I was reading in Reuters today about a group of scientists going to do some research in the western Chinese province of Qinghai on some odd caves (that the local superstitious claim to be made by ET’s) and it struck me that I have never heard of any such structures/myths/legends from China or Russia.
Does anyone know of any literature (either online or in print) that deals with this? Along the lines of the Nazca lines or the pyramids but from China or Russia.
Any help or referals would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Well, she’s kind of the female equivalent of Art Bell, but Laura Lee has a few things. No vouches for the accuracy of any of it, however.
My take on the Chinese towers:
Once upon a time, the USofA wanted to know what the Russians were doing in central Asia. The evil Red Chinese were contacted and arrangements were made. So listening posts were set up by us along the Chinese/Russian border. Presumably information was proffered in return. Extremely hush-hush for obvious reasons. The locals would only see stuff coming and going at night so that gets you your strange lights. Most stuff would be kept in caves. Obvious structures would be avoided. When abandoned, there would only be caves and insignificant infrastructure (pipes) left.
There is no reason to believe that the Chinese government would clue in scientists curious in checking into these things.
The areas you are talking about are extremely rugged, remote and little explored. There are lots of caves with ancient artwork and stuff. Places like Dunhuang were only fairly recently discovered.
I don’t know any real good books though. You could try Magic and Mystery in Tibet by Alexandra David-Neel (an amazing French explorer in the early 1900’s), The Power Places of Central Tibet by Keith Dowman, and The Way of the White Clouds by Lama Anagarika Govinda. All of these deal with Tibet, of which Qinghai is a part.
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Given the monastaries, remoteness, and mysteriousness of the Qinghai province, how easy/possible is it/would it be for a Westerner to vacation there? Not planning anything, just curious.
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Well, you could fly to China. Then an all day transit flight to Xining (capital of Qinghai), rent a jeep/horse and get to most places within a week’s travel. It isn’t that remote. I doubt if there is anywhere in China that you can not reach in 2 weeks if you’re willing to hike/hoof it yourself. You may however be hundreds of miles from the nearest road.
I have been to some pretty wild places that involved travel for many days by bus from a major city, and then hiked for many more days far from any real road
You can get to Lhasa or some pretty cool Tibetan places in other parts of China within 24 hours of any major Chinese city.
Okay, I’m going to indulge in the luxury of not researching for myself, plead that it was my birthday a couple days ago, and I’m not getting younger or more responsible, and ask: Why the heck are all these Chinese sites in places which are now wind-blown deserts? Hard to make compelling public laundries and fountains from sand, isn’t it?
I just checked out one of the “Silk Road” videos a few days ago. Sure enough, like several of the others, our explorers traipse into territory without water, vegetation, or drive-through pregnancy tests.
Hmmm, I wonder. Hmmm. Did these advanced civilizations destroy their ecology as some of the Americans and Mediterranean cultures did?
Actually, I’m not up on the silk road environmental history. Qinghai is part of the Tibet/Qinghai plateau, and the elevation alone makes it pretty inhospitable. IIRC the plateau is around 12,000 feet. Rainfall changed trans-himalaya. Used to be pretty plentiful during the Tibetan reign of the Guge kingdom. Changed, and now most of the moisture gets dumped on the India/Nepal side of the Himalaya’s, leaving Tibet/Qinghai a high altitude desert. Also, deforestation has been a problem.
Daoloth, you can get to these remote areas on adventure tours without much trouble. (at least from Canada). they can be pretty expensive though. Companies like Goway, GAP, Jade, Silk Holidays do some pretty good escorted tours with people who really know their stuff. Some of these are really good.
PS> just using this entry as a shamles bump. Not having much luck on my own research.