CHINESE DISNEY WORLD / 27.5. 2007

This is Chinese Disney World – and I am suddenly a tourist. After two month of hardly seeing anything but locals who stare at you as the main attraction of the week Or to be more adequate, the main attraction of the year.it some feels like a relief to be somewhere where foreigners as fairly common. At the same time it is a bit annoying to be served everything in a Chinese Disney manner – line up there, buy ticket, buy souvenirs. Look at artifacts in that are more or less badly made copies of the real thing. Be amazed. Take pictures. Buy souvenirs… After ten minutes the sense of relief is quickly disappearing

Never satisfied?.. Ok,.. Should not complain. Turpan, or Tulufan is the largest oasis in this part of the Gobi desert – it is located in a depression, some 80 meters below sea level. The town is famed for its grape products, mostly seedless white raisins, but there is wine production as well. With some decent red wines even though mostly sweet wines are produced. The nearby Moon Lake is even further below sea level – 154 meters and that is the second lowest point in the world after the Dead Sea. The surface of the lake is covered with a layer of salt – Glauber salt, that “super delicious” diuretic stuff is manufactured here, and that employs many thousand people. A lot of them were sent here from the east during the Cultural Revolution (That infamous period that now is just described as one mistake by Mao… what an under statement) and they still live here. We arrived here late last night. You could still feel the reflecting heat from the ground, the buildings. Still, the really hot period is to come. Our horses are not allowed to enter this area at all – but they also deserve a rest at a farm far away from this hot pot. We have decided to take a look at some of the main attractions such as the ancient city of Jiaohe (or Yarkhoto), the 18th century mosque Emin Minaret, the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha caves… Our plan was to start with the caves. Hey are situated 50 km outside the town, just by the flaming Mountains. These Mountains are, as one can guess not a particularly cool place. But this excursion stops before it started. He most interesting caves are closed A pile of bribing money would of course open the them for us, but since our guides car does not have air-conditioning, windows can not be opened. We decided to check out the ancient city. ---- Turfan / 24.9. 1907 “ Today I made an excursion to Jar Choto. The ruins are all too well described by others. So, I will not waste my time to the same thing. Must say – I did expect something grander like interesting architecture and paintings. But these clay buildings battered by heavy winds and occasional rain during hundreds of years are a bit of a disappointment. The paintings in the Buddhist temple are in extremely bad condition. I was about to cut lose 3 Buddha paintings, but after consideration a decided not to. May some more qualified collector do that. In one vault all of the Buddha figures have been decapitated - the work of the Chinese said my Sart guide. That is not true at all – this is the work of the Sarts themselves.” --- Somehow it is not difficult to agree with Mannerheim – even if he maybe is a bit too harsh in his judgment. These Tang dynasty remains were brought under the protection of the state in 1961. A lot of restoration work has been done and that is a constantly ongoing process. I am not so sure of the quality though..

All news