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Published: April 13th 2010
''No vegetables available''
This street seller selling toilet paper (!) on the street which I live on, has one of those pre-recorded megaphones blearing often incomprehensible lines in order to get passers-by to pay attention to their goods. This particular time though, I couldn't help but hearing the words 'no vegetables available' which just made me laugh so much,seeing what he's selling really is toilet paper...
Right.... well, after almost two weeks back home I booked another flight via Dubai this time and flew across Pakistan and the Karakoram mountain range into Qinjiang province, flying exactly south of Baotou and Hohhot while getting ready for descent into Beijing Capital airport.
Oh, how I love flying. Was able to get some great views of the snowy mountain ranges separating China from it's middle eastern / central Asian neighbours..!!
Arrived in Baotou in the first snow of the year, and an absolute snow blizzard it was! The bus had already left Hohhot, so it was on the road already but I'm sure any other buses set to leave later that day were cancelled... My apartment this time is on ground level, which in China means you have to
buy yourself some additional heating, because insulation isn't sufficient enought against Inner Mongolia's freezing temperatures. Being a bit late with my blog publishing, I have lived here for 4 months by now.
The city is very different from Hohhot, in that it misses the provincial's capital buzz. Whereas Hohhot is quite a compact city, Baotou is large and stretched out into 4 sperate districts. Kunqu, the most developed one in the west, Qingshan, Jiu Yuan and the oldest part, Donghe, in the east where the small local airport is located as well. Being a mostly industrial city with large coal mines to the north and famous for it's rare earth and other minerals, it has been developing fast in recent years like any other city in China and with the fast bullet train being built from Beijing to Hohhot, hopefully Baotou will be able to change its image of being just an industrial city to being the biggest city in Inner Mongolia and worthy of its name; Deer City.
Have been very lazy with my blogs and therefore far behind; by now I've been here already 5 months, and spring has finally set in. A few more weeks, and
I'll be able to see what I've heard some many times already: A lot of very green parks. Apparently, semi-wild deer come down from the mountain range just north of the city and decent into the Sahantala park, Baotou's largest and famous for being a mini-grassland. Been spending the last months mostly inside due to the temperatures here, focusing on teaching and so on. I've got plans to go travel again in June, until then, a big hello from Baotou!
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zussie
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En de groenten van HAK!
Ha ha, tjah zou je bijna geen groenten meer kopen;-)!Hebben ze het over wc papier! He maar ben benieuwd waar je in juni heen gaat travellen! We skypen snel weer eens, tut mij