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Our
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by
R. Daniel Vock
20 April 1999
Beijing is not what it used to be. Since my first visit 17 years ago,
some aspects of life have improved. The "Pekinese" are better
fed, better clothed and speak more English.
With privatization, hotels and restaurants have improved. But for the tourist, the minuses outweigh the pluses. Cyan
"traffic gridlock" be an understatement: it is in this city. Two
hours to cover the 10 miles to the Summer Palace; three hours to return
from the Great Wall (Northeast Section).
The air is thick with smog and pollution.
Beggars and hawkers (a rare occurrence in 1982) make it
unpleasant to stroll the streets. They
are aggressive and will push and shove.
Just the same, China is on the way to becoming a superpower.
It will give the U.S. a run for its money in the 21st century.
Also something should be done to improve access to and presentation of
cultural exhibits, which leaves much to be desired.
21 April
The China Orient Express is a dream come true. A long cruise, old-fashioned cars, and old-fashioned dining.
The scenery flows by the window.
A very nice bar car with a pianist.
It's fun looking out and seeing the people busy at agricultural
pursuits: wheat fields,
grown in terraces mostly.
The only drawback is that cabins are small. You have to get dressed and wash in shifts.
We left at 14:15 and in 20 hrs 9:20 on 21/04 we will reach Xian and will
have covered 1293 kms of the 4100 kms of the Chinese portion of the Silk
Route.
The people on the tour are fine: lots
of French speakers, some Israelis, Manxians, foreign born Americans and
one Mexican francophone lady. A
good group.
21/22 April
There are two distinct businesses involved in running this trip:
logistics and culture. The
first is the responsibility of TCS Expeditions:
A-, but the American Museum Of Natural History fielded mostly the
wrong people.
Xian is an unforgettable place to visit:
those terra cotta soldiers, thousands of them full-size plus, are
testimony to human vanity generating artwork.
It is the same pursuit of life in the afterworld which prompted
the construction of the funeral bark of Cheops.
Today, some people have been disabused of their desire to take it
with them: but they leave
behind complicated wills or foundations.
Shula and Benjy Machnes are a most interesting Israeli couple.
He is a former Tsahal pilot and a general in the reserves.
He flew an Me 109 in the War of Independence.
Shula runs an orange grove.
Shula and Benjy are also professional travellers.
They have taken all exotic trips on the planet.
Their recommendation for our next trip is Antarctica, with Paquet.
Xian is somewhat less polluted than Beijing, and traffic is
more fluid. Chinese cities as seen so far are not a pretty sight.
Had a good night of sleep in Xian in the second and last of the 5-star
hotels on the trip, but I am getting tired of Chinese food.
But there is always breakfast.
What is the most important Chinese invention since gunpowder?
It's a carpet in tourist hotels, which is changed seven times a
week. It reads
"Thursday."
Another useful invention for tourists is the audioguide beamed to your
leader. You can stand or
sit up to 30 meters from the speaker and catch his every word. With this gadget, no need to stand in tight groups of your
fellow tourists.
Is it "Mao Tse-Tung" or "Mao Zedong"?
"Beijing" or "Peking"?
Same words and sound in Chinese.
"Mao Zedong" is the romanization in Pinyin, the
official system which the Communists invented for Russian ears.
"Peking" is Wade-Giles, designed for English speakers.
The Shaanxi provincial Museum (archaeology, history) is one of the best
of its kind. Great review
of the history of Central China through each dynasty.
In the train, 22/24 April
Good-bye, 5-star hotel! Managed
a decent night of sleep in the train. Susie slept too, despite a touch
of "turistas". Before
boarding train, she bought a jade horse and decorative wooden plaque for
$400.
Woke up at 6:00 a.m. in town of Tsanshiui. The sky is polluted everywhere.
Interesting to watch village life through windows.
Railroad is single-track west of Xian.
Average speed 30 MPH, which means 900 miles to the next town we
are to visit (Jiayuguang).
It's very instructive watching out the train's windows.
You see many scenes from old traditional China.
A very relaxing trip, accompanied by my musical tapes and books.
We did bring too many items. The
cabin is crowded and we can just sit down barely.
The train attendants are learning English and I peeked at their book.
It says: "In
the tea shop, "I bought a tea pot yesterday and I noticed a crack
in the handle." It
reminds me of "La plume de ma tante est sur le bureau de mon oncle...".
* * *
NOTES FROM SUSIE:
Needless to say, I do not agree with most of Daddy's view.
I find it totally fascinating to witness remnants from such an
ancient culture - not only the physical palaces and temples but the
effects of so many traumatic jolts to the ancient philosophies and moral
and ethical principles that have allowed these millions to live
together. Even sitting in traffic enables you to see how various work
and living places are organized-to see the markets - the little eating
streets (lots of people don't have stoves, so they eat out at food
stalls that run the length of a neighborhood street.
It's not like sitting in a restaurant and ordering
a meal, but like choosing the different components of a meal as you make
your way down the street. The
one-child policy has had the effect of making what you think of as a
reserved people almost excessively demonstrative toward the child, so
there are lots of "little Emperors" just like grandson
Benjamin around. We have
witnessed harsh conditions and much hardship, but not the kind of dire
poverty where people are sick and hungry.
What is striking is the lack of any dogs or cats or pets.
Mao said, "no pets" until there is enough food to feed
all the people!! I am also
fascinated by the landscape and farming areas.
Agriculture is primitive but "plein d'astuces" and now
that "collective farming" is a thing of the past, production
is really increasing.
Love to all of you from Mom.
* * *
I smoked a cigar in the caboose with the Chinese crew.
Great experience.
24
April
Sent from Jiayuguangm (Elevation 6000 feet, population 110,000)
Age of persons on tour range from 32 to 88!!
24/25 April
Jiayuguang/Duduang
Jiayuguang at 1800 mtrs borders on the Gobi desert.
Cold and bleak but the Ming fort is very interesting, as is the
museum on the history of the Great Wall of China.
I learned there that "barbarians" is not politically correct.
The guide told us that the Great Wall had been built to keep out
"minorities," so barbarians have been downgraded to
"illegal immigrants." The
Wall was punctuated by watchtowers strategically placed on hillocks.
They would allow specialists to signal the approaching enemies
and the message would reach Xian or Beijing in 30 hours instead of 30
days. Forts could be alerted along the way to send reinforcements.
The routine of train life grows on you.
One does not sleep so well the first night, but then you relax
and get used to it and you get to enjoy the bar, the reading, the
musical tapes I brought and the company of my fellow travellers. It is a very good group.
I received a 25-page fax in Jiayuguang from client SNH.
Caused me six hours of work but, thank God, the reply went off
smoothly.
This trip is great fun. The
camel ride at Crescent Lake, Dunhuang, and dune climbing and tobogganing
down was exciting of sorts. Very tiring and hard on the legs to climb
these dunes. I rode a
beautiful camel, almost white with a thick fur.
The humps are small. Most
of what you see is fur. The hump itself is only the size of an American
football.
Pearls
of Chinese Wisdom:
- The
Chinese are communists in the sense that Madonna is a Catholic.
- Government
policy: one China, one
child, one time zone.
- Government
has created incentives to move to arid West China.
If temperature reaches 38 degrees (100 degrees F), you get the
day off. Problem: it is the
government thermometer which controls.
26/27
April / Turhan
Tuurfan, this Uighur populated city is my favorite in China.
400,000 inhabitants. It's
here you see China is a true developing country.
Africa is deeply rooted in underdevelopment. Here infrastructure
is being built at good rate of speed.
Streets, avenues have been beautified. Commerce is thriving,
market is bustling and the kids from the Turkic minority (80% of
Turhan's population) are awfully cute.
The visit to a Uighur (Turkic people, the majority in Xinjiang
formerly called Chinese Turkestan) home was the high point of the day:
the tea and delicacies were better than the barely edible food we
were served at dinner in local restaurant.
(The food in the train has been acceptable, but nothing to write
home about.) The ancient city of Jiahoe was impressive.
In two days we dropped from altitude of 1800 mtrs (6000 ft) to
156 mtrs below sea level. So we had the coldest day on April 24th and
the warmest (79 degrees F) on April 27th.
28 April
Alatao last post on the Chines frontier
Well, we have covered the 4194 kms from Beijing in comfort.
We are only 45 minutes late.
I'll give China Railways B+
(better than the LIRR and Metro North).
It moves millions of people fast, if not in comfort.
It's great to be moving at night; it frees the day for touring. In that sense, the journey is similar to a cruise.
Beautiful, modern railway stations, neo-Stalinist architectural style.
Smoked a long cigar in the caboose, trying to chat with Chinese customs
officers. Exchanged photos.
Patricia Rodriguez, sole Mexican in our group, explained where
Mexico is and what it's all about.
The Nostalgic Istanbul Orient Express (original vintage cars from the
20s & 40s) just pulled in on the wider Russian-gauge tracks.
"Train de luxe" it says!
Snow-capped mountains Tjen Shan range peaking at over 7000 mtrs) in the
South!
The NIOE is "le wagon-lit de papa." Our car dates back from the 50s, but some cars were
manufactured
in 1926.
We just negotiated for two adjoining singles. Supplement $1,000. Well
worth the money.
We passed into Kazakhstan at 17:50 hours local time, having wasted 9
hours with Chinese customs. We
are being pulled by the filthiest diesel engine the world has ever seen.
The new crew is very nice and the pullman bar car magnificent and very
ancient.
One last note on China: Susie
just heard a dog bark; we only saw one or two in China, no cats, a few
herds of sheep and some camels for tourists.
China has little animal husbandry, and the Chinese eat mostly
vegetarian diet.
Kazakh soldiers still wearing hammer and sickle, are looking for
stowaways in the undercarriage of the wagons and under our bunks.
The Russians served us a dinner of steak and French fries and ice cream.
Tasted like a three star meal!!
Only the dining car is a Russian car:
higher and wider and smoother than the Western European built
Orient Express sleepers.
Beautiful rainbow! Double too! Never seen before.
Kazakh tracks are bumpy. Wooden railroad ties. No question that a
Chinese ride is smoother.
The landscape at present looks like the prairie in the spring, but with
hills and mountains in the background.
The bleak desert disappeared overnight as we awoke on
29 April / Almaty
Rivers, rolling hills, cattle, sheep, farm houses.
The land of the horse has replaced the land of the camel and blue
skies and sunshine are here again.
Susie loves it: lots of horses, no fences, no paddocks.
The distance from Druzhba (Chinese border) to Moscow by this rail route
is 6100 kms, which gives a total of 10,294 kms (6405 miles) distance for
the entire trip.
A bit of sadness this afternoon: Benjy
Machnes was evacuated to Tel-Aviv via Frankfurt with viral pneumonia,
although the six or so doctors in the group are not of the same opinion.
Almaty; is a handsome modern city.
The sight of the 4700 mts high
range of mountains that forms the border with Kyrgystan is
majestic.
Saw a nice park, an Orthodox cathedral that survived the 1910 earthquake
(Force 9 on Richter scale) and an anthropology museum, where we learned
the traditional life of the "riders of the steppes."
Altogether, we were off the train for four hours.
Traveling by train is a great way to see the world.
It is a 20-hour journey to Tashkent.
30 April
Woke up at 4:00 a.m. (6 a.m. Kazakh time) to look at beautiful
green, rolling countryside of southeastern Kazakhstan. It is a big-sky country, and Susie is saying how much she
would like to ride here.
Before going to bed, Leon Asseo and I chatted for an hour in Benjy's
(empty) cabin, smoking a double Corona and sipping cognac.
Leon, born in Thessalonica in 1932, was taken to the Communist
"maquis" in 1943 where his father fought while Leon was in
hiding. He later emigrated
to France, and then to Rio where he now lives.
He is married to Francine, born in Marseilles in 1942 who fled to
Portugal and then Argentina. Leon
looks and talked like my own Uncle Leon, no longer with us.
Tashkent is unfairly tagged as an ugly city in the Silk Road tourist
guide. It is clean, bustling and its recent architecture is no eyesore,
if not great. The arts and
craft museum is interesting, and the mosque too. Good-looking, clean
parks. Most interesting is
the Navoiy Theatre. Built
by Japanese prisoners of war in 1945 - 47, it is one of the rare large
structures to have withstood the earthquake of 1966.
Also, we were in luck. Eleven
of us bought tickets for a new ballet, "1001 Nights," composer
Fikret Amirov, an Azeri.
Budget for two for the
evening:
- Ballet
tickets
$3.00
- Shish
kebab, bread, soda, ice cream
$3.00
- Subway
tickets
$.10
- Toilet
$.07
Total
$6.17
Funny
to see Susie in the Tashkent metro.
She never gets near a New York subway train. Got back to the
train at 9:30 pm in time for a nice hot shower and writing these notes.
Last thought for the day: the
food on the Orient Express is surprisingly good.
1 May / Samarkand
A bit of trivia: International
gauge for railroads is 1.40 mtrs. In Russia, it is 1.52 mtrs.
Cars are higher and some 60 cms wider.
Susie has bought books, dessert plates, multiple jackets, ribbons,
trinkets, a jade horse, a wooden plaque.
I am throwing out old clothes to make room for it. Samarkand is
the high point of the trip. So rich in culture, so vibrant, so
beautiful. Great mosques, meghassehs (a Moslem Yeshiva, or seminary),
mausoleums and a lively produce market.
In terms of culture, the Russian influence in Central Asia has been
enriching. It's a good
counterweight to Islam. The ballet school (some 18 young girls aged 7 to
18) entertained us at dinner tonight.
The Uzbeks have rehabilitated Emir Timur ("Timur the Lame"), a
sort of medieval Milosevic cross-bred with Louis XIV. When they have passed away from the scenes, revisionists come
along and make heroes out of criminals and failed politicians. Francisco
Solano Lopez of Paraguay is the worst
example.
Had a brief bout with traveller's diarrhea. Left me very tired after a 13-hour day. I took a hot shower and collapsed on my bunk and slept a
sound seven hours, to awake in Bukhara, three hours after the train had
pulled in in the middle of the night.
This is a great advantage of this mode of travel:
the train pulls in the
middle of the night, but you can sleep until morning and enjoy breakfast
before setting off to a day of touring.
2 May / Bukhara
The restaurant meals are nothing to write home about.
So, I am not going to write about them.
In fact, the meals on the two trains were more palatable than in
the restaurants in Central and Western China and Central Asia.
Bukhara, while not quite as rich in Islamic treasures as Samarkand, is a
beautiful city too. We
visited a small synagogue where Hilary preceded us in 1997.
It is in the process of being restored.
There are 1500 Jews left in Bukhara, down from 14,000.
Most amusing was a statue of "Joukha" riding a donkey.
Jukha, a wily character and a confidence man is an amiable rogue.
He is part of the Turkic, Sephardic, and Central Asian folklore.
My mother and grandfather told me countless tales about his
cheating ways. He is a national hero in Uzbekistan.
We returned to the train at 6:00 p.m.
We are in arid country again. The
melting snow from the Pamir mountains brings water to the town, which
receives only 10 cms of rain a year.
3
May / towards Urgench
The mountains have receded and it's back to the desert.
We roll through Turkmenistan along the banks of the Amu Durya,
which has been depleted for agriculture.
There are wide variations in temperature in and outside the train.
We were told that winter temperatures fall to 15 degrees C below
zero and in summer they can reach 45 degrees C (110 F).
This time of year temps reach the upper 70 degrees (F) in the
afternoon, in the shade.
3 May / Urgench / Khiva
Blue skies have been with us since we crossed the China / Kazakh
border. Surprise, surprise! At
lunch, in Urgench, they served English wine, Saxon Crown, bottled in
Bath, Sussex. I inquired
and was told it is foreign aid from Tony Blair.
Dancing and singing children entertained us at lunch.
They were adorable. We
gave them what we had left of granola bars, Miss Swiss chocolate
beverage, dried Moshem Kosher yak meat bought in China, and Norwegian
diet crackers. This will make room in my duffel bag.
This time again the local guide was competent and pleasant.
Khiva has been restored to perfection by the Russians.
It was famous for the cruelty of its slave-owning rulers and the
architecture shows it. It is a foreboding fortress with handsome and tall (47 mtrs)
minaret, madrasseh, and caravansary and a Friday mosque with carved
wooden columns, 15 feet apart, that reminded me of Cordoba's cathedral.
There is a small jail in the main square where prisoners were held for
up to 10 days awaiting public execution.
Cruel and unusual punishment included impaling, throwing from the
top of the minaret, burial alive, (head first, feet in air), and for
adulterous women, being thrown in a pit with wildcats.
Tired of walking, I hired a one-hump camel (dromedary) to take me to the
tourist bus (two-hump camels are more comfortable, take it from an
expert).
I was also interviewed by Uzbek television and told them it was a dream
come true for Westerners to be here today:
twenty years ago, we had not expected to make the visit in our
lifetime.
This ended with panache our five-day tour of Central Asia.
3/6 May
At 21:30 hours we embark on the last stage of our journey:
a 60-hour, 3070 km (1910 miles) train ride to Moscow, with only
technical stops. What do
you do on a 60-hour train ride to Moscow:
sleep, eat, booze up, shoot the breeze, take brisk walks at
technical stops, play cards, smoke cigars, read, write your diary,
listen to taped music, look at the vast expanse of sand and rust between
the Aral and Caspian Seas or the monotony of the Russian steppe.
Most towns have a junkyard aspect to them.
At 19.53 hours on May 5, the train crossed the Ural River:
we were back in Europe. Then, the accumulation of rusting junk
got worse.
Crossed the Volga at 4:00 p.m. 5 May.
Snow flakes! 45
degrees F expected in Moscow.
This seems an appropriate time to draw conclusions from our tour and
pass judgment on those who served us and on the facilities.
1. On geography:
China is a vast country, wheat-growing in the North, rice-growing
in the South. Over one
billion people and practically no domestic animals of any kind.
The Chinese are vegetarians, not by choice but by necessity.
Meat production is just too inefficient to feed such a large
population on the small fractions of the land which is suitable for
agriculture. If you must
have meat pork (pigs eat garbage) and chicken give you more calories for
your bucks. There are some
goats, camels and sheep out West, where nothing edible can grow.
China is well organized and relatively disciplined.
It is building infrastructure with fearsome energy.
Central Asia is in complete contrast to China: vast spaces, greenery in the East, sparse population,
horsemen driving cattle herds, blue skies everywhere.
The West is just as dry as the west of China. The Pamir mountains is what makes the difference, not
rainfall.
The biggest problem of the world economic geography of the 21st century
will be a shortage of water and clean air.
All of northern, central and western China suffers from an acute
water shortage and Central Asia does too.
Diversion of the 900 miles Amu Darya and of the Syr Darya to
benefit agriculture has dried up the Sea of Aral.
Ecology is a challenge everywhere we have been. Worse, in Eastern
and Central China and even the cities of west are choking on pollution.
It will take years and an iron will to clean up, and it will be
very costly. But they will
have to do it. It's a
question of survival.
2.
On history and politics:
All countries along the Silk Road are dictatorships, some
with a facade of democracy. Despite
this flaw, it is important to keep matters in perspective.
One hundred years ago, China was entering the ultimate phase of
its imperial decline. The
next 80 years would bring the warlords, civil war, foreign war,
devastation, famine. Until
1917, the slave market was thriving in Khiva.
Today, peace has returned, starvation has receded, we are welcome
everywhere, and can cross this immense continent in tranquillity.
Resources are being harnessed and the future holds some promise.
3.
Evaluation of the Tour:
Overall: "B+"
(Susie -"B").
Touring a continent by train is like a cruise, except that space is
more restricted on a train than on a ship. The schedule of the
private train fits the tour program. If you pull in a station at 3:00
a.m., you don't get off the train until 8:30. No hassle, no luggage to
carry!
If
possible, cross a continent from East to West. It is easier to fit a
busy schedule in a 25-hour day than in a 23-hour day.
Value
for money:
"B+".
A combination of high cultural value, excellent organizations, relative
comfort, good company.
Technical
organization and logistics:
"A"
Good organization is the sum of small details: air-conditioned buses, water on buses, toilet stops, audio
guide, on-time departures, daily programs, day rooms in hotel, free
postage, smiles, and cheerful disposition.
Lectures:
"C"
One good topical lecturer on anthropology in China.
Not a word on "warlords," "civil war,"
Chinese-American relations, long march, Great Leap Forward, cultural
revolution, Bolshevik takeover of Central Asia, Mongol invasions,
breakup of Soviet Union, economics of Chinese resurgence, government in
Central Asia, World War I and World War II in Central Asia. Dinosaurs
are interesting but I have heard enough about them from my grandsons.
I must say, we had very high expectations from a tour sponsored by a
great Museum and they were not met.
Comfort
on the Chinese train (double cabin): "C+"
(The trains are rated for comfort against other
long-distance trains, not relative to hotels.) Cramped
cabin (for two), no hot water, no chemical toilet.
Nice bar. Air
conditioning.
Comfort
on the Russian train (single cabin): "A"
Showers, chemical toilets, laundry (expensive), nice bar, pullman dining
car, no A-C except inside Russian dining car.
Food
in Chinese train:
"C"
Food in outside restaurants:
"C-" (average).
Food on Russian train: "B"
Company of fellow tourists:
"A"
A
very good group with international flavor. Israelis, Manxians, French,
Italian, Greek, Mexican. All
over USA! About 60 persons. If you take a trip such as this, do not be
concerned if your friends don't come along: you will make new
friends and meet neighbors (two couples from Greenwich, one from
Guilford, one from Mount Kisco).
Local
guides in China:
"C". Moscow:
"A".
Local guides in Central Asia: "B".
Beauty
of scenery from windows of train: "D",
except eastern Central Asia: "B";
Russian countryside, Northwest of Saratov:
"B"
Camel
rides (rated for comfort as mounts):
Two-humped: "B-"
One-humped: "C"
Biggest
disappointment: Beijing.
Most moving monument: Statue
of Jukha in Bukhara.
Most fun: Tashkent (ballet,
shish kebab from street vendors, and subway)
Least fun: Chinese-Kazakh
border crossing.
May 6-7 / Moscow
No matter what you have read before, the prize of this tour is
Moscow. What a magnificent city! Contrary
to expectation, I found it much improved, compared to 1990, when I last
visited. The Tretyakov
Gallery of Russian art is one of the most interesting museums I have
seen in my life. I believe it was closed in 1990.
It is also the best-guarded secret in the art world.
What wealth, what diversity, what beauty!. The time was short, but we admired dozens of paintings of the
great Russian impressionist Serov, and I recognized from looking at her,
the portrait of the grandmother of my friend, Jean-Michel Lvoff, even
though at that time she bore her maiden name. The icing on the cake was
an evening at the Bolshoi to see Boris Godunov, by Mussorgsky.
The best Russian work, sung by the greatest bass singers alive,
and an enthusiastic audience. Who
could ask for anything more to end this 6,405 mile journey through
Eurasia?
Next
trips (advice from seasoned travellers):
-
Patagonia/Antarctica
- Black Sea
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