Welcome to China, a country I have visited and ran back in 2007. On this trip I bring to you almost 3 weeks of vast rural northern China to be able to visit and claim this country properly. As usual, after the last lot of photos below is a brief summary of the country of China and ten interesting facts that set this country apart.
My China adventure started at 6am Thu 12JUN after waking up in my tent at Charyn Canyon. Sunny and warm – just right for driving the 276km journey to the Kazakhstan-China border and just over it to the city of Khorgas. The total trip to the border took 3.5hrs travelling through mainly flat territory, half of it irrigated for farming. No dairy, eggs, meat, veggies, fruit or anything fresh is allowed into China. Not even chocolate !!! I finished my olives last night and ate the rest of my cheese for breakfast. I even drank 500mL of the truck’s milk because it was headed for the bin. As we drove towards the border we could see Khorgas just over the border in China, where we would stay tonight – it is supposed to be an outpost but had a full-on skyscraper skyline !!! Go China !!! The truck pulled into the Kazak border control around 1130am. The Kazak side was easy: 1hr to get through. Our bags went through X-Ray and the truck through a giant X-Ray without the need to search it. The story on the Chinese side was completely different: 4hrs to get through. They had process-flow diagrams on the wall informing you of the entry procedure: bag x-ray, COVID rapid test, customs declaration form, fingerprints, stamp in your passport and another bag x-ray leaving the building into free China. They love bureaucracy. Our bags were easy but we all had to do a rapid COVID test which delayed things. After walking into free China, we met our lady Chinese Guide “Shannon” who would be with us until Beijing. Shannon did not only organise accommodation and tours in all the cities/towns but would help with police checks. Shannon told us that the truck would take a further 2hrs to manually search and inspect. She also told us that the truck would be impounded at the border until our driver applied and received a Chinese Drivers License to drive it in China !!! It was now 330pm Kazak time which suddenly became 630pm China time. Another 2hrs for the truck meant hotel arrival at 830pm so she organised taxis to take everyone to the hotel. I had left all my electronics (including laptop and camera) and my wine on the truck so I opted to stay with one other person and ride back later in a taxi with our driver and Shannon. The only upside to staying back was sitting with Shannon and locating an ATM and supermarket near the hotel. I also asked her to research where I could buy a replacement drone in Beijing. We met the truck at 8pm and it was a mess – the border guards had opened every leftover bag and contents were all over the seats. We helped pack up what we could and the truck went through a roadworthiness test since it would also need temporary Chinese plates and registration. What a process. I was so relieved to walk into an airconditioned room at 9pm only to leave it again to find an ATM and supermarket. The ATM was easy but the supermarket hard to find. There was only one in this huge city but at least it was only a 20min walk from the hotel. Shannon had written the all-Chinese name on a post-it and it was a police officer who showed me where it was. Most food items come from tiny family run convenience stores and most dry-goods are fresh and not canned. Noodles, salt, spices, tea are in big open containers. The supermarket and plenty of fresh fruit and veggies but no cheese or olives so my Culture Club snacks would have to be mixed nuts !!! This supermarket would also be the place to source food for our cook group tomorrow – I was asked to check it out and it passed. Khorgas (Pop 71,466, Elev 785m) is a commercial city and has nothing to offer the tourist. The Khorgas claim-to-fame is that it is the largest DRY PORT in the world. A Dry Port is a place where freight is received from road vehicles instead of cargo ships in a sea port. Khorgas has what is called a FREE TRADING ZONE on both sides of the border in no-mans land where freighters from both countries can exchange goods without the need for visas or passports – just ID cards eliminating the need to line up at both border controls saving huge amounts of time !!! Khorgas has a fast-flowing river passing through its centre with street food stalls and sit-down restaurants on either bank. All stalls offer BBQ skewered meats and many include fish and even veggies. That is the first thing I noticed about this place – lots of veggie dishes including, broccoli which we had not seen up to now. On my way back to the hotel from the supermarket I picked up some big BBQ chicken legs to go with two jars of pickled veggies in oil that I picked up from the supermarket. Boy was that a mistake !!! I finally showered and sat down to eat at 1030pm. Those pickled veggies sent me to the toilet for bowl busters 3 times starting at 4am !!! I slept at 1230am after staying up to post Kazakhstan given the bush camp tomorrow.
It was so good to sleep in again after so many consecutive early mornings. Up at 830am for cook group shopping leaving 930am. The supermarket served us well. Lots of noodles and veggies for tonight’s dinner followed by veggie scrambled eggs and many fruits and cereal for brekkie tomorrow. Went for my first run in China since 2007 at 1130am. A good run at 785m with a cool breeze. Glad to be running here again. On my run I saw a very expanding city with heaps of construction of mainly shiny new huge apartment buildings serviced by near perfect wide roads with no rubbish in sight. By the time I got back and showered it was time to go. Pulled out of this city at 230pm headed 87km into some spectacular alpine mountain ranges covered in spruce and a little snow at just over 2,000m elevation. We stopped for 90min at an elevated spot with sweeping views over the Guozigou Mountains and the enormously high Guozigou Bridge. This suspension bridge is only 360m long but 209m above the ground (Sydney Centrepoint Tower height is 309m). It took 6yrs to build opening in 2011. This is the China I came to see. Extreme scenery featuring extreme infrastructure – China excels with the latter having demonstrated it not only in China but all over the world. We reached our bush camp in quite a public and popular spot near a river running off Lake Sailimu at 630pm at 1,903m elevation. This was not late for a bush camp, in this instance, since sunset would be at 1022pm !!! Another surprise – we could upgrade and stay in a yurt !!! Bring it on. I organised a yurt for 4 of us including our driver. The yurt was a lifesaver since it rained that evening and I could sleep in and go straight to brekkie service with no tent to pack. After our dinner cook group I retired to my yurt to watch the final episode of The Royle Family before snuggling into the yurt warmth for sleep.
CHINA IN A NUTSHELL
China is now the second-most populous country after India, representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land. China is considered one of the six cradles of civilization, with the first human inhabitants in the region arriving during the Paleolithic. By the late 2nd millennium BC, the earliest dynastic states had emerged in the Yellow River basin. The 8th–3rd centuries BC saw a breakdown in the authority of the Zhou dynasty, accompanied by the emergence of administrative and military techniques, literature, philosophy, and historiography. In 221 BC, China was unified under an emperor, ushering in more than two millennia of imperial dynasties including the Qin, Han, Tang, Yuan, Ming, and Qing. With the invention of gunpowder and paper, the establishment of the Silk Road, and the building of the Great Wall, Chinese culture flourished and has heavily influenced both its neighbours and lands further afield. However, China began to cede parts of the country in the late 19th century to various European powers by a series of unequal treaties.
After decades of Qing China on the decline, the 1911 Revolution overthrew the Qing dynasty and the monarchy and the Republic of China (ROC) was established the following year. The Chinese Civil War began in 1927, when KMT forces purged members of the rival Chinese Communist Party (CCP), who proceeded to engage in sporadic fighting against the KMT-led Nationalist government. Following the country's invasion by the Empire of Japan in 1937, the CCP and KMT formed the Second United Front to fight the Japanese. The Second Sino-Japanese War eventually ended in a Chinese victory; however, the CCP and the KMT resumed their civil war as soon as the war ended. In 1949, the resurgent Communists established control over most of the country, proclaiming the People's Republic of China and forcing the Nationalist government to retreat to the island of Taiwan. The country was split, with both sides claiming to be the sole legitimate government of China. Following the implementation of land reforms, further attempts by the PRC to realize communism failed: the Great Leap Forward was largely responsible for the Great Chinese Famine that ended with millions of Chinese people having died, and the subsequent Cultural Revolution was a period of social turmoil and persecution characterized by Maoist populism. Following the Sino-Soviet split, the Shanghai Communiqué in 1972 would precipitate the normalization of relations with the United States. Economic reforms that began in 1978 moved the country away from a socialist planned economy towards an increasingly capitalist market economy, spurring significant economic growth. A movement for increased democracy and liberalization stalled after the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in 1989.
China is a unitary one-party socialist republic led by the CCP. The Chinese economy is the world's largest economy by nominal GDP after the USA but predicted to exceed the USA by 2035. The country is the world's largest manufacturer and exporter, as well as the second-largest importer. China is a nuclear-weapon state with the world's largest standing army by military personnel and the second-largest defence budget. China is known for its cuisine and culture and, as a megadiverse country, has 59 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the second-highest number of any country.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT CHINA:
1. 3rd largest country globally with only one time zone. 33% is mountainous. Has the most international borders (13) and the most UNESCO sites (60).
2. Largest population in the world. 153 per sq km. 38.4yrs Median Age. 61% live in the countryside & mostly farmers. 35 million live in cave houses.
3. 56 Ethnic Groups many with own language: Han are No 1 at 91% of population.
4. Has 660 cities. 90 have over 1 million each. 18 have over 10 million each.
5. Has 200 skyscrapers over 150m each. One is built every 5 days. By 2030 there will be 1,500 over 150m each.
6. Has the 2nd largest railway network globally: 146,000km (3 times around equator).
7. Has the longest sea-crossing bridge Hong Kong to Macau: 55km including 6.7km tunnel.
8. Birthplace of TEA by Emperor Shen Nong in 2737BC. Traded on Silk Road with the West. 30min Tea Ceremony before and after important family dinners is now commonplace.
9. Has 8 major groups of distinct cuisine. Chopsticks invented in 1000BC as a cooking utensil then used as eating utensil from 400AD. Flash fried scorpions eaten in Beijing.
10. Invented paper printing, the compass, gunpowder, kites, silk and porcelain.
MORE INTERESTING FACTS:
1. China has the largest imperial palace in the world (The Forbidden City with 9,000+ rooms), the tallest Buddha in the world (Leshan Giant Buddha) and the longest wall in the world (The Great Wall of China) held together by sticky rice and not cement.
2. Chinese New Year celebration lasts for 15 days.
3. In 2010 a 2,400-year-old pot of soup was unearthed in Xi’an.
4. Asiatic Golden Cats in the south communicate by spitting.
5. Chinese Dolphins have pink skin.
6. Chinese Giant Pandas are excellent swimmers (to catch fish).
7. Half of the world’s total pig population live in China.
8. The 8,000 Terracotta Soldiers took 37 years to make.
9. China has the tallest dam in the world: Jinping-I Dam at 305m high.
10. Mandarin is the No 1 spoken language globally.
CHINA SUMMARY
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