Sitting in the Buddhas hand? Maybe... behind me is the entrance to the 35 meter high sitting Buddha
Sand, Old Caves, and Vegetation????????
Hey look its Yao Ming.. just kidding.. its some china travelling teams playing on a dirt court.
Yesterday evening after dinner of noodles and french fries we went and watched some sort of Basketball tourney. They were city club teams of some sort playing. We watched two Chinese teams, however tonight a team from Kazahkstan is playing. They played outside on a clayish dirt court. There was probably a couple of hundred people watching. The highlight for it seemed everyone was the dunk competition at half-time. We couldn't figure out if the nets were regulation height or not. We tried in vain to get a better deal on our hotel room.
This morning we signed out of our hotel room to be told that we could have the room for what price we had asked for yesterday, however early it was, we had just spend 6.5 minutes packing and were not going to play the game. We said thanks but no thanks, please put our bags in storage and we'll be back in the afternoon to get them.
We got on a small bus (inbetween the size of a bus and a minivan) and headed out to Maogo Caves. There was a lady on the bus who spoke into a microphone for the entire ride out and back in Chinese. Every once and a while cameras would fly out, or people would stand to look out the other side, we just found it a little loud (do you need a microphone to talk to 6 people, especially in Chinese which happens to be a very loud language to begin with)
The prices to the caves had gone up since the guidebook was written, just like every other site in China, to 180 Yuan per person (roughly 30 bucks per person). Ridiculious as it was, we drained our wallets and in we went. At the caves you are unable to walk around by yourself as all caves are locked all the time, and your guide will let you into select caves as you go along. We meet up with a english speaking tour group on their second cave (we went into their first cave later). The caves are carved out of sandstone and are buddhist. The statues in the caves are cut from the rock then covered with straw and plaster before being painted. The caves date from around 300 AD to about 1300 AD. Each cave was comissioned by someone or a group of people who had themselves painted at the enterance to the cave. There are over 400 caves, we were allowed into less than 10. Some caves are in disrepair, others look very similar to ones we saw, others you can pay extra to see, while others still are in great shape but depict tantric or other scenes that are deemed not appropriate for viewing. 100 years ago some english and french explores came to the caves when only 1 man was working doing restoration and paid 130 pounds or 4 times what we paid to get in the gate for over 8000 manuscripts and silk paintings. Does that seem fair to you? The first cave contained a reclined buddha with gold painted feet and head. The walls and ceiling were covered with pictures of gods and stories of buddha. The most impressive room to me was the second which contained a 26 meter high sitting buddha, the second tallest buddha on site after the tour groups first room a 35.5 meter tall sitting buddha. I found the shorter buddha more impressive due to the artwork that surrounded him. We then proceeded through a number of other caves to see different eras of artwork and smaller depictions of buddha (just over lifesized). There was much talk about the destruction and looting by westerners over the last 100 years. Overall the caves were very impressive showing different styles and influences from all over eastern asia including india, nepal and even a bit of further westerner.
Today is hot, but I guess we should expect that being on the edge of the desert.
Tomorrow we are off to see the furthest west end of the Great wall and some other silk road historic sites.
This morning we signed out of our hotel room to be told that we could have the room for what price we had asked for yesterday, however early it was, we had just spend 6.5 minutes packing and were not going to play the game. We said thanks but no thanks, please put our bags in storage and we'll be back in the afternoon to get them.
We got on a small bus (inbetween the size of a bus and a minivan) and headed out to Maogo Caves. There was a lady on the bus who spoke into a microphone for the entire ride out and back in Chinese. Every once and a while cameras would fly out, or people would stand to look out the other side, we just found it a little loud (do you need a microphone to talk to 6 people, especially in Chinese which happens to be a very loud language to begin with)
The prices to the caves had gone up since the guidebook was written, just like every other site in China, to 180 Yuan per person (roughly 30 bucks per person). Ridiculious as it was, we drained our wallets and in we went. At the caves you are unable to walk around by yourself as all caves are locked all the time, and your guide will let you into select caves as you go along. We meet up with a english speaking tour group on their second cave (we went into their first cave later). The caves are carved out of sandstone and are buddhist. The statues in the caves are cut from the rock then covered with straw and plaster before being painted. The caves date from around 300 AD to about 1300 AD. Each cave was comissioned by someone or a group of people who had themselves painted at the enterance to the cave. There are over 400 caves, we were allowed into less than 10. Some caves are in disrepair, others look very similar to ones we saw, others you can pay extra to see, while others still are in great shape but depict tantric or other scenes that are deemed not appropriate for viewing. 100 years ago some english and french explores came to the caves when only 1 man was working doing restoration and paid 130 pounds or 4 times what we paid to get in the gate for over 8000 manuscripts and silk paintings. Does that seem fair to you? The first cave contained a reclined buddha with gold painted feet and head. The walls and ceiling were covered with pictures of gods and stories of buddha. The most impressive room to me was the second which contained a 26 meter high sitting buddha, the second tallest buddha on site after the tour groups first room a 35.5 meter tall sitting buddha. I found the shorter buddha more impressive due to the artwork that surrounded him. We then proceeded through a number of other caves to see different eras of artwork and smaller depictions of buddha (just over lifesized). There was much talk about the destruction and looting by westerners over the last 100 years. Overall the caves were very impressive showing different styles and influences from all over eastern asia including india, nepal and even a bit of further westerner.
Today is hot, but I guess we should expect that being on the edge of the desert.
Tomorrow we are off to see the furthest west end of the Great wall and some other silk road historic sites.
Tyson and Sara
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