Landscapes of China Part 1 – Kashgar to Xi’an

• Posted on noflytri
• in China, Photoblog
• on November 2, 2014
• 1 Comment.

Mr route through China…

So I am finally ready to leave China after two months after which I still feel like I have barely scratched the surface. There is clearly much more to see and do, but I feel its time to move on. Updating this blog from behind the Great Firewall has been difficult, so posting has been a bit irregular. Travelling through China has also been pretty exhausting, particularly the first stint before I entered Hong Kong for the first time. As a result I’ve not really had much of a chance to write about some of the things I have managed to see and do. For the most part though it has been pretty straight forward, the odd delayed bus and lack of language skills leading to arguments with hotel staff in the middle of the night aside its genuinely been pretty straight forward, using the internet and guidebooks and pointing to get around.

Part of the “Tomb of the Fragrant Concubine” in Kashgar. Just like being in Central Asia!

I came to China with pretty much no expectations. Well that’s not quite true, I obviously had some, but I didn’t really know what they were. I hadn’t really researched this part of my trip and so I guess my idea of China was literally just the Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors and rice fields. Perhaps unsurprisingly therefore, China has turned out to be much more. It literally has all sorts of landscapes, from deserts, to mountains, from dry to humid, from poor rural towns and cities to giant metropolises, with perhaps the one constant being the obvious signs of enormous investment in transport infrastructure going on all over the country. Metro lines are springing up everywhere, sometimes looking out of the window on a bus or train your are met with seemingly innumerable road and rail flyovers be built in all directions. China is definitely a country that has changed, is changing and will continue to change a lot. I will definitely have to come back properly one day.

Ancient City of Gaochang, melting into the desert near the modern city of Turfan

There is another nearby ancient city, which is more famous, but I actually preferred this one

The photos on this page are some of my favourites from my time in China, and so I’m hopeful that pictures really will paint a thousand words, thus excusing me from having to actually write much about where I have been.  There will likely be another post or two on tips for getting around China, but otherwise from a blogging point of view I’m looking forward to writing about Vietnam. Part 2 will cover the rest of my time in China.  I’ve deliberately missed off photos of the Great Wall and Tomb of the Imam Asim as they have been covered elsewhere in my blog,

The Mogao Caves near Dunhuang are expensive but worth it compared to other Buddhist caves you can visit where almost nothing has survived.

Photos aren’t allowed so you’ll have to use your imagination – but a lot of the paintings are in very good condition

You can also play in the desert at Dunhuang. Deserts are always fun!

I heart sandsunes

Labrang

Labrang

The terracotta army at Xi’an is a must see, although I was less impressed with the rest of Xi’an

The size of the place is very impressive

Part 2 to follows on here…