BORN TO TRAVEL. A Record of Worldwide Travels over 5 Decades J.H. FRIELE

Transcription

1 BORN TO TRAVEL A Record of Worldwide Travels over 5 Decades by J.H. FRIELE

2 BORN TO TRAVEL 2015 J.H. Friele All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or any information storage, without written permissions from respective copyright owner(s). Published by xxxxxxxx xxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxx. First Edition 2015 ISBN

3 THE AUTHOR JUERGEN HERBERT FRIELE Juergen Herbert Friele was born in Cuxhaven, Germany in 1939 and attended secondary and commercial schools in Oberhausen/Rhld. He trained in a chemical company obtaining a Diploma in Business Administration in 1958 and in 1960 won English language certification for Foreign Correspondence and as Interpreter for Economics from the Berlitz School, Oberhausen. Joined the parent company of Behn, Meyer & Co. in Hamburg in 1960 and was posted to Kuala Lumpur, Malaya at the end of His first job was to market fertilizers to foreign owned plantations. The planters had difficulties over the pronunciation of the name Juergen and he was given the nick name George, the equivalent of Juergen in South Germany. Later George was expanded to German George to avoid misidentification with others of the name George. From 1964 to 1979 he was an active member of the Hash House Harriers, the now worldwide cross country running club and in 1966 was elected as one of the joint masters of the HHH. He is listed as a Non-British Pioneer Member. In 1970 George was posted to Penang as Branch Manager and in early 1971 was appointed a director of Behn, Meyer & Co. In 1972 he was chosen as Honorary German Consul at Penang and held this position until he was transferred back to Kuala Lumpur in In 1978 George married Eileen Khoo and from 1979 he and his wife travelled the world. In 1981 they bought a motel in Florida and managed it. They sold the motel in 1983 and in 1984 Mr. Friele rejoined Behn, Meyer & Co. in Singapore. In 1987 he was conferred the Federal Cross of Merit (BVK) of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by the German President. In 1991 he and his wife moved back to Malaysia, living initially in Kuala Lumpur and from 1994 in Penang. From 1998 to 2000 he was the President of the Malaysian- German Society in Penang and in 2000 was awarded the PJK by the Governor of Penang for excellent and praiseworthy services rendered to the people and government of Penang. Mr. & Mrs. Friele are retired and are still living in Penang. He speaks Malay, English and German. During his many years of living in Malaysia Mr. Friele has been involved in voluntary work such as serving as a Committee Member of the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Penang Branch, Honorary Secretary of the Malaysian-German Society, Penang, Committee Member of the Malayan Sub-Aqua Club, Executive Committee Member of the Commercial Employers Association of Peninsular Malaysia, Charter Member of the Rotary Club of Kuala Lumpur North (now called Gombak), Director of the Rotary Club of Penang and Patron of the Malaysian Association of Productivity, Penang Branch 1975/1977. Throughout his life George s passions have been worldwide travels and Jazz music.

4 INTRODUCTION From my teenage years I have had the urge to travel. In post-war Germany money was very tight. Consequently hardly anybody could afford a car. Travel was by train, bus or per pedes apostolorum on foot like the apostles. I had become the proud owner of a bicycle and, with a few marks in my pocket, I travelled by bicycle in 1955 up the River Rhine to Heidelberg and in 1956 to Aachen, Liege, the Ardennes, Luxemburg and down the Mosel to Koblenz where it joins the Rhine. At that young age I could not afford hotels and happily stayed at youth hostels as these were both good and were very cheap. From 1958 to 1961 I joined the YMCA at excellent youth camps in Camogli, located on the Italian Mediterranean coast. From young I had been bitten by the travel bug and wondered who in my family was responsible. I blamed my grandfather and his son, my father, for they too had had an urge to travel although their journeys had been restricted to Germany and some nearby European countries. I have always believed that I had been Born to Travel and this purpose has been fulfilled as described in this book of my worldwide travels over five decades. In 1961 I was posted to Malaya and that opened up the opportunity for world travel. We, the expatriates, worked on so called colonial contracts with home leave after three years. The company paid for the return air ticket back to Germany and we could decide to travel the world by just paying the difference in the airfare. I remember very well that my first trip around the world was in 1965, travelling through Asia, Hawaii, USA, UK to Germany with a stopover in Egypt on the way back. So, every three years I went on a new travel adventure. After many years a friend asked me how many countries I had been to. I did not know but from then started counting. At the time of writing this book, I have visited 128 countries (122 of the 193 UN members and six additional ones from the IOC list). Most of my travelling, except in 1965 when I travelled with my friend Freddy Buechtmann, I had to do alone as I could not find a friend to join me. Friends could not take leave at the same time, had not accrued enough leave for long travel, did not have enough money or simply were not prepared to spend their money on travelling. Later, I joined some organized tours and in the past several years have formed my own travel groups of friends and planned the itineraries myself. My travel agent, Bayan Baru Travel, has then organized the tour and

5 handled the commercial aspects. I have written this book with the idea of sharing some of my journeys with friends and with those who love to travel. Fourteen years ago I was asked to write travel articles for the Penang Club and the Malaysian-German Society in Penang. The space available for me to publish my reports was strictly limited and it took several issues of the club magazine for me to complete just one article. I was surprised at how many persons were reading my stories. Some actually used my articles as guides when travelling to those countries I had written about; one well known personality even told me Whenever I get the Penang Club magazine I read your article first. This prompted me to write a book about my journeys, so that I could share my travel experiences with other travel enthusiasts. To find a publisher who would pay for the publication would have been a long process and I therefore decided to pay the publishing cost myself from savings. It is not a commercial matter for me. The chapters of the book broadly place my travels in chronological order, starting with the most recent. It was painstaking work to write the book and to select the right photos. For some of the places visited I obtained brief basic information from the English Wikipedia. I would like to thank the many authors and contributors to the sections of the Wikipedia articles I have used. Over the last decade I have taken a large number of digital photographs but have had a problem in finding suitable photos for the earlier chapters. In those days I took numbers of slides but, over the years, these have become discoloured and my printed photographs are not in much better a condition. I have therefore used a number of photographs from Wikimedia Commons for the earlier articles and have given credit to the author or license holder of each photograph. All information from Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia may be used freely but subject to the terms and conditions stated in their Wikimedia websites. They are not protected by the All Rights reserved clause of this book All chapters of my book have been reviewed, initial chapters by Peter McDevitt and thereafter by Tony Leaver. I sincerely thank Peter and Tony for their excellent work and help. I also would like to thank all persons who have in one way or another helped to bring this book to fruition. Any errors, however, are mine alone.

6 CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 THE HISTORIC SILK ROAD from Xian to Urumqi, China CHAPTER 2 OFF THE BEATEN TRACK IN AUSTRALIA CHAPTER 3 CRUISING WITH THE QUEEN ELIZABETH from Venice to the Pearls of the Black Sea CHAPTER 4 TOURING VIETNAM. NORTH AND SOUTH CHAPTER 5 THE BALKANS BY BUS from Vienna to Istanbul CHAPTER 8 EASTERN EUROPE BY BUS visiting Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia and Belarus CHAPTER 9 MARVELS OF SYRIA AND JORDAN CHAPTER 10 CRUISING THE MIDDLE EAST sailing to Muscat, Fujairah, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Dubai CHAPTER 11 SPLENDID ITALY CHAPTER 12 HISTORIC MALTA CHAPTER 6 SECLUDED LAOS CHAPTER 7 BUDAPEST CHAPTER 13 OFF THE BEATEN TRACK IN CENTRAL ASIA (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan).

7 CONTENTS CHAPTER 14 A TOUR OF SPAIN, PORTUGAL, GIBRALTAR AND MOROCCO CHAPTER 15 TURKEY a trip to Istanbul and the historic sites of the Classical Age CHAPTER 16 EXPLORING SOUTH AFRICA NAMIBIA AND BOTSWANA CHAPTER 17 TIBETAN ADVENTURE CHAPTER 18 INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCES IN AFRICA CHAPTER 19 NORTH TO ALASKA, SOUTH TO FLORIDA - Five months touring the USA and Canada by motor home CHAPTER 20 TRANS SIBERIAN RAILWAY CHAPTER 21 AN OVERLAND ADVENTURE to Madras by boat and thence to Germany by road CHAPTER 22 THE INCA EMPIRE Saksaywaman and Machu Picchu CHAPTER 23 EASTER ISLAND - NAVEL OF THE EARTH CHAPTER 24 THE MAYA CULTURE OF THE YUCATAN PENINSULA, MEXICO CHAPTER 25 BRIEF NOTES ON TEN OTHER JOURNEYS INDEX

8 CHAPTER 1 THE HISTORIC SILK ROAD -from Xian to Urumqi, China Urumqi Turpan Hami Jiayuguan Dunhuang Zhangye Lanzhou Xian CHI NA I am now reporting on an exciting 10- day tour of the Silk Road in China from June 15 to June 24, The Silk Road refers to a network of interlinking trade routes from China to Europe with a total length of some 6500 km. For almost 3000 years this trade route was used by merchants to transport goods of all kinds and was travelled too by pilgrims, missionaries, soldiers, nomads and urban dwellers from China, India, Tibet, the Persian Empire and from the Mediterranean countries. The Silk Road gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade which began during the Han Dynasty (206 BC 220 AD). We journeyed along the original first leg of the Silk Road, the northern route, which started at Chang an (now named Xian), and led us through Lanzhou, Zhangye, Jiayuguan, Dunhuang, Hami and Turpan to Urumqi. Urumqi was an important stop on the ancient Silk Road, which continued from there to Central Asia and beyond to Europe. Between 1868 and 1872 the German adventurer Ferdinand von Richthofen made seven expeditions to China and coined the German term Seidenstrasse which means Silk Road. Inspired by him many keen tourists from all over the world started exploring and travelling the Silk Road and it has now become one of the places a discerning traveller must see. The Chinese leg of the Silk Road had been on my travel radar for a long time and I had finally decided that I could wait no longer. Age is catching up and travelling, especially to exotic places, is becoming more and more expensive. As already mentioned, the Silk Road is very extensive and I do not know of any person, who has travelled all its length. I had already, in earlier years, explored several other stretches of the Road. One long and exciting tour had been on the Indian arm from Islamabad over four mountain ranges and along the Karakoram Highway into Xinjiang and the famous Silk Road City of Kashgar. Other sections I had travelled were in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Syria. This tour of the eastern leg of the Silk Road was once again organized by me. It took several months to prepare the tour in collaboration with Bayan Baru Travel, Penang; there were all sorts of obstacles. One of these was that foreigners like me had to apply personally for a Visa at the Chinese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. The response from my travel friends was very good and finally there were 22 of us on this tour. We flew from Penang direct to Canton and from there by another flight to Xian. Throughout our journey we had an excellent English speaking lady tour guide by the nick name of Cookie and 8 BORN TO TRAVEL CHAPTER 1 - THE HISTORIC SILK ROAD - From Xian to Urumqi, China

9 additionally very good local guides in the various places. With the exception of a flight from Xian to Lanzhou, we travelled all the way by comfortable buses. The hotels were good and all meals were included in the tour price. The food in the cities was really good funerary art buried with the emperor in BC and whose purpose was to protect him in the afterlife. The figures, dating from around the late third century BC, were discovered by local farmers in Lintong District, Xian, Huang s mausoleum. Other terracotta non-military figures were found in other pits and they include officials, acrobats, strongmen and musicians. Each of the three excavation pits have now been covered by a huge roof and The City of Xian and in the countryside it was a heaven for vegetarians. Our first sightseeing was in the city of XIAN, where our main objective was to see the Terracotta Warriors. This is indeed an archaeological site of world class; it is also a UNESCO Heritage Site. The Terracotta Army, or the Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses, is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form of The Terracotta Army Terracotta Soldier with his horse Shaanxi province in The figures vary in height according to their military roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots and horses. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry chargers, the majority of which are still buried in the pits close to Qin Shi Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, Xian the halls are air conditioned. The huge domed and pillar free roofs built by the Chinese Government particularly impressed me.. It is a must see site. Later we visited the Huaqing Hot Spring and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, or Big Wild Goose Pagoda, is a Buddhist shrine. Built in 652 AD during the Tang Dynasty and originally of five stories, it was rebuilt in 704 AD during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian. Its exterior brick facade was renovated during the Ming Dynasty. One of the pagoda s many functions was to hold sutras and figurines of the Buddha that had been brought to China from India by the Buddhist translator and traveller Xuanzang. We spent some time at this well known site. We ended the day with a Dumpling Banquet at the Shaanxi Grand Opera House. After dinner we enjoyed a 2-hour Tang Dynasty Show. BORN TO TRAVEL CHAPTER 1 - THE HISTORIC SILK ROAD - From Xian to Urumqi, China 9

10 Next morning, before our flight to Lanzhou, we visited Xian s impressive city wall. It is one of a kind. The massive wall, which has a total length of about 14 km, is topped by a wide stone surfaced road. We travelled along it by electric open trolley-car. A number of young foreign tourists had rented bicycles and were cycling on the wall. No other traffic is allowed. I was glad that motorcycles were prohibited. The air on the wall was clean and refreshing. Travelling along we noted that there were four main gates, North, South, East and West, for people to enter. We also admired some beautiful old low rise buildings in the old city bounded by the wall; these lunch, the Bell and Drum Tower in the city centre. Since leaving Lanzhou we had physically been on the ancient Silk Road. Wuwei and Zhangye were two of the four frontier garrison towns, along with Dunhuang and Jiayuguan, built by Emperor Wu after his defeat of Xiongnu. One can only use one s imagination to picture how the Silk Road would have looked at that time. However, until even recently it was just a dusty desert track but is now a modern 4-lane highway with two lanes in each direction, all the way to the border with Kazakhstan. The distances from one town to the next are huge and just by travelling in a modern bus one is able to appreciate these vast distances; one can feel how strenuous it must have been to journey by camel. A guide told us that a camel can walk only 30 km a day, so it took a very long time to traverse the Silk Road. In the afternoon we had to travel another 260 km to Jiayuguan, a journey which took the best part of four hours. So we had travelled for nearly 8 hours that day. This was a good test of our ability to sit glued to a seat in the bus; it was only the beginning. We stayed that night at a hotel in JIAYUGUAN. After breakfast the next morning we visited the famous Jiayuguan Pass, reputed to be Our Group on the missive City Wall buildings were in stark contrast to the skyscrapers on the outside. The visit was an unexpected pleasure. We proceeded to the airport and caught our one hour flight to LANZHOU. On arrival we were greeted by a regional tour guide and we then travelled by bus to WUWEI; a three hour journey. On reaching our destination we had dinner and checked into our hotel. We certainly did not need any sleeping pills to fall into a well deserved sleep. Early next morning we were on our way because, once again, we had a very long day ahead of us. It took nearly four hours for us to reach our next stop, the town of ZHANGYE. Here we visited the Grand Buddha Temple, the famous Wooden Pagoda and, after Wooden Pagoda in Zhangye 10 BORN TO TRAVEL CHAPTER 1 - THE HISTORIC SILK ROAD - From Xian to Urumqi, China

11 that have been excavated, only one is currently open to tourists but that one alone is well worth a visit. Our Group at the Jiayuguan Pass Our last visit of the day was to these ancient tombs, which we reached along dusty and bumpy earth tracks. We were asked to enter the only open tomb in small groups. I decided to follow one of these and we had to go down a long flight of stone steps. At the bottom a narrow slit in the wall led to a small chamber. I just managed to climb through the gap and into the Chamber where we were able to admire the old frescoes. I touched the low ceiling but was immediately warned by our guide The First Fire Tower marking the Western End of the Great Wall the Greatest Pass under Heaven. We had to enter through a large gate and came into a fortified area of temples and old buildings, all located in the pass itself. The entrance gate was an ideal place for us to take our group photo, which turned out very well. We then stopped at the First Fire Tower which marks the western end of the Ming- Dynasty Great Wall. The end of the Great Wall is neither as Great nor as high and impressive as the sector near Beijing. The real stars of Jiayuguan are the thousands of tombs from the Wei (commonly known as Cao Wei) Dynasty ( AD) and the Jin Dynasty ( AD) discovered east of the city in recent years. The 700 tombs are The western end of the Ming-Dynasty Great Wall Suspension Bridge near the western end of the Great Wall famous throughout China, and replicas or photographs of them can be seen in nearly every major Chinese museum. The bricks too deserve their fame; they are both fascinating and charming, depicting such domestic scenes as preparing for a feast, roasting meat, picking mulberries, feeding chickens and herding horses. Of the 18 tombs On the way to the ancient Cao Wei tombs not to do so as the whole tomb could collapse. Not wanting to be buried there, I quickly left the tomb chamber and rushed up the stone steps for a good breath of fresh air. Down in the tomb the air had not been too healthy. I had found out that Jiayuguan was also the location of the Chinese rocket and satellite launching facility. When planning the itinerary I had asked for permission to view the facility and was told that we would be allowed to see it but only from a distance. When finalizing the itinerary the tour operator said that the authorities had withdrawn their earlier permission for us to see it. Perhaps another launch was in preparation? After visiting the Wei-Jin Tombs we still BORN TO TRAVEL CHAPTER 1 - THE HISTORIC SILK ROAD - From Xian to Urumqi, China 11

12 faced a 400 km, or five hour, journey to Dunhuang. At one point we had to leave the nice 4-lane highway and travel on an old, and not yet upgraded, road to our destination. We had a late dinner at our hotel in Dunhuang. DUNHUANG was one of the highlights of our tour. Dunhuang, in ancient times known as Blazing Beacon, is a county-level city in northwestern Gansu province and was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road. At times Dunhuang was also named Shazhou or City of Sands. The city is best known for the nearby Dunhuang Caves. It is situated in a rich oasis containing Crescent Lake and Mingsha Shan. The name, Mingsha Shan, refers to the sound of the wind whipping off the dunes, the singing sand phenomenon. The city commands a strategic position at the crossroads of the ancient Southern Silk Route and the main road leading from India via Lhasa to Mongolia and Southern Siberia. It also controls the entrance to the narrow Hexi Corridor which points straight at the heart of the north Chinese plains and the ancient capitals of Chang an (today known as Xian) and Luoyang. Our first visit was to the famous caves. The Mogao Caves or Mogao Grottoes, also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 492 temples 25 km southeast of the centre of Dunhuang. The caves are Part of the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang The Crescent Lake near Dunhuang Buddha and Bodhisattvas Photo: Public domain, Wikimedia Commons sometimes called the Dunhuang Caves; however, this term can also be used to include other Buddhist cave sites in the Dunhuang area, such as the Western Thousand Buddha Caves and the Yulin Caves farther away. The caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. The first caves were dug out in 366 AD as places of Buddhist meditation and worship. The Mogao Caves are the best known of the Chinese Buddhist grottoes and, along with Longmen Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes, comprise the three famous ancient Buddhist sculptural sites of China. An important cache of documents was discovered in 1900 in the so-called Library Cave, which had been walledup in the 11th century. The contents of this library were dispersed around the world, and the largest collections are now to be found in Beijing, London, Paris and Berlin. The International Dunhuang Project exists to coordinate and collect scholarly work on the Dunhuang manuscripts and other material. The caves themselves are now a popular tourist destination with a number open for visiting. The caves were cut into the side of a cliff which is close to two km long. We visited nearly a dozen caves that had been opened to visitors. I was amazed by the high standard of preservation of the mural paintings and statues. There are around 2,400 surviving clay sculptures at Mogao. Construction of the caves started during the fourth century AD. We were told that the Chinese Government practices environmental control of the caves with regard to humidity and to the number of people allowed to visit. It is a well managed project and much has been written about it. The Mogao Caves became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in We next proceeded to the Crescent Lake and Mingsha Shan, literally Echoing- Sand Mountain, which I mentioned earlier in my description of Dunhuang. As it was too hot and too far to walk, we 12 BORN TO TRAVEL CHAPTER 1 - THE HISTORIC SILK ROAD - From Xian to Urumqi, China

13 Some of our friends went on a camel ride at Crescent lake had to take an electric open-air trolleycar to the main site. Here we were given orange coloured desert covers to protect our shoes and legs when walking on the baking-hot desert sand. We then took another electric trolley-car to a sand dune, from where we walked down to the Crescent Lake. This is a natural marvel, a lake right in the middle of the desert and one which has been there for centuries. Normally such lakes would have been filled by desert sand but in this unique place the winds blow in such a way, that the lake remains untouched. It is shaped like a crescent and on its near-side there is a temple and there are also stalls for refreshments. We walked down there and took a rest. At the appointed time we took the trolley back to the main square and waited for some members of our travel group who had gone on a longish camel ride. On their return one of them remarked: BOAC = better on a camel. At the time of our visit the Echoing-Sand Mountain was apparently taking a rest there was no sound. After a lunch of local food we faced a journey of 380 km to reach HAMI. This was to take us around six hours. On the way we stopped at a truck stop and visited one of the often described pit toilets. Returning to the bus I passed a large covered box. Suddenly a dog popped his head out from a feeding hole and bit my hand. The box had been covered by a tarpaulin to protect the three dogs inside against the hot sun and there had been no way of detecting the animals presence. The bite hardly penetrated my skin but the doctors on our bus insisted that I went for anti-rabies injections in Hami. The guide phoned our next guide in Hami to get ready to take me to a doctor. On arrival the new guide finally found the Government clinic responsible for injections and I was given two anti-rabies shots. The cost was very reasonable but the remaining three shots I had to take back in Penang cost about seventeen times as much as in China. I shall remember Hami. After dinner at Hami and after spending the night there, we were on our way again as there was not much to see. It is a large bustling regional city. We were now in Xinjiang which is Uyghur territory. The Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. An estimated 80% of Xinjiang s Uyghurs live in the southwestern portion of the region, the Tarim Basin. Outside Xinjiang, the largest community of Uyghurs in China is in Taoyuan County, in southcentral Hunan province. Outside China, significant diasporic communities of Uyghurs exist in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Smaller communities are found in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Germany, Serbia and Turkey. Modern scholars consider today s Uyghurs to be the descendants of a number of different peoples, including the ancient Uyghurs of Mongolia, who arrived at the Tarim Basin after the fall of the Uyghur Khanate, Iranian Saka tribes and other Indo-European peoples who inhabited the Tarim Basin before the arrival of the Mongolian Uyghurs. Today s Uyghurs are Muslims and a lot has been written about their history, religion, language, literature, cuisine and way of life. Back to our tour: after breakfast in Hami we were on the road again, this time to TURPAN, a distance of 400 km, or six hours, further on from Hami. Turpan was an important stop for us as it has a long history and a number of interesting sites to visit. Turpan, also known as Turfan or Tulufan, is an oasis county-level city in Turpan Prefecture, in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Turpan has long been the centre of a fertile oasis (with water provided by karez) and a major trade centre. It is located along the Silk Road s historic northern route. Turpan has a very long and colourful history and I would like to give just a brief summary of some significant political events. Originally Turpan was the Kingdom of Gushi, conquered by the Chinese in 107 BC and ruled by the Han dynasty. Subsequently a Turkic tribe ruled Turpan as an independent kingdom. During the 7th, 8th and early 9th centuries the Tibetan Empire, the BORN TO TRAVEL CHAPTER 1 - THE HISTORIC SILK ROAD - From Xian to Urumqi, China 13

14 Tang Chinese and the Turks fought over the area. Under Tang rule Sogdians and Chinese engaged in extensive commercial activities with each other. In 803 AD the Uyghurs seized Turfan from the Tibetans and established their kingdom, which lasted from 856 AD to 1389 AD. The conversion of the local Buddhist population to Islam was completed as late as the second half of the 15th century. Throughout its history, Turpan, as the capital of a disputed frontier region, was the prize in a tug of war between Turkic tribes and invaders from the western part of Asia and the various Chinese Dynasties. What did not change was that Turpan was always an important trading town on the Silk Road with many inns catering to merchants and other travellers. We then proceeded to the ruins of the ancient city of Jiaohe. The Jiaohe Ruins are an ancient Chinese archaeological site in the Yarnaz Valley, 10 km west of the city of Turpan. Their location, atop a steep cliff on a leaf-shaped plateau between two deep river valleys, makes the site a natural fortress. Both the Nara National Cultural Properties Research Institute and the Xinjiang Cultural Relics Bureau have been cooperating since 1992 in a joint venture to preserve the ruins. Among the earliest settlers of this area were the Indo-European speaking Tocharians, who had arrived in the Tarim and Turfan basins no later than 1800 BC. Between 108 BC and AD 450, concurrewnt with the Han Dynasty, the city of Jiaohe was the capital of the Anterior Jushi kingdom. Partial View of the Ruins of Jiaohe near Turpan the beginning of the 9th century Jiaohe prefecture was incorporated into the Uyghur Khanate, but in 840 AD the khanate was conquered by the Kyrgyz. The city was finally abandoned in the 13th Century after its destruction during an invasion by the Mongols led by Genghis Khan. Some literature calls this ruined city the Pompeii of the East. It is certainly a city of ruins but in my personal opinion it goes too far to compare it with the sophisticated ruins of Pompeii. The ruins of Jiaohe are rather crude and suggest that the city s streets and buildings had not been planned in a systematic way. The fascination of Pompeii lies in the suddenness in which the city was overwhelmed. Jiaohe was simply abandoned. Some of the more energetic members of our travel group ventured deeper into the ruins and returned some time later really soaked in sweat. The rest of us had chosen just to take a few photos and rest in the shade. We then went to see one of the most interesting places in Turpan; the Turpan water system, locally called the Karez Water System. It is a qanat system adapted by the Turpan people. The word karez, derived from the same word kariz in Persian, means well in the local Uyghur language. The city has the Turpan Water Museum (a Protected Area of the People s Republic of China) dedicated to demonstrating its karez water system, as well as exhibiting other historical artifacts. We visited this Jiaohe, like Turpan, was once an important site on the Silk Road leading west. From 450 AD until 640 AD during the Tang Dynasty, the city became Jiao prefecture, and in 640 AD was made the seat of the new Jiaohe County. At Cross section of a typical Quanat Image by Samuel Baily (sam.bailus@gmail.com), Wikimedia Commons 14 BORN TO TRAVEL CHAPTER 1 - THE HISTORIC SILK ROAD - From Xian to Urumqi, China

15 Entrance to Turpan s Karez Water System museum and listened with great interest to the explanations given by a local expert. Turpan s well system was crucial to the city s role as an important oasis stopover on the ancient Silk Road skirting the barren and hostile Taklamakan Desert. Turpan owes its prosperity to the water provided by its karez well system. series of battles in the 1750s the Qing Dynasty, with their superior weaponry, conquered this largely Muslim region by defeating the Mongols and the Uyghurs. As conquerors, the Qing ruled the local population with a light hand and were tolerant of the Muslim religion. The minaret was started in 1777 during the reign of the Qing Emperor Qianlong ( ) and was completed just one year later. It was financed by local leaders and built to honour the exploits Silk Route. Nearby is the site of the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves. Our last stop for the day was at the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves. The Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves form a complex of Buddhist cave grottoes dating from the 5th to the 14th Century AD in the Mutou Valley, a gorge in the Flaming Mountains, between the cities of Turpan and Shanshan in the north-east corner of the Taklamakan Turpan s Karez Water System comprises a series of vertically dug wells, horizontally linked by underground water canals, to collect surface run-off water from the base of both the Tian Shan Mountains and the nearby Flaming Mountains. Making use of the current produced by gravity acting on the drop in altitude of the downward slope of the Turpan Depression, the canals channel the water into the irrigation system. To minimize water evaporation the canals are mostly underground. This irrigation system based on inter-connected wells originated during the years 206 BC 24 AD of the Han Dynasty. We walked through one of the nice and cool underground channels and saw for ourselves the fast flowing water. I was most impressed by this ingenious system. From the Karez Water System we drove to the very imposing Emin Minaret, that stands by the Uyghur Mosque, also located near Turpan. At 44 metres it is the tallest minaret in China. In a The Uyghur Mosque near Turpan Emin Minaret at the Uyghur Mosque near Turpan of a local Turpan general, Emin Khoja, hence the name Emin. The Emin Minaret is located on the ancient Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves Desert. The caves are high in the cliffs of the west Mutou Valley under the Flaming Mountains, and most of the surviving caves date from the Uyghur Kara-Khoja kingdom of the 10th to 13th Centuries. There are 77 rock-cut caves at the site. Most have rectangular spaces with rounded arch ceilings often divided into four sections, each with a mural of the Buddha. The effect is of entire ceilings covered with hundreds of Buddha murals. Some of these show a large Buddha surrounded by other figures, including Indians, Persians and Europeans. I enjoyed these caves more than the ruins of Jiaohe, although I observed that they are not protected from the environment and are thus of lesser archaeological quality than the Mogao Grottoes. It had been a very long and an interesting day and we gladly retired to our hotel at Turpan. BORN TO TRAVEL CHAPTER 1 - THE HISTORIC SILK ROAD - From Xian to Urumqi, China 15

16 Vineyard in the grape valley, Turpan Drying of grapes in Turpan Freshly rested we started the new day with a visit to the Grape Valley. There are a number of grape growers in the Valley and we were amazed at the large acreage that had been set aside for this one crop. To our surprise, grapes in Turpan are used in the production of raisins rather than wine; grape farms rather than vineyards. The fruit are dried in Chunche; a Uyghur word that describes a kind of building used to make raisins in Turpan. The building has a dark interior and the walls are provided with a large number of holes to allow wind to pass through and assist in the drying process through evaporation. Chunches are usually built in high, windy, areas due to their need for ventilation. These structures have long attracted the attention of visitors to Turpan. The 19th-century Russian traveler, Grigory Grumm-Grzhimaylo, wrote of Turpan: Turfan is famous for its raisins, which one can deem to be the best in the world. They are dried in drying houses of a completely peculiar type. Refreshments in the grape valley The drying process takes about 40 days. Raisins produced from grapes that have been dried in a drying house (the air-dried kind) usually appear green or yellow, because of the shade, while those from grapes dried in direct sunlight are dark. For 2009/2010, China s annual raisin production was forecast by international experts at 155,000 metric tons (the largest in the world), of which 75% would have come from Turpan. We visited a number of grape farms and were welcomed by Uyghur families with fruits before being shown around. We walked under vines with nice large bunches of grapes hanging down invitingly, but unfortunately they were not yet ripe. At one stop we were entertained by the daughters of the farm owner with Uyghur music and dances. It was a most enjoyable morning. After lunch we visited the Flaming Mountains. These are barren, eroded, red sandstone hills in the Tian Shan Mountain range and lie near the northern rim of the Taklamakan Desert Daughters of a Uyghur grape farm owner entertaining us and east of the city of Turpan. Their striking gullies and trenches, caused by erosion of the red sandstone bedrock, give the mountains a flaming appearance at certain times of the day. Apparently, when we visited, weather conditions were not right and the mountains were not flaming for us. We then continued to Urumqi, which took us more than three hours. Urumqi, formerly Tihwa or Dihua, is the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in the northwest of the country. The city was a major hub on the Silk Road during China s Tang Dynasty, and 16 BORN TO TRAVEL CHAPTER 1 - THE HISTORIC SILK ROAD - From Xian to Urumqi, China

17 developed its reputation as a leading cultural and commercial centre during the Qing Dynasty. With a population of nearly 3 million, Urumqi, whose name means beautiful pasture in the Mongolian language of the Dzungar people, is the largest city in China s western interior. Since the 1990s the city has developed economically and now serves as a regional transport node and a cultural, and commercial centre. The largest city in western China, Urumqi has earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the most remote city from any sea in the world. It is about 2,500 kilometers from the nearest coastline. This was my second visit to this large industrial city which does not invite tourists to walk around much because of its sheer size. There are a number of places one could visit, such as bazaars and museums, Hong Shan Park and Shuimugou Hot Springs. Our tour provided a day trip to the Tianshan Mountains and the Heavenly Lake. Upon our return we visited the famous Erdaoqiao Bazaar. Our journey along the Silk Road had been very interesting but tiring. We had travelled long distances through the Gobi Desert, which consists of the White, Yellow and Black Gobi. If water is available, the White Gobi can be used for agriculture but the Yellow and Black Gobi consist of surface rocks and are thus unsuitable for agriculture. Tianshan Mountains Heavenly Lake near Urumqi Gobi Desert A section of the 4 - lane highway from Lanzhou to Urumqi afford travelling, good restaurants, hotels and visiting tourist attractions. China has made incredible progress!!! It had been a once in a life-time experience since there had been so much to see. The most important places were Xian, Dunhuang and Turpan. They must not be left out of any itinerary. Our tour had once again been organized by Bayan Baru Travel. We had travelled nearly 3,000 km overland and all arrangements had gone very well. Our 22 travel companions were very pleased and conveyed their thanks to Bayan Baru Travel, Penang and to Xian Everbright International Travel Service, the tour operator in China. I had been amazed by the excellent infrastructure developed and introduced by the Chinese Government. There is a new 4-lane highway all the way from Lanzhou to Urumqi and the airports of these places and that of Xian are super modern and efficient. Prices had been quite reasonable throughout the tour with the exception of a cup of coffee at Urumqi Airport which had cost the princely sum of RM = about US$ A different view of the Gobi Desert Another surprising experience was that we had seen Mainland Chinese tourists everywhere; in stark contrast with previous visits many years ago. Most of these tourists and also local residents had been smiling, probably because they are rich now and can BORN TO TRAVEL CHAPTER 1 - THE HISTORIC SILK ROAD - From Xian to Urumqi, China 17