Our first stop was Zhangye, where we have visited in the day the Matisi Grottoes. They are consider

As some of you may have noticed, I am currently less active on my blog, which is mainly due to the Unistart. It was busy (and still is), but I try I still have time to take writing. But so far I like it super in Luneburg, I can not complain! Great university, beautiful city and a few good friends I have found already here.
In Lanzhou I have actually met David, a Mitfreiwilligen from Nanjing, and Cayleigh and Roy. In the hostel itself, we have then Ross (Scot) and Eduardo (Brazilian) met with which we are then five of the following days traveled.
Our first stop was Zhangye, where we have visited in the day the Matisi Grottoes. They are considered one of the oldest and best-preserved cave temple of Buddhist art and include over 70 caves, of which the earliest from about 400 AD. originate. statistics major The caves were impressive, if only they were carved into the bare rock. And all this without machines! The gears inside were very tight and there were still many people there so we stop on the way up several times and had to let other tourists. Sorry, We could not see very many caves as we were there with a tour had (in the admission price mitinbegriffen) and not much time. In the evening we went even to the Rainbow Rocks, which lie a few kilometers away. The Rainbow Rocks are rocks that consist of differently colored layers. And we had a stunning sunset - wow!
Then we were to conclude with the KTV to celebrate the end of the journey together. David is the day after that is east facing down while we are four further north. The evening was very very funny, I have enjoyed my time with the other very :)
The day after we are finally broken; we went to Jiayuguan four. There we have the western end of the Great Wall of China visited (which is also relatively unknown by the way, many Chinese people know only the in Beijing). It was another mad hot, but also impressive. Despite the restoration could easily imagine how this gigantic structure used to look like once. It was at the beginning of the wall also an exhibition about the rediscovery of the wall, very informative! The wall borders at this point in the Gobi Desert, which the outlook still came to meet. And the best: At the end of the wall, there are extra poles, where couples can put their love castles (an individual stand are of course a few meters away, in case you had not this). How romantic statistics major is that! :)
After Jiayuguan, where we stayed for two nights, and I drove Cayleigh to Dunhuang. The two guys are flown in Inner Mongolia. Dunhuang is another ancient city on the ancient Silk Road. The city is not very large, but has a huge range of barbecues - the stalls open every night and are a true culinary highlight! In retrospect, I regret a little bit, not to have tried, but what the heck. We stayed at the Mogao Grottoes, which arose between the 4th and 12th centuries, and thus considered as the world's largest, oldest and best-preserved Buddhist artistic treasure chamber on the second day. The caves were amazing - if you imagine me, how old are and how many centuries, people of different religions have come here, this is just impressive. Because there, at the border between Asia and the Orient have been not only Buddhists, but also Christians, Muslims and Jews. Unfortunately, it means that there will be the caves as well not for long, because the decay is accelerated by the masses Site Tour ...
In the evening took Cayleigh and I then participated in a camel tour plus overnight by the Gobi Desert, because it was our dream, sometimes sleeping in the desert. statistics major We were a group of 6 people; but us was an American there and three Frenchmen. We were also sand dunes slides (if there is the word so: D), but this was actually slower and less spectacular than it always looks. statistics major At night, unfortunately we did not see any stars because statistics major it was always covered. Still, statistics major it was a great experience; Our guide has a lot of talks about his decades of work with camels in the desert. I'm also a little sand from there taken that sticks in my memory book now :)
Then we went to our last common Station: Xiahe. The small town is again very south Gansu, and after a brief stopover in Lanzhou we took the bus to Xiahe. There, just a great Tibetan festival took place, came to the hundreds of Tibetans. The city was hopelessly overcrowded; all the dorms were full. We have