Blogs from Gansu, China, Asia - page 13

Greetings once more, I'm writing on this sincerely joyous occasion to mark the end of my stay in Minle, the final part of which was occasionally pleasant and at the same time, regularly drove me to the point of exasperation. The last month, we've been working in a new area, in the foothills of the mountains, and so we've mostly been at around 2800m. The weather's been gorgeous n the mountains an ever present spectacular backdrop. Everyone's busy in the fields with their weird tractors or hoes and assorted bizzare implements, and the world looks like a vast never-ending series of big allotments. I have a major psychological indisposition with regard to working in China. a)Due to my internal wiring, I am incapable of showing respect to someone due to the fact that they are older ... read more

In 2006 I travelled across China into Tibet and over the border into Nepal, on a truck along with 23 other people, two crew members, a Chinese translator and then in Tibet, a Tibetan translator. Since then, I’ve sporadically kept in touch with Dave and Nola from Canada, who were on that same trip and next week we’re meeting up in London - after nearly five years. The six week trip across 2 countries (if you count Tibet as China’s) was the start of my major wander lust which I’ve never lost. And, whilst in my dad’s garage yesterday, I dug through my boxes to find my diary from that trip. At the same time as traveling, I was in love with a boy and we kept in touch whilst he was cycling across Europe and ... read more

Nothing really happens. Well, nothing of note...in the vast majority of the endless hours that stretch between the dawn of our time memorial and our sudden and ultimate exit from this bizarre cauldren of existence. If you were to eliminate the major dramatic incidents from your life, I suppose you'd find that the remaining 98 percent of your existence was composed entirely of routine scurrying and scuttling, domestic ordinarities, nail clipping and whiling away hours awaiting things which are quite pleasant yet don't quite account for the complete disregard of all the hours inbetween. Maybe I should pay more attention to the inbetween hours although I have precious little to mention. Work has seeped between the days and filled up the gaps of my every waking hour like some kind of mercurial poison since the commencement ... read more

Tianshui City is the second largest city in Gansu Province of China, and is located about 4 hours S.E. of Lanzhou, the capitol of Gansu, the largest city in Gansu. Tianshui City, a smaller community of some 5 Million inhabitants, is continuing to develop into a more modern city, but still retains much of the flavor of an older Chinese city along the Yellow River. As one of the main settlements along the important routes of the Ancient Silk Road, I found Tianshui more interesting than Lanzhou. Here commerce and religions, traditions and customs have a long history, as all were transported by traders and pilgrims from East to West and from West to East. Tianshui City is a mix of ancient influences and modern development, and the two live side by side. Buddhist Temples, Taoist ... read more

This was really our first taste of how expensive tourism in China is. This was an activity that wasn't included in the 'kitty' portion of our Dragoman trip. Previous excursions had always been included in the 'kitty' and so the cost was always somewhat hidden from us. Not this time. To just get to visit the mountain, it cost us each 120 yuan (approx. $18), then if we wanted to take the van up and down from the top (which we did), was another 40 yuan each. Although had we been a little bit more on the ball back at home, we should've got our student ID cards from SAIT since we were techinically students at the time, this would have given us a 50% discount. Sadly though once we got to the top it was ... read more