Travel Three, zero Miles Through China’s Wondrous Wild West
Travel Three,000 Miles Through China’s Wondrous Wild West
It’s one of the longest train journeys in the world—2,910 miles (Four,683 kilometers) across China. And when photographer Matthieu Paley was looking for ways to get his wifey and two sons from Hong Kong to northwest China, it looked like the ideal option.
“I thought it’d be amazing,” he says. “We will get to see China! It will unfurl in front of us!” Even better, the train’s 52-hour trek from Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, to the Xinjiang province was much simpler and far less expensive than flying.
Paley and his family eyed China convert with every mile, from verdant jungle to arid steppe to dry desert. The train’s last stop is a city called Ürümqi, which translates to “new frontier.” The area is rich with oil, coal, and natural gas reserves, and like the gold rush to California in the 1850s, many people and companies in China are going west to seek their fortunes. Even the government has invested billions to develop the province.
Photographer Matthieu Paley documents
life on China`s railroads
Paley family`s route by rail
ROSEMARY WARDLEY, NG STAFF
Photographer Matthieu Paley documents
life on China`s railroads.
Paley family`s route by rail
Plateau of Tibet
Rosemary Wardley, NG STAFF
The world inwards the train was just as wondrous to Paley. As far as he could tell, his family were the only foreigners, and few passengers—if any—were making the entire journey. Paley says fellow riders kept to themselves, taking naps, doing crafts, or playing on their phones. Paley, who is French, admits his Mandarin is shaky, and few passengers spoke English, but those he was able to talk with said they were traveling to and from family visits and vacations.
The cars are well appointed, with purple and blue seats, floral tablecloths, and lace curtains depicting the promise of camels and mountains in the west. Each car has a hot-water dispenser, and the salty aroma of instant noodle soup fills the air.
The staff are impeccably dressed (blue for controllers, who check tickets and maintain the cleanliness of the cars, and purple for food vendors), and the entire operation is “army-like organized,” Paley says. Each stop is only ten to fifteen minutes, and while technically passengers can get off to open up their gams, “you are looked on very gravely by the staff,” Paley says. “They don’t want you to stray.”
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The convenience of the train, the ease of the journey, and the beauty of the landscapes had the Paley family enraptured. Paley remembers, “We were all looking at each other the last day wishing it would last another twenty four hours!”
After a few days in Ürümqi, the Paleys next set out for Pakistan. They took a bus southwest to the city of Hotan, then boarded another train going northwest to the city of Kashgar. On this train, they witnessed a lesser known side of China. Most of the passengers were Uygur, a Chinese minority who live mostly in the west. Uygurs speak a language that is similar to Turkish and even written in Arabic script. Many of them are practising Muslims.
This rail was “completely different,” Paley says. The train wasn’t as fancy—sand from the Taklimakan Desert filtered in through cracks in the windows, bathing the cars in yellow light “like it was California in the fifties.” He says the mood of the excursion was totally different, too. “It was a brief excursion, just six hours, so there’s not much boredom that lodges in,” he says. “It was utter of students that were kind of bustling and laughing. It was a much more exuberant atmosphere than the long journey from Hong Kong to Ürümqi.” And since Paley is fluent in Turkish, having lived in the country for years, he could converse with these passengers and get a sense of their lives.
Paley’s trek let him see the vastness and diversity of China. And trips like it could soon become lighter. The Chinese government hopes that fresh high-speed rail lines will help connect the far west with the east. Premier Li Keqiang plans to spend $133 billion in the next four years to bolster existing train lines and build fresh ones. Should the plans succeed, perhaps even more Chinese citizens will get to see their country and meet their far-flung neighbors.
Matthieu Paley’s work has been featured in National Geographic magazine and news. Check out more of his journey and go after him on Instagram @paleyphoto.