8962 KMS - Zhangye - Western China Ni hao,
After 4 days and 5 nights in Xi'an, we left the city by the western gate, from where came the caravans merchants who followed one of the Silk Road. We we went through. Way commercial, but also an exchange of ideas and communications, cultures, religions and between the West and East, what I've been waiting a long time, I was starting to discover.
Lore Xi'an. My bag was well Ortlieb disjointed, like the sole of the sandal Made in China Atlantis lifted off from Oceanne. We went to a shoemaker, walking down the street and leaning on every door to find him, and he has repaired all, much stronger than was for 7 yuan (70 cents). Imagine what he saw. I am still amazed at what price. I also had my first attempt portfolio. This happened to me once when my other trip to Peru, this time, I hope that Xi'an is the only time. I crossed a wide boulevard wearing Oceanne in my arms and I had my little black bag slung over his shoulder, turned backwards for most practical. There is a zipper on top and a clip. I know I did not close the clip, the zipper, I do not remember. I feel all of a sudden relief from my bag. 2 men walked beside me. A hand to the left, more in my direction, and one to the right towards a taxi. I guess in my hand it protefeuille brown. Surprisingly, it works very quietly and behind the taxi ranks. I quickly caught up and takes his wallet from the hands. It is very quiet, said nothing, even the air was rather zombie. The only thing that comes to do is slap him on the arm and say "bad"! No reaction from him. His destabilizes zen me and I'm leaving. Some people praise me around! As I noted several times in the street, spectators do not intervene. A quarrel, fray, theft. They look ... It was before Xi'an, Hua Shan, qu'Oceanne was in a bouncy castle with dozens of children who took care of her. It is once a woman leaving the game run after us and asks us to pay. We wonder how it responds and 10Y we find prohibitively expensive. We doubt. There are dozens of children around us. We want more, many speak English. A little girl tells us that it 5Y. We can not believe it! The woman is more or less large eyes at the little girl and she looks at us with barely a smile embarrasses. Sexy!
We did not dare taste the ice cream to small peas like that to but. By cons, it was lovely Oceanne black bean vanilla COATED!
China has a pro-natalist policy that limits the number of children per couple 1. It seems that this policy has changed slightly. Some said that it is possible to have a second when the first 6 years old. Others have told us that if two parents are only children so they can have 2 children. Others have told us that they finally had a second, they had to pay a fine. It can be seen even when many families with 2 children, but it is also difficult to know if they are brother and sister. We were also told that only children consitutents a particular generation, that or attention was given to them in some sort of child-kings ... We also note that this is much the grandparents caring for children. We were told that there are parents who come from the countryside to work in town to get a better income (housewife, man on construction sites) and leaves their child in the countryside with their grandparents because it would cost too expensive to live in town with him (larger accommodation, child care).
China is under construction! We see construction everywhere. Cities grow, expand. At each entrance and exit of town, you see buildings under construction. They also develop ways of quick access between each city. Highways are being built everywhere, unfortunately to the detriment of national highways. Indeed, wherever the highway is built parallel to the road, the latter is neglected. It is on this that we are forced to ride ... Access prohibited tolls, even if it is not a high traffic highway. Especially here in the west or there is not much traffic, the highway is mainly used by trucks crossing the country. Lately, the national G312 has been taken straightforwardly to the motorway instead . We have created a small paved path sometimes sometimes land right next. How frustrating to see this empty highway with a surface excellent, when we on the other side of the fence, had the arms on the handlebars trying to avoid the holes and rocks. We finally found an opening on the highway and we have rolled over tens of kilometers. We got out of the quarrel toll but too bad! National roads are the access roads between towns and villages. So when there are no villages, no need to go!
Our route then. Except some mountains after Gongyi around Hua Shan, Baoji up, we always passes through fields of wheat, corn, and vegetable crops. The scenery was not fantastic. We passed through villages FORMED brick houses. It was hot and humid. It was much more to the people we had our eyes wide open. Then after Baoji, the temperature decreases, some wind, some clouds, altitude, the nights cooler, the pleasure of the pedal was. Our 2 Momo (attached in photo) have been a simple barrier. Lanzhou before we climbed up to 2000m. These were the mountains covered with terraced crops that opened our eyes. Just before Lanzhou, tables and chairs appear in the villages along the road or outside the restaurants. It sounds trivial, but up to now in China, we ate on small tables and small stools. And there was no place to sit and just to let live, drinking a beer for example. In general, the Chinese eat very very quickly. For 3 meals a day, it's rare we see them drag around the table. They speak very little and are here to eat. By cons, since the arrival of the terraces, we see more to meet to discuss and take a drink. We appreciate us too!
In Lanzhou, we also renewed our visas. Nothing to do with the first time in Anyang. Our visa expired on July 1. We arrived in town June 29 and 30, we presented ourselves at the office. Ah, it is firm because they make the renovation and decoration. We were told to return the next day, the first, no problem if our visa expires that day. It is therefore the first and fill the form without having to provide any other paper or answer any questions! For cons, the costs for Rupert, British, have been multiplied by 4 for a month to the next! We are told that it's give and because the Chinese pay more when they go to England ... July 1 is a Thursday, we said 3 days so next week. Not possible for us is far too long. Some supplications and is obtained for the following day on July 2. That was an extension until July 31. After ca ... It seems only right that we have two extensions. And we certainly have not done across the country. While we will attempt a third extension, and Perhaps we need from very very fast if it does not work. Our visa for Kyrgyzstan is for August 15, then either go between 1 and 15, we prefer not to think too much about this possibility ... We are surrounded by countries that require visas. In the meantime, we love our road from Lanzhou.
A Yongdeng we renocntre Mr Won. He stopped on the road to discuss and become our friend. He invites us to contact him when we arrive at Yongdeng and invites us home. In fact, not sleeping, but take tea and chat. We arrived late so we will not go home, but directly to the restaurant where he invites us. He is accompanied by his wife. 29 years, Professor English, he opened a school, private, which provides advanced course in math, Chinese and English compared to public school. The children go on weekends and summer holidays. The next day, before leaving, he came to meet us at the hotel and held absolutely to introduce ourselves one of his classes. In fact, it was more a photo opportunity than anything else. The day before, he had been talking about our trip. I'm not sure he understood everything. In any case, he did not speak to his students and his friend Rupert only this and nothing more. I often feel that we live meetings unidirectional. People see us, we want to take photos, but in return, we learn very little them. We often see children leaving school at 11:30 or noon to go home for lunch. In the countryside, they are either on foot or by bicycle. Recently, Rupert has been accompanied by a group of children over 7 kms. They each wore a red scarf around his neck.
Yongdeng After we gradually rises. We left Lanzhou, 1600, had re-crossed the Yellow River (north to south was well east of Xi'an, and from now on from south to north), and aircraft began a gradual climb. We did not know at what altitude was Yongdeng. The next night, camping on land not culitvee among cultures, and at the foot of the mountains. I have a slight headache and am a little out of breath when I decline to help Oceanne has to pee. We must be higher than 2000m ... The next day, a rise greater drice us see yaks (attached in photo)! We must be pretty high because they do not bear the heat of the lowlands. Magnificent mountain scenery, we're almost all alone on the road, I smile. I found these large scale landscapes that inspire and justify the trip I'm going through. We chain a direct descent of 50 km. Wow! Arrived in Wuwei, we'll see our way on the internet. Yongdeng was already at 2000m, then we camped at 2700m (everything is explained, the adaptation is a gradual elevation) and we 3000m climb up the next day, and hurried down again until 1600! Wuwei is a pleasant city. There are terraces everywhere, among others in front of our hotel, next door north of the city.
By cons, from Lanzhou, we find people very intrusive. We can not move freely. I become easily strained. All our actions are observed. I sat on a bench with Oceanne eating what we had just bought at the grocery store for our lunch. A person comes with one child, hoping to interact with the Oceanne. "Look, look a little Western." That is why adults are curious about us. They were showing the younger age was observed Aliens! In short, not Oceanne Forces and continues eating. Mass effect, the Chinese are very follower, we observed a large group. It feels like a monkey cage. We hear very little but we watch a lot. I try to act as if I had not seen them ... not easy! The same evening, we start walking. We pass by a place or a singer and musicians give a little show. The hearing is well. It does not take one minute that the audience turns on us, looks us listen to the show. Uncomfortable, we can not stay and leave ... Zhangye tonight, everyone was assembled on a main city squares. The after-noon. it is so hot that no one goes, and at 18h, the terraces are being established. They are not specific to coffees. These are only beverage booths with tables and chairs that can be put on and removed. In short, we will also place because there are these famous devices for exercising widely used in adults including the elderly. Children go there also because there are very few parks for children. Oceanne wants to go. Unfortunately, we do monitor for each device or we will. Oceanne is to get their picture taken. It accepts any less ca. She can not act freely. So we start again ...
I do not know if it Communism has made the Chinese follower, but I think they do a lot of things in groups. There's good and bad of course. Like I said before, when a gets a look at something, others will follow. When we told our friend Mr. Won how people came around, he found it quite normal. Tonight, on the square, people were playing basketball and had a hearing. People also played badminton, all exercise machines were occupied, and as in many other cities, groups of hundreds of women dancing, aerobic dance, but Chinese, led by three women before. In short, this place, everybody was exercising or watching others do exercise. It seems that China has adopted a capitalist economy, but retains a socialist-communist system.
The Chinese are like ants. They work and work hard. On the road, we see them everywhere and always at work, but several. Some are in the fields, picking up some bricks of a demolished house to bring also some clean or sweep the road, others bechent land, other resurfacing the road. These facts are sometimes work in pairs. In general, they are both women and men who do the same work together. Men protect themselves from a hat against the sun, women have a scarf here. More in the east, they wore a hat. Moreover, they only put a mask over his mouth when they are on a motorcycle, working in a field, or hitting the road.
Zhangye and Wuwei Between
, we found ourselves again in nature, framed by two mountain ranges with snowy peaks far away. A second gradual ascent up to 2700m. Going down to Zhangye, on the other side, mountains on either side have become drier, and center, it was all green, there are villages and irrigated crops. We have over 70 km along the Great Wall (attached pic). We did not recognize at first, because it was just a simple wall earth, mountains the color of the turn. But extends over miles and distinguishing the remains of towers, and also in relation to our map, we deduce that it was her. We camped near her, on the other side of the highway. We can extend our day, the sun sets late, around 21h. In fact, China is extended over 3 time zones but decided to have one hour for the whole country. If the sun sets to 18h in the east, it sets a 21h in the west. We therefore stress more this winter to think has to stop and find a place to camp before the Night falls. So much the better, because up until Lanzhou, this happens very often we having pedaling longer because we could not find room for the tent, people and villages everywhere, and between villages and farmlands. Not easy! But this problem does not arise, we arrived in the great outdoors!
I also wanted to talk trash and recycling! Everything is done in one. One difficult thing is to separate garbage from our waste when we camp. We have learned to leave our bags on the road, not far from a house, shop or just people. Trash and recycling are made by people. Everything that appears, disappears not long after. City streets and roads are clean. We see places where garbage has been separated between paper, glass, plastic bags, fabrics, plastic bottles, like that in the countryside. So, we know that when you leave our bags, some that come close to the sort ...
Today was a day of rest Zhangye. We visited the temple Dafoe, or Giant Buddha Temple is the largest indoor reclining Buddha, 38m long! Impressive indeed. But the whole complex is also very nice. Compared to the eastern cities, towns around here have either one keeps the city gates, is the bell tower and drum tower. There seems to be more Buddhist temples. We also see more and more Muslims. We appreciate very much skewers of mutton. An image comes to mind: two Muslims (it recognizes them with their little white hat and round they are on top of their head) on a motorcycle on a road between two villages carrying a sheep from the back to be tues. Tomorrow, we resume the road to Jiuquan. To us the great outdoors!
you soon!
Dorothee
