Unearthly Delights 2

Zhangye

Zhangye is one of the most important outposts of northwestern China. It lies in the centre of what is called the Hexi Corridor, which is basically a traversable and relatively arable long and narrow stretch of land that sits between the high mountainous Tibetan Plateau to the south, and the vast high steppe region of Mongolia to the north.

I've been riding right through the corridor, turning off at various places along the way.

As a result of its strategic location, Zhangye was often a battleground, with regular fighting occurring between various Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Uyghur kingdoms over the centuries. It was also, of course, an important outpost along the Silk Road, which ran right through the corridor.

It was late-lunchtime when I arrived on the outskirts of the city.

Another delicious  jiaozi soup, basically steamed onion gyoza in a tasty veggie broth. So bloody good.

Caramelised onions and various bits and pieces

My lunch view

I found a hotel on the outskirts of town. You can hire the room for a few hours, and you get the "o'clock" rate.

Note the clock telling Beijing time. Believe it or not, but China has only one time zone, and, surprise surprise, it's all set to Beijing time. This is pretty ludicrous, considering the distance from the far east to the far west in China is around 5000km, which would normally be a time difference of about 3 hours.

But it's all about Beijing 'round 'ere mate, and what's most convenient for the centralised administrative system, which has its heart and soul way over there.

Hotel lobby

I ripped this guy off the back of my neck as soon as I got into my room. Must've hopped on for a bite while I was camping, or sitting under the trees somewhere or other.

Tiny electric scooter

Tucking into a duck, with gloves no less.

More delicious pasta, the original, Chinese way. You do know that pasta originally came  from China right? Not just spaghetti, ie. noodles, but lots of other types of pasta too. The Venetian trader Marco Polo brought pasta to Italy all the way from here. In fact, good ole Marco actually lived right here in Zhangye for a year in the late 1200s, and stayed in China for a whole 17 years.

For the first time since way down in southern Yunnan it was warm enough in the evening for people to sit outside.

Downtown Zhangye

Bummer, it was closed

Beautiful stupa

Finally Resting

I've been going hard. I've been riding every day for the past 10 days, so today I decided to really chill. I'd actually take more rest days if I could, but I have my visa limit, and need to be out of China in a month or so.

It was so good to do nothing for most of the day.

I spent the morning at home, writing and chilling.

In the arvo I rode the 5 clicks into the centre of town to see one of the most important and beautiful Buddhist temples in the whole of western China, the Dafo Temple.

One of the Zhangye city gates

Random street snaps

This electric bus has been made to look like an old tram

Pedestrian mall leading to the temple

Dafo Temple is significant because, not only is it ancient, having been built in 1100, but also because it contains the largest reclining clay Buddha statue in the whole of Asia. Signor Polo himself talks about seeing the giant Buddha in his own book about his travels, Il Milione, or, as it's known in English, The Travels of Marco Polo.

Temple gate

The temple itself is made completely of wood, and is a sight to behold.

Here, allow me to zoom in for you

Every single panel in the building is carved or painted with exquisite ancient Buddhist art

Stepping inside that ancient place, and seeing the size of the Buddha, just blew me away, which I know I say a lot, but I just can't bloody help it. It was just so powerful to be in there, and see with my own eyes what those artisans created here, over a thousand years ago.

As usual, there were no photos allowed inside, so I had to consult the web.

The eyes really got me.

And there wasn't just one chilled megaBuddha in there. There were loads of other incredible statues, huge ones, all over the place.

To get an idea of size, as you can see, the Buddha is lying on his side, and his feet were also lying sideways, one on top of the other. The statue is so big that when I went up to the feet, I could stretch my arms above my head, and still not even be high enough to match the width of just one foot.

See the guy down there?

Yeah, it's so huge, and the sheer size of it really affects you when you go in. You feel so small in comparison, just a human speck, up against this massive artistic and spiritual wonder.

It's very special and beautiful to spend time in these places, it's really cosmic, I'm telling you. You just can't not be affected by the immensity of it, yada yada.

The temple complex itself is also huge, with loads of other temples, shrines, stupas, gardens and other delights all over the place.

And a few of the buildings have been converted into Buddhist art museums, and you can imagine the riches inside there. Unbelievable.

Not bad carpentry huh?

This girl was playing a guzheng, a traditional instrument played with the fingernails and a plectrum. Sometimes the left fingers are used to press down on individual strings behind a bridge, to create a bend or vibrato effect on certain long notes. The plectrum is also sometimes used to play tremolo, ie. playing the same note many times in quick succession, before moving on to other notes.

It's a haunting and beautiful instrument, and is tuned to a major pentatonic scale.

In case you were wondering.

Detail on one of the many stone steeles that are erected in corridors in different parts of the complex.

I chatted with a young mum and her two kids for awhile, they were so sweet, and had loads of questions about what I was doing. I asked the kids if they wanted to hop on the back of my bike and ride to Kazakhstan with me, and they both squealed "yes!!!"

I mean, may as well, I'm carrying everything else on my bike anyway, may as well chuck a coupla kids on there too.

There's cash in this country. China is a fully developed superpower, make no mistake about it.

Badminton's big here. So are pagodas.

More stunning woodwork

I bought these cassava cakes straight out of the pan. They had some sort of palm sugar inside, and were so hot that I steamed my mouth. Ouch. But so delicious of course.

Yeah, eventually Roman did. But not before he'd drugged, abused and raped. Allegedly. Didn't matter that they were just teens, or pre-teens, and he was decades older, and a powerful filmmaker.

Ah, but that's another sad sordid story.

What a treat

My little hotel on the outskirts of town

I stopped at a Muslim bakery stall, and one of the customers insisted I try this "cake." It's not that sweet, but is super super heavy and rich, with an unusual semi-savoury flavour that sorta grew on me. Muslim bakers use a particular spice in their buns and breads here, and I'm not sure what it is yet, but it's very distinct and a little bitter.

It took me 2 days to eat this.

And I tried the seabuckthorn juice just because. It was okay, tasted a little like orange juice with a bit more of a rich flavour. Seabuckthorns are little yellow berries used in traditional medicine for digestive and skin problems, and heart stuff.

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Go to Part 3