September 17, 2015 Magao Caves

Today was a rest day, off the motorcycles.  We traveled by bus to the Magao Caves, also known as the "Caves of the Thousand Buddhas."

The caves date back to 366AD, and form a system of 492 temples.  They are the greatest repositories of Buddhist art in the world.  At its peak the caves housed eighteen monasteries and over 1,400 monks and nuns, as well as countless artists, translators and calligraphers.  Wealthy traders and important officials were the primary donors responsible for creating new caves.  Caravans mad the long detour past Mogao to pray or give thanks for a safe journey through the treacherous wastelands to the west.

The caves fell into disuse after the collapse of the Yuan Dynasty in the 14th century and were largely forgotten.  In the early 20th century they were "rediscovered" by foreign explorers.

Photographs are strictly prohibited, so there's not much to show you, but I encourage you to investigate and learn about these extraordinary "temple" caves.

September 16, 2015 Jiayuguan to Dunhuang

Today we left our new, well appointed, but empty hotel at 8am.  

Across the street is Donghu – a 38 meter, meteorological tower designed to look like a dolphin.  David posted a nighttime video of this monstrosity on Facebook - it has an incredible light show that goes all night, changing colors and making music.

The early start was necessitated by our first stop; the Overhanging Great Wall.

On our way to the park, we had the opportunity to witness a holdover from the Mao regime.  These bank employees were outside doing their morning exercises as we passed.

The Hanging Wall guards the pass between the Qilian Shan and Heishan Mountains in the Mozong Shan mountain range.

Originally built around 1539, most of this part of the wall was re-constructed in 1987.

Admission is charged by height.

Mike should pay double the adult charge (he's 6'7")

We took the obligatory picture with the motorcycle…

 …and started climbing to the top.

Yep – that’s exactly how it looked to us.

These well-worn steps must be part of the original 1539 construction.

Geoffrey encouraged us along (really more like taunting).

We didn’t stop at the first tower, but marched on towards the next and highest tower.

The views were spectacular to the west.

Not so spectacular towards the power plant in the east.

Dave joined me in the last outpost of the Great Wall of China. 

Even though we had over 236 miles on the road today, the hour spent at the wall was well worth it.  A great stop and tromp through history.

Back on the national road, we made a brief stop to photograph camels and the herder.

What? You lookin’ at me?

We passed another mosque. 

It just doesn’t seem right to see Chinese on the front of it.

 The first gas stop of the day featured this cute little guy.   He could barely get up the step behind him to go inside.

The national road today had it’s own very special ways to challenge us.  It was very narrow and many of the trucks did not want to give us any room on the pavement.

Even when we did have blacktop, the dust the trucks kicked up often blinded the riders.

Encountering trucks on the narrow overpasses over the freeway was hairy. 

It was best to wait for them to exit the overpass.

Lunch was in a gas station parking lot. Luckily, I found these pressure packed chicken legs at our last stop.

The dusty, narrow national road began to fray our nerves.  Every time we passed over it, we asked “Why can’t we get on the freeway?!”  What a stupid rule.

At one point we had the smooth freeway on one side and the efficient railway on the other and as David said, “We’re stuck on this sand goat track in the Gobi desert!”

Gas stations are few and far between, so this was our afternoon rest stop - a little hard for the ladies to find privacy.

Worse than the dusty roads, was this underpass full of sand.  It’s very hard to keep the bike upright and moving when the ground under isn’t stable.

We did find relief at a fruit stand, where we were introduced to a yellow watermelon.  Delicious.

Leaving the fruit stand, John decided to let Yingchu sit in front and "drive."

These locals enjoyed the sight of nine motorcycles roaring down the road.

All along the roadside we saw melons hung up to dry in the sun.  But I asked myself if I really wanted sun-dried, dust covered, polluted melon.  Nope.

Although the national road was better after the fruit stand, I still envied the pigs going to market on the freeway.  It was getting late and this was the third day of traveling well into the afternoon on bad, dusty roads.

All of a sudden, we ran out of road.  Just past the underpass was a huge ditch and the road ended.  John scouted up over the bridge – nada - the overpass road also ended suddenly.

But Mike found a way.  He’s on the freeway!  Yay!

One minor problem, we have to get from the gas station parking lot to the freeway on a narrow ledge, as a guard rail blocks access to the highway.

 

Success –we made it with only minor damage when the left pannier hit the barrier.  We rode the rest of the way to Dunhuang on the G30.  Our stop tonight is the Silk Road Dunhuang Hotel.  The city of Dunhuang was a major stop on the Silk Road.

We were totally unprepared for the immense sand dunes that rose from the road as we made the final turn towards our hotel.  Breathtaking.

The hotel is built in a traditional Chinese rammed-mud style and looks like a fort.  The upstairs rooftop restaurant has great views of the sand dunes.

Tomorrow we will have a great opportunity to see the Caves of Magao.  Over a thousand years of Buddhists art was preserved in caves.