Tag Archives: china

Back in China, today – some travel notes from the Chinese city of Chengdu. It’s known for being one of the main economic centers in the country as well as the capital of the Sichuan province, which is the homeland of the giant panda and both Sichuan pepper and cuisine. The city is both huge – with a population of nearly 21 million, and ancient – formally established in 311BC, making it a bit younger than Rome (753BC), but older than Paris (250-225BC). Sitting on the same latitude as northern Africa, Mexico, and Texas, it has a subtropical climate where it’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

Story one – on the New Century Global Center multipurpose complex

Some might say that starting a narrative about a huge and interesting city with a mere shopping mall is philistine and materialistic, since it disregards the more important spiritual side to both life and the city in question. To that I say don’t be so quick to judge – for this is no ordinary shopping mall.

So, what’s so special about New Century? First – it’s 500 by 500 meters in area and with several floors. Second – inside (and this is pretty common in China), you start to feel like… maybe the wrong countries are called “developed” after all…

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Everything must come to an end – and that included our China-2024 trip…

The final stop on our itinerary was Binggou Danxia Landform and Geopark – located about 12km from the famous rainbow-colored Zhangye Danxia mountains. The scenery here is totally different – not the undulating multicolored-stripe landscapes, but massive rock formations of all shapes and sizes spread out across a large area. You’ve got to hand it to Mother Nature’s geological design skills! ->

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Our fall trip around northern-central China was literally coming full circle on the big rock-desert loop from Xining to Xining. Our final must-see tourist spots were near the city of Zhangye, with the first one being the Zhangye Danxia Geopark…

So what is this place? Well, it’s just over 500km² (if the internet is to be believed) of multi-colored mountains and hills. And the colors here are absolutely mind-blowing:

No Photoshop used! This is exactly how things looks at sunrise and sunset! The daytime view is still stunning but a bit more washed out. The best shots are at the beginning and end of a day:

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Farewell, Dunhuang! It was fun and educational, but we were back on the road – sticking to our planned China-2024 trip route. Today, nearly 600 kilometers getting to Zhangye; accordingly we were up early and off we popped…

The road wasn’t the most exciting – made worse by gloomy clouds and drizzle. Still, a couple of things along the way made us stop and click away with our cameras. Like this large sculpture in the middle of the desert:

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Dunhuang. The name doesn’t ring a bell for most people – but it should! Not to worry, for we’re going to fix that right here, right now – as it’s next on the travel itinerary of our China-2024 trip…

So, Dunhuang. It’s a small city built around an oasis and surrounded by the rocky landscapes of the Taklamakan Desert (here). Once a major hub on the Silk Road, it’s a truly ancient place (being founded possibly as far back as 2000BC!). But let’s not get too deep into its history: we’re not historians – just meditative tourists here to take in the exceptional views (and share them with you photographically too:)…

There’s definitely plenty to see here. First and foremost: one of the world’s largest deserts, the Taklamakan, which the city’s situated next to and which features some impressive dunes:

Where the desert meets civilization, you get some really unusual, contrasting sights:

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Another day of our China trip – another couple of awesome places!…

The first one turned out to be absolutely stunning – Feicui (Emerald) Lake. Another salty one – but this time the most colorful lake ever! Well, more like a whole constellation of small salty pools. Just look at these:

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The next day (after visiting Chaka Salt Lake) of our China-2024 trip was packed with tourisms. We were set to explore and admire a full three… and a half attractions. They may not be 5K-rated, but all together they were to make this section of our route a real treat…

As we ventured deeper into rocky desert, the scenery became increasingly striking:

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After what we could call our lake-tourism warm-up (Qinghai Lake) the day before, it was time for the first significant stop on our big-loop route around inner China – Chaka Salt Lake.

It’s not the largest salt lake in the world, with an area of “only” about 100km² – which is around a hundred times smaller than, for example, Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni (~10,000km²). However, it has its own unique charm: the Chinese have turned this “simple salt lake” into a major tourist attraction (fancy that?!), where you can easily spend an entire day (in the right season). The secret is simple: various installations have been set up across a significant portion of the lake that are practically begging to be photographed and shared on Instagram TikTok. These installations are a huge hit especially with girls – who bring bright (most often red) outfits specially for the occasion:

The photo installations here are plentiful and incredibly diverse:

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The first leg of our journey through China had come to an end. So far – so good amazing. As per, we were in “tourism till you drop” mode (up early, see and do and/or travel as much as possible, never taking it easy…) – just the way we like it. Yet no one was too concerned about the 3000+ kilometers of traveling by coach that lie ahead; after all – together with those thousands of kilometers would come shed-loads of walking-sightseeing-marveling-extraordinaire. And anyway – dwelling on the great distances ahead would only have been a distraction; much better to dive headfirst into a new adventure without overthinking it or wasting brainpower on unnecessary emotions. Just “get it done”, as they say. And that’s just what we did…

The long route ahead of us was somewhat unclear: most of the online information was only in Chinese, our driver didn’t speak any other languages, and my Chinese wife – visiting the region for the first time – also couldn’t understand much. And to top things off – it turned out that even many Chinese sources were way slightly off.

But before heading west, let me tell you a bit about the city of Xining – the start and end point of our big loop through deserts, mountain landscapes, and salt lakes.

Xining is the administrative center of Qinghai – not the most industrially developed or densely populated province: essentially a “provincial” province ). However, in China, you should always multiply everything by ten: the capital of China’s third-sparsest province still has a population of 2.5 million! Here are some views out of my hotel window:

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Still heading north, our route was taking us through central-northern China, and since we were traveling through regions predominantly inhabited by Tibetans, our checking out some of the inevitable Buddhist temples and monasteries was… inevitable!…

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