Heading West

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We headed out of Xian yesterday. really ready to get on the road. Xian is a nice city and all geared up for the Olympics but I was ready to see what was around the next corner. We loaded up the truck and started out with the aim of reaching Pingliang around 10 hrs later. (It was 300km.) The plan was to visit a big buddha along the way. About half an hour into the journey we hit the first section of a day long truck jam. There seemed to be no real reason for the road of trucks - watermelons, donkeys, chickens, goats - but the truck crawl lasted for around 4hrs. Trucks cutting in and then just stopping. The 10 hrs turned into a 14hrs journey. We reached Pingliang around 9pm and basically showered and went to bed.

This morning we had another 300km journey in front of us, heading for Lanzhou. It was a good trip today with lots of terraced fam lots along the way. The countryside out here was quite dry and dusty but there was a lot of corn, watermelons, apples and sunflowers being grown. It all made for good passing of time through the day. We arrived in Lanzhou this afternoon around 4pm. It was a straight forward trip. Not much English is spoken out here so I am getting practice with the ordering of food in Mandarin. We have a couple of nights here in Lanzhou. It is situated on the Yellow River and I am looking forward to having an explore tomorrow.

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Photos

8.45am Tuesday 5th Aug
Travelling from Pingliang to Lanzhou