And So It Begins...

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Writing this a day late, while I'm in Jiayuguan, but will do my best to remember what went on.

Beijng:
Woke up really early, as in 4:45, and was amazed how light it was out that early, quickly packed up my things, had breakfast, and embarresingly left a bag of milky-cornflakes on the table. I know, it sounds weird, but I had a bowl of cereal, didn't finish it (probably had to do with the fact that I was nervous about leaving) and decided to just put the leftover 'flakes in a bag, then pitch it on my way out the door. Now, I know, "Why didn't you just throw it in the trashcan in the kitchen??!", well, my friend, you have obviously not lived with a Chinese family, where wasting (langfei) is the 8th deadly sin, or something like that. So, anyway, I left the bag on the table, and am hoping the family just thought I meant to take it as a snack or somethig and forgot. It was a really sad experience leaving them, even though I know I'll see them in 2 weeks, and then every couple weeks or so (I want to keep the relationship going). I left the key on the kitchen table for them, with a note.
Surprisingly only took 40 mins to get to the airport, and so I had to wait a while for my flight, but whatevs.

Lanzhou:
Arrived here at around 10am, picked up my luggage, then took the local bus to the city center, which actually took about an hour or so, not really sure as I slept for most of the time. When I got to the city, I found a bus stop, then figured out which buses went to the train station, then went there, bought my tickets out for that night, and then stored my big green bag at the train station, cause I didn't want to carry that large thing around with me. I look like an alien enough outside of large Chinese cities, and don't need big baggages to make me look even stranger.
So, after the successful ticket purchasing, I looked in my Rough Guide China book a.k.a. god. Went to the city center, where there's a lot of people, shops, etc. It was really cool in that there are so many different kind of Chinese people in Lanzhou, which is the capital of Gansu province by the way. Lots of men wearing white hats which I guess look like chef's hats if they did not extend past the top of their heads, and women wearing a similar hat, but it is blue. I'm pretty sure that these people are Muslim, which would probably place them as Hui minority, which I think are ethnicly Han Chinese, but am not sure. Some of the people were definitly not Han, as they had lighter skin and higher noses. Walked around for a bit, past the mosque, then went to a restaurant which had a lot of people in it for lunch. Note: Usually, when trying to figure out if some place will be a good eat, the method is usually just look inside and see if there are a lot of people, and in this restaurant there were. Their specialty was wontons, which were actually really good. After lunch I went outside and bought some watermelon, which was also great.
I then just wandered around and found a place to get a haircut. I found one, and got an 1 hour haircut for 18 yuan, which included wash, cut and dry. The cheap prices in the service industry are one of the great things about China. Then I walked around somemore, more or less aimlessly, as my train wasn't till 10:30. Lanzhou is on the Yellow river, so I walked over to the river, and found some nice patio chairs next to the river under some trees, and sat down, and read for probably an hour or two.
Again, still had a lot of time, so wandered around more, went and got dinner, then went to the train station, and bascially just sat there reading, listing to iPod, or watching some TV shows on my iPod. At 9:30ish I boarded the night train, and found out that I had the middle bunk, which I have never had before, and can attest, at least from a bruise on my shoulder that it was NOT cool, at least not as cool as bottom bunk. So I just have to make sure to get the bottom bunk next time.

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