese, Muslim Uyghurs, Kazaks and other minorities that I cannot remember. It is a small city by Chinese standards with a population of around 4 million and has obviously undergone significant devleopment in recent years as it is part of the Belts and Roads initiative. The strange "saddle" shaped building in the first picture is seen as one exits the gigantic train station and somehow sets the scene for the rest of the city.

The plan for the day was that we would do some tourist stuff until mid afternoon and then return to the hotel, get our bags, go to dinner and then catch another overnight train this time to the town of Yining which is close to the border town of Khorgas. We (being the group) do not really know why the train does not go all the way to Khorgas. The first tourist thing of the day was a visit to the cities Museum.