Desert Fortress & Bus Ride

We got off the train and met our new tour guide, who would take us for the next couple days until we got on the train to Turpan. The bus, nicer than the first one, took us to Jia Yu Guan fortress.

The fortress was the far western end of the Great Wall during the period when it was most extensive. One of the common myths about the wall is that it was a continuous wall across the country. In fact, the vast majority of it was made up of these fortresses and outposts built at the empire’s edge. If the emperor was having trouble with one of his military officials, he would banish them to man this outpost, in the furthest, harshest land under the empire.

The fortress was very impressive, especially for something so far out in the middle of nowhere. I can only imagine how remote it must have felt in a time where there were no overnight trains. It was fun to walk around on top of the 50-foot walls and look across the desert. For 10 kuai you could stand on the wall and use a bow and set of arrows to pretend you were defending the fortress against the nomadic tribes from the north. I’m proud to say I positively slaughtered the 2-man army of hay bail men, hitting one twice, in the chest and neck, and the other once, square in the face. After a camel ride and a little more exploring, we left the fortress and got on the bus for a 9-hour ride through the desert to Dun Huang.

The bus ride was horrible. It started off as expected, on a 2-lane road that was a little bumpy, but bearable. I tried to get a little sleep but it was still too early, and I wasn’t very tired. After a while, we turned onto a dirt road that ran along the side of a smooth platform that was clearly going to be made into a new road, maybe wide enough for a 4-lane highway. The road was dusty, bumpy, and filled with construction vehicles. For us, sitting in the back of the bus, every bump was amplified, bouncing us off of our seats frequently. In one especially bad section, Roy hit his head on the ceiling after the bus had thrown us all two feet out of our seats. For the first half hour, I looked for the end of the construction zone, waiting to get back on the paved road again. But the end never came. The construction project went on for what must have been 150 kilometers, 6 hours of driving on deeply rutted roads through the desert. By the time we reached Dun Huang, I could feel the grits of dust between my teeth and barely see to the front of the bus. The shower at the hotel in Dun Huang was barely a trickle, but a well appreciated trickle nonetheless.