Museum Peace

"The Great Wall Climber"

We've spent the last week or two ticking so many tourist boxes en route to Sechuan, that I think we might be 'templed out' before we've even reached Nepal!! Mind you, the four hour trek along the Great Wall just outside Beijing was truly great (even if I did twist my ankle stupidly jumping out of a watch tower), and the Terracotta Warriors were definitely worth the queue, as were some spectacular cave temples called the Longmen Caves - a UNESCO world heritage sight that we hadn't realised even existed.


Thousands of Buddha's carved into a rockface, from 1" to 100' high, all with different expressions and meanings...not that we knew what the meanings were as most of the explanation, as ever, was in Chinese. We're getting used to putting our own spin on things!

The Chinese approach to museums is interesting, to say the least. The Forbidden City in Beijing suffers from the fact that almost all its interior treasures got taken to Taiwan, where they now sit in a reputedly amazing museum. Those few that were left are now behind window panes which haven’t been cleaned for years. I’m all for repatriation of the world’s treasures to their rightful places (Elgin Marbles anyone?) but to be honest, at least for the moment some of those might be better off where they are. In Pingyao, a perfectly preserved old town just outside Beijing, the tourists crowd in to see a slice of old China. It’s like a movie set – and all the more interesting because its still very much a working (if increasingly touristy) town. But when the very artefacts which they’ve come to see are, quite literally, left outside to rust in the rain, you have to wonder how long this gravy train can last.

"Pingyao - last vestiges of reality before tourism sets in..."

So now we have arrived in Chengdu, capital of Sechuan, where much to Jonny's annoyance, he's discovered he can't stand the aftertaste of the world famous Sechuan Pepper (its a bit like detergent to the wrong tongue), leaving me to deal with the spicy hot pot, and him to put up with the milder version... certainly not playing to type!

We've just got wind of an annual Horse festival in Litung, near the Tibet/China border which is about 300 km west of Chengdu. Its apparently an amazingly colourful experience and involves all kinds of horse racing, skill demonstration and general 'wow' horsemanship. It finishes in a few days time, so if we're going to catch it, we've got to get the early bus (8 hours, then another 8 hours and a climb to over 4000m so hopefully no altitude sickness!).