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Aliens' Travel Permit
Wednesday, August 17, 2005-12:47 PM
Two things prevented me from immediately leaving for Dunhuang after I arrived in Golmud this morning. First, the tickets were sold out. Second, I need an Aliens' Travel Permit to travel to Dunhuang from Golmud.
Travel permits are a big, time-consuming hassle for foreigners traveling in Tibet and discourage lots of people from doing so. But Tibet isn't the only place that sometimes requires travelers to attain additional permits to travel.
Dunhuang, an old outpost on the Silk Road in Northwestern China's Gansu province, is famous for one thing, the Mogao Grottoes, hundreds of caves decorated by Buddhist monks with elaborate frescoes and stucco figurines.
My trip to Dunhuang started yesterday in Xining. I left in the early evening on a train bound for Golmud. But, I planned to get off about half way there, in Delinghu, and from there take a bus to Dunhuang.
A Qinghai native was in the bunk below mine.
The two of us sat in the seats next to the train window. He let me know when we passed Qinghai Lake, the largest lake in China.
He convinced me to upgrade my ticket to Golmud and stay on the bus. I took his advice. The roads connecting Golmud and Dunhuang were probably a little better, and, more importantly, the train arrived in Delinghu at 2:30 in the morning.
I couldn't upgrade my ticket until we passed Delinghu. That meant, at three in the morning one of the train attendant's would wake me up, and then I'd have to head to the end of the train to upgrade the ticket.
At the bus station in Golmud I crossed my fingers that I would simply be issued a ticket without a travel permit. I wasn't. I hopped on a motorcycle, headed to the Public Security Bureau, and waited for someone to show up.
Forty-five minutes later someone came. I followed him inside the dilapidated building into a big office with seats lined around the perimeter of the room and a huge desk in the middle. We were the only two there. He never even turned on the lights. I paid him 50 renminbi, and he filled out the permit for me.
The next bus to Dunhuang doesn't leave until six in the evening. I have five more hours to kill in one of China's least interesting cities.
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