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CROSSING CHINA

After Hong Kong, crossing China seemed the next logical thing to do. In fact, we had been dreaming about doing a really long train ride during our trip, so this was our chance. In 50 hours we crossed China east to west, from Gunagzhou to Urumqi. Next, were two weeks of exploring the dusty towns and fabled cities of the old silk route in Xingjiang, China’s ‘wild west’. And while names like Kashgar, Hotan and Yarkand had since long time evoked romatic thoughts of ancient explorers, the reality proved to be quite different…

Time spent in China

Three weeks

Kilometers travelled

several thousand… somewhere between 4 – 5000

Favorite mode of transportation

The train of course! See also Matthieu’s article on National Geographic here.

Favorite food

Laghman, Hotpot, Dumpling soup… we feasted and loved it all!

Observations

Speaking Turkish can be useful when in China. (Especially when traveling in Xinjiang which is mostly populated by Uyghur people)

Lessons learned

Don’t let children play with revolving doors!

When crossing a desert in an old train, believe the locals that there is a reason why they want to close all the curtains. (I found myself covered in 5mm of fine sand when I woke from my nap…)

Never trust anyones information about what time the bus/train will get there. Once we settled in a sleeper bus to arrive at 7am the next morning only to get kicked out at midnight – we had already arrived!

Assume that even though you think communication was clear and successful that actually noone has a clue what you were talking about!

 

Lasting impressions

We’ll give you the outcome of the family survey at the end of our India leg.

China in one word

Vast


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