Taklimakan Desert
Mt.Kongtong
Lijiashan
Rorgai Grassland
Best moments during the China overland tour by Yan
Travel story and picturs about Yan's overland tours in China in 2014.These are some of my best moment. And I wonder what the others on the trip think about their best moments from the overland trip we all were on.
Every time after a long trip with a group someone asks me “what is the best moment for you in this trip?” And my answer is, “oh there are a lot best moments for me .”
The first that comes to mind is experiencing the moment of the sunset at the Great Wall. This came after we drove from Beijing to Jinshanling. With the heat and traffic jams we were feeling so tired, but also feeling excited and ready to climb up the Great Wall. Usually we first meet at the front yard of the hotel. Some people like to bring some beers and things which they bought from the shop opposite of the hotel. Then we walked to the wall and on the way we talked about culture difference and about experiences in life, etc. Sometimes we made jokes and laughed with each other . After walking to the Great Wall we then sat there in the sun...watching it going down over the mountains and then over the wall with the color changing from very bright to orange to red. And then the remaining light from the sun spread into the clouds and to the mountains. At this moment, all the tiredness, all the heat, all the traffic jams, they are all left behind and time passes slowly. The voice of people talking and laughing, the cold beers, and those golden clouds and mountains and walls, they all are imprinted into memory from that moment forever.
Another wonderful memory comes from watching the sun rise over the Takla Makan desert as we drove from Kashgar to Kuche. Because it was a long trip we started very early. Then after about one hour driving the sun started to come up over the desert, climbing up out of the sand it seemed and then over the desert hills. Some in the truck were sleeping and others looking out the windows with everyone quiet so you could only hear the wind as the little orange sun came out of the dark and started to light up the road ahead and the desert all around. In the morning, with the sun rising, at first the desert looked so far away...and my mind also seemed far away... but then as the sun rose further it also looked so nearby.
Sitting at the top of Kongtong Mountain I looked down of the whole mountain area – Brown Temples …little people …green trees, the Buddha songs come to your ear, the smell of forest, the incense of the temple can almost be smelled. And it is so quietly outside... only insects, birds, and the trees all talking and you can feel so peaceful inside with all worries seemingly gone and the memories of the heat and traffic no longer existing. . Sitting up there looking down on the world only you seem to exist …or even in a sense even you don't really exist in the same normal way.
Another really special memory comes from when we were driving from Sichuan to Yuannan. The whole drive is on a highway and we passed through many bridges and tunnels. Between the mountains the bridges are very high and the only way to go though , and beside the bridge is village in forest … only few houses there with very ethnic design , it is like we are driving on the view point of this nature way , different is this view point very far , the new high way , big bridge , and very long tunnels with light , make you feeling like the space traveling …
Another memory is when we decided to go to the Ruoergai grass land, the nature park which is 3500km high. We arrived in the afternoon with the sun very big, little wind, a great warm spring day. Then the next morning when I opened the tent I was so surprised. Wow wow, there was white snow all around the whole grass land. Just this one night and it was like time-traveling quickly to winter. What a surprise! We played having snow fights, breathing in the fresh snowie air, and at that moment the single word I kept speaking was wowwow.
Then one day we went to Lijiashan village. After arriving in the afternoon we just sat outside of the Siheyuan Caves Hotel opposite the whole caves village. It was so peaceful with the sunset light fading over the whole village. We just sat there very quietly with this village beside the yellow river letting our minds wander and just feeling so comfortable and at peace. At that moment in that place I was just feeling like it doesn’t matter where you are from and how old are you or whether you are man or woman or what is your past life or what you do in life.
Sitting there it felt that we were all so calm and had no worries and it was like we knew each since for a long time and we are so close …..
Oh really, so many memories from these trips around China... It would take ages to tell all of it ….
But these are some of my best moment. And I wonder what the others on the trip think about their best moments from the overland trip we all were on.
Wrote By Yan from China Exploration
3th Dec 2014
