China’s LEAST Developed Region 🇨🇳 I S3, EP3

China’s LEAST Developed Region 🇨🇳 I S3, EP3

Your car is very good hahaha beautiful beautiful haha a little bit slow Is China or Germany better? I like China haha good Hello Hello You came with this! yes Where do you come from? I am German German good morning everyone welcome back to the channel today we are in Jingchuan so yesterday due to the heavy rains we stayed one night in this tiny city and this morning we will soon hit the road again flo is packaging everything jingchuan is still in gansu province and by the end of the day if everything works out well we will end up in Guiyang in Ningxia Hui autonomous region it’s a province that i have never been to and speaking of the ancient silk road it’s also a route through which religion was spread so today’s journey and also tomorrow we’re going to see different mosques and also Buddhist shrines and temples and also we’re going to try some very very nice food Jingchuan a small town tucked between mountains and rivers it’s a first major stop west of Changan heading towards central Asia the county was established over 2100 years ago for Asian travelers, leaving Changan reaching Jingchuan meant saying goodbye to the heart of China beyond jingchuan we left shaanxi and entered gansu into pingliang Pingliang has over 3000 years of history religious influences left clear marks here it’s home to famous taoist sites but also a key place for the spread of Buddhism and Islam we know that Buddhism and Islam was spread to central plain via the silk road and yesterday while we were riding i saw some Buddhist grottoes we didn’t stop and today when we’re in Pingliang we decided to visit the temple this temple is called yuan tongsi it’s a Buddhist temple built in yuan dynasty this is walnut tree look and in the middle of the Temple there is a big big Guanyin buddha a Guanyin statue and behind it there is a very sophisticated temple i’ve been to so many temples but this is one of the biggest temple biggest structure i’ve ever seen Pingliang is also a place with different religions so besides Buddhism it’s also very important for taoism and not far from here there is a mountain called Kongtongshan we’re not going there today because of limited time but that mountain is very important in taoism and the story came that the ancestors of Chinese fuxi once studied and also meditated there besides temples we found quite a few mosques in Pingliang with mixed architecture style partially Chinese partially middle eastern there is a Hui community here and they are the descendants of the Silk road merchants and locals What about this bike? It’s a nice bike Where are you from? Anhui. I See, Anhui What are you doing here? Travel Yes, we are tourists And travel to here So you ride this But Anhui is so far No, we came from Xi’an From Xi’an Is it electric? yes Oh, no, fuel Oh, fuel How much is the bike? 15,000 15,000 Can you go on the high speed road Not really 80km per hour max Yes, not the high speed road Yeah, it’s slow So you drive to the side Do you take the side lane We took the national highway I see, national highway Where are you going from here We’ll walk aroudn Then to Guyuan Guyuan So you are on a China trip We’re visiting Ningxia the first time Guyuan, Ningxia Ningxia. Guyuan is in Ningxia yes He asked if you have neck pain Your neck A bit here here If I drive for too long I have this Do you know that A neck protection Oh, it’s for here that On the waist A waist belt Like that, it’s comfortable Are you Russian? Where are you from No, German German. Yes You’re a foreigner A foreigner with a Chinese wife Yes. hahaha We’re going to visit This beautiful mosque The mosque. yes It’s beautiful You can visit Can I go inside? Yes. ok The grand northern mosque Is the northern mosque the biggest? Yes, the biggest I see It’s the biggest in Pingliang whenever we park our motor tricycle we got some attention Prayer time table so yeah so they also have five five prayers per day the prayer room is however only open to those who wants to do prayers and visitors are not allowed we’re not going inside but it’s already quite impressive from the outside for now we’re going to ride through some villages so wish us good luck Hello Where are you from? I am German German I am Chinese are you a local? No I am not from here I am from Linxia Linxia? Yes Linxia We are going to Ningxia Ningxia Guyuan Your car is very good beautiful beautiful haha a little bit slow Is China or Germany better? I like China haha good from Pingliang to Guyuan we took a smaller road to avoid the rain on the national highway the road climbed from the valley in Pingliang up on to the Loess plateau you may not see it but we are actually going up and it’s pretty steep and there are lots of curves this is preparation for the Pamir highway in Tajikistan wow so Loess plateau in Chinese literally means yellow earth plateau because the soil is like this it’s also windy so all the dirt and sand gets blown away easily and now all those little hills have become terraces we passed through many villages most of them are Hui communities and nearly every village has a mosque i always pictured the Loess plateau as nothing but bare yellow soil but turns out there are huge terraced fields here they grow crops like corn and almost every home has apricot trees in a yard Can I buy some? for 10 yuan? Is that your orchid? yes Are we already in Ningxia now or still in Gansu? Ningxia Already? yes Thank you I bought for 10 RMB It’s a lot but very delicious when you travel in Northwestern China you don’t need any sweets anymore because fruits are so incredibly delicious Hong-mei apricot in Pengyang How is the yield this year Not really Why? frozen hazard oh frozen hazard Yes The spring was too cold ah You can pick from the tree That’s enough thanks apricots it’s so delicious so sweet and fruity thanks It’s the specialty here Yes, the specialty The specialty of pengyang Hong-mei apricot the red apricot in Pengyang apparently it’s very very famous and i’ve been seeing lots of apricot trees along the way oh it’s really sweet you can eat the kernel Also the kernel The one inside aha That’s bitter apricot kernel bitter apricot kernel I remember, in several places You can really get sweet apricots this is really tasty last time we had something similar was in dunhuang and in xinjiang somehow we also found there are a lot of caved dwellings so the guy who sold us the apricot told us this is their old residence they also live in the YaoDong yaodong is a very typical dwelling on the loess plateau so people dig deep into the soil because the soil here is very soft it’s very easy to dig a hole so this family already moved to the city this is their old house it’s quite deep it’s perhaps like ten meter deep what do you think even more probably the road is getting really bad now after some rough bumpy roads we finally made it to Guyuan the city feels pretty empty it’s big but not very crowded the menu here is extremely simple there are only four types of food firstly lamb Steamed lamb pot that’s steamed lamb with soup and then vegetable stew the pancake bread and then the pickled vegetables We want half kilo lamb And one vegetable stew And a bread Do you want ti lean or fatty lean is half kilo enough for 2 More or less 550 gram, is that ok? sure And one vegetable stew Guyuan is quite famous for its lamb dishes so i checked the map and there was a recommendation to this restaurant it was really not in a busy area it’s in some small alleys and we’ve got our dishes looks so amazing so the vegetable pancake and the lamb and the soup while we’re eating the butcher is quite busy taking all the lamb from the truck back to the kitchen and in the kitchen there is a butcher shop everything is so fresh and the lamb is cooked until very very tender i really like the lamb dishes in this part of China because it doesn’t have the the gummy taste that the lambs usually have for example in eastern part of China Baobao is it good? Very good we finished everything everything all the soup except for a quarter of the onions that was amazing i just want to show you we’re actually in the middle of the city the middle of the city center but there are not so many cars on the street and there are not so many people yesterday i was talking with the hotel reception they told me that young people are leaving Guyuan and work in other places and for a very long time Guyuan region remained one of China’s least developed regions but another side of the story is that Guyuan is actually the oldest city in Ningxia it has a history of more than 2000 years and it was a very important outpost on the ancient silk road it has a strategic position in between zhongyuan the central plain region and xiyu the western region Guyuan’s peak was probably over 800 years ago before the 12th century after the Mongol expansion and the rise of the Maritime Silk road the overland silk road slowly declined but in Guyuan’s museum you can still spot traces of the ancient trade routes those are the artifacts from the prehistorical time and those pots can you believe it it’s more than five thousand years old silver pot with gold coating that’s a silver pot from Persia from the Sassanian empire that’s about a 1400 years ago and this one too there is also a glass cup from from Persia from today’s Iran that’s a glass cup from more than 1500 years that’s a mini terracotta warriors mini terracotta warriors look at this we just found this map of the ancient silk road so cool so here is its ancient final destination of Changan xi’an today that’s where we started our trip now we just made it until here to Guyuan which in the past was called Yuanzhou which was the northern outpost to protect the hexi corridor that stretches in the south then you just cross further west into the hexi corridor with all these cities then reaching Dunhuang and then stretches into the vast land of what today is Xinjiang province with Kargilik which is near Yarkant today and Kashgar and then moving further further west to what is today Sarmakand Mashhad in Iran the Persian Empire stretching even further west Isfahan to Baghdad to finally reaching Turkey in Antakya and then Istanbul or Constantinople as it was called in the past building the bridge over the Bosphorus to Europe In Guyuan there is also some of the oldest great walls dating back to Qing dynasty China’s first empire once marked its borders here this slope is quite steep so we have to get off and behind this slope that’s the great wall from Qing dynasty so that is more than 2000 years ago Baobao you make it that is a long walk i made it here goes to the great wall we could have maybe taken this road i think so too we could have taken the other road we are probably standing just on the top of a fortress and you see this small earth mound stretches over kilometers and it’s very different from the great wall that we often see on the internet so the one in Beijing is Ming changcheng and this is Qing changcheng which was built more than 2000 years ago after 70 years after the fall of Qin Zhang Qian’s journey opened up the western regions and the Silk road was born merchants and monks traveled east Buddhism spread into the central plains leaving behind countless caved temples along the way over there on this mountain there are a lot of small caves like that and each has a little window a little fence in front of it and each cave is a grottoe and you will see the Buddhist temple and the very first one was carved in bei Wei shiqi which is about fifth century the Silk road is dotted with Buddhist caves Buddhism traveled from India to central Asia through Xinjiang and further into the central plains the sogdians merchants from central Asia brought Buddhism here they carried scriptures and statues and they carved the grottoes to pray for safe journeys from Guyuan to zhongwei we follow the national highway the road was packed with big trucks maybe due to construction the traffic jams stretched for over 10 kilometers we squeezed along the edge headed north then turned off onto a small village road the sun set behind us and we drove all the way to the yellow river wow that’s the yellow river the mother river of Chinese civilization then we arrived in zhongwei passing by a lively street and a beautiful bell tower and reached our hotel 10 pm finally we’ve reached the hotel i almost thought that we won’t make it to Zhongwei it was a hell of a ride we actually planned to stop like 100 kilometers before we reached Zhongwei but then because the weather was supposed to turn bad but then actually weather was fine and we were just like okay let’s just continue until Zhongwei then we don’t have to drive tomorrow Does your butt hurt? No but my back a little bit Ok tonight I can give you my shoulder hurts too a little bit Tonight i can give you a shoulder massage ok That’s it so that’s all for today i hope you enjoy the journey thanks for watching and bye bye see you next time

We’re continuing our journey along the ancient Silk Road — this time with a fascinating detour to the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and specifically to Guyuan, a historic stronghold that once served as a strategic Silk Road outpost and a fortified barrier against invasions from the north.
Our adventure begins in Pingliang County, Gansu Province, before crossing into Ningxia. Along the way, we encounter warm, welcoming people, a remarkable diversity of cultures, religions, and flavors, and stories that echo through centuries of trade and conflict.
Join us as we trace the Silk Road’s lesser-known paths — through ancient cities, stunning landscapes, and a rich tapestry of tradition 🎬

0:00 Intro
1:40 Buddhist Temple
4:29 Pingliang County
7:43 Crossing the Loess Plateau
10:21 Entering Ningxia
13:39 Guyuan City
16:55 Guyuan and the Silk Road
19:24 Great Wall of Qing Dynasty

#china #ningxia #chinatravel #silkroad #greatwall

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