Devout Of This World

Parts 1 to 4

Tiantishan

This morning I left most of my gear at my hotel in Huangyang, and cruised out to an incredible ancient Buddhist site, about 25km to the southwest.

As soon as I got outta town I could see how low the snow had fallen during yesterday's sudden cold (and bloody challenging) snap.

The view in the morning reminded me of another life, when I used to work picking apples and pruning grapevines near Christchurch in NZ, and would ride my bike out to the fields every morning, marvelling at the snow on the hills not too far away.

Traditional rammed earth village

It was really cold, but it felt so good to get back out onto the little village roads.

Eventually I left the farms and the fields, and began to climb. It got colder, but I rugged up. I was prepared this time.

Shepherd with his flock. There's a lot of them around these parts, just sitting in the hills, tending to their flocks, like little Jesuses trying to get their followers to stop getting distracted and wandering off all the time.

Old brickworks

Newer village

A spider's web of sheep tracks

I finally made it to the top of the hill,  at around 2200m elevation, and climbed a long wooden walkway to a lookout.

The view from the top was really stunning

Then there was a steep and cold descent on the bike, all the way down to lake level.

Can you see anything?

There were lots of these chattery, clicking Eurasian magpies about, or black-billed magpies, as they're sometimes known. I've seen them a lot in many places in this region. They're feisty, quick and quite large.

I finally made it to the grotto area, and strolled along beautifully manicured and spotlessly clean walkways.

This area, designed for high volume tourism, is typical of Chinese public spaces and gardens. Not only are they meticulously well-planned and built to last, but as soon as they're open there's armies of people working fulltime to maintain them, to sweep the paths, tend to the gardens, keep the car parks secure, and continuously upgrade the whole place as needed. So efficient and organised.

There was an arhat cave there, full of statues of these revered characters, who are fully realised beings, but who decided not to enter Nirvana yet, so they could help all the other less fortunate buggers get enlightened.

I tell ya, I'm not doing that. Once I'm fully realised I'm outa here, bugger you lot. I hope you fully realise that.

Nah, only joking. If you give me a job maybe I might help ya a little bit.

A couple of the arahats. Not exactly sure what the boar head's all about.

It was beautifully still down there.

And then, eventually, I reached the ancient Sakyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of the Present, a truly huge and magnificent sight.

It's hard to comprehend the size of Monsieur Buddha from the pic, but he's about 30m tall. That's bloody big.

I scrambled down a long rickety wooden staircase to stand at his feet, the top of which were as high the top of my head.

Looking up at the man-being, some arahats, and a couple of guardians.

The cave sculptures here actually predate the Medieval era. They were built during the Northern Liang Dynasty era, a dynasty which reigned from 412-439 AD.

The Medieval Era, also called the Middle or Dark Ages, began with the fall of the Roman Empire in much of Western Europe in 476 AD, and lasted till the Renaissance hit the scene in the 14th Century.

Just in case you were interested.

The religious art here was also extended and rebuilt over the centuries, particularly during the Ming Dynasty in the mid 1400s.

One of the things that makes this place so powerful is the knowledge that the people who built these incredible spiritual art works did it all by hand, as a physical manifestation of their deep faith. So unshakeably devout.

But unfortunately, two major events much later in history caused a lot of destruction here.

There was a major earthquake in 1927, causing considerable damage. Many caves collapsed, along with the sculptures in them.

And then in the 1950s the local government made the incredibly shortsighted decision to dam the river, and basically flood most of the caves. Historians and archaeologists scurried to remove as many of the sculptures and art as they could, and they're now displayed in various museums elsewhere.

But hey, come on guys, what were you thinking? This site, whilst still incredible, is now just a shell of its former glory.

Sad but true.

I mean, Sakyamuni Buddha and his mates are truly magnificent, and incredibly important art, but it's so sad to know that there were so many others like them in caves around here, that are now flooded and ruined forever.

There's still colours in the frescoes, but they're fading.

High five baby, I'm glad that at least a few of you are still around in your original home.

Peanut snack stop on the way back to Huangyang.

To Wuwei

It was an easy downhill run back to my hotel, and I was there in no time.

Standard once-a-day meal (lately)

This is a really common sight. A bunch of guys playing various games, crowded around a table on the pavement. These guys were playing some sort of card game, with long yellow cards. But when they're bored they also play board games.

So I loaded up and headed out of town, towards Wuwei, only another 40 clicks up the road, which I was happy about, as I'd already ridden to the grottoes and back, about a 50km return trip, and a solid climb.

Doesn't matter where you are, there's always people out there growing food for you.

I pretended I was a motorbike.

Muslim scarecrow

Animal pens

The first dairy cows I've seen here. Milk products are starting to work their way into the mainstream diet here, just like they are in Southeast Asia.

Greenhouses. The back wall is mudbrick, basically to stop the wind, and the front is either covered with plastic or some sort of sheeting, or left open, depending on the type of plants and the weather.

Shit A Mudbrick, It's A City!

You know, sometimes I really laugh at myself.

I  don't really get much into the nitty gritty of where I'm going beforehand, and when it comes to the actual towns I'll be passing through, most of the time I know absolutely nothing about them before I get there.

My English language map apps, which I suspect use older maps and don't have the funds to update regularly, provide no real details about town sizes and any real details here in China. And Baidu, the main Chinese map app, doesn't have an easy visual interface to get a perspective on size and layout of towns and cities.

So as I rode into Wuwei, and the town just kept going on, and on, and on, I eventually realised that this wasn't just a large town. Nah mate, Wuwei's a city, and one and a quarter million buggers live here, bless their warm wooly socks.

My hotel was situated right smack bang in the middle of downtown, but, somehow, was still pretty cheap. Most hotels I've been staying at like this are around $20 Oz a night for the simplest room, but they're hugely luxurious compared to similarly-priced places in Thailand or Malaysia, for example.

Another highrise for me. This is my hotel - well, one part of it.

Evening stroll time

My street

This is a real bar. I haven't seen many around in western China. Not where I've been.

Cute little undercover shopping mall, just like the ones they have in Japan and Korea.

I bought myself a flower cake, as I was missing me.

Rose flavoured, crumbly, and divine. But you wanna have it with a cup of jasmine tea, as it's a little dry.

Chillin'

For the first time in ages I decided to have a rest day the next day, and not move on, just maybe explore this district a little. I've done some long hard rides lately, and my body really wanted to chill.

After lunch I rode outa town.

Town goes forever.

Cool village entrance

These vehicles are everywhere. They're villagers' and farmers' primary means of transport, as they're so practical for their needs. Motorbikes are much rarer in the countryside here.

These vehicles move quite slowly, and often I often overtake them on the bike. The thing that characterises them for me, though, is that their drivers seem to have a death wish. Not only for themselves, but for anyone else who happens to be near them.

They rarely have rear vision mirrors, and will, without warning, suddenly veer across the road, stop, or carry out some other wildly unpredictable manoeuvre, resulting in some very close encounters with actual death for everyone involved, and the frequent need for other drivers (or cyclists) to go and wash their undies.

And then occasionally these same drivers get behind the wheel of an actual car, a run-down and rickety one, and you know it's them because they drive in exactly the same way. They seem to be unaware that cars have more than just first and second gear, and that other traffic, besides them, actually exists on the road.

I've seen some screeching and squealingly close calls on the road. A particularly forgettable one involved one of these three-wheelers with four people in the back suddenly veering over to the other side of the road, to turn into a field, while a massive truck had already begun to overtake it at speed. It was very nearly a mass funeral procession.

I took some back roads. Suddenly I came across this smooth sealed one. It was very poplar with me.

This gruesome sight is my left index finger trying to become a pig's snout. It was crushed by my toppling bike against a sharp railing some time ago, and is taking an eternity to heal because I just can't stop playing guitar.

Quiet back roads. Virtually no traffic whatsoever.

This, my friends, is not just a mound of dirt. No way Ho Xei. It's a remnant of the Great Wall of China. Yep it's true. It may be underwhelming, but it's a bloody long way from Beijing, so that means something.

More of the GWOC

The Great Wall of China, or, more accurately, the Great Walls of China, were a series of fortifications built across northern, northeastern and northwestern China over many centuries, to protect the various Chinese kingdoms from those bloody Mongols and other Eurasian riffraff, who kept invading and stealing things and wreaking havoc.

The earliest walls were built way back in the 7th Century BC, but the famous ones you probably think of were built during the Ming Dynasty, right up until the mid 1600s. Those famous sections are just north of Beijing.

The walls out this way were built in two main periods, the first between about 200BC and 220AD, and the second much later, in the Ming Era. These mud heaps are actually part of the Ming Era wall.

There's gonna be much more impressive wall remains further up the track, so don't fret ok.

They still use mudbrick for building round these parts. These are garden greenhouse walls, and storage buildings.

Wow! One hell of a merkin collection! I wanna go to their parties!

Oh alright then, it's just chillies.

The entrance to an organic vineyard. Rather grand.

Pink is the headscarf colour of choice for fashionable women in these parts. They're all wearing it.

Public men's business

Have you got any red ones?

I bought these delicious little melons from a little stall. In English they're known as pepito melons. But when I asked the lovely guy what they were called, it translated as:

Which is probably quite apt, because they're so delicious that when you eat them you give thanks that you are alive and in this country. They taste like a small juicy rockmelon. No seeds. The guy told me just to eat the skin, but it was nicer without it, the skin's slightly bitter.

I bought some delicious tandoori naan from this guy as I meandered back into town. This type of bread is common in parts of northern India, but particularly in Pakistan and Central Asia. As I head northwest I hope to munch a lot more of it, because it's just absolutely divine, especially when hot.

I finally opened my pu'er tea, which Na Hin and his family had gifted me. It tastes just like tea to me, with my, as yet, unrefined tea palate.

The families were out in the eve.

And the buskers

Wuwei is a hugely important place historically. It was located on the only (straightforward) route from eastern China to Central Asia, and so was a thriving trading post and strategic centre on the Silk Road.

These days it borders the Chinese provinces of Inner Mongolia to the north, and Qinghai to the southwest.

The impressive (and reconstructed) South Gate of the city

Don't ask me why they were showing vids of kids dancing

An infinitely long night food market. It was pretty impressive.

Jiaozi, Chinese version of gyoza

Octopusart

You think you've seen jerky? Nah mate, this is jerky.

Smiling tofu woman

Satay and salad collection

As usual, I was more of an attraction than any of the food. I was swamped by kids with their parents, asking me the usuals. So friendly, and so selfie-ish. It was fun.

These guys pressed a couple of bags of these into my hands after the selfies.

They're water chestnuts. But nowhere near as nice as the fresh ones.

They got the blues.

The bling's all around the city

Dancin' in the street

Yongchang

Today I took a few village roads to wind my way out of Wuwei, as I kept riding roughly northwest.

I couldn't work out why the poplars in the foreground were leafless, but the others  weren't. I'm sure some of you know about that sort of thing, especially if you're into haughty culture.

Corny pic.

Wide river bed, reminiscent of shallow river crossings in India. Except in India there'd be hundreds of people at the river, washing their clothes, their dishes, their motorbikes, or their bodies.

I was sort of lucky today, because for quite some time my road was closed to all vehicles, except scooters and pushbikes. I mean, there were roadworks for part of it, but generally it was pretty cruisey riding.

Statue of Illiberty

This guy had a machine that made these sweet crispy cylindrical treats, people were sitting around eating them and drinking tea.

The men were out in their blazered glory

I made it to Yongchang by early afternoon, and chilled.

Cute desk. Never seen a computer in a hotel room before.

Sweet bun, stuffed with sultanas.

Welcome to Yongchang

Tsingtao beer. Never buy or drink this. It was disgusting, and didn't taste like beer at all, but like some sort of toxic chemical.

Even down to the last sip.

Shandan

Bloody hell, sometimes it's tough out there. I'm absolutely trashed right now. I rode for over 100km today, up a long long slope, and the whole way I was riding into a raging, unrelenting wind.

Riding against a strong headwind is basically like climbing a steep hill. Which is really hard when you're already climbing one.

So now, finally, it feels remarkably peaceful to be off the bike and out of the gale.

Actually, at the moment, somehow I feel like I'm living a double life.

By day I'm out there in the elements, sometimes struggling with really tough weather conditions, and mostly requiring a good chunk of physical energy to get me to wherever I wanna go for the day.

And then eventually, normally late in the day, I'll roll into a town, find a cheap hotel, and live in relative luxury for the next few hours, and then overnight.

I'll go out for food, wander around, chat with local people, and go back to my comfy hotel room, and sleep in a clean warm bed.

It's sorta surreal.

It's been too cold for camping up here, but I'm sure that's coming, as the weather warms.

Beautiful scenery as I left Wuwei.

Friendly shepherd. The sheep are giant around here. I didn't ask him why his prize(d) ewe was wearing black knickers, because he looked really happy, and I didn't want to spoil it.

I rode alongside the busy expressway for part of the day. All the trucks were over there, thankfully.

China doesn't do things in halves. More wind turbines than you can poke a fossil fool at.

There wasn't much shelter out there today. I sat by my bike and ate peanuts, using the thin metal safety barrier as a windbreak. Sad isn't it.

Well actually no it's not. The peanuts were delicious. They're sorta a little sweet around here.

Snowy hills

Yes, it's a church. And it's in the middle of nowhere. There's 44 million registered Christians in China, and a heap more unregistered ones. Some of them must live out in this barren God-forsaken place.

Just so you can see the wind with your own eyes.

Could be 'straylia mate

After that hugely tiring journey, it was time to switch to my other life, and I checked into this hotel.

I didn' tuse it

Looks swanky doesn't it. It wasn't. It was dark and dusty and reeked of stale cigarette smoke, which has probably been soaking into the unwashed carpet for decades.

And into the sheets and bedspread and bath towels in my room.

Ashtray at the ready, at the bog. Don't ask me what this tap is for (it wasn't working).

More delicious dumplings for dinner

Everyone was out at the sports centre in the evening, keeping fit

Lotsa scooters around here. Urban areas are full of them, but there's hardly any in the countryside.

My first Chinese icecream. It was pretty good, full of sugar and artificial flavours, just how I like it.

The Bo Xing Hotel ...

sorta became the Boxing Hotel

Incredible Matisi

I'm pretty excited today, because I'm heading to more incredible cave grottoes, on a much bigger and grander scale than the ones I visited at Tiantishan earlier in the week.

It was all deserted roads today, very little traffic, I often passed through little villages, farmland, or just barren country. It was amazing, and, again, a tough ride, as the wind was doing its thing.

It's so great to be in this sort of country. Dry, barren, stark, open land, wide views, sometimes hills sometimes flat, but always interesting. I'd love to make a movie out here.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think these women were collecting sheep manure. This is stock grazing land. Animal poop's a valuable resource 'round 'ere.

Village scenes

I bought this thinking it was sweet. I even asked the baker if it was, and she said yes. But it's got some sort of fishy flavour to it, a flavour I recognise from a lot of baked products in Asia. It's not my fave, but I'm getting used to it.

Orchards

We used to call these things wurly-wurlies when I was a kid, they're like a mini tornado that picks up soil and seeds and bits and pieces and swirls them around, and moves through the countryside annoying the hell out of farmers.

I've seen very few of these in China. And a lot of traffic lights, even in the countryside.

Beautiful pebble shrine

I basically headed towards these snowy hills all day.

Eventually I approached the entrance to the Mati Scenic Area, a region of significant religious and historical importance. This is a Tibetan-style stupa.

The grand gate entrance to the Scenic Area.

I asked around for accommodation in the tiny settlement there, but the prices were a rip-off. So I chatted to some local guys and they said I could camp up the road. Perfect. Except that it's gonna be cold tonight and I don't have a sleeping mat. I left it behind somewhere or other.

Cave shrines. A small sign of what was to come.

I eventually made it to another little settlement, near the main grotto area.

I was tired and famished. I found a spot to pitch my tent, hidden by some trees, and then went off to find some tucker, quicksmart.

I stopped at pretty much the first place I saw, this Tibetan place, and immediately ordered a bowl of yak yoghurt. It was bloody good, very creamy, and with a stack of white sugar on top.

Tofu, mushrooms and rice tonight.

There were a few older buildings in the little settlement, but not many.

After dinner I went wandering.

The guy in the middle was some sort of large turkey

See the caves up there?

I climbed up to a Tibetan gompa (temple compound) up the hill, because I hadn't had enough exertion for the day.

Stunning Tibetan thangka, a hanging artwork depicting spiritual images and teachings.

The wheel of dharma, the circle of life. Its basic message is that if we don't stop desiring things and having expectations (and therefore judging things as good or bad) we'll never ever be happy. We'll just be stuck in a continual circular habitual pattern of craving and disappointment.

Simple innit.

Innit?

There was a beautiful monk there, we chatted for awhile, he was very sweet, very calm and easily amused. My kinda guy.

Then I climbed further up the hill because I love pain.

The view was good though

Note my stealth camping skills. Can you see my tent?

Clear as bloody mud mate (which happens to be the colour of my tent, chosen deliberately for such occasions).

Unusual hats. Wish they had them when my young kids had birthday parties.

Fake tree with fake blossoms.

Tibetan style architecture. Beautiful, and practical.

All set

It was freezing at night, but I had enough warm things. What I didn't have was a sleeping mat, and the ground was quite hard, so it wasn't so comfy after awhile. But I went to bed early, and still slept solidly for a good number of hours, I was happy.

The view from my spot, in the morn.

I got up early, as they allow visitors to the temple grottoes from 8am, and, being the Labour Day holiday weekend here, I knew the place would be inundated with tourists from all over China, from fairly early in the day.

Thirty Three Heaven Grottoes

I ran the plastic gauntlet, leading to ....

A restaurant. I ended up having brekky there later on.

The views were stunning as I climbed the hill. My legs were pretty jellyish though, they've had many heavy workouts for a lot of days in succession now. They need rest.

And then I caught my first sight of the cliff face. It totally blew me away.

The thing that immediately struck me was the sheer devotion the people who built it must've had.

The creation was designed to look like a pagoda from the outside.

The grotto area is basically a sheer cliff face, and religious artists and builders have painstakingly carved and chiselled caves, crevices, pathways, stairways, shelves and platforms into the stone. The most incredible Buddhist sculptures, frescoes, and hanging art works have been created throughout the whole maze of the  grotto network, to create an ancient, living, natural masterpiece.

The temples and shrines were initially built over 1600 years ago, during the Jin dynasty, and the first parts were intially built as a school for Buddhist studies. During later periods various images and additions were built inside the grottoes.

There are seven separate levels to climb once inside, and 21 different grottoes, it's mindblowing. The feeling in there was so powerful for me, just knowing what would have been required to build such a masterpiece, cave by cave, step by stone step, all carved by hand, and knowing the age of the temples, and the fact that the religious beliefs and faith that guided the whole creation are still very much alive today.

As I went through, devout Buddhists, mainly Tibetan, were paying homage to the various images and shrines in there. Hardly any tourists were inside - they arrived, in droves, a little later on, as I left.

There were no pics allowed inside, so here's a couple from the web:

This is the Great Buddha Hall, the largest single cave grotto in China.

Tunnelways and steep stone and wooden steps led through the maze

I climbed right to the top, to the highest grotto, and there's a beautiful statue of Green Tara, a female enlightened being, who represents compassion and wisdom in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Meditating on her is considered helpful in realising our own true Buddha nature, which is a nature free of the complexities and judgments of the mind, and a nature synonymous with openness, awareness, and love and respect for all beings, and ourselves.

That's the spirit Tara.

The views looking out from up there were rather grand too, I must say.

After exploring lots of other parts of the cliff, and being further blown away, I eventually left and floated down from the grottoes, had some brekky, packed up my tent, and then rolled down the big hill to explore more amazing temples lower down.

So Wonder-full

There's so much history in the caves and the cliffs and the mountains that punctuate this arid landscape.

I have more to explore here in Mati, and then I want to visit an incredible World Heritage listed national geopark, famous for its totally unique geological forms and colours.

And then I plan to roll over to the western edges of the Great Wall of China, and the stunning fort of Jiayuguan.

Around here, it appears that hidden ancient wonders never cease, and, fortunately, neither does my appetite to experience them❤️

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