Jiayuguan
We took an overnight train to our next stop Jiayuguan. We have now moved out of the mountains and into the desert, with mountains to the north.
After an very early check-in at our hotel and some breakfast we headed out to the Wei-Jin dynasties tombs. These are brick tombs from between 220 - 420 AD.
There is a long stair down into each tomb.
The tombs are multi-chambered and well-constructed of fired brick.
I had to get this image off the internet are photography is not now allowed. In the photo you can see that some bricks have images on them. These are drawings of various parts of the life of the occupants. Here are some photos of bricks and replicas in the local museum.
These are valuable not only for their artistic merit but for their portrayal of life 1,600+ years ago.
There are over a thousand tombs identified, but very few have been excavated, and only two are open to the public.
Then we went to the "Overhanging Wall," The westernmost section of the Ming era Great Wall. Our first stop was at the fort.
It was so heavily "restored" that it looked more like a replica and had little feeling of history to convey.
Then it was out to the Overhanging section of the wall, so named because it's on a steep slope. This was also reconstructed in 1987 using fired brick. It feels more authentic than the fort, but it probably isn't.
When we got to the lookout at the top, we came back on a paved trail down the mountain.
I noticed that at the extension of the wall beyond that point was just a low mound of dirt. So this section of the wall is an entirely new construction. The original was almost certainly unfired mud brick and wider than the reconstruction,
The Chinese are developing extensive tourist facilities at all these sites, with large parking lots, shops, paved paths, etc. The result is a loss of authenticity, in my opinion.
Then it was on to DunHuang, the highlight of the trip in my opinion, and the reason I came.
