Turpan... uh yeah.

At the moment I am in Turpan in the Xianjiang Province, the second lowest point in the world, second only to the dead sea in Jordan. Right now I'm experiencing the shock I ran into when I left the areas that were inhabited by Tibetan people. It's really a hard to be in areas controlled by Han Chinese, and then different places which are much more inviting. I do understand that there are significant cultural differences that account for behavior, but even though that's the case, I don't think I can stand current Chinese culture. No one ever smiles (except small children) everyone is at each others throat one moment and then nice the next. I've seen more violent fights here, and screaming, than I have ever seen in my life. Also, there is more exploition of people, and trying to cheating others out of money than I imagined was possible. I know I see the worst side of Chinese people because I am a westerner, but it still makes me feel very drained to have to deal with it every day. But I'm in Xianjiang now and everything is different here. Uyger people are so goddamn nice its almost nauseating. They give you gifts, smile, wave, don't try to rip you off. Its almost like ascending too fast in water and getting the bends. In other words its a little discombobulating to see such a significant change in people over such a short distance.

I stick by my former statement. Uyger food is some of ther best food ever.

Unless I have visa problems, it seems like a sure thing that I will be riding a bicycle from Kashgar(China) to Giglit(Pakistan). Tommarow I will go to Urumqi to buy a bicycle.

Dune(s) minus the sand worms

Its funny, I'm in a sandstorm/duststorm right now while a number of my friends are at Burning Man, possibly in the exact same conditions. I can't get photos of the dunes to post on my blog, so I'll try again later.

I met someone who I beleive I will be traveling through Pakistan with. I think we're going to buy bicycles and ride them over the Kerakorum highway. That should be pretty exiting. I'll keep you all posted on that one as it develops.

Dunhuang! Did you miss me?

Well, I spent a couple of hours today doing detective work. I ended up getting different stories from every person I talked to about getting to Charklik. This is a perfect example of losing face. People in China will tell you a complete lie directly to your face rather than admit they don't know, or lie to cover up things that could cause them to be humiliated. This has been a problem while I traveled, but this is the first time it has effected me so directly... that I know of. So this is how I understand things happend. I bought a ticket from a bus station in Dunhuang of the Gansu Province. The lady at the window didn't know that the area around Dashaidan (in the Qinghi Province) had been closed to foriegners and sold me a ticket there because its the only place that has buses to Xianjiang outside of the roads to Urumqi. When I got on the bus with a ticket to Dashaidan, the bus drivers knew I wasn't supposed to be there but decided it would be better to lie to me and tell me that Galmud, which was three hours past my destination, was Dashaidan.

I arrived in Galmud and spent the night becasue the ticket office was closed and I was unable to buy tickets or get information. There was a sign above the ticket window saying "sleeper bus to Chakrlik 130RMB". When I arrived in the morning I was told that I was in Golmud by the ticket lady, who then handed me a piece of paper from a Polish man who had also attempted to get to Xianjiang. It told me that as he understood it, he had to get a permit from the PSB to make the journey. As I later found out, the permit, which was expensive was only to travel back to Dunhuang, and not to Xianjiang, and that travelling from Dashaidan to Charklik had been completely stopped as the area was under tightened security. There is no bus going to Charklik from anywhere. This could be for a number of reasons and possibly means that other chunks of the southern silk road are completely closed. At that point I beleived my only choice was to wait to buy a permit plus a more expensive bus ticket back to Dunhuang. So, I checked into a hotel and was just about to figure out my day when I ran into a German/Czech couple who in a similair perdicament and needed another person to help hire a taxi to Dunhuang. On a whim, I decided to go with it, and we set off to Dunhuang without permits. There was some minor police checkpoint dodging, and now here I am back where I started two days ago. I guess this only leaves me with one option: the northern silk road to Pakistan.

I'm going to rest for a day and then head towards Urumqi. Its been an interesting two days, chocked full of, what I have come to understand as, very Chinese experiences. I think I'm ready to leave China. Staying is only going to make me more drained from constantly dealing with certian aspects of this culture. Everything is still good, I'm just a little tired.

No, really, I'm laughing, I swear

Well, things got off to a poor start for traveling to the Southern Silk Road in Xianjiang. I went to the bus station today to buy my ticket to Charklik and was shocked to find out I was in Galmud, not Dashaidan. Galmud is about twice the distance from where I traveled from yesterday than Dashaidan. This isn't actually suprising seeing how yesterday played out and what I've learned about Chinese people. When I reached Dashaidan yesterday I saw some signs which looked like the Chinese characters for the town. I asked the bus driver, who wouldn't give me a straight answer except that it wasn't my stop. I showed my ticket and said repeatedly I wanted to go to Dashaidian, but he litterally pushed me back on the bus saying that this wasn't where I was going. This is something that has happend a number of times in China. Often people decide what I want, and then will not listen to me no matter how hard I try to communicate with them. I guess every foriegner he had seen on the bus was headed towards Galmud which is the stop you make when your headed to Lhasa in Tibet, of course I am headed to a completely different province so he was wrong. So, while on the bus, I decided I must have been mistaken and stayed the course until I hit what I thought must be Dashaidan. It turned out to be Golmud. This wouldn't be a probelm in most places, but I'm in China. The area I passed through between Dashaidan and Golmud turns out to be off limits to foriegners. So I can't just head back up to Dashaidan without a permit. So, I have to go to the PSB in golmud and get a permit to travel back to Dashaidan so that I can then travel to Charklik. Again this could be easier but the PSB is only open early in the morning on weekdays so I have to stick around for another day while I wait for it to open. Its possible the permit could take days, or more likely be denied to me meaning that I would have to travel all the way back to Lanzhou and then back to Dunhaung. This would eat up a good chunk of my time in China meaning that I would then have to rush to get to Kashgar before my visa runs out.

I think its all pretty funny. The good side is that police didn't catch me between Dashaidan and Golmud and fine me for being in a no-foriegner-zone. Anyways, I'll post again tommarow when I know whats going on. Zaijian.

More sand than shoe

I'm standing on a precipe... metaphorically speaking. Tommarrow morning I head off into areas of Xianjiang with no Idea how I'm going to navigate through them. Maybe everything will go smoothly, or maybe I'll spend the next month traveling in cirles through sand dunes. Whatever the case, there are sure to be very few tourists.

At the moment I am in Dunhuang of the Gansu province now which is a pretty easy place to rest. What's really amazing about Dunhuang is that 6 kilometers away the dirt just stops and a wall of sand dunes hundereds of feet high flank you on either side. The dunes rise up at extremely steep angles and it is somewhat discombobulating to be in a lightly forested area and then in one step find yourself in a completely baron desert. I walked about 2 or 3 miles across the the dubes yesterday and really enjoyed it. There is a peacfullness in it that is hard to find anywhere. At the end of my walk when I crested the last sand dune and looked out over the desert, all I could see was sand for miles. I beleive this is the beggining of the Taklamakan Desert which I will be crossing over the next two weeks.

I met a really cool guy on the train to Lanzhou in the Gansu Province. His name was Dr. Wong and before I left Lanzhou he showed me around town. Also in Lanzhou I visited the yellow river and saw the traditional Uyger rafts. They are made of completely intact goat skins that are air tight and turned into inflated pontoons. This forms the base of Uyger rafts. Its pretty strange to see what looks like barrels attached to the rafts until you realize they're goat legs sticking out ofthe bottom.

I'm going to miss the Kashgar Bazzar which is too bad, but I imagine that the southern road of Xianjiang will make up for it.

I also hung out with a really sweet older couple from Holland. They had been visiting one of their children in Lanzhou. It was funny running into some people who default to the role of parents when they are around younger people.

Not much else to say and at the same time too much. Nothing of groundbreaking imporance though. I'll try to post some pictures of the Sand Dunes when I have the chance.

I really have no idea what to expect over the next 2 weeks, but I will post when I can.

The wheels on the train go ker-clunck, ker-clunck

Slight change of plans (big suprise). The change of plans is that I have no idea how the hell I'm getting to Pakistan. I take a 9 hour train ride tonight and arrive tommarow morning in Lanzhou in the Gansu province. At that point I have to figure out whether I'm going to take the less traveled road or go to Urumqi and then to Kashgar (Kashi). I am at a loss about what to do so it may come down to a split second decision in a train station.

The "hard seat" that I rode on was much nicer than the last one sat in. It made the 11 hours bearable. Hopefully this will hold true in the future when I am forced to travel that way again.

I ended up doing the walk of shame in Yinchuan last night, meaning I walked around at night looking for a hotel. It all worked out but was a little trying. On my way to Yinchuan I sayed in Hohhot in Inner Mongolia, which was made pleasant by the kindness of the people living there. It looks like I will be racing the clock to get to Pakistan over the next three weeks seeing that travel conditions and access are spotty at best.

Not much to report. I'm living mostly on trains right now, which means sleeping, eating, and reading. Bye for now.

On the train again

Yay! I got my visa extension. I get to go to Pakistan on the silk road traveling through China. It's funny, 7 years ago when I first decided I wanted to travel around here, the goal was to follow the path of Bhuddism, and the martial arts associated with it, as they had traveled from India to China over 1000 years ago. I had completely forgotten this until I was looking at a map of the silk road after getting my Pakistan visa. I guess it was meant to be... or something.

It turns out that the only way for me to get out of Bejing is by "hard seat" on a train. To explain a "hard seat", just think back to the most unconfortable high school chair you ever sat in. Now, multiply that by 10. I imagine that 11 hours in such a seat will be an interesting challenge. Also, I have to travel to Hohhot, because its the only place within reach, in the direction I'm headed, that I could get tickets for. I think I've learned an important lesson recently: traveling around Bejing in August is a royal pain-in-the-ass due to the inordinate number of tourists.

I leave tommarow morning for Hohhot and will there as soon as I possibly can. I have three weeks to get to Pakistan along the silk road, it should be an adventure.

Back in black (ski pants)

Roberts Super-Fantastical 12 rules for Bargaining in Bejing

1) Its not a competition, its a game:
I hate bargaining. I always have, and I imagine I always will. This is partly because I have always viewed bargaining as a competition where there is a winner and a looser. Somone gets ripped off and someone else wins. Whenever I would bargain with people I treated the situation like this when in fact bargaining is more a game of diplomacy, which, if played right, doesn't have to have a loser.

2) Never stop laughing:
Because I have traditionally seen bargaining as a competion where someone is trying to rip me off, I never much enjoyed it, and it showed. I was always very serious, and would play the "bargaining game" as quickly as I could. This has done nothing but alienate the person selling the item and drive the price up. When I started treating the interaction as a trial I had to overcome, and a competition, the other party would always do the same. Jokes, laughing, smiling all help keep the situation from putting the seller on the defensive.

3) Complimenting the seller:
This is silly. When I would buy things, the seller would immediatly compliment me and I would ignore it because I new they were just trying to "butter me up" so I would pay a higher price and I felt that I would have to be stupid for that to work on me. It took me a while to realize that the compliments are all part of establishing a specific kind of mood when your selling and buying. When I start my bargaining with compliments and counter everyone of theirs with another one, the situation tends to go much smoother.

4) Copy their every move:
If somone is using a bargaining technique with you and you recognize it, it is often benificial to do it right back at them. The best example of this is compliments, but it all goes for body language, laughing, etc. If somone says your price is "joking price", say that back to them (laughing ofcourse).

5) Losing face:
This is a very complicated issue in China and has very important implications in bargaining. Almost everything you buy here is fake no matter what the brand name and price may lead you to beleive. Copies of items will of course be cheaper but sellers will not admit that becasue it means A) They sell cheap infrior goods and B) They can't sell their items for as much as they would like. Saying things like "I know this is fake" makes people loose face. Instead mask the statement in a compliment by saying something about how incredibly talented Chinese peoples skills are at copying a specific item. Once people have aknowledged their wares are fake, you have cut the price of everything in their store in half. Also, when bargaining on a price never say the price you want to pay at anytime. Always stop just under it and let the seller say the last price, otherwise they lose face, and feel like you have "won". Ideally you want to leave with everyone feeling like they have won.

6) Know your price before you do anything.
Setting out to get the lowest price possible is not benificial to anyone. You decide how much you are willing to pay for the item before interacting with a seller. This way your goal is to pay that amount rather than getting a "low price" that doesn't actually exsist, which makes success attainable.

7) Show concern for the seller:
Saying repeatedly "you should probably just go, because you can't pay a lot, and you don't want them to lose money on the deal" does two things, A) It helps establish that this is not a cutthroat competition between you and them, and B) It often gets the seller to admit that if your price is too low they just won't sell you the item. This gives you a good bargaining point later on in the interaction.

8) The "walk away"
Someone told me that the best bargaining technique is to be willing not to buy the item you want, and its true. When you have reached your final price say your sorry that a deal couldn't be reached and walk away. Seven times out of ten that is what gets you your price. If you really want somthing and the last price was decent, you can always go back.

9) Throw in a gift:
This is pretty bad because it harkens back to the glass bead and native Amricans, but it works really well. Throwing in an American coin, ballon hats, often does more to help releive tension and make the seller feel better about giving you a good deal. Remember it's not part of the bargian, its a gift from you to them.

11) Cut the price in half:
Whatever the first price your qouted is, cut that in half and make that your goal. If you are in a place that gets a lot of forienger traffic, cut the price down to as low as 1/20. Remember, don't start from these prices, make them your goal.

12) I'm on my way to the airport
As a last resort when you really want something cheap and don't want to bargain you can do this. Approach the seller with the exact amount you want to pay in your pocket. Then say "I want that item, I only have this much money, and I have to meet my taxi in a couple of minutes to fly home". Remeber to show the money and empty out your pockets to prove that thats all you have. This often proves to be too much temptation for people, and they will cave immediatly or at least very quickly. This should only be done if you know a seller has the exact item you want, and you know how much it's worth.

Truly, I still dislike bargaining because I generally don't like these kinds of social games. The bargaining game is eerily close to the seduction game, which I also think is just as rediculous. Despite not liking to play the bargaining game everytime I need to buy something, I am in China, and knowing how to bargain is important for doing anything here. Its funny, a lot of the things I have real problems with I have to learned how to deal with here. This includes people yelling, and strangers grabbing me. Everyone yells all the time, even when they're just conversing. I've had a lot of trouble figuring out when people are mad at me and just had to get used to it. Also, Chinese selling techniques often include putting an arm around you or litteraly grabbing you and pulling you into a booth. While I still really hate this, I have come to expect it and not let it effect me.

Another very different selling technique is China is to closely follow eveyone when enter your store and contanstly hound them with suggestions on what you think they should buy. It is difficult to impossible most times to escape the phrase "you buy this", while you look for what you want to purchase. For this reason I have started to try and convince people I don't speak English or Chinese. I have convinced multiple people I was German, Russian, French, from an imaginary country, or that I was deaf. This has actually gotten people to leave me alone when they figure out that I won't understand anything they say because the main language they tend to study here is English.

I went to the human cadaver exhibit in the Bejing Natural History Museum and was shocked to find that it was the much more intense than the Philidelphia Medical Museum. I reccomend that no one ever go there unlesses they want to see some of the most nausiating things they will ever see in their lives.

I went to the great wall yesterday although a portion of the wall I wanted to walk on was closed. Its seems two days ago a woman was struck by lightening on that section of the wall and killed. Her and her husband were greek and couldn't speak English or Chinese, and therefore were unable to get help right away.

I'm still waiting for my visa. I'll be here for in Bejing for a bit. At least I'm not sick anymore. I hope everyone is well.

My best bargaining:
New ski pants which started at 300 US dollars and ended at 10 US dollars and a balloon flower. Everybody left happy, except for the lorax.

Yay for Bureaucracy!

Ok, I would first like to waylay any fears anyone might have about me going to Pakistan. I have met a number of western(mostly American) travelers who have come from Pakistan and said it was completely safe. I even met someone who was just in Afganistan and said that it was fine. That said, my trip back to the Pakistan embassy was a little more interesting than my first. I was told to arrive at 12:00pm the next day and when I got to the embassy they swore they had said 4:00pm. A couple of hours later I came back and was told to go into the embassy to pay for my visa and get my passport. I was led into an office with a Pakistany man who looked very, very, unhappy. During my brief period of time in the room with him he threw his pen across the room and, I beleive, was saying unhappy things under his breath. He then went into the office of the man who had approved my visa. There was some "disscusion" and then he came back, I paid, he gave me my visa and passport, and I left. I have no idea whether or not I was the center of his discontent but it made my experience there quite an adventure. Whatever the case at the embassy was, I have no intention of sharing my nationality with people in Pakistan.

Today I went to the PSB to extend my Chinese visa. In Lijang this process had taken around 15 minutes. Of course in true Chinese Bureaucratic form, which is a bit thicker here in Bejing than in Lijang, they took my passport and told me to come back in a week. This was after they forced me to go all the way back to my hotel to get an official form from my hotel to prove that I was staying there. So, I'm stuck in Bejing for a week and my visa will only be good for three weeks because I have to spend the first week waiting to get my visa extension processed. Go China! Anyways, its not really a bad thing, I'm sure I'll find an adventure.

It is amazing how much fake stuff is here. I was walking through a market and saw a box of Magic cards. Magic is a trading card game that originated in Seattle. Packs of cards in the states cost around 3 or 4 dollars. Packs here cost 75 cents. Not being able to help myself I bought one. The packaging was exactly the same and I was sure they were real until I was feeling the cards in my hand and realized that they were just slightly more glossy than the cards I would buy in the US. I'm completely amazed how well the Chinese copied a random card game that nobody plays here but not suprised. There are whole markets were every single western brand of clothing, electronics, DVD's, etc. is copied and costs a fraction of the price it would cost in the states.

I'm going to Pakistan.

I went to the Pakistan embassy today which was a fascinating experience, because part of the process included an interview. In the interview I was immediatly confronted about my nationality and, in a way, asked to defend my countries actions. I imagine it will be a pretty common conversation if I am forced to reveal where I'm from in Pakistan. I stood out painfully among the crowds applying for visa's but everyone was very polite. I may go back to the embassy tommarow to talk about American foreign policy with one of the government officials seeing that it looks extremely rare, if ever, that Americans stop by.

My trip looks like this now. I will head west, by train, through the Xianjang province until I reach Kashgar. In Kashgar I will bus to the Pakistan border and cross over. Supposedly I will cross peaks as high as 7000m (21000 feet) on my way to Islamasbad. I hope to get in some good hiking in these areas seeing that the lonely planet has a trekking guide for the area. After Islamasbad I will head down into India. I will probably decide to head towards South East Asia at this point, making a giant circle on my travels.

Bejing is fascninating. There are more foreigners here than anywhere else in China that I've been. It's also very exspensive so I will probably try to get out of here as soon as possible. I may even skip the great wall around Bejing so that I have more time to hike it when I am traveleing west.

Well... I'm 80% sure.

What am I 80% sure of? I'm 80% sure that I'm going to Pakistan. I decided today (flipped a coin) that I would skip Mongolia, extend my Visa for another month and begin heading through the Xiangjiang Province. Then, sometime in the next month, I will cross into Pakistan. From Pakistan I will head to India, and from India I will either head to Africa or South East Asia.

This means that there is a high probability I will not travel completely around the world. My trip is all about no plans, so having a plan to travel around the world is somewhat problematic and must be dealt with accordingly. It looks like my trip maybe more a focus on traveling through developing nations before they completely westernize than what I had previously planned.

Tommarow I look for balloons for making balloon hats, then, on the 10th, its off to the portion of the great wall colorfully refered to as the wild wall.

I realized today that I can speak enough Chinese to get pretty much everything I need here. It was a little bit of a shock. I've noticed since I've gotten to Bejing, that I can carry on very simple conversations with people to the point where they beleive I can speak Chinese. This is both good and bad. It's good because it's flattering, but its bad because when people starting speaking Chinese freely they immediatly loose me.

Everything is an adventure.

No you may not have more! Well, ok you can have more.

I'm in Bejing. Bejing is... well... very western. I got here and for the first time in 2 months my hotel beds had sheets between me and the blanket. Also, walking down the street you see western fast food everywhere and all the stores carry name brand american rip-off that are spelled right (not like all of the "Colubia" sports wear I've seen). Today I had a sandwitch with mayonnaise and mustard. It was heavenly. In fact this is a good time to do a little raising of awareness about those in need.

Did you know that there is a mayonnaise shortage in Southern China which has reached almost epidemic purportions? At this very moment, there are 100s of millions of Chinese men, woman, and children eating bland fish sticks, dry sandwitches, and no cole slaw. Truly if you donate to any charity this year, please, send a jar of mayonnaise to any of the Southern Provinces in China. God Bless you.

Anyways, I'm going to wait to write about Bejing until I spend a couple more days hear so I'll leave you with some words of wisdom I gleamed from the written word, and the like, in China.

Hotels:
The Nuclear Power Hotel (I don't think I'll ever be staying here)
The Population Hotel (and it's in China. Yay! irony)
The Electricity and Hot Water Hotel (This one doesn't leave much to the imagination)

Shirts:
Color up yourself with R.H.B. (I have no idea what R.H.B. is)
If the gates locked jump the fence (Yay, dissent in China)
Save the animal kingdom (Apparently the whole kingdom needs saving now. I wish animals weren't so needy)
Stop Joking (In fact this is another serious subject I would like to talk to you about. Did you know that there were more than 40,000 Joking related deaths in the United States alone each year? Please, for the sake of all that is holy, stop joking.)

I hope your all doing well. I leave for Mongolia in 5-7days. By then, I will know wether I'm heading towards India or Russia.

Errors and omissions

I would first like to make some quick clarifications about my last post. I have met a signifigant number of kind and generous Chinese people. There is an ethos here that lends itself to price gouging and the like, but for the most part people have been nothing but helpful and trustworthy. The reason I have been confronted with these problems more often than not is because I'm a foriegner, which makes me easily spotted even in huge crowds of people. Everywhere I go follows a repuation for having money, and not being China savy. For this reason， mainly， I have run into a fair share of con artists, theives, and opportunists just anxious for money. When I say I'm tired of being on gaurd， I mean that I'm tired of having to make a judgment call about people everytime someone is nice to me. Despite this, I beleive that a great majority of Chinese people are good and not interested in stealing from me or ripping me off， I just tend to attract that behavior.

Today I made a grave mistake when left my hostel。 I had been walking down the street for a while， lost in thought， when I suddenly heard a rush of footstep behind me。 Its common to hear people run in China， but I suddenly snapped out of my daydreams when I noticed that the footsteps were so very close。 I spun around but before I could a hand grabbed my arm very tightly and immediatly began pulling。 This increased the spead of pivot almost throwing off balance。 As I turned， I saw at the end of my arm a woman who immediatly said ”hello“ （in English） followed by the word “message” in Chinese。 In shock， I looked back up the street to see a young woman sitting in every doorway watching my current situation。Thats when I finally understood that I had inadvertantly wandered into the redlight district of Xian。 Looking back at the girl who was still tugging on my arm and now almost yelling “message“， I made a huge mistake。 Instead of just yanking my arm away and walking off， I lightly twisted my arm out of her hand and said ”No thank you“ in Chinese。 I realize that this was taken， by the large number of prostitutes up and down the street watching this event unfold， that I was looking for a prostitute， I just wasn’t interested in that specific girl。 As I started walking down the street again， I was accosted by prostitute after prostitute yelling ”Hello“ from the doorway of their brothel， or literaly chasing me down the street with absolutely no comprehension of the word no （in Chinese）。 Having no idea how long I had been walking through the redlight district before I was approached， I decided I should just move foward because the area covered by such a high density of brothels could’t be more than a block or two。 This was probably my second big mistake seeing that I passed brothel after brothel for the next four long blocks。

When I had finally escaped from that part of Xian， I found myself in the Muslim qaurter of Xian。 This area is inhabited by the Uyger （pronounced weeger）people from the Xinjaing province。My experiences with these people has genereally been very good。 Also， Uyger food has been nothing short of fantastic， easily my favorite food since I got to China。

Tonight I head to Taiyuan in the Shanxi province and then to Pingyoa， which is a completely intact Ming Dynasty city。 A couple of days after that， its off to Bejing and then to Mongolia。 Yay for adventures。