Amanda's Study Abroad Blog: The Silk Road-Day 1

I’m finally back in Beijing after 15 days and 2500 miles across China. We saw so much on this trip that it felt like we were gone for over a month! I have over 700 pictures and so much to blog about so over the next few days I'm going to be posting about each day of the trip. So...here is Day 1 :)

Day 1

My alarm went off at 4am after only a few hours of sleep (I'm still getting the hang of China time). I only had time for a quick shower before meeting in the lobby of my dorm to go to the airport. We flew Air China from Beijing to Dunhuang in the Gansu province in Northwest/Central China. Getting checked into the airport was insane because there were so many of us and other groups kept trying to cut us in line. In my travel group (Group B) there were 40 students and 5 staff. The other group from my program TBC (the Beijing Center) started in Beijing and did our route in reverse, working their way West and flying back from Dunhuang.

Everyone made it to the gate just as they started boarding and it was an uneventful 4 hour flight. I was so happy I slept through most of it. The turbulence over the various mountains in China was a little rough. The breakfast they served on the plain was rather...interesting. It was some sort of fried egg and hot dog. I definitely didn't eat the hot dog.

When we got to Dunhuang we were met by our tour guide Adam. He was the sweetest man ever who smiles every other word. He gave us some background info about Dunhuang as the last stop on the silk road heading west before it splits into two routes around the Taklamakan Desert.

We were pleasantly surprised at how nice our hotel was. Although the beds as a general rule in China are pretty hard. I suspect that they throw a thin pad over a board and call it a mattress. But the hotel rooms had western toilets so I really can't complain. We got to check in and had a few hours to nap and walk around the city. My roommate on the trip is named Eva. She's from Pennsylvania but goes to school at Fordam University in the Bronx. Her Chinese is soooo much better than mine. She's really awesome and I think we're definitely going to get along.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city and exploring the famous Shazhou Market. Apparently its even more famous as a night market but there was still plenty of things open during the day. We got lunch at this outdoor restaurant in the market and ordered to much and paid to much. We learned the hard way not to get sucked into tourist traps and always ask to see the menu after they've calculated the bill. We still only paid a little over $6 each but that's still way too much for the quality and quantity of food and service.

Later when we were walking around the town it was soooo hot as we were in the desert. So I decided to be adventurous and try and order some strawberry milk tea from a local vendor. Fail. I ended up with strawberry shaved ice with jello on top. At least I think it was jello. It was good but I was frustrated that I hadn't been understood.

I was walking around with about 5 other people and we got totally lost in the city, found the mosque, and then eventually found our way back to the hotel because there was a map on the back of the hotel business card I had grabbed before we left. The map was in characters but we were able to match it to the street names so it all worked out.

Eva and I went to this tiny little restaurant by the hotel and ordered some jiaozi (dumplings). They were soooo good but we got way too many. the restaurant was owned by a couple and while were were eating the grandmother brought around their baby girl. She was adorable but it was interesting to see how babies don't wear diapers here in China as a general rule. They have pants with slits in the back so their butts are always hanging out. They just hold the babies over a plastic bag or something when they need to go. It's so weird.

After dinner we packed overnight bags in our backpacks and took the bus to the desert! I never really imagined that sand dunes could be so big! They were absolutely incredible and my pictures don't do them justice. Six of us decided to be adventurous and hiked over another sand dune farther than the rest of the group to pitch our tent, so we made a little camp of three tents. It was super windy and Kevin and Tyler's tent almost blew over before they put their bags in it to hold it down. Stakes are pretty useless in the sand.

It's so hard to climb sand dunes! The sand just gives out from underneath you and it's so hot and dry in the desert. It got a lot easier once I took off my shoes. The view from the top is so worth it though. I love the perfect ridges formed by the wind at the top. It felt so amazing just to lie there in the sand.

After a little bonfire down near the other tents, we hiked back to our little camp and played poker with Oreos under the stars :)