Carry-ons and preconceptions...
There's a French drama playing on the cabin screens, dubbed into Mandarin, subtitled in English. We're spaced out between rows 6, 7, and 8, our carry-ons divided among all the left over overhead bins. We were the last ones on the plance so our bags are jammed in wherever they could fit. It's three hours into the 5-hr. flight to Urumqi in western China. I always forget how massive this country really is. If we didn't have Alaska, the US would be dwarfed by the PRC.
We'll sit in the Urumqi airport and then hop an hour or so flight into Kashgar. I love the name Kashgar-- for some reason it conjures up images of total desolation-- frontier life on the outskirts of civilization. I can't wait to see how my impressions match up with reality. This is a part of China I've always wanted to see. I'm expecting a landscape and culture more akin to Mongolia than your standard fare Han-populated China.
Jason, our associate producer, just leaned back over his window seat in front of me to point out a road cutting across the earth below. Besides some distant mountains, it's the only semblance of topography on a bleached landscape. It's chalk and grit 30,000 feet below. Monochromatic until the land starts to mingle with the faded atmospheric blue of the horizon line. Yeah, I think desolation is the right word.
It's going to be odd to see blue eyes on a Chinese person. Forget about blonde hair. But of all the places in the country, this is going to be the spot with the most genetic diversity. The most radical departure from the classic black hair and dark eyes of the stereotypical Chinese. It's a funny place to introduce our producer and soundman to the country. We're starting them off in the most atypical part of the country-- although I guess the reality is that this is as much part of China as any other part-- north/south/east/west. That's going to be a bit of a brain stretch for me-- to incorporate this part of China into my childhood concept of the place. In some ways-- it's not too far off from squeezing our bags into chalk-full overhead bins...
We'll sit in the Urumqi airport and then hop an hour or so flight into Kashgar. I love the name Kashgar-- for some reason it conjures up images of total desolation-- frontier life on the outskirts of civilization. I can't wait to see how my impressions match up with reality. This is a part of China I've always wanted to see. I'm expecting a landscape and culture more akin to Mongolia than your standard fare Han-populated China.
Jason, our associate producer, just leaned back over his window seat in front of me to point out a road cutting across the earth below. Besides some distant mountains, it's the only semblance of topography on a bleached landscape. It's chalk and grit 30,000 feet below. Monochromatic until the land starts to mingle with the faded atmospheric blue of the horizon line. Yeah, I think desolation is the right word.
It's going to be odd to see blue eyes on a Chinese person. Forget about blonde hair. But of all the places in the country, this is going to be the spot with the most genetic diversity. The most radical departure from the classic black hair and dark eyes of the stereotypical Chinese. It's a funny place to introduce our producer and soundman to the country. We're starting them off in the most atypical part of the country-- although I guess the reality is that this is as much part of China as any other part-- north/south/east/west. That's going to be a bit of a brain stretch for me-- to incorporate this part of China into my childhood concept of the place. In some ways-- it's not too far off from squeezing our bags into chalk-full overhead bins...
Labels: china, chinese, desolation, impressions, kashgar, landscape, travel, urumqi
posted by dealing with vagaries... at
11:13 PM
0 Comments
