Day 35: Jiayuguan Day 2 (嘉峪关) – July 22

We started off our day with a breakfast of champions, a bowl of beef noodles! I don’t know how they do it, but the noodles in the northwest taste SO good. Something about the freshly strung noodles, to the bowl of piping hot soup, it’s just soooo good.

We headed over to the tomb sites of 3th century China. The area has over 100 tombs, but so far only 18 has been excavated and 1 is available for tourists to view. It was incredibly cool taking steps down into the tomb, as it was extremely quiet but also amazed at the fact that the structure is still intact after over 1700 years!! The tomb itself was small, but had three separate small rooms decorated with paintings depicting life back in the day, it even had one for barbecuing meat!
Cool story: The first tomb was discovered by a shepherd walking his sheep, when he accidentally fell into a tunnel dug by tomb thieves!!

Next stop, we headed over to Jiayu Gate (嘉峪关), the gate of which the city was named. Being the western end of the Ming dynasty Great Wall, it was one of the entries into China for the Silk Road. And when the King said “Banish them to the outskirts” as punishment for whatever reason, this may be the last gate they’d leave from before entering the wilderness and probably left to die. Inside the walls, a gleaming city with all you’d need, but outside the walls is not a friendly sight. Mountains to your left and right, winds gusting across the plains with sand blowing into your face. The place is a bit touristy, but if you ignore the tourists and realize the historical significance of this gate, it’s actually pretty cool.