中国で一番ジューシーなメロン？ゴビ砂漠の真ん中でご馳走！🍉🇨🇳シーズン3、エピソード7
The ones with green and yellow skin Tastes similar They taste the same The yellow one is sweeter And speaking of the Silkroad Back then The melons Were the sweetest treat For the merchants and caravans good morning everyone welcome back we are now driving in the city of Zhangye and in front of us that’s the bell tower the old bell tower we planned to leave early today as always but we didn’t manage to get up early as always when we woke up it was already almost 11 am we pulled over because we saw a very for me it was a strange figure in the beginning A statue of a western figure but then when we got close i saw it’s written Marco Polo there so that’s a statue of Marco Polo the famous Venetian Merchant who has covered the entire length of the Silk road apparently Marco Polo has lived here for a year that’s why they built this statue for him and the plan for the next 3 days is to go until Dunhuang which is roughly 600 km from here we also got our bike fixed look at this a new nice plastic box that’s much lighter than the metal box before so hopefully this time it’s not gonna break and now we are going to a place which Marco Polo had visited and also had mentioned in his travels so this Buddha is the one that mentioned by Marco polo in his book this Temple was built in Western Han in the 11th century in the book Marco Polo wrote that by then Zhangye was called Ganzhou, I.e. Campçio and he wrote that this Buddha is incredibly big about 40 feet long and he rested his head on a pillow and it’s covered in gold you can still see the golden paintings Marco Polo was in Ganzhou（I.e. Zhangye） in Yuan dynasty and he even noted that there are many idolaters in the city so those idolaters refers to religious people including the Buddhist, Muslim and even Christians（Nestorian） he even wrote in a book that there are 3 churches in the city but now you know as the time passes by due to the war nobody knows where those 3 churches are the city name was given by emperor Wu of Han meaning extending the arm of the empire to support the western regions starting in the Han dynasty with Zhang Tian’s journey to the west the passage between the central plains and the western regions was truly opened linking the eastern land of the silk road to the rest of the world leaving zhangye we followed the Heishui river westward dark clouds rolled in heavy and low now we managed to escape this black cloud that’s over there um so this is towards zhangye and this is further west towards Jiayuguan where we’re gonna go later and what you can see here is heshui black river the black water river and it’s actually the major lifeline of the whole Hexi corridor without this river this area would be very dry if you go 20 kilometers this way you would see gobi desert it’s very close if you go 20 kilometers this way you would see Qilian mountains that’s where this river actually emerges from this river is also one of the main tributaries of these lakes that we have seen in badan jilin desert where we’ve been in the last episode the heishui river is little known but it has shaped both geography and history it sustains the oasis belt making agriculture possible in an otherwise barren desert as we moved forward the green faded we reentered the desert every few kilometers we passed the remains of ancient ramparts Ming dynasty walls part of the same great wall system as beijing’s oh that is actually a part of the Ming great wall further ahead we reached Jiuquan Jiuquan was once called Suzhou And Zhangye used to be called Ganzhou The name of Gansu province Comes from those ancient cities In the Hexi corridor and then, we rode into fields of blooming sunflowers in a distance we saw Jiayuguan the westernmost gate of the Ming great wall here we are finally in jiayuguan we’re trying to walk closer to a fortress in jiayuguan and jiayuguan is the narrowest point on hexi corridor it’s sit in between the desert and the Qilian mountain range which is somewhere in that direction wow the sunflower wow this is a beautiful walk and over there look it’s an agriculture drone i feel like there is no way that we can get closer to that fortress so we decided to go here through this beautiful sunflower field and look over there there is a agriculture drone a big drone can you hear it that is a fortress about one kilometers away the reason we want to go there is that it’s the westernmost of the Ming great wall but great wall doesn’t end here because there is also Han great wall which you can find in today’s xinjiang but anyway it has a very important position here and interestingly i didn’t see anything in Marco Polo’s travel about jiayuguan because jiayuguan was built in Ming dynasty so that is a dynasty after yuan dynasty so while Marco Polo was here there isn’t so much in jiayuguan according to the gazetteer of Suzhou all envoys and trade missions to the western regions had to pass through jiayuguan this narrow stripe of green was the only viable corridor for caravans and diplomats beyond jiayuguan the Silk road split the northern route led to Hami and on to the Tianshan while the southern route passed through Dunghuang and Lolan eventually reaching Persia and India to bypass Jiayuguan meant crossing endless gobi to the north or climbing the uninhabited Qilian mountains to the south terrain over 3500 m in altitude both were deadly paths chosen only in desperation from jiayuguan we drove towards guazhou here the melt water from the Qilian mountains spreads like a green ribbon through the desert the fields bloom with flowers and the air is sweet with melons and fruit i just got off the bike and we’re on the way to Gua Zhou and on our way we see a long stretch of green Oasis with lots of small villages and the fields are absolutely beautiful so here the air while driving it smells like fennel and we stopped it turned out to be the fennel field look and this one hollyhock beautiful and here i don’t know what that is but look it’s beautiful the next city Gua Zhou a city of melons after Suzhou Ganzhou and now we’re in Guazhou and the next destination is shaozhou which is Dunhuang and now we are walking in one of the market here and the air smells like melon so you can see that there are so many melons and actually Guazhou means a land of melons this place is extremely famous for its high quality melons this place is really a paradise for fruits look at the peaches and this is the famous liguang apricot the apricot which is extremely sweet the grapes tomatoes plums yin-ji-bai-lan melon It’s a local melon oh thanks Is this Hami melon? That’s Hei melon Hei melon That’s yellow This is white en This is Golden Langou Melon the one with soft flesh ah yes How much is the Golden Langou Melon 4 yuan half kilo This one only 3 yuan this This one 2.5 yuan 2.5 yuan Those are all freshly picked The stem is still fresh This one We grow Our melon He may not be much to look at, but he sure has a lot of melons hahahaha I’d like a melon this melon is a speciality here I had this yesterday night Isn’t it sweet? Yes. We can send it I have a sweet tooth Oh, you have a sweet tooth Among all those melons This is the sweetest there are so many different melons this is Golden Langou Melon the old guy or Grandpa’s melon because it’s super soft inside and super sweet and those melon although they look different they told me they taste almost the same it’s hard inside Where are you from? I am german german? yes it has more of a crispy taste this is a local melon Our Guazhou Is all about melons The melons are sweet So manager Which place has the best melons in China? Our Guazhou, we have the best melons Guazhou Guazhou is only a small city Most people haven’t heard of it And this place Has a big temperature difference So the melons are exceptionally sweet There is a 20 degree difference Between the day and night yes We wear T-shirts during the day And at night We need a jacket So our melons are the best How much is the water melon 80 cents for the watermlons Wow, that’s cheap, only 80 cents at the slightest bump this watermelon bursts open Just a light knock and — splat The rind is too thin It’s tender-bellied The rind is thin Our melons are tasty The watermelons Are hard to transport And the watermelons in Xinjiang The rind a bit thicker It’s easier to transport ours are too fragile The rind is too thin there’s so many different melons and the watermelon here is 0.8 CNY which means about 10 cents USD half kilo so it’s 10 ct 20 ct 30 cents per kilo we put one melon in the back and two melons in the front today i also got a warning from the weather app saying that the temperature will reach 40 degrees so that’s why i got this we both got the sleeves and Flo also got a scarf i hope we can survive the ride after Guazhou soon we left the oasis and enter the desert again and sometimes nearby this national road there are melon stands thanks en take this. thanks The green and yellow one tastes similar It’s the same The golden one is a bit sweeter we’re also going to cut one of the melons we bought from the market it’s called bai-lan-gua and when it comes to Guazhou the most famous is Guazhou honeydew and it refers to this melon which is different from this honey melon looks like Jade it’s green inside wow it’s much sweeter than the hami melon we had and it’s very soft there is also a special fragrance that comes with the melon wow it’s really really good and speaking of the silk road back then those melons they are the sweetest treat for the merchants for the cavarans who passed through this stretch of the silk road caravans 哦，是caravans the melons are the sweetest treat for the caravans hahaha let’s go wow the seat is burning beyond Guzhou lies dunhuang once known as Shaozhou a city of sand this was the last Oasis before the Silk road caravans left the central plains and entered the heart of the desert oh the road is stopped what happened？On the map there is a road on the map there is another road that goes away to somewhere in the sand dune but while driving here it’s the end it is blocked i guess there used to be a bridge or crossing from there to here but this one is blocked now so we can’t get through in Marco Polo’s travel Dunhuang was called Shaozhou which is a folk name which means the Oasis by the sand dunes and that sand dune is just ahead of us and this river is called danghe which feeds all the green Oasis nearby and the water came from the Qilin mountain range which is about a few 100 km behind those sandy desert and today most people came to Dunhuang to see the famous Mogao grotto which is a very important Buddhist grotto built over i think over a 1000 years ago and back then during the era of overland silk road the merchants Persian merchants and sogdian merchants funded those grottoes to pray for a safe journey they also left lot of grottoes along the way but filming and photo taking is not allowed in a grotto so i cannot show you but i highly recommend that you go there and speaking of Shaozhou it’s also the ending point of hexi corridor so in the past when the caravans came here they need to get enough water enough food before they can cross a vast desert and reach western region which is today’s Xinjiang（and Central Asia） and i also read that Marco Polo actually came along the southern edge of taklamakan，through through Cherchen，Charklik lop city and then to Shazhou but in between the last station of Xinjiang to Shazhou it’s a big desert that is perhaps over 6-700 km there is no water in between no oasis. So back then it must be a incredibly hard journey and that’s also the desert that we will experience tomorrow and i hope we can survive
After an unforgettable adventure in the Badain Jaran Desert — home to the world’s highest stationary sand dunes — we continued our epic journey along the legendary Hexi Corridor, one of the most important routes of the ancient Silk Road. Our path took us from Alxa Right Banner in Inner Mongolia, through Zhangye and Jiayuguan in Gansu Province, before reaching Guazhou, at the far western edge of Gansu.
Guazhou literally means “melon area” and is famous for having some of the sweetest melons in China. In Silk Road times, this oasis was a treasured stop for traders and camel caravans crossing the vast desert — a place to rest, refresh, and indulge in the region’s legendary fruit.
Join us on this journey through China’s Hexi Corridor 🎬
0:00 Intro
1:00 Dafo Temple – Lying Buddha
3:45 Heishui River – Hexi Corridor Lifeline
6:19 Jiayuguan – Narrowest Point of Hexi Corridor
12:39 Guazhou – The Capital of Melons
16:49 Melon Stop Over
19:08 Dunhuang – End of Hexi Corridor
#china #gansu #silkroad #melon
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26 Comments
Watching your videos is just like going back to school, revisiting Chinese history n civilization. The vast difference is that we have beautiful videos now n a flawless English speaking teacher explaining vividly everything in detail : much more exciting. ❤❤❤❤❤ from Malaysia
1:11 I'm sorry, but there is no historical written evidence in China of Marco Polo's alleged visit. None. His personal writings are not evidence. If he had visited China, he would have mentioned things that he's never seen before in Europe, like the Great Wall or chopsticks. Astonishingly, those are not mentioned in his writings. He only wrote about what travelers told him. I'm sure he traveled east, but he never made it as far as China. Again, there is no historical evidence of his arrival there.
following your journey is our enjoyment. Keep safe.
Thank you to our hosts. Thank you to donor community. We cherish you. Best wishes.
Amazing! Thank you for sharing with us, what I think is the most important part of China, the Hexi Corridor. 🛵
Awesome
I do enjoy watching your travels.
Muslims are forbidden from praying to or worshipping any image and Marco Polo would have known that.
Please come to visit bangladesh , there's world longest sea beach in the world ,
When you said Mellon in English, suddenly a previously invisible door into a mountain opened. You shouldn't go inside though. Another Feanor's people helped building that magic door.
I'm also German and enjoy the episodes where you show us parts of China, which aren't well known to European people. Sadly, a lot of China travel videos on youtube are slop where foreigners with big channels and very little knowledge about China go on state paid highly standardised tours. I suppose it's an attempt to revive foreign tourism after the years of extremely strict virus related rules. I think many countries do a variation of this but the Chinese campaign showed the travel vloggers the absolutely exact same places and usually about cities that are already known to everybody who has even a little interest in China. I want to see other places and learn something new about Chinese culture, history,nature and geography. And local cuisine, of course! I am grateful your channel offers this.
PS: Maybe you could increase your reach by letting your German partner narrate a German version. Documentaries about foreign countries are quite popular here.
Over 90% of the worlds API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) comes from China. Thank you China!
Fantastic view and great drone shots always.
Very beautiful episode. I follow your travel path on map. I guess your next destination would be Urumqi. Are you keep going west to Almaty, Kazakhstan?
Thank you so much for taking me to such amazing places!
To the comments from"sunriseLAW", there's an old chinese saying: “笑里藏刀”，but to another who feedback to your"gentle, polite, smiling faced " 笑里藏刀‘’question, you responded: "WTF", wow, you showed your true color in one word! 🤣🤣🤣
The thumbnail to this video gave me the biggest chuckle. The way you're holding the fruit up with the title, "Best Melons". Ha! Sorry but that's accidentally hilarious. 🤣
Nah, the juiciest melons on YouTube belong to Kristen Stephenson Pino 🍈🍈
Thank You Yan & Flo 🙂❤️👍🇨🇦
TKS A LOT!!! It is fantastic to travel these road and places, SO well known by books and history 🎉🎉❤❤
Well, I need to complete. Anyone can find photos of the caves in the web. It was a huge event when they discovered them. No only because of the statues but also because of the incredible manuscripts founded there. An amazing account of the Buddhism in that time through the Silk Road. Definitely one can find a lot of information about them in the web 🎉❤
I am really amazed how much history China has in store. Watching your videos made me feel like turning back the hands of time of stories not told in books. Because of your vlog, I am learning more and more about the interior part of China's history – how people lead their daily lives in a desolate and arid lands, their food, source of resources from town to town, village to village as you guys passed through. I think it's an excellent decision that you and Flo decided to follow the route where early explorers roamed before. I watch youtube a lot and no vloggers came this route before. You and Flo are the first – I think . Advancement of technology "youtube" introduced new way to watch programs as the action happens in a real time. I like watching motorbike vloggers because they made me feel like I am with them when they're on the road just like you and Flo. Wonders of China is really incomparable and remarkable. Thank you for taking me along and take care so we can see you guys reach Turkey safe and sound. Hard to believe but it appears that trading and businesses brought people from distant lands to do business and trading with China and that situation is still true to this day. If there are obvious changes that took place is the introduction of new form of transportation, ex – planes, boats and motorbikes. Advancement of many things made the world smaller.
Smart Chinese built grand fortress in narrow corridor between dessert & mountains. This way they can check all coming in from the west & those going out. So, Yen & Flo are taking the desert fork of silk road, not the mountain path. Perhaps they will return that way. Drone footage is indispensable showing vastness of the irrigated river ribbon in great dessert. Thank you!
I love this channel Yan, absolutely top notch work.
If you ever get the chance, please come visit us! I would love for you to come to my country, Bangladesh, and explore beautiful places like Sylhet, Rajshahi, Bandarban, and Cox’s Bazar. Did you know that Cox’s Bazar is the longest natural sea beach in the world? We also have the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Bangladesh is rich with natural beauty — waterfalls (jhorna), tea gardens, green villages, and warm-hearted people. And yes, Bangla is considered one of the sweetest languages in the world. I truly believe you should visit Bangladesh one day — it will be an unforgettable experience🥰🥰🥰
Hello to the two of you, such a great job. love to learn and with your videos I learned a lot about china.
Atemberaubend und begeisternd. Die Drohnenaufnahmen der Wüste sind verzaubernd ❤