Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

Labrang Lamasery

Labrang Lamasery

The Grasslands

Taken from the bus on the way home

The most stylish way of pouring water I've ever seen

Our cameraman taking Jeff for a ride

The Grasslands

This weekend we went on another road trip. This time we headed south to Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. On Saturday night we visited the Grassland area near our hotel. This area is absolutely amazing. The scenery is world-class and the people are very open and friendly. We rode horses and were entertained with local dances while eating dinner. The next morning we visited Labrang Lamasery. This is one of the six major monasteries belonging to the Yellow Sect of Tibetan Buddhism. It was erected in 1709 and is also the largest institute higher learning of Tibetan Buddhism.

Foreign Experts Dinner

Once a year a Banquet is hosted for all of the foreigners working in Lanzhou. The dinner was also a celebration of the 58th Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. This was a good chance for us delegates to met other foreigners. It is also at this Banquet that the Gansu Provincial Government grants the "Dunhuang Award" to foreigners in recognition of their contribution to the development of Gansu Province. This award has been granted every year since 1996. Although Dave Adamson from the Christchurch City Council could not attend the Banquet to receive his award, he is obviously thought of very highly here in Gansu. We were entertained at dinner with a variety of performances, including dances by students from the Northwest Minority University.

A lunch disaster .............

Graham and I decided to be somewhat adventurous for lunch today. Big mistake. We chose a restaurant at random and the fact that the staff seemed to be sleeping when we entered should have been the first sign that lunch wasn't going to go smoothly. The second indicator should have been that not only was the menu entirely in Chinese, we couldn't recognise any of the characters. The third indicator should have been when we randomly pointed at items on the menu and the waitress laughed. The end result was a complete disaster. A big pot was brought to the table with various things inside. I would like to say what was boiling away inside the pot but to be honest all I can remember is a tentacle, some celery, and something resembling boiled snake skin..................

Five Springs Mountain

After initially catching the wrong bus a group of us made it to the bottom of Five Springs Mountain by mid-morning. The park on the mountain is the largest in Lanzhou. The Middle Peak of the Five Springs Mountain, the highest point in the park, reaches 1,600 meters (5,294 feet). While there is an amusement park, a zoo, and naturally a large number of people milling around, there are many beautiful temples to explore and the view from the top is well worth the effort.

Gansu Provincial Musuem

The Galloping Horse

Today we visited the Gansu Provincial Museum. There are altogether thirteen exhibiting halls in the museum. The most famous relic is the bronze Galloping Horse, a 1,800 year old statue that was excavated in 1969 in Wuwei.

Waiban

Today we visited the Foreign Affairs Office (Waiban) for the first time. We have all been paired with a staff member from the office in order to exchange ideas and information about our respective countries and China. Those delegates whose country did not have a representative in Gansu on last year's programme will be giving presentations in the following weeks to the rest of the group and the Waiban staff. Some of us have started playing ping-pong in our spare time. Although I must admit it is a bit discouraging to be annihilated by small children!

Time to study ..................

Language class: Youssef (Egypt), Jeff, Graham, Dinora (Mexico),
and Cynthia (Brazil) learning a Chinese song

A major component of our time here will be spent studying Chinese language and culture. We had our first culture class yesterday with Professor Tuo. We have a total of 8 language classes a week and judging by our first lesson we're going to need all of them!

The Guest House

The front of the Guest House

My room. Each of us have our own room with an ensuite

Lanzhou University Guest House

Jeff "working" at the front desk

The view from my window

All of the delegates are staying at the Guest House on Lanzhou University's Post-Grad campus. The Guest House is really nice and is only a couple of minutes walk from the building we have classes in. The University was founded in 1909 and since 2001 has gained recognition as one of the 38 key Universities cooperatively sponsored by the Ministry of Education and local Provincial Government. Currently Lanzhou University consists of 31 Schools with 32,109 undergraduates, 6677 postgraduates and over 100 International students.

The long ride home ...........

Map of Gansu Province

Jinchuan Non-Ferrous Metal Corporation (JNMC)

Our last banquet on Sunday before coming back to Lanzhou

Scott and our bus driver for the week

Jeff and myself being interviewed by a local TV station

Drinks at a Banquet - coke, wine, baiju, tea

Akiko and Tatsuji on the bus at JNMC

We began the long journey home on Saturday, via Zhangye and Jinchang. In Zhangye we visited an Agricultural Garden and a Water Irrigation Exhibition Hall. Conserving water is a major focus of local government as Gansu is very arid. Jinchang is an industrial city and we visited the Jinchuan Non-Ferrous Metal Corportation (JNMC) this morning. Jinchuan Group Ltd is the largest producer of nickel, cobalt and platinum group metals in China. At our final banquet for lunch most of us couldn't even eat half of the dishes presented! We got back on the bus after lunch and headed for home. We have had an amazing week, and we all feel very fortunate to have had the chance to explore so much of Gansu Province. We learned a few lessons this week as well;
1. Always be kind to your bus driver as it is his or her job to keep you alive in the often crazy traffic. 2. All of us in the group could never make it in the army as the rations we had brought with us for the week we had eaten within a day of us leaving Lanzhou. 3. Gansu is a little-known treasure in the North-West of China that has abundant attractions and beautiful scenery well worth a visit.

Jiuquan City

"Happy Birthday Miss Hungary" - Erika and the group outside our hotel in Jiuquan

Wine Spring Park

A worker making Jade Cups at the Luminous Cup Factory

A lunch banquet with city officials

Gansu Dayu Water-Saving Company Co.

Today was Erika's birthday (Ambassador from Hungary). We had arrived in Jiuquan late last night and had visited the Night Market before crashing. Life on the road is fun, but we are all feeling the effects of staying in a different hotel every night! This morning we visited Wine Spring Park, a famous site of the West Han Dynasty. We also visited the Luminous Cup Factory of Jiuquan. The cups are made from Qilianshan Jade and were first produced more than 2,000 years ago.

Dunhuang

Site of the Mogao Grottoes

Mogao Grottoes

Jeff demonstrating how not to get off a camel ..........

Dunhuang Night Market

A Wind Farm

The magnificent sand dunes

Marie (Ambassador from Kamakura, Japan) discovering the easiest way to get back down

On Wednesday morning we had a very long bus ride to Dunhuang. In ancient times, Dunhuang was the center of trade between China and neighbours in the west. At that time, it was the most westerly frontier military garrison in China. Today Dunhuang is most famous for the Mogao Grottoes, which are considered to be the richest treasure house of Buddhist art in the world. The work that went into constructing the Grottoes spans more than a thousand years and the site was justifiably listed as a World Heritage Site in 1987. While in Dunhuang we also visited the beautiful Mingsha Mountains and the Crescent Moon Spring. Despite being surrounded by towering sand dunes the Spring has never been submerged by sand. After climbing to the top of the sand dunes for a breathtaking view, most of us elected to take the easy way back to the bus, by camel.

Jiayuguan City

Our ever-present cameraman preparing to amaze us with his strength

5 seconds later .................

There's obviously something about wearing a hard hat ..............

Jeff's birthday celebrations

Jiayuguan Pass

Graham taking a shot

The advancing "enemy"

Jiayuguan Pass

After another early morning start we headed for Jiayuguan City (located in the middle part of the Gansu Corridor). After checking in to our hotel we headed out for Jiayuguan Pass. This was a key pass of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty (AD1368-1644) and is the best preserved today. The pass was listed as a world cultural relic by UNESCO in 1986. Jeff, Graham and myself took the opportunity to do some archery from the top of the Great Wall. I have to admit that any advancing enemy would have no problem dodging my arrows! I think even the lady handing out the arrows thought I was a lost cause. In the afternoon we visited JISCO - Jiuquan Iron and Steel (Group) Co. The company's products are used in construction, welding, shipbuilding, automobile manufacturing, and transportation. We returned to the hotel and celebrated Jeff's birthday. We were all tired after another day on the road ......................