Blogs from Gansu, China, Asia - page 23

As we travelled from Xiahe to Lanzhou, the scenery changed from tree-covered mountains and sloping pasturelands to scrubby hills where brown was the dominant colour. The religious landscape also changed with many more skull caps, crescent moons, and minarets in evidence. I'd never thought of China as having much of a Muslim population, but apparently it wasn't only goods that came along the Silk Road - there are millions of Muslim Chinese, predominantly in the northwest of the country. Unfortunately the clear, crisp air of the mountains was also replaced with a polluted haze that was quite possibly the worst quality air I've ever seen. A corresponding increase in temperature wasn't countered by the bus's aircon, leaving everyone stewing in clothes that had been donned to deal with a chilly Xiahe morning. We had our first ... read more

/Lelde/ it's actually not that hard to find your way around in the country where nobody speaks English, we have managed to purchase tickets and to find the right buses and trains so far without much troubles, well, Steven has dealt with these issues - bless him!!!:) so we are in a little town called Xiahe. We arrived yesturday afternoon. Its very nice here - mountains and a lot of monks around. The people, especially females, wear very nice and colourfull costums, their hair is made into two long plattes and they have cool hats on their heads - still haven't got any pictures of those ladys as they want money for it and I don't think it's acceptable. It was sooo freezing here yesturday (it's still cold today), not only outside, but I had to ... read more

Dinsdag 12 juni. In de voormiddag zorgden dat we op tijd in het westelijke busstation waren om de tickets naar Mati Si te kopen. Daarna gingen we onze bagage inpakken: kleren voor twee dagen in een klein rugzakje en de rest in de koffers die in het bagagedepot van het hotel zouden blijven. De kleine rugzakjes zaten goed volgepropt want we moesten ook wat voor koud weer voorzien voor de frisse avonden in de bergen. Het verblijf in Mati Si zou heel simpel kunnen zijn zodat we ook zelf onze handdoeken moesten voorzien. Waarschijnlijk zouden er nauwelijks winkels zijn, zodat we ook een minimum aan mondvoorraad moesten inpakken. Om 11u30 verlieten we het hotel om eerst nog wat te gaan mailen. Het tweede deel over ons verblijf in Dunhuang werd ook op de weblog geplaatst. ... read more

Spent a night to break the trip at Lanzhou, quite a big city, a bit smoggy. Had to go to Bank of China to use the ATM, found it and used the machine without any hassle. We dined out to a Korean restaurant next door to the hotel, it was very interesting and fun, there's a hot plate with coal underneath sunken in the middle of the table, you order your food and cook it yourself to your liking, we had veggies, different cuts of beef and squid, delicious! Only Susan and I had the squid, Anthony and Kit were squeamish about it and did not even try. Apparently you can also order dog meat says our guide but we passed on the opportunity. The next morning we drove to a town where there is ... read more

GUANSU, CHINA - (June 2007) Tues 5th - Fri 8th June - (Lanzhou) Today Hee and myself were to leave the Tibetan part of China and head into the Chinese desert. We left Xiahe around 7am and headed to Lanzhou were we arrived around mid morning. There's not much to say about Lanzhou as we didn't stop very long. The town is on the edge of the desert and has quite a big Muslim population and as a consequence there seems to be lots of Muslim restaurants dotted around the bus station. The LP says that Lanzhou is the most 'polluted city in the world', although it didn't strike me as being particularly any more polluted than any other major city in the world - although I don't suppose you get major sand/ dust storms raging ... read more