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Published: August 7th 2007
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As we travelled from Xiahe to Lanzhou, the scenery changed from tree-covered mountains and sloping pasturelands to scrubby hills where brown was the dominant colour. The religious landscape also changed with many more skull caps, crescent moons, and minarets in evidence. I'd never thought of China as having much of a Muslim population, but apparently it wasn't only goods that came along the Silk Road - there are millions of Muslim Chinese, predominantly in the northwest of the country.
Unfortunately the clear, crisp air of the mountains was also replaced with a polluted haze that was quite possibly the worst quality air I've ever seen. A corresponding increase in temperature wasn't countered by the bus's aircon, leaving everyone stewing in clothes that had been donned to deal with a chilly Xiahe morning.
We had our first Chinese train ticket purchasing experience in Lanzhou and it was trouble-free. I still don't understand what each of the queues in the ticket hall was for - they were of varying lengths hence were presumably for different purposes - and it's tiresome having to trawl through the entire timetable finding the hanzi for one's departure and arrival points in order to figure out
the travel options.
One thing we've already noticed in this province is that the Mandarin we'd honed in Yunnan and Sichuan (for words like menu, rice, and bill) meets only with blank looks here. Since I can't believe our pronunciation is getting (even) worse over time, I can only assume there is a different accent here.
Though Lanzhou is the capital of Gansu province, it has fewer signs of Westernisation than Kunming or Chengdu do, with no McDonald's (but a KFC), and no dental floss (and also no handkerchiefs). There were few English language menus, except in restaurants aiming at Westerners, other than those of the "Disconsolate ant crawls up hill in winter sunshine" variety. In such circumstances and already fed up with the minefield of ordering from hanzi-only menus, it perhaps wasn't too strange that I ended up eating sushi in a Korean restaurant in China.
The bus stops were extremely helpful, with the timetables showing all stops for each bus and highlighting the current stop. As usual, fares were 1 yuan and the looks we got both on the buses and around town showed how few foreigners came through here.
There also seemed to
be a preponderance of shoe cleaners and menders, none of whom ever appeared to have any custom. Their eyes lit up when they saw my trail shoes, which are dirty and with the soles coming away from the uppers, but what's the point of getting my shoes cleaned today when I know they'll be as filthy again tomorrow?
Dull but possibly useful info Getting there: Take a bus from Xiahe to Lanzhou (there are several daily - we took one at 6:30AM), costing 44 yuan and taking about 3 hours 45 minutes.
Stayed at: Hualian Hotel. Cost 118 yuan for a double. Great location close to the train station and a cheap minibar, though hot water only 6-12 morning and evening. Would stay here again.
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