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HITCH-HIKERS GUIDE TO THE GOBL DESERT IAD TO HEAVEN’S ROAD LAKE THE China on 10 Foreign Exchange Certificates a day We left Kaxgar by bus and for the next three days travelled through a flat and featureless landscape similar to the stony deserts of Australia. Unlike the smooth, polished, ochre-coloured gibbers of south west Queensland however, the rocks are a dull black colour. Their edges are sharp and angular and I could not imagine anyone walking through such country without tearing their boots and feet to shreds. As in all of Central Asia there are plenty of small bakeries and freshly-baked naan flatbread is readily available when you find them. Many tourists in China’s more remote areas carry instant noodles with them. Kai Shui - hot water - is provided.in all Chinese hotels and cafes, The Chinese drink it instead of tea, with meals or just as a refresher. Hotel staff seem puzzled at first, then dismayed, when Western tourists use it for washing in the chilly mornings. Tribal Herders Travelling the Silk Road from Kaxgar we were enroute to Urumai, capital of the Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region, a sprawling industrialised city where the native Uighurs are oumumbered by Han Chinese, who call it Wulumuchi. There are also Kirghiz and Mongol tribesmen, herding their horses, camels, goats or other livestock. They have largely maintained their old tribal ways, being confined to their own autonomous counties or districts. These eqivalents to our municipalities are grouped according to race or tribal background. From Kaxgar to Urimgqi, nomads bring pelts into the bazaars to trade or sell. Besides having to use special tourist money, Foreign Exchange Certificates (FECs or wai hui which are commonly ‘traded’ rather han spent), foreign tourists in China are also required to stay in a certain class of hotel. Many of these guesthouses were for visiting delegations of Party officials but the tourist boom has resulted in the construction of modem hotels built to international standards. Urumqi has a new international airport and to our dismay we found that every available tourist bed in the city was already taken. A most helpful member of China’s national travel service, the Luxing- she, eventually found us floor space in aconference room in the most prestigious hotel in town. There were about a dozen of us there and more in the conference rooms on the floors above and below us. Our accommodation arranged, we set out for the People’s Park and the ticket office for the next day’s excursion. The post office and a couple of department stores were also in the vicinity. All major towns in China have these parks. Often they were the private gardens or estates of mandarins or warlords under the former regime. In a pavilion in the Park we were fortunate enough to see an exhibition of paintings by a young art student. His works were mostly impressionist or modernist in style and demon- strated a creative talent that put to shame the pretensions of many Australian art galleries. As in all of Central Asia there are plenty of small bakeries and freshly-baked naan flatbread is readily available when you find them. Many tourists in China’s more remote areas carry instant noodles with them. Kai Shui - hot water - is provided.in all Chinese hotels and cafes, The Chinese drink it instead of tea, with meals or just as a refresher. Hotel staff seem puzzled at first, then dismayed, when Western tourists use it for washing in the chilly mornings. We were on the northem branch of the Old Silk Road, an elevated, narrow strip of the Gobi desert extending eastward from the Mongolian Plateau. To the south lay the Takla Makan, a terrible wasteland almost totally devoid of any living thing. At times we passed over vast salt-pans where nota blade of grass, not even an insect stirred. But there were oasis towns, irrigated by underground streams of glacial meltwater from the snow-capped peaks of the Tien Shan (Heavenly Mountains) which we dimly discerned on the northern horizon. Near the railhead at Korla, one of the oasis towns, we saw workers extracting salt from the ground. They dug deep pits which were then filled with water. The briny solution was brought up to the surface where it evaporated, leaving behind its white, crystalline residue. We would stop for lunch at nameless oasis bazaars along the long and dusty road. The staple food seemed to be noodles (mien), invariably prepared on the premises. Freshly kneaded dough is rolled out into flat sheets and cut into thin strips and the cook loops the strips between his two forearms like a skein of wool. In a feat that seems to defy all laws of cohesion and gravity he swings, spins and stretches the dough strips into the spaghetti that re-appears a few minutes later from large steam- ing cooking-pots. It is served in a clear, oily soup dotted with minced meat and chilli. Throughout the region it’s very hard to find any cooked vegetarian food - except for bread. Other available food is largely canned ‘army surplus’ or commune brands, Oranges in army ration tins are delicious - but it’s vital to note the Chinese prefix designating ‘fruit’ or you can end up with a tin of pig fat - another popular staple in the Chinese diet. i ATTAIN EQUILIBRIUM Gain Stability, Happiness, Wisdom, Power, Protection. No books or courses. Private North Shore group. Survive In this hostile world. Ignore the “rat-race". Meet prudent frends. \ Enquiries (02) 977 1394 Tribal Herders =—=_—_—_—_ ¥