So the first stop on our rather lengthy list of destinations was Yinchuan in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Avid readers of my blog (but I'll assume there are none of you out there) might remember that we had already stopped here at Christmas when our flight was delayed, but this would be our first time as tourists, and non food-poisoning-ridden at that.
I woke up after a terrible night's sleep. In our apartment we have an intercom which has an inbuilt alarm, and for some unknown reason it went off all night. I was so unimpressed. I went to bed at 2am as well and which meant I would have only had 4 hours 28 minutes' sleep IF the alarm had NOT gone off. So off I was on my travels with about three hours' sleep. Catherine was leaving for Hong Kong on the same day, but her flight was a little earlier so we said our goodbyes. We wouldn't be seeing her for a month and a half! :.(
We left the house at 8.30, got our flight at 9.55, and took off at 10.30. I was sitting next to an annoying man who of course didn't understand to turn his phone off when the cabin doors were shut, but otherwise not so bad. A really idiotic woman laughed and pointed at Liam which was so incredibly rude that it visibly annoyed both of us. She saw our reaction but spent the rest of the flight giggling, and poking the man in front of her in the back of the head, and dropping food down his collar. She knew him though. But what a mature lady!
Dinner on the flight was beef, rice and potatoes with a horribly dry bread-like thing, and a pear. We landed at 12.50 and discovered that the new multi-province SIM cards we'd bought so we could keep in touch with everyone throughout our travel time did not in fact work outside Xinjiang Autonomous Region. We got a 15 kuai shuttle bus into town, which reminded me of the trip we'd taken at Christmas. We got off the bus at what looked like a fairly central place, and started walking around looking for a reasonably-priced hotel. We spotted a very well-hidden little hostel, and booked a room for 64 kuai. It wasn't bad though we later found cockroaches. Cockroaches now really don't especially bother me. Especially Chinese cockroaches, which Catherine (who is pertrified of them) actually described the other day as 'almost quite cute really'. We went back out again almost straight away and got a five kuai taxi to Chongtian Temple. Getting a 5 kuai taxi really excited us seeing as the flag-fall in Urumqi is 6. Simple minds...
In the grounds of the Chongtian Temple is the Ningxia Hui Museum. We paid 12 kuai each on student tickets to get in. The entire place was deserted. We went to one exhibition hall about the Western Xia Dynasty (which was the only country/region/people/kingdom etc to fend off Genghis Khan, and which eventually brought about difficulties for the Mongolian Empire. The huge Mongolian Empire shrank in size after their war with the Western Xia Kingdom weakened them, though it still ran China under the Yuan Dynasty for ages. Genghis Khan, however, ordered the decimation of the Western Xia Kingdom from his deathbed, and, well, that was the end of them.) We were next directed: "over there, red house" by the woman in the exhibition. We went over to the only red building we could see but it was locked, and it transpired that all the other buildings were also padlocked up, including the tall pagoda, so we couldn't go up. It had no windows anyway. And that was that; rather a waste of our 12 kuai!
We next went to the Haibao Pagoda, 10 yuan to enter, and still a functioning Buddhist temple. We climbed the pagoda, which had no spiral stairs so I was fine with that! My hands were freezing to the point of pain but the stairs were treacherous (steep and made for size 2 feet) so I needed to use the icy cold handrail to steady myself! The Haibao Pagoda is kind of in the middle of nowhere - getting a taxi OUT to it is fairly easy, but getting one back is much harder. We walked back down a large but deserted road. We could see all around us and the scenery was cold and barren like a wasteland. There was snow everywhere but it was much cleaner than Urumqi's blackened stuff! The biggest difference we could see between Urumqi and Yinchuan was that Yinchuan has WATER! Everywhere! Lakes, ponds, and the mighty Yellow River (on the way from the airport we passed it and it was totally frozen through). All the water had turned to ice of course and people were skating on it and sliding around on little wooden blocks.
We finally got nearer to civilization and flagged down a taxi. He took us to our next destination, the Nanguan Mosque. It was surprisingly interesting. The mosque was built in 1987 and is now an integral feature of the city's skyline. Apparently the mosque is a point of interest because it is one of the few mosques in China which remains true to its origins and it not in any way Sinicised.
Next on the agenda was traditional food! We found a recommended restaurant in the China Guide which became our Bible for the trip (you will hear me mention it a lot!) and walked around trying to locate it. Eventually I went to ask a woman on the street who rudely completely ignored my existence. A friendly man saw this and voluntarily came over to help us. He discussed with us for a while and said maybe we should just ask a taxi driver, but then suddenly, as if a light had come on, said "walk with me". We trotted off after him, not saying a word which was a bit awkward. I became a little concerned about where he was taking us so I asked and just then he pointed and said "I found it for you!" And so he had! Lovely guy! He actually walked past the restaurant a little later when we were eating, perhaps to check we had actually gone there after all his trouble. We ordered shouzhua yangrou (hand-grab lamb, though we ate it with chopsticks) which is fatty boiled lamb which you dip into a tasty sauce; and jiucai chao xianggan (Chinese chives and fried tofu strips). Both were nummy. I also had some very strange tea: a bowl half-filled with sugar, tea leaves and dried fruit. It was INTENSELY sweet - I loved it! Well the first cup was delicious but the second cup had lost almost all its sweetness and so as it was just a tad sweet it didn't taste quite right. Liam and I swapped my second cup for his first because he couldn't tolerate the extreme sugar content. Also this restaurant was my first ever hollering of "fuwuyuan!!" (waiter/waitress!!) - in China, it is the done thing to just yell this across the restaurant, but being British I always feel it's somehow rude. Anyway I have from this day on got over this precaution. It's strangely liberating. I am most proud.
We planned to go out and half-heartedly explore the streets, but instead we got all enthusiastic about planning our trip's schedule. We had a basic outline in terms or where we were going, but had no time limit or real plan thereof. We had to pick where we wanted to be for Chinese New Year and settled on Xi'an. This meant we had to get all the way round to Xi'an by 7th February. We gave ourselves the target of Beijing by the 10th, Yantai by the 16th, Xi'an by 7th February and then realised we'd have time to add places to the route. So we added Chongqing and Chengdu, and hoped to get to Chengdu in time for 12th February, so that on that day, Liam's 21st birthday, we could hold baby pandas! REALLY REALLY excited! Yay!!!
The Chongtian Pagoda
The Haibao Pagoda seen behind the buildings of the temple.
The Nanguan Mosque, with minarets looming in at the sides of the photo.
The Nanguan Mosque again, slightly clearer so you can see how pretty it is, plus some bizarre instrument of torture in the foreground.
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