Wednesday, July 22, 2009

No more Xinjiang


yi ar san si
Originally uploaded by statusqphotos
Uh, it looks like a bit of rioting and killing has thrown off my plans to spend a considerable tasty chunk of time in the province of Xinjiang. Too bad. Because not only did a whole lot of people get killed over tensions which have been stewing for years as China tightened its grip on the disputed semi-autonomous region, but i was told that it is The Must See part of China. Which is kind of weird 'cause everyone says it's part of China that doesn't feel like China.

On one hand, i could possibly try and see part of it where the tensions aren't so immediate: it is, after all, a hyuge province. But the likelihood of even getting over the border and staying within it could be slim.

Also.

I never had plans to get into Tibet for various reasons. Them being: 1) i strangely never felt the urge to go and 2) i definitely didn't have the time, energy, patience, or organizational skills to set up a tenuous visa. But i did have plans to go to Tibetan-like areas near the border, in Sichuan provivnce, which also has huge barren landscapes, monasteries, etc.

But.

I luckily learned not long ago that many travelers have not even been able to go to those regions, and were turned around after days of traveling. Lame.

But.

THOSE travelers were whiteys. So it's possible that since i can travel undercover, so to speak, i can possibly buy a train ticket, and not be singled out by police officers checking the bus. I will however need to show a CDN passport at any rooming house i go to, which could apparently be risky for the rooming house to accept me.

Well, all this is stewing in the back of my mind for now, so we'll cross that bridge when we get there, i suppose.

Aside: i didn't bike to YangShuo because of a very precipitatiotous forecast. Which turned out to be wrong. Shame, that.

1 comment:

Shiraz said...

good to be up on your treadings, w.w. stay safe!