Chinese New Year holiday in Wuhai and Yinchuan

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(Delayed blog) At the earliest possible time (in this case it was 18 days beforehand I believe) I bought my train tickets without any help from a Chinese from the ticket booth on the Baobeibuxingjie in Baotou. Perhaps it would have been wise to ask for help, since I found out later that the train there was the lowest quality train available. Explained why the 7 hour train only cost ¥19 !!!

I boarded early morning at 9 am. This train had NO HEATING (!) which I felt straight away. This being February, temperatures are far below comfortable. My feet were frozen when I got on the train and never warmed up again, during the whole 8 hours I was on it. (1 hour delay).

I arrived at the Wuhai west station to be met by a friend. We got into a shared taxi that took us to his parental home where I was met by his parents and the neighbours. It didn't take long before dinner was set and we could eat.

I stayed with my friends family for 3 days, in which he showed me around Wuhai a bit, had lots of home cooked meals and practiced my Chinese a bit. The eve of New Years we watched the TV show in which Celine Dion performed to a crowd of 600 million people (at home watching TV) and we lit some fireworks. Nothing exciting, apart from the skyline filled with fireworks. Chinese New Year really is crazy, I'd love to fly over it one day, just as the clock ticks 12...

As planned, from Wuhan we took the train to Yinchuan and checked out that city for two days. Mosques and lots of good Muslim eateries. 7 days Inn was all right albeit noisy. A short and cold New years trip.

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