Blogs from Wuwei, Gansu, China, Asia

LANGZHOU: REST DAY Today was our designated rest day and it was most welcome. Didn't do much, wandered the town, investigated the 8 level super smart shopping centre, 7 levels of fashion, 1 level of tech. Purchased a wifi hot spot machine which enables me to connect into the hotel LAN, if the room has one, machine then broadcasts wifi, much like a router. The wifi in the hotels generally has a weak signal, which usually prevents photo upload, and if too many are attempting to use it, then generally it fails, so supposedly this new machine will assist in overcoming the difficulty. A VPN is also required in China as social network sites, INSTAGRAM, etc, GOOGLE are often government blocked. Sometimes the tech is overwhelming!! In the afternoon changed money, only possible at Bank of ... read more

In order to get to Xinjiang Province I have decided to cross the Hexi Corridor, which is the Northern Silk Road, the historical route that connects China to Central Asia. To the north of the Gansu Corridor lies the sandy Gobi Desert, to the south is the Tibetan Plateau and its colorful mountains. I entered the Gansu corridor through Wuwei. Wuwei is a small city that is rapidly developing and modernizing around its central square. I enjoyed the many temples and the slow pace the city offers. It has a long pedestrian street (filled with the same shops we can find in any Chinese city) as well as remains of the fortified wall that used to circle the city. I suppose that the locals do not often see foreigners in town because everyone stared at me ... read more

Well it was raining too hard on the night of the Opening ceremony so we didn't head down to the square. We just grabbed beers and watch the telecast in one of the hotel rooms. Luckily we had our Chinese Guide there as our interpretation of events didn't resemble the reality. It was a good night - very impressed with the drummers.... not so impressed with the puppets and the Australian's marching out outfit! We heard that someone was quite badly injured at the final rehearsal for the opening ... but couldn't really work out where that would have been (our guesses about Terracotta Warriors and juggling Pandas didn't eventuate!) The next morning we headed out early. We were free camping on the way to the most western part of the Great Wall. We stopped at ... read more

Vrijdag 15 juni. Naar goede gewoonte waren we zeer vroeg in het busstation om de bus van 9u40 naar Wuwei te nemen. De bus van 8u50 stond er nog bijna leeg maar vertrekkensklaar zodat we maar probeerden om deze te nemen. De bediende aan de uitgang die de tickets controleerde, zei dat we op de volgende bus moesten wachten. We opperden dat we liever de tickets (die we uit voorzorg gisteren hadden gekocht) dan liever aan de balie zouden gaan wisselen. Uit ervaring wisten we dat dit geen probleem zou zijn indien er in deze bus nog plaatsen zouden zijn. De chauffeur van de bewuste bus stond in de buurt en bemoeide zich ermee. Hij zei dat we maar moesten instappen en dat hij dat wel het omwisselen van de tickets zou regelen. Uiteindelijk kregen ... read more