A wild goose chase around China

From Lhasa we arrived in Chengdu on Sunday morning. Chengdu because the travel agents in Kathmandu had said that this was one of three places in China where a Tibetan permit could be extended. We had our doubts. And, even more irritatingly we had had to come in completely the wrong direction to get to Chengdu and were now 4 days of continuous travel away from our intended destination.

At 9am on Monday morning we stood in the Public Security Bureau (PSB) to be told that a visa extension was “not possible”. We only had one option - to leave China before our visa expired. Back at the hostel we worked out the train times and bought the next possible train ticket to Turpan – a junction in  the train line from where we would try to catch an onward train to Kashgar and then a final sprint to the Kyrgyz border from there.

Hutong

It was a shame that our stay in Chengdu had been cut short as it is a nice city with a pleasant climate. We had visited Chengdu when we first travelled in China 8 years previously. Since then it has completely changed. The hutong (traditional Chinese street) that the hostel was located on no longer had street vendors cooking dumplings and people having their hair cut underneath leafy trees. Instead, Chinese tourists thronged the streets full of boutique shops selling exquisite teas and designer handbags, and exclusive bars and restaurants. The middle class Chinese since our last visit had developed a taste not for eating dogs but for keeping them as pets. Lap dogs were popular but also larger breeds especially Labrador and Retrievers. I tried to befriend a yappy little dog but when it realised I didn't have any food it tried to bite me. When I did coax it into letting me scratch its back it tried to hump my leg.

Luckily away from the now Disney-ifed hutong there were still plenty of little local eateries. Our favourite sold steamed meat dumplings for 10p each during the day (two were plenty for lunch) and then it turned into a stir fry place in the evening, where we could select the ingredients to which the chef would add spices and cook up in front of us – delicious.

Chengdu market - fresh eel and toad for dinner anyone?

We preferred stir fry


A boutque hotel? No youth hostelling in China. The lovely Loft Hostel

The highest train journey

So apart from sharing the highest mountain in the world, Tibet also claims the highest train line in the world. At points the train reaches 5072m - higher than Mt Blanc. It crosses the vastness of the Tibetan plateau to the northern Tibetan border with China and is yet another demonstration of Chinese engineering prowess. The line was completed in 2005 linking Lhasa with the well developed Chinese network. The engineers had to use a range of technologies to overcome ground movement caused by the seasonal shifts in the permafrost. This included building some of the line on concrete stilts. Other unique technologies on the train include oxygen ports in each compartments to attempt to stave off altitude sickness for the unacclimatised!

The train from Lhasa was our ticket to China and a key section of our overland journey back to the UK. But first we had to overcome the airport style security checks to get into the departure lounge. On this check the only victim was an almost empty gas canister, luckily they didn’t notice the four full ones buried deep in one of our bags. Two other people from Team Budget were also on the same train, Nao, the Japanese representative and Anton, the Russian representative. Anton was travelling with his bicycle and aiming to cycle back home. James and I were sharing our hard sleeper (not as bad as it sounds, in fact quite comfortable) compartment with  Nao, who looked like a cartoon character and kept getting mistaken for a Chinese person, and also 3 actual Chinese. One of the Chinese guys on the top bunk sneezed, showering us from above. By day 2 man flu had been passed from one man to another and James was feeling dreadful, but not as dreadful as Anton who was hard seating it to Chengdu (this is as bad as it sounds).

Our train trundled across the Tibetan plateau, through snow storms and past 1000 strong herds of yaks which stretched as far as the eye could see until they were mere black specks. When spending 2 days on a train any sense of time is distorted, gauged only by the trundling sound of the meals on wheels trolley at allotted meal times. This was when tasty hot Chinese meals could be bought for a few yuan. After 44 hrs and having travelled 3360 km we arrived in Chengdu and a bed which wasn’t mobile.

Getting high!

Cabin mates James, me (with eyes closed as usual), Nao and Anton