Saturday, June 21, 2008

GaoChang Ancient City

The ruins of the Ancient City of GaoChang (高昌古城) is located nearby HuoYanSan or Flaming Mountain about 46 km southeast of Turpan. The ancient city of Gaochang and Jiaohe, are two of the well preserved ruins of the ancient cities in China.
Donkey Cart
Our donkey cart "driver" :D
On the dusty road... Go Donkey Go :)
The ancient city of Gaochang was built as a garrison town in the 1st century B.C. As one of the key points along the Silk Road, the ancient city of Gaochang was also a sanctuary of world religious culture. Xuanzhang, the Buddhist monk in the Tang Dynasty stopped here in the past on his way to India.
The GaoChang city was damaged and burnt down during the war around the 14th century.
After 2,000 years, the ancient city still displays its past greatness and glory. Even though the walls are incomplete with ruins, the magnificent outline still remains.
Some of our tour group members riding on different donkey carts.
Enjoying the ruins of the GaoChang ancient city on the donkey cart.
Another donkey cart trying to overtake us. This donkey very cekap wan. Take a look at his hind legs. I meant the way the donkey runs :D
The local Muslim chubby boy selling keychain.
The infamous toilets.. Although extremely smelly, this is still a "proper" toilet with doors in comparison to the "natural" open air toilet on the road :P
The city, covering an area of 2 million square meters, is composed of 3 sections ~ an outer city, an inner city and a palace city.
And we have reached the inner city of the ancient GaoChang. The ruins and remains here give us a glimpse of the grandeur and prosperity of the ancient city in the past.
In the middle of the city lies the round castle..
Looking up... Mmmm.... Once upon a time...
How nice if there's time machine... (Ok, I'm trying to imagine how's the city like in the past :P)
Sha la la la.. (Of coz they didn't sing sha lalala leh..). If Ah Ben is here, he will start io ka chng.
As we are good citizen, we didn't leave any unnecessary marks or prints on the ancient wall except leaving behind our foot prints on the ground and sweet memories... :P
Frankly speaking, I'm thirsty lah as u can imagine how hot it was. I wanna drink COLD BEER :P

30 comments:

rainbow angeles said...

wah liao eh.. yr blog today not feeling well also izit? took soooooo long to load geh...

now i forgot what to comment liao :P

oh, the donkey... veli cute!!

L B said...

No Clint Eastwood? No bandidos? No red indians? But at least got Donkey race.. Almost like the Grand Canyon sikit..

day-dreamer said...

Wah, just by looking at the pictures I feel it's so hot already. Wonder how hot it must be there...

Chen said...

R Angeles,
It's blogger not feeling well leh..
So hard to load most of the pages.. including gmail, facebook etc etc.

Hahahhaa, lidat also can?
But the donkey indeed cute lah :P

LB,
No this or that but got ini & itu.

I think hoh, the donkey seen at the Flaming Mountain site, must be the run away donkey from GaoChang ancient city liao. Hehehhe...

Day Dreamer,
Dunno what's the temperature at that time but it's HOT. I didn't use umbrella (although I have one inside my bag) cos very hard to take photo lah when holding umbrella. So i just walk around wearing a cap :)

Doreen said...

Spectacular! The donkey looked so happy, he was smiling! Awww....donkey you're just too cute! *cuddle cuddle*

Anonymous said...

What an experience. Hee haw!

Wyn said...

aiye...d donkey so cute leh...keke...

but looking at d pictures hor, i feel like i go to egypt d...keke...

=P

Chen said...

doreen,
The happy donkey (almost type it as monkey tim..) in comparison with the skinny donkey @ Flaming Mountain. I wonder hoh if the donkey @ Huoyansan escaped from here? :P

fibrate,
Wanna wanna?
Err.. There's a donkey hiding here ah? Where the hee haw sound comes from?

*Searching Hi & Lo*

wyn,
Yeah, looks like the donkey was smiling in the first picture if u look at it carefully. LOL

But there's no pyramid here woh..
so cannot consider as visiting Egypt leh :P

mistipurple said...

the donkey looks happy. but donkey not stubborn ah? don't move how? kkkk

Chen said...

misti,
so far they still listen to command. Luckily the horse and the camel that i ride later on also not stubborn and didn't act sesuka hati :P

psss... Donkey happy mah cos I take photo of him. LOL

Redsponge said...

i like the donkeys...

do u eat sand?

moz monster said...

I still no see camel geh ?? Where ? Where ?

Those two toilet huts ... even got male and female labels ... so cute ! And got barrels down there some more ! I'll bet you can smell the toilet before you see it !

Chen said...

red sponge,
The donkey must be very happy liao since everyone like him.
Err, actually hoh i dunno whether issit a him or a her..
But i just presume it's a male donkey lah :P

Aiks, sand not delicious leh,
so i tarak makan sand :P

moz,
The camels are somewhere out there, not in this region.
Soon, very very soon, the camels will reveal themselves :)

Hahaha, that's true. U can smell it from afar. Well, those are the infamous type of toilet in the rural area in China. In some of the places, one still needs to pay 50 cents to use that type of toilet :)

iml said...

Quite a breathtaking sight!

Anonymous said...

it loaded well for me ler! although not facebook. ughh!!

wah!! that boy looks like the actor from the journey to the west show! hahahaha. why your memory so good? somemore history also so good!

Chen said...

IML,
Yeah, at least I can temporary forget about the heat and tiredness when enjoying the scene on the spot :)

ehon,
Today blogger or blogspot has been behaving well after being scolded kaw kaw by many of us yesterday night. Looks like FB needs more scolding and spanking liao since it's not behaving well for the last few days :P

Issit? I didn't watch the show. Might be the same boy hoh? :D

Aiseh.. can always recheck the history again from books or online mah if lupa. Well, each time I go holidays I will buy some books back home.

kyh said...

I wanna go there... Just to immerse myself in the splendid surroundings... Just love these kind of places... full of history and culture...

Chen said...

kyh,
You definitely should pay a visit to China someday in the future. It's much cheaper traveling to China than going to Western countries, which would really cost a bomb :)

Mediviron UOA Clinic said...

nice! grand trip!

Anonymous said...

that's amazing... speechless :)

yenjai.net said...

The only thing I remember about Gao chang from my books is: it is supposed to be very windy

Wyn said...

hmmm...like dat ar? den outskirt of turkey lor...

keke...=P

dat donkey very "photogenic" also hor? hehe

Anonymous said...

I dun think I'll ever go there (becos of the heat) , so I would like to thank you for sharing the pictures. Telima kasih manyak-manyak.. *hugs*...Aiyo..sounds so formal like that my komen...ish.. :p

seefei said...

the photos are very well taken. too bad no macro shots from your 90 mm muahahahaha...

Chen said...

chen,
Yeah, this tour is sort of different from the other tours that I went previously :)

JL,
My favourite part of the trip is the MingSha Gobi dessert, Camel Ride and the Crescent MoonSpring which took place on Day 5 of the tour. I'm still stuck with Day 3 of the tour after so many Silk Road Tour posts :D

yenjai,
Err.. We actually study about Gao Chang in our syllabus previously ah? I can't remember anything about that liao :P

Chen said...

wyn,
Yeah, the donkey is photogenic, just like Ah Boy & BoBo. LOL

eve,
Aiseh, got thank you speech summore. Kkkkk.. You are mostly welcomed. At the moment, my posts are still stuck at Day 3 of the 10 days Silk Road Tour. LOL

seefei,
Thanks Seefei. The reason why no macro shots from Tamron 90mm is because I didn't bring that lens with me for the tour. I only bring the Sigma 18-200mm lens. Too troublesome lah to carry so many lens around when on tour. Moreover, I don't want to change lens inside a dessert :P

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

I like the images of the ruins of the ancient city.Heheh.

Wai Leung said...

nice blog u hv here. bet that must be one enjoyable holiday. nice pics too.

Chen said...

CSC,
Me too. We visited the place around 6 something in the eveing and the sun is still so bright. It only gets dark around 10 pm at night. So ample time for sight seeing, which is good :)

wai leung,
Thanks Wai Leung.
Glad u like the pictures :)

Yeah, although the tour is tiring, but I did enjoy myself :)

Anonymous said...

Can you reveal more details of this old uncle?