Trip to Ningxia Pt 2 - Yinchuan & the Tenegger Desert

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Arriving in Yinchuan, I ate nearly an entire kilo of hot roast chestnuts (which are available on every corner, and very hard to resist). I inevitably felt horribly ill and while trying to walk it off we found a beautiful mosque in the middle of the city which we wandered around and waited to see if we could hear their call to prayer. Ningxia is actually called the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region because it is dominantly "Hui" people are Muslim Chinese. From Ningxia westward there are many Hui people as it is on the Silk Road and the "-Stan" countries of Central Asia. So there is huge Muslim influence and many mosques which gave Ningxia a really fascinating mix of cultures.

We had a massage (my first in China) which was excellent until we went to pay they showed us the small print on the price list which says "Double for foreigners". He told us Y30 each when we asked, and when we reminded him of that he said, still smiling, "Yes. Y30. Double." We weren't too pleased about that.

After dinner we went to a bar for a quiet drink and got more than we bargained for in a few ways! We got ice cream rather than a drink and thinking we were all ordering something different, it turned out to only be slight variations on the same alarming pink ice cream. More unfortunately, in the middle of my sundae the man from the rowdy table near us wobbled over with a small glass of beer which he offered me with the cry of "Gan bei!" ("Cheers!"). It is customary to skull the whole glass which I wasn't that keen on doing but it would have been very awkward and rude to refuse so I smiled gingerly, replied "Gan bei" with slightly less fervour and downed the beer. Not a good combo with pink ice cream but at least it wasn't the deadly chinese liquor you normally "Gan bei" with. Thankfully that seemed to satisfy him and he left. But it only got worse, with his friend the Chicken Man then coming over and plopping himself at our table. He was so drunk that he was incoherent and could only manage a variety of squawks though we did our best to answer the questions we could make out. I can honestly say my Chinese was better than his at that moment. He'd essentially trapped us there but when another man picked him up and carried him away we made a very quick exit! We really needed a drink after that so we found another bar that had no Avian Flu victims and enjoyed our night there.

The next day was a bus to Tong Xin where we ate in a little Xin Jiang place and discovered the joy that is 8 Treasure Tea. It is a kind of tea particular to the West and is utterly delicious, with tea, various flowers, dried fruits and a lot of sugar. A ridiculous amount of sugar actually, and we all made pains to get the excess sugar out, which is easy when the sugar was in rock form but mostly is was sugar granules. So, we had about 60 seconds between when they put the cups on the table and when they brought the hot water, which we spent madly ferreting out the sugar. I can't imagine what the waitresses thought, they put down four cups of their finest tea and return a minute later to find a mound of sugar in the ashtray: crazy lao wai!

We visited a stunningly beautiful Chinese-style Mosque on the outskirts of the town which was over 680 years old. Donning out head scarves again, we were received warmly and a little too readily to drop our bags and have a look around. As it turned out, they thought we were Muslim students coming to study and when they found out we weren't, they charged us for entry and leaving our bags. I think they may have started to have their doubts when one of us came in wearing a t-shirt on her head and another looking like a pirate...

A bus to Zhong Ning through more maize fields, and we all had mad corn cravings looking at it all. There were actually lots of great looking fruit and vegetable in the fields and being sold by the road. We then saw some terribly stormy weather ahead, which was really disappointing because the weather had actually been improving. As we drew we close we realised what we had seen was actually pollution smog pillowing from smoke stacks onto the people and land below from a particularly nasty looking factory. Probably either chemical fertiliser or petrochemical products. I didn't get a photo but I'll never get the vision of this place out of my head, it was like something out of an apocalyptic movie. Suddenly, none of us were hungry.

Finally, we were in Zhong Wei, gateway to our camel trek! There was more eating and walking but the camel trek was the highlight of the trip. They were Bactrians (two humps) and we were somewhat worried about the biting and spitting stereotype but they were actually very gentle and really well-behaved. The camel guy told us that "people" camels don't spit or bite at all, so I still don't think I want to meet a work camel. We of course name our camels so Charlotte asked the man if they had names. He looked at us oddly and told us "They are called camel." Charlotte explaining that we wanted to know what to call the different camels, but he looked at us blankly again "Their name is 'camel'." So "Camel" it was.

So I decided my camel was called 'Bevan' as he had a well groomed, blonde mullet which Charlotte told me was very like Bevan from Young Talent Time. Liz's camel was the BFG, Pip's was Warwick due to his uncanny resemblance to Warwick Cappa, Charlotte's camel was Eboni Rae as she was a lovely dark colour, and the lead camel was, of course, Camel. Words can't describe it, the photos speak for themselves I think. I felt like I was an extra from Lawrence of Arabia and walking the dunes was one of the few times I've been alone in China. There were factories on the fringe of the desert, and even a new one being marked out in the desert proper, which was really depressing. So we may well be one of the last people to see that section of the desert relatively untouched.

We saw looming sand dunes, wild flowers, plains, and even wild donkeys and camels. Our last night was at a salt flat that, due to the rain, became a lake and attracted lots of birds and other animals. It was just stunning and we were all quiet with awe when we came out of our tents on the last day to see the lake, birds and even sunshine.

Finally, the journey home was of equal note, though for the opposite reason. The girls were sensible and flew home on Sunday evening, but being a tight arse I decided I would take the train home. Problem was, I banked on getting a train ticket but couldn’t get one for love nor money. I had no ticket and no way home when the girls left me on Sunday afternoon but I managed to get a bus ticket for the next day so I stayed the night in a hotel, consoling myself with lots of food and reading my book tucked up in bed. The next day I had a great time actually, walking around Yinchuan and stumbling across a beautiful pagoda and courtyard museum about Ningxia, the Rock Carvings and the Hui People before heading to the bus station.

The bus was a sleeper bus, a strange Chinese invention, with three rows of small bunk beds that aren’t even high enough to sit up in, the logic being you’ll be asleep the whole time anyway as they are always overnight trips. We left at 5pm Monday and were supposed to arrive in Beijing at about 7am Tuesday but when I awoke at 6:30am we were still in the middle of nowhere. Not a good sign. In the end, we were 7 hours late: I was on that stinking fecking bus for 21 hours straight. For some reason, we kept going round and around and around Hebei (the province Beijing is situated in the middle of). We came to the expressway to Beijing several times but kept turning back and I had no idea why. When we did eventually get on it, there was major traffic issues, so I can only guess there was an accident or roadworks and the driver tried to get to get around it by going to another part of the expressway. But we went the looooong way round, and I mean like over mountains, through little tiny villages that looked like they were still working out how to make fire, and around lakes.

21 HOURS: No stops, no sitting up, no walking, no fresh air. I didn’t bring much water as I didn’t want to have to go to the grotty bathroom much, I’d only brought a few snacks which I’d finished that morning, and I was virtually flat on my back the whole time. The air was foul as the driver didn’t turn on the vents, people around me were smoking, and one guy was hocking up some serious logies for a good hour which I could only hope weren't going to slime past me down the aisle at some point. To boot, the grotty toilet had a gammy door so every time the bus turned we were all fanned with the fragrance of public toilet which by the 15th hour was stomach turning and by the 20th hour absolutely nauseating. We finally arrived in Beijing at 2pm and having spent all that time lying down, I had zero blood pressure. When I got up, put on my huge backpack and started to walk I nearly fell over! But I've never been so glad to see my tiny crappy flat.

But, the trip was fantastic, I would highly recommend Ningxia and camel trekking to anyone. In fact, come to Beijing guys, I've got a spare bed and we can travel. I promise it'll be a trip you'll never forget! Because you never quite know what's going to happen in China...

Trip to Ningxia Pt 1 - Beijing to Yinchuan

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China's National Day (Monday October 1) is celebrated by a 3 day public holiday but a lot of workplaces take the whole week off. Happily, mine is one of those places and I had 10 days to explore China. My friend Charlotte was organising a trip to Ningxia, a small province to the West of Beijing and invited anyone to join, so I decided to get out of Beijing and go camel trekking in the desert!

Wasting no time, on the Friday night I took the train to Baotou (Inner Mongolia) by myself as there were complications with the tickets, but the girls were close behind on a train a few hours behind. Having never taken a train in China, say nothing of by myself, I did wonder how I was going to go but I chose to be the one going solo as it was a good practice run for me when I need to go home by myself at the end of the trip. The train was ok, I managed to get on the right one on time, and it wasn't too terrible at all, and even had nice little touches like fake flowers in the toilet. Getting to Baotou at 7am, I had nothing to do but wait so I ate breakfast in a little noodle place, and made one bowl of noodles last a whole hour. I was getting a bit of attention, partly because I was lugging my enormous backpack around but mostly because they don't get a lot of foreigners in those parts. A man who came to get tissues from my table asked me where I was from while blowing his nose, and after telling him I heard "Ao da lia" (Australia) being shouted around the place like a hot potato. I wasn't in Beijing any more.

People were not at all threatening or rude, just simply bluntly curious. After breakfast I went for a walk and when I rested in a park, I was swooped on being lovely old women who keep saying "Shao mao yi" (which I didn't understand until one lady showed me she was wearing three layers versus my t-shirt, and literally means "too few jumpers") to finding out if I was married and then trying to marry me off. The other girls arrived soon after, we found a hotel, and we went off to see the Wudang Lamasery outside Baotou. We took a bus to the nearest village, underwent a very similar experience to my breakfast with "Ao da lia" ringing from the rooftops, and hired a taxi to take us the last few kilometres to the lamasery. DJ Speed Racer I've dubbed him, as he diced death by crazy overtaking and driving on the wrong side of the road to the electronic remix of "My Heart Will Go On".

The Wudang Lamasery was awesome though, complete with monks on mobiles. There was the awesome moment too, when a monk came out of one of the temples, strutted to a motorbike, flung his cape over his shoulder and zoomed off all James Dean-like! We were dumb struck and sooo impressed! "Mastadon-sized ribs" called us for dinner (thank you Lonely Planet) which were actually pretty damn tasty, and I bought us each a cool army style hats for our camel trekking adventure. As we had to be up at stupid o'clock, Pip and I tried to sleep early but when it got dark we realised that the red neon sign for the hotel was just outside our window. What I don't have a photo of is the fact that my sleeping bag turned me blue. "The Smurf-maker" I've christened it and yes, every exposed piece of skin was rubbed blue from the lining of the bag. Not happy Jan.

05:45 bus to the border town of Alashan Zuoqi (still Inner Mongolia), arrived after a loooong bus journey at 3pm to find it cold and raining in the driest province in China. We visited another really beautiful temple, went to look at the "Precious Rocks Market" next to it, and we had to have Mongolian Hot Pot just to warm up! The next day We hired a driver, Mr Wang, who drove us to Yinchuan (the capital of Ningxia) via two local attractions, the Twin Pagodas and Ancient Rock Carvings.




But right on the border of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia was an old section of the Great Wall which was particularly exciting for me as it is the first time I've ever seen the Great Wall. They actually have bits of the Great Wall lying about the place but this one was so cool cause it wasn't reconstructed. On a very tight schedule, it was speed tourism and we ran to the Wall, took a zillion shots and ran back to the car, laughing the whole way.


The Twin Pagodas were beautiful, though I got suckered into giving them money after I took part in a prayer (fool that I am) and the rock carvings were amazing. I was so impressed by just the gorge that they were in, it was one of the most magnificent things I've seen in China and again we took a zillion photos of, yes, rocks. The carvings were strangely beautiful, drawn by nomadic tribes that used to live in the mountains. Some of them were a bit queer though, with drawings of what looks like a mobile phone, animals copulating, aliens, and even "human faces with facial organs representing the images of warriors which are outcomes of the ancient's worship toward their genital organs". True story.

Continued in Part 2...