The next morning, the higher officer was in our hotel, registering our passport and Jason and Joe’s ID cards again.

She even recommended to us a good place to have breakfast, and drove ahead of us to make sure we will find it.

We ate a thin pancake wrapped around veggies, and a dish of creamy tofu with a spicy sauce on it. Both were delicious.

We drove out-of-town through another beautiful stretch of landscape.
We observed wild camels walking in a dry river bed, stone houses, made from the same rocks as the river, and blue sky everywhere…..

The road took us up the mountains and down again into beautiful green valleys.
When we reaches the town of Artux, we saw again the same grey looking desert landscape that made me want to escape into the mountains to begin with.

In Artux, we ate a fabulous lunch at a Uyghur restaurant and went to visit a small village with an elaborated Uyghur interior decoration.
The rooms were filled with silk rugs, sitting cushions, and wonderful plaster and stone work.

It was the nicest house we saw in China up until now.
It was surrounded with vineyards and even had its own pool and sauna.
(The kitchen was still just a collection of tables with pots and woks on them, no decor and no aesthetics)

We cycled 62 KM, and arrived in Wushi by 6 PM.
The first thing we did was to go to the bureau police (a different place than the traffic police station and the regular police station.)

A very friendly policemen, copied by hand, what seemed like every page of our passports.
We were told NOT to photograph anything while we were in the area.
I was glad I had taken some photos before we arrived there.

We drove around town looking for a place to eat.
We have not eaten anything beside fruit and bagels, which we bought in a roadside stand.

Lunch was tasty, although it always feels a little strange and disheartening to eat while the cooks and servers are hacking, coughing, spitting….or swatting flies.

After Wushi we loaded the bikes and drove to Kaqi.
The road meander through beautiful small villages, with people of Kyrgyzstan ethnicity.
The men wore white hats with a black inner lining folded upwards.
The women had red cheeks and the elderly women wore headscarves.

There were almost no cars, trucks or buses, only motorbikes, donkeys, horses and bicycles.

The landscape took our breath away….. It felt so idyllic…. Yet we stuck to our promise not to photograph anything.

We arrived in Akqi late and looked for a place to stay.
We had zero expectations, because small town do not have good hotels, and indeed our hotel have seen better days….
But the best suite in the place did have a king size bed with good clean white sheets and a nice comforter.
The shower was nothing to write home about…. But we managed two quick showers and walked into town.

I wanted to buy for Jules, who loves hats, one of these super cool looking Kyrgis hats.
The town in tiny, with one main road and a small amount of side market streets.

We asked around town and mimicked with our hands a hat.
We learnt that a hat is called “Mouaza” in Chinese.
But all the hats they showed us, were regular hats, and not the traditional cool ones.
Funnily enough, even though so many men wore these hats, just when we were looking to buy one, no one was wearing them, so we could not point to the correct kind of hat and explain.

A young girl, about eight years old, with blue eyes and very dirty cloths, understood what we wanted and she gave us the word for it.
Apparently we were looking for a “Kalpak.”

By now, a group of ten kids gathered around us and about five adult.
One very kind and helpful man, spoke a small amount of English.

We’ve collected an “entourage”, which followed us, trying to be helpful, as we walked around the town.
By consensus, it was agreed that there was a store selling “Kalpakas” on the second floor of a dilapidated building, but it was closed now.

It was around 10:30 PM, but this was “Beijing time.”

China, despite its huge size, does not have time zones, which means that North-Western places like Xinjiang Province, have the same time zone as the east coast of China.
Here, by 9PM, you can still wear your sunglasses.

Anyway….. We climbed to the second floor of the building, and there was a mobile phone number written on the closed door.
One of the adults called the owner, and regardless of the late hour, informed her that there were two “important” people from “Megua” (America), who came to buy hats, and that she must come.

She arrived dressed in high hills and a perfect dress, within fifteen minutes.
The store had dressy hats and clothing, for special occasions.
But we knew that with all this production, and getting her out of her home and back to the store so late, we must buy two hats.
We bought one for me and a lovely one for Jules.

As a ‘thank you’ to everyone around, we bought some sneaker bars from a closed cabinet that she kept, (apparently they were considered to be a luxury item in this remote village), and gave them as gifts to the helpful kids.

Back on the street, we strolled around town to look for places to eat and observe the people, when a police van pulled by us and two policemen asked in Chinese, for our passports.

They pointed to their van and asked us to come with them to the police station to register.
We got into the van.
In the back seat of the van was a naked drunk man, mumbling in drunken Chinese.

They drove us to the station, where we were welcomed to a room with bank beds.
We were kindly told to seat down, as this will take awhile….

Out passports were copied from front to back, and a non uniform policeman, tried to communicate to us, that we are not suppose to stay in this town.

It was time to call Jason.
I handed the policeman the phone and they talked.
Within moments, Jason was there, politely pleading on our behalf.

Akqi, is a sensitive closed area, where no foreigners are allowed to visit, we were told.
They called for the higher officers, to come.
She was a uniformed officer with kind eyes and a warm smile.

They said that it was NOT personal, but the border area is sensitive, and they requested that we leave TONIGHT.

I pointed to the clock, hanging above the door, showing that it was closed to midnight by now…..and I asked Jason to plead and to ask if we can stay overnight in the hotel that we already checked into, if we promise to leave first thing in the morning….. Even as early as 7 am….. Before breakfast….

Jason was charming and diplomatic….
He told them we are NOT journalists, but that I am just an artist.
He asked me to show them photos of my art on my iPad.

The policeman loved my art, said that he also loves to draw and allowed us to stay for the night.

We exchanged a million thanks, shook hands and were given a ride to the door of our hotel.
We breathed a deep breath of relief, although I have to admit that I had a strong sense that we will not be forced to drive out of town at midnight, because the nearest town was 300 KM away, and they seemed so kind to us…..they even offered us food and drink (which we refused).

We thanked Jason and went to bed.
We slept well that night, in this quiet friendly town.

Every day of our trip has been packed with so much adventure.

When Jules asked me this morning: “Are you ready for another day of fun and adventure?”
I have to admit that I was not expecting much…. I was expecting another cycling day going through the hot desert and not much more….

Who knew that by the end of the day, I would see some amazing scenery and that we would get detained by the police…..

The map showed two options, the National road, marked as a red line, and a narrow route marked as a thin white line with only two towns placed on it, Wushi and Akqi.

While researching which road to take, Jules came upon a blog of a woman who took the narrow remote road before.
She said that the National road is just a boring road through the shadeless desert, while the longer alternate road, takes you through high grassland, through mountains and adobe villages, filled with Kyrgis people, trees, farms, land filled with wild donkeys, free roaming camels, herds of sheep and goats.

We decided to take this road.
We left Aksu after breakfast and started cycling when the road met the river.
Initially, the land felt dry with a river to our right and the mountains to our left.

A few Kilometers down the road, we were stopped by a police check point, but instead of waving us through, as they did everywhere else, the police asked for our passports.

They took their time registering our passports and our visa numbers.
They held us for twenty minutes, until Jason and Joe arrived with our support vehicle.
Jason explain our trip, and was told that because this road runs so close to the border with Kyrgyzstan, the area is very “sensitive” and foreigners are not allowed through.

Jason pleaded on our behalf, and we were allowed to cycle through, if we and Jason, promise to register again in the next town of Wushi.

We cycle through the desert.
To break the monotony of hot days of cycling, we started photographing the many colors and different variety of desert flowers growing along the path.

After awhile, the road was lined with tiny villages and planted with mature poplar trees, which provided shade and added beauty to the landscape.

I remember being engulfed with a sense of serenity and inner peace…. A sense of perfection….or rural harmony…..enhanced by the cry of a distant donkey, the song of a rooster, the scent of the trees, and the beauty of the people.

The Kyrgis people look and dress very different from the Uyghur people.
We saw them riding donkey or horse carts, standing by their homes, making bagels and fresh bread sprinkled with sesame.

More about how we got detained in the next post…..

Along the road, we saw many old ladies and old men, riding donkey carts, carrying people (as a taxi service), or hay, or vegetables.

We saw young men with red cheeks, wearing beret hats, standing at awe as we cycled by them…

We saw mulberry trees, loaded with berries…. And people crouching by the road, resting and watching life go by.

We ate dinner in Aksu.
Dinner was a sizzling spicy potato, a similar dish with Daikon radish, green beans, and spicy cabbage.
Everything wad delicious, but our driver called to tell us that our van is not staring.
Hopefully by tomorrow, he will get it fixed and we will be able to leave on schedule.

China never ceases to amaze me….

When we checked into our hotel in Aksu, Jason (our Chinese guide) asked me if I wanted to stay for two nights in Aksu.

We usually stay for two nights if we arrive late and there are sights that we want to see around the area, on the next day.

But here in Aksu, nothing showed up when we looked for it online.
People mentioned things to see that were actually located in Kucha.

When we checked in, I noticed a beautiful photo above the registration desk.
I pointed to the photo depicting a stunning canyon, and asked Jason to inquire if it was located in the area.

“Well, yes actually, only 90 KM away.” Said the girl.

We left after lunch the next day, to see this canyon.
The road turned into a gravel road for a while, and no other cars were in sight.

At the end of the road was a gate and a few dune buggies and a couple of large Hammer four wheels vehicles, for driving on deep sand.

The stuff told us that they only have one four-wheel drive ATV (all terrain vehicle) but they do not trust it… Because the wiring was acting up…. And that the dune buggies were just for fun play, not to go deeper into the canyon.

Jason and Jules tried to convince me that it will not be a good idea to take an unreliable ATV in the heat into a desert canyon…. But I knew better….
No serious fun can be had in life without taking some chances….. And without a bit of danger, risk and uncertainty….

I insisted on renting the ATV and made an arrangement with Jason, to send a rescue vehicle, if we were not back in two hours.

It is hard to explain how much fun we had…..

The canyon was so beautiful, open, raw, wild and filled with wildlife.

Almost immediately we spotted a small creature which looked like a small starved dog.
It had sandy color body and tall rabbit ears.
It looked at us for a while, posed for me to photograph it a few times, and then galloped away, as fast and as light as a deer.

We think that it was an Antelope-Jackrabbit, but all the photos I can find of it on the Internet, does not resemble the quick and beautiful creature we saw.

The ones from the Mexican desert and the USA desert area, all have a body that resembles a rabbit with very long ears.
This creature had rabbit ears, but it had the body and gallop of a miniature skinny deer.
Perhaps we saw a real incarnation of the mythical “Jackalope”….. (A legend tells of a love mix between an antelope and a jackrabbit…)

We rode the ATV through the empty canyon.
The cliffs were carved and looked like art pieces, sculptures and grottos.

Almost no one was in sight….
We took a short hike on foot, into a narrow canyon where the canyon walls come together, carved by the water which reaches very high levels, during the rainy season.

It was one of the most fun activity ever…
I loved seeing Jules bright-eyed like a kid, radiating great joy….. Like a boy with a fun toy…. In playground paradise…..

We usually do not love ATV’s, but there was no other way to see the length of this canyon without a vehicle.
It runs 13 KM each way excluding the option of exploring the side valleys (which we did on the ATV) and the sand was just too deep, to be able to walk distances.
There was almost no shade for miles too….

It was LOADS of fun!
We felt so blessed and fortunate to see a part of raw beauty and to have such an adventure in China.

Combined with a couple of hours cycling later, I felt like a tiredless kid again…

We cycled 55 KM from Kucha to Baicheng.
The path was mostly flat with some trees growing on both sides of the road, which added some visual interest.

There were also people selling honey.
They raise bees and live in tents next to their bees.
Cycling through fields of swarming bees turned out safe.
Jules and I did not get stung and we stopped and bought some honey which is fragrant and tasty.
We ate it with the large flat bread that we bought in the market, right out of the oven.

We stopped for lunch at a Uygur restaurant in Beicheng.
Lunch was sliced tomatoes sprinkled with sugar, a potato dish and noodles.

We drove to Aksu in the rain.
It was our first real rain of the trip.

In Aksu, we checked into a lovely suite in a new hotel.
We plan to enjoy the next two nights in comfort, with a great living room, a computer desk, king size bed which we padded with extra soft blankets. (they sleep on mattresses that are extremely hard in China, but if you ask, they will pad the bed for you, to make it softer)

We went for a walk late in the evening into town.
We ordered some veggies and a flat bread in a ‘small hot pot’ restaurant, a large beer, mineral water, and two ice creams.
The food was fresh, nicely spiced and cost only 25 Yuan (around $4)

First we visited the remains of the Kizil Grottos.
Carved into the mountains, these Buddhist grottos have almost no painted wall frescos and no sculptures left in them, but the caves carved into the cliff overlooking the valley, are just as majestic as ever.

We took a walk into a canyon called “Heavenly Mountain Mysterious Grand Canyon.”

The path twisted and turned between tall cliffs and narrowed down so much, that we were hardly able to squeeze between the rock walls, and under boulders as we walked on the wet river bed up the canyon.

We climbed makeshift ladders, and crossed over shaky plank walkways and squeezed and bent and faced excitement and danger…. it was great fun!

It was beyond beautiful to be there…. breathtaking….

In the middle of this majestic canyon, which is a masterpiece of Mother Nature, there are also carved Buddhist grottos which are man’s addition to the magic of this place….

The access to the caves was closed, but we saw the high mountain steps leading to it and were able to see a canyon shrine.

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Our driver looks hurt, when we ask him to put on the air-conditioner in the car.
Just like he is reluctant to turn on the car headlights at night, until it is totally pitch black…. he gives us as sad look, as if the whole van will explode from the use of the air conditioner… so we drop our request and drive with all the windows open, sweating and with dust and grime all over our faces.

We arrived at the town of Kucha late this afternoon.
Kucha is divided to a new part of town, and an old part of town which lies on the banks of the river.

Naked boys are swimming in the silty river and people brings their horses and donkeys to rest and drink water there.

The people are so friendly, smiling and gathering around us, asking us questions and inviting us to sit with them… we are the only foreign tourists walking in this chaotic and wonderful market town today.

There have been forty-six caves some with Buddhist murals, but the cliffs are collapsing now and the caves have been closed to the public for safety reasons.

We took a walk through the most picturesque adobe village, and walked across the river, to see the caves from a distance.

We took photos of daily life and the local Mosque, saw the ancient tombs and burial ground, filled with earthen adobe graves.

Our path which was closed to visitors, meandered along the old cliffs, which now pose a serious danger of collapsing.

The path was broken in many places, and we needed to “jungle climb” to make our way across it.
It was most fun.

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The area is filled with underground ancient tombs, but only three are open to the public.
Most of the rest are closed or lay buried under many hundreds of years of desert sand.

In one of the tombs, we saw two very well preserve mummies, and the two other tombs, had the remains of the underground burial chambers and some lovely murals depicting figures, ducks, pheasants, and flowers, done in a naive sweet way.

Buried in these tombs were nobles, officials and others from the period beginning in the Western Jin and ending in the middle of the Tang Dynasty. (1300 – 1700 years old)

Many of the corpses found in more than five hundred tombs, did not rot, but instead they have become dried-up mummies.

The bodies are not wrapped as mummies, and most of the dried-up bodies are completely intact.

Maybe due to the dry and hot climate, many paintings, earthen figurines and thousands of other unearthed cultural relics were found well-preserved.

The road took us through the Taklamakan desert and the famous “Flaming Mountains,” named poetically, because their red color in extremely hot days, look as if they were on fire.

The Bizaklik Thousand-Buddha Caves, are carved into a cliff, above a valley with a flowing river, grape vines and mature trees.

The whole area is surrounded by sandy desert mountains.
When we were there, a sudden desert storm blew sand into the air, blocking all view and making the air appear as if it were made of smoke…
But soon enough the wind calmed down and we were able to see what remains of the caves.

They were called the Ningrong Grottoes in the Tang Dynasty.
There are seventy-seven numbered grottoes, about forty of which still have small remains of murals in them.

The oldest grottoes were carved in the period of Quhsi Dynasty in the thirteenth century, it was once an important Buddhist gathering place.

Alas today, one walks around these majestic grottoes with a sense of loss….

The beautiful murals were cut by a German explorer, who removed large chunks of fresco adobe painted walls, stole large sculptures and left a massive amount of rubble and destruction.

His intentions were to preserve them for world’s history.
He gave them to the Berlin Museum, which was demolished to the ground during the WW2 bombing.

Many of the murals were defaced during the years, by Muslims who scratch out the eyes and the faces, and tore down the remaining statues.

The Muslims acted out of misunderstanding of their Islamic belief, which calls for worshipping NO images of any living creatures, nor worshipping statues of God, but only believing in God as ONE Spirit.

The words were taken out of context and the scriptures both in Islam and Judaism, have been completely misunderstood. (and still are)

Because we were not allowed to take photos in the caves, I am adding here other photos we took today in the Taklamakan Desert along the way.

Located only a short distance from the center of the city of Turpan, Grape Valley, is a place where gaped are grown commercially and local people live in, but it require an admission fee to get into.

The main street of Grape Valley, are lined with traditional adobe earth homes.
Because of the visibility to tourist, most of the adobe homes are beautifully kept.

The entrance doors are all hand painted with scenes of the valley, of fruit and flowers, and they add a charm to the place.

The streets are lined with grape vines and old mulberry trees, which are ripe now.
As we walked to photograph the beautiful adobe homes, the colorful doors and the grape vines, I could not restrain myself from picking and munching on the ripe mulberries everywhere.

I put them in my mouth unwashed, as the juice stained my fingers…

Behind the main entrance door to the houses, there is usually a courtyard and in it, there is a large platform wooden bed covered with a silk rug.
On the bed, the family rests, sleeps or take naps, eats, or prepare ingredients for their meal, like peel garlic, or cut long beans.

We saw mothers and grandmothers rock little gargling babies to sleep, play with their kids, or take long mid day naps.

These divan beds, are also a common way to seat diners in restaurants, and I have seen them sold around Turpan, in extra large sizes, that can sit a group of a dozen people.

On the hills surrounding the area, it is common to see “Grapes Drying Houses”.
These are adobe structure that their walls are done with holes, to allow ventilation from all sides.
They place the grapes in them and the dry heat of the desert, dry the grapes into wonderfully tasty raisins.

There are more than a hundred different kinds of raisins in Turpan.
We tasted a few and bough some different kinds, as a healthy snack.
I also bough some dry mulberries.

Even the graves are done with adobe earth, and with the passing years, the adobe hardens and becomes one with the surrounding rocks.

Turpan was the first region in China to grow grapes, as early as the Tang Dynasty.

The valley is a world of green vines and trees, filled with irrigation canals.
The water is channeled into the Turpan area, via a massively long irrigation system that starts in the Tian Shan mountain range, many hundreds of kilometers away.
The water from these tall mountains, run by gravity into Turpan, which is below sea level.
Turpan is the second lowest place on earth, after the Dead Sea in Israel.

In this fertile valley, they grow mulberry, peach, apricot, apple, pomegranate, pear, fig, walnut, elm, poplar and willow.

Everywhere we walked, we saw a kind of green grapes, which are called “Mare Nipples”, because of their elongated shape, resembling a Mare’s nipple.

It is a most picturesque area with a striking visual contrast between the dry desert and adobe earth homes, to the large area of growing green grape vines.

You want to know the plus?
The blessing?

Well…..
The wind was on our tail, pushing me at 30 KM per hours up the hills.

It may sound effortless, but the wind was blowing so hard, that I was covered in dust and small pebbles hit my expose skin.

Holding my breaks on the down hills, to prevent my bike from going 50 KM per hour, and navigating a safe passage on the badly pothole national road, had turned out to be quite a challenge too.

Later a light rain started, and the wind intensified, but it was soon back to dry windy desert.
The name of this area, not to be confused with the Gobi desert, which we left behind now, is the Gebi (stony) desert.

As we reached Dabancheng, we came upon three old ladies who were setting up a street stall selling broad dried beans, cold drinks and from an aluminum cooler, they served me their home-made yogurt. (none of the boys tried it)
It was most yummy and refreshing.

We ate a good lunch in Dabancheng along the way.
A dish of spicy potatoes and peppers.
Another dish of green zucchini.
A dish of cooked fresh mushroom.
A dish of sautéed spinach, and wide noodles which we soaked in the mushroom sauce.

The dry heat of the air in Turpan is hard to describe….. It is desert hot…. It is REALLY HOT….

We checked into our hotel, took a good shower, and left for dinner.
Dinner was superb.
The lady at the restaurant made us vegetarian dumplings which were not on the menu, but since they make their dumplings to order, wrapping and filling included, she was happy to oblige.

The dumplings are boiled, and we dipped them in a mixture of soy and hot chillies.
One kind of dumplings were filled with cooked daikon radish and the other with spinach and celery.
We also tried for the first time “smashed tofu” with scallions.
It is traditionally a dish that is served cold, and it was also wonderful.

After dinner, we took a long walk along the main town’s square.
Every night, the locals come out to the square to enjoy the relatively cooler temperatures, to socialize and to have a good time.

They dress up in their best clothing and dress their children in beautiful clothes.
The girls were dressed in tutus and looked like butterflies.

They buy ice creams and balloons, have their photo taken in front of the fountain-lake, ride the merry-go-round….

It felt so innocent and sweet… Like stepping back in time into a more child-like times…. When small things made people happy….

It helped me remember my own sweet childhood… And how I used to delight in a set of matches that my dad used to bring from the hotels he traveled to…… Or how delighted I was if he brought paper coasters or napkins, with a logo on them, to add to my “collection”…..

Tonight I go to bed vowing to remember to re-cultivate the consciousness of childhood….

Heavenly Lake is a lake about 30 miles southeast of Urumqi in Xinjiang.
It is 2,000 meters (6,500ft) above sea level on the stunning Bogda mountain. (Bogda is a Mongolian word for “God”.)

When we pulled into the parking lot, I felt my heart sink…. So many tourists……it is usually not a good indicator for a wonderful place.
But we took the drive out of the city to get here,……. so we decided to go with it.

This high lake is indeed a magnificent place.
It is surrounded with a distant view of the snow capped mountains called the Tian Shan Range.

We were driven to the top of the mountain, on tourist buses, through a narrow mountain road lined with villages, trees and a rocky river.

After taking the scenic spot photos, in front of the lake, we saw a sign pointing to a mountain top Taoist temple called “Ancestral Temple Of Queen Mother Of The West.”

The path was almost empty and it took us for a few kilometers, along the rocky cliffs above the blue green lake.
It was a beautiful path filled with wild peppermint, thyme, wild bush roses, lilies and dandelions.

We spotted beautiful blue flowers, and climbed hundreds of steps to the high temple.
It was a marvelous day… After we took the path less traveled.

The Grand Bazaar in Urumqi is a good place to see what fascinate the people.
It is mainly beauty products including an array of henna for the hair, food, craft, nuts and dried fruit, decorated knifes, fur products, silk scarves, silk rugs, jewelry, live scorpions and healing potions….

The busy food streets, are filled with food that we do not dare to taste… (nor care to….)
So we bought some freshly baked flat bread and munched as we strolled and soaked the atmosphere.

The city if Urumqi is the capital of Xinjiang Province.
It is a busy hub of mixed ethnicities that you will rarely see anywhere else.

The people here have been intermarried for many hundreds of years, and now the gene pool is filled with unique looking people, with ancestry that can be traced back to Russia, Kazakstan, Pakistan, Uiygur, Turky, Han Chinese, Hui, Mongolia, Kirghiz, Uzbekistan, Manchuria and Tajikistan.

Today we visited the Southern Pastures outside of Urumqi.

These green Nanshan Pasture, lay at the foot of the Tianshan Mountain range.

When we left the city it was a hot, stuffy and sunny day.
The elevation around the Nanshan Pasture is about 1, 600 meters, but as we cycled up into the mountains, it turned comfortably cooler and the elevation reached 2100 meters.

We cycled up a very steep and beautiful path, that meandered gently between spruce and pine trees, a rocky river, wild flowers, green grassland dotted with brown sheep and horses.

The Kazakh people move their herds into this region in the summers.
They truly move into “Greener Pastures”.
They live here in modest homes, or in yurts which are scattered sparsely on the meadows.

Our cycle took us up a quiet road that was surrounded with a dense wooded area.
We spotted some yurts, and saw some young people cooking food.
We stopped to investigate.

We were invited to their yurts, and were engulfed by their warmth and hospitality.
Almost immediately, I was offered a large salad made of cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots and coriander with a delicious lemon sauce.
Chop sticks were put in my hands and a beautiful young girl next to me, broke pieces of fresh bread into my salad.

I took bites of the yummy bread and the refreshing salad, when another girl sat next to me.
She linked her arm with mine, peeled shelled almonds, and put them directly in my mouth.
The girls rotated sitting next to me and having their picture taken with me or with Jules.

The group of young girls and boys, were actually students learning nursing, on a summer holiday trip.
They spent the night in these yurts, and now they were cooking their food outdoors, in the traditional way, on wood fire.

At the end of the climb, we reached a wonderful waterfall, with snow still melting on the top.

Our cycle down this green mountain, was effortless.
We stopped at a group of yurts, which are managed by Kazakh herdsman families.

I was warmly welcomed by the lady, as I stopped to photograph her yurt.
We were invited to taste the local milk tea and she served us with chunks of fresh bread and a bowl of yellow butter.
It was delicious, and the yurt, which can be rented as an accommodation, was beautifully decorated with colorful hand woven rugs.

It is customary to pay in return for this hospitality.
After all….. We are not really parched travelers on our way, hungry for food and drink… We are tourists.
This region gets many tourists, and the locals make only a meager living, and they supplement their herding income by offering the tourists a taste of the Kazakh life.

The Oasis city of Dunhuang, is usually so very hot during the day….
People do not walk the streets during mid day, or they walk with umbrellas, to shade off the piercing sun.

Today after breakfast, I took off my clothes, put on a soft bathrobe, got back into the high quality sheets in the king size bed, and took a long nap.
With the cool air-condition, and the pleasing modern decor of the room, I was resting in heaven….. My stimulated mind so filled with images of all the art and sites we seen…. Was running colorful pictures in my mind’s eye, until I drifted into sleep.

In the late afternoon, we walked the streets of Dunuang, exploring the local markets.

I usually love to make healing tea for us to drink, while we travel.

All hotel rooms in China, offer a tea making facility with a kettle and tea cups
So we bought rose petals, goji berries, yellow flowers and jasmine green tea, to mix together with a piece of dried date and rock sugar, into a healing tea.

Dunhuang has a Night market which is called Shazhou Market.

It is a busy and bustling market, with stalls selling dry fruit, teas, snacks, food, locally made shiny custom jewelry and craft.

There are abundant places to sit and enjoy a cold beer and many places selling hot pot food or BBQ, which are spicy and aromatic meats and kabobs served with a large sesame round bread (we tasted this version without meat, but with only skewered vegetable and the same hot sesame bread.)

We ate a Korean dinner of sizzling stone pot filled with rice and vegetables and tasted a special tea, called San-pao-tai, which is a famous sweet and sour cold tea, made from spring green tea, longan (a dried fruit similar to lichee), dates, apricots, preserved fruits, Goji Berries (also called wolfberry,) walnut, sesame, and dried raisins.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Dunhuang and fly to Urumqi in Xinjiang Province.

We left Yumen this morning and drove a long way through the dry Gobi desert.
For many miles the only thing we saw, was small earth mounds that are actually graves.
There is no designated burial area…. If a loved one passes away, the family select a place by the foot of the mountains, or simply by the road, and they dig a hole, bury the body and cover it with earth, to created a mound about one meter tall above it.

The whole desert is dotted with these anonymous graves.

The sun and the heat was just too brutal to cycle.
After hours of driving, we arrived at a town that is truly a desert oasis called Dunhuang.

On the outskirts of town, there are the Mogao Grottos.

Words can hardly describe this magnificent place…
Into a rock in the middle of the Gobi Desert, there is a massive complex of square caves, that are filled with cultural and artistic treasures.

The caves are more than 1600 years OLD….. And despite robbers, earthquakes and change of political environment in China, through many dynasties, they are mostly kept in a very good shape.

There are 1700 caves, but only around five hundreds have been restored.
45,000 murals and over 2000 sculptures and figures.

The caves have breathtaking frescos on the walls, pyramid shaped ceilings, and some are filled with sculptures manuscripts and paintings.

They only allow a small amount of people per day into only ten caves.
They rotate the caves they allow people into, every month, to control the deterioration of the caves.

In one fantastic cave, we saw a huge Buddha Statue,towering over 37 meters tall.
In another underground cave, we saw another Buddha statue, this one is 35 meter tall, but it is seen as you go underground and stand by his feet.

Tonight we sleep in Dunghuang in another luxury hotel.
The many tourists that comes to see these amazing grottos in the middle of the desert, created enough demand for hotels and services.

It is good to sleep in a clean…comfortable… Luxurious room again…

Cycling in the Gobi desert, is everything I thought it would be….
It is hot, dry, incredibly dusty…..and with roads that are so bad, they gave up on fixing them, and created a new sleek expressway instead.

Being on bicycles, we stay away from the expressway and we cycle on the rugged roads.
There are huge potholes and trucks that do not move an inch.
The truckers wave at me with enthusiastic friendliness, as they almost run me over…
They raise thumbs up in the air or yell encouraging words to cheer me up, as they blow their engine and honk they loud horns to salute me.

We stop to refill our water bottles from the support van very often.
There is no food or stores to buy water anywhere in sight for many miles.

We spot a beautiful Mosque along our route.
The minarets pierce into the heavens….
We stop to photograph the beautiful mosque, and the people come out and gather around us in curiosity.
We are the only Western tourists that ever visited this remote Mosque.

They tell us that today they celebrate the completion of the renovations, and they have food and drink…. We must stay and refresh.

We were prepared not to eat lunch today, since we knew no restaurants exist in the desert, so we brought with us dried fruit and snacks for the day.

We are happy to accept their invitation to have tea.
Tea comes in abundance.
They fill your cup the minute you drink half an inch of tea.

They spread the table with fried bread sticks, sliced spicy cucumber, sliced tomatoes sprinkled with sugar (In China, a tomato is always eaten sweet), baked flat bread, and an assortment of meats.

We eat answer questions and say many thanks.
It is a 1400 years old Mosque and they tell us at the coffin in the beautiful tomb, has the remaining bones of the representative of the Prophet Mohamed, who was sent to China to teach Islam to the people.

Their friendliness and hospitality is so heart warming.
The head of the Mosque, finishes his prayers and tell us that he hopes that one day America and China will work together as one…. One happy family… As in truth, we are ONE human family….

We thank him again and again…. We leave feeling wonderful and refreshed.
A great desert hospitality.

With the foothills of the Tibetan plateau, in the form of the Qilian Mountain range, soaring up to the south, and a merciless Gobi desert stretching to the north, the Hexi Corridor offers the only feasible way through the area, for travelers entering or leaving China.

Historically, given the total absence of alternative routes, whoever controlled the Hexi Corridor could operate a stranglehold on the fabulous riches of the Silk Road trade.

Inevitably the Chinese had a major interest of keeping the corridor under their control, and keeping the Mongol and Barbarians out of the region.
They erected the Great Wall along the Hexi Corridor under Emperor Qin Shi Huang starting in the third century BC.

Later, the Han dynasty succeeded in incorporating the region into their empire, though the influence of central government remained far from constant for many centuries afterwards, as Tibetans, Uyigurs and then Mongols fought for control.

Only at the 13th century, did the corridor finally become a settled part of the Chinese empire, with the Ming consolidating the old Great Wall positions and building its magnificent last fort at Jiayuguan.

They used to deport corrupt officials, or criminal, through the back gate of the fort.
They simply sent them into the waterless Gobi desert as a punishment….

The back of the wall is filled with scratch written poetry, of people who have been deported this way… Most of them were never seen again… (Unless they were lucky to encounter a passing caravan.)

The fort is built from bricks, and it has long high walls, many watch towers, a set of buildings as houses for the appointed General, and even a beautiful old temple.

This last fort is a massive and truly an impressive structure.
It has been cared for and preserved for decades.

In comparison, the extension of the Great Wall, from this majestic fort into the desert, is a humble rammed earth wall, which is not so tall and not so thick.

The deterring element for opposing forces, was not in the wall itself, but in the fear that the Chinese hoped to bring into the heart of invaders….. They hoped that intruders will think that they are big and very strong, and would not dare to invade….

From a distance, you only see an earth mound…. Granted, it is a large earth mound… But still it look like a pile of small stones.

But this pile of stones leads ten meters underground, into a burial chamber, that is constructed from hand painted bricks, depicting scenes of every day life in this area.

The coffin itself, is made of painted wood and is places in the last and lowest chamber.
The first two chambers have a circular ceiling all lined with the same painted bricks.

The vast Gobi desert area, has thousands of tombs.
Most of them are 1900 years old.

Currently, only 18 tombs have been excavated and unearthed.
During the years, most of the articles buried in them, were stolen, but the structure, the painted bricks and the wooden coffins, remained kept in perfect shape for 1900 YEARS…..

Now, only two tombs are open to the public for visitation.

We took a long walk from the front gate to the unassuming earth mound.
A Chinese man on a motorbike, was sent to open the tomb for us, and to turn on the lights.
We walked down the perfectly preserved steps and entered the chambers.

The day was sunny, dry and hot, but the underground tomb was cool and absolutely amazing…. We stood in awe and gratitude to be here….

The art on the bricks, is done in black and white, with some red and yellow ochre.
The paintings reflect the life of the people and the history of this region, which is part of an area called the “Hexi Corridor”.

More about the Hexi Corridor in my next post, where I will describe our visit to the end of the Great Wall.

It was a great day for cycling.
The weather was warm, with only a light wind and the roads were not very busy.

We had a bit of a mountain biking action, where the paved road was torn for construction.

Tonight we sleep in a lovely modern room in hotel Jiayuguan.
Tomorrow, we will see the Great Wall of China.

Jiayuguan is the western point in which the Great Wall had ended.
In old times, beyond this point, there was a gate, and if you passed through it, you would be out of China…. And into the Gobi Desert.

I am wearing a comfortable bathrobe in bed now,… Tired and happy as a clam…