Friday, October 15, 2004
Second Installment, Third to come soon
Sorry for all of those who were confused, the numbers after some of the Chinese morphemes is simply the tone used to say that particular one. Five tones in Chinese, but the fifth tone is kind of a dead tone, so I won’t be putting any 5’s anywhere, just leave it off in that case. This is only for those interested in saying the words ever in a Chinese situation, ignore them otherwise, I’ll try to use them sparingly.
So, to continue… We pull into the big sloping concrete dock at Bingling Temple after noticing the huge Buddha carved out of stone off to our right. This temple is famed for its grottoes and there were a good number of them to be sure. They were all numbered, and you had to purchase a ticket based on which of the 170 plus grottoes you wanted to see. We got the most basic entry pass and proceeded on, after having an interesting discussion with the ticket seller (interesting in the sense that we had no idea what she was seeing and she got really frustrated and shoved some receipt type thing at us and told us to move along). There were countless (unless you were counting) little Buddha type figures carved into the wall (each with its own number, making it unnecessary to count) as you went toward the temple and they were all exquisitely crafted in their own way. My eyes kept gravitating toward the big boy though, so I finally got there and stood underneath his benevolent gaze. There were wooden staircases notched into the wall that scaled his sides and traveled to other carvings in the wall near his head. If we had gotten the tour, we would have been able to see these, but I wasn’t going to pay any more money that day. I was just satisfied to stand in front of the big guy and gawk. I then crossed an ornate bridge and climbed toward a set of temples with different names and functions and personalities. I paid my respects to each of them and moved on, glancing back at the Buddha every now and then. We had only an hour to experience these sights, since the boat owner was anxious to make the trip back, so we had to book it. Now earlier on, when we first got there, I had been harangued by one peddler in particular as we got off the boat. She seemed to think that I had promised her I would buy something when I returned from the grottoes, cuz she just wouldn’t let up at all when I got back. I think I admired her tenacity or something, because I did end up buying a little worthless trinket, but I found it so interesting that some people make their living by selling this type of junk to tourists. She really did seem happy playing this game with me, trying to convince me of the worth of her wares and of the reasons why I should buy them. Money baffles me. It creates tensions where there should be none, gives purpose to some, creates preconceptions when no other information is available, and can make some people smile where even a kind word could not have the same effect. Everyone takes it for granted, accepts the status quo, but I really don’t like it at all. Meiyou banfa I guess, shooganai, nothing for it, that’s life, etc. We have these phrases in our languages for just such inconsistencies… I’m digressing, let’s move on.
And that’s what I did, moved on. We had to go to a different port to get to our next destination, so we were directed to another boat, with interesting consequences. This happened to be the party boat. Much smaller and with a family on board that were playing Chinese drinking games the whole time and dancing to bad c-pop.
The whole scene reminded me of a set of novels commonly called the Dream of the Red Chamber, set around 12th 13th century in an aristocratic mansion where the height of living seems to consist of having get-togethers and playing a variety of drinking games. The game these boat residents were playing is one that I’ve seen multiple times here in China but have yet to learn the rules. You throw out a certain number of fingers at the same time as your opponent until one of you loses. Sorta like rock paper scissors but more math oriented I suspect.
This boat ride was very restful, even with all of the drunk shenanigans occurring (Jena and Megan even went to the back and danced it up for a second). Instead of a couple hundred people on a big boat, mostly standing, we were relaxing at the prow of a little chugchugger with about 15 total people on board. I had seen a lot of sun already at this point, but that didn’t keep my redfaced self from lying out in the open and lazily watching the rocky walls of our lake bowl drift by. A little boy came out from within at one point and gave us some sunflower seeds and we were also passing around some kind of curry bread that we had purchased earlier in the day. And some hard-boiled eggs. It was definitely a nice rest from traveling, even though we were doing just that.
We pulled into a concrete incline and disembarked from our pleasure cruise. Back on land it seemed only fitting that confusion should reign supreme. Actually, it wasn’t all that bad, but we had to get from here to Linxia, the next stop on our trip. So we needed a van that fit… seven people, and bags. The boat owner from Binglingsi had told me to not let them charge more than 4 quai a person, so I bartered the fellow down from 5. :) not too hard. Strapping all of our gear on top, we set off, crammed into a van that exactly fit our girth. The bumps of this trip were nerve-racking at first for me, because I was expecting the hastily tied luggage to be strewn across the mountainside. I kept looking back like I had inner tubes tied to my trunk and was heading for the Ichetucknee at sixty mph. Nothing fell off though. Apparently, the driver had tied things on his roof before. Go figure.
LINXIA
So, after bumpy ride number one (the numbering system we weren’t aware of at this point) through semi-mountainous terrain, we fell into another trough of buildings and cars and tons more people than you’d expect a road curve before. It was quite smaller than Lanzhou, but still had the same busy city atmosphere. We went straight to a hotel listed on the Lonely Planet guide (not exactly adventurous are we, road most traveled) and checked in. As we were taking the bags off of the roof, we were at the same time trying to figure out whether Megan and Kyle could get to Xiahe in the same day or whether they had to wait until early the next day (we, meaning Megan Kyle and I, the others were already inside throwing down the money). During this question answer session, I was taking a bag off the back and stepped on the bumper to do so, totally denting it with my heavy ass. From that point on I spent a lot of time looking at the scenery and whistling foreign nameless tunes. There were no more busses to Xiahe at that point, so the answer was to stay the night.
Linxia is much more friendly than Lanzhou, the people more willing to talk and, as always, blatantly stare. The activity prepared for that night was simply to walk around the town and find somewhere to eat. We got an interesting soup that night with a bready substance in it that looked like fish.
Ooh, I forgot to put this in earlier. There was a hotpot dinner experience on our first night in Lanzhou. We were walking around looking for food and finally decided on a hotpot restaurant that looked warm and inviting on a cold night. We had such a problem ordering and I was so tired that I was no help whatsoever. I had a bunch of menus pushed in my face and everyone had that expectant look on their faces as if I’d be able to spot translate. Nope, sorry, I tai-tired, go way monkeys. So we ended up sending some representatives into the kitchen to look at types of fish and pick. And then we also ordered standard hotpot fare, different meats, veggies, and tofus to dip and eat. So we get one bowl brought out with deep fried fish in it that was amazingly good. Yum. THEN, we get a real hotpot bowl brought out afterward with all of our ingredients. All of us are stuffed at this point, wo de tian. When we leave that place, there is still a pile of meat and a forest of veggies left uneaten. Wasteful foreigners on the loose. Hopefully the food was put to good use (near the end of our meal a (stray? prolly not) dog ran through the eating area back into the kitchen area and no one blinked an eye, just shut it in the back. Hopefully they fed it our leftovers and not it to other customers.
So yeah, Linxia, a good place with friendly shop keepers and street vendors. The night there was kind of cold with no heat in the pad, but there were three small beds in this hotel, so I didn’t have to take the couch like I had in Lanzhou. Plenty of covers and I was out.
The next morning we made our way around the corner to the bus station. We kinda sauntered there, having woken up mildly latish and not in the mood to hurry. We stopped a couple of times to check out huge piles of green, red, and yellow curry, assorted dried fruits, and the local candies. With supplies in store, we moved onto the station. As it happened, a bus was leaving pretty much right then for Xiahe, what luck! So after scrounging around for our insurance forms (I had kept all but one in my secure fanny pack, but scott had kept his on him and succeeded in slightly misplacing it, finally finding it five minutes later) we bought the tickets and got on a bus where we were the only passengers, what luck! Then came the unlucky part.
We drove around Linxia for an hour, stopping at this gas station and that, trolling the streets for anyone willing to shell out some dough to get to Xiahe. The whole time the bus matron leaning out the door yelling “XIAHE! XIAHE! XIAHE! XIAHE!” Yeah, I was tired of that after about five minutes. When we finally did leave Linxia (after our third stop at the same gas station), we proceeded on a similar type of casual driving trip, where we’d stop every so often to check if the people on the side of the road couldn’t be possibly convinced to go to Xiahe. We weren’t the only ones on the bus anymore. They filled that sucker up. My seatmate was once again decided, and this time it seemed to be a Tibetan-looking fellow in woolen garb who smoked pungent cigarettes and was interested in purchasing my gloves that were five sizes too big for him. He even tried sleeping on my shoulder on the bumpy #2 trip, so cute, wish someone else had had my camera. An interesting part of this trip would be when the matron would run to the back and squish in with some people to make it seem like the bus wasn’t overcrowded to the cops they were passing. Ah, China.
I swear, it took us an hour to move the last twenty miles, but we finally did make it to Xiahe. The place of my dreams, why I came to China, the whole purpose of this trip.
To be continued… :)
So, to continue… We pull into the big sloping concrete dock at Bingling Temple after noticing the huge Buddha carved out of stone off to our right. This temple is famed for its grottoes and there were a good number of them to be sure. They were all numbered, and you had to purchase a ticket based on which of the 170 plus grottoes you wanted to see. We got the most basic entry pass and proceeded on, after having an interesting discussion with the ticket seller (interesting in the sense that we had no idea what she was seeing and she got really frustrated and shoved some receipt type thing at us and told us to move along). There were countless (unless you were counting) little Buddha type figures carved into the wall (each with its own number, making it unnecessary to count) as you went toward the temple and they were all exquisitely crafted in their own way. My eyes kept gravitating toward the big boy though, so I finally got there and stood underneath his benevolent gaze. There were wooden staircases notched into the wall that scaled his sides and traveled to other carvings in the wall near his head. If we had gotten the tour, we would have been able to see these, but I wasn’t going to pay any more money that day. I was just satisfied to stand in front of the big guy and gawk. I then crossed an ornate bridge and climbed toward a set of temples with different names and functions and personalities. I paid my respects to each of them and moved on, glancing back at the Buddha every now and then. We had only an hour to experience these sights, since the boat owner was anxious to make the trip back, so we had to book it. Now earlier on, when we first got there, I had been harangued by one peddler in particular as we got off the boat. She seemed to think that I had promised her I would buy something when I returned from the grottoes, cuz she just wouldn’t let up at all when I got back. I think I admired her tenacity or something, because I did end up buying a little worthless trinket, but I found it so interesting that some people make their living by selling this type of junk to tourists. She really did seem happy playing this game with me, trying to convince me of the worth of her wares and of the reasons why I should buy them. Money baffles me. It creates tensions where there should be none, gives purpose to some, creates preconceptions when no other information is available, and can make some people smile where even a kind word could not have the same effect. Everyone takes it for granted, accepts the status quo, but I really don’t like it at all. Meiyou banfa I guess, shooganai, nothing for it, that’s life, etc. We have these phrases in our languages for just such inconsistencies… I’m digressing, let’s move on.
And that’s what I did, moved on. We had to go to a different port to get to our next destination, so we were directed to another boat, with interesting consequences. This happened to be the party boat. Much smaller and with a family on board that were playing Chinese drinking games the whole time and dancing to bad c-pop.
The whole scene reminded me of a set of novels commonly called the Dream of the Red Chamber, set around 12th 13th century in an aristocratic mansion where the height of living seems to consist of having get-togethers and playing a variety of drinking games. The game these boat residents were playing is one that I’ve seen multiple times here in China but have yet to learn the rules. You throw out a certain number of fingers at the same time as your opponent until one of you loses. Sorta like rock paper scissors but more math oriented I suspect.
This boat ride was very restful, even with all of the drunk shenanigans occurring (Jena and Megan even went to the back and danced it up for a second). Instead of a couple hundred people on a big boat, mostly standing, we were relaxing at the prow of a little chugchugger with about 15 total people on board. I had seen a lot of sun already at this point, but that didn’t keep my redfaced self from lying out in the open and lazily watching the rocky walls of our lake bowl drift by. A little boy came out from within at one point and gave us some sunflower seeds and we were also passing around some kind of curry bread that we had purchased earlier in the day. And some hard-boiled eggs. It was definitely a nice rest from traveling, even though we were doing just that.
We pulled into a concrete incline and disembarked from our pleasure cruise. Back on land it seemed only fitting that confusion should reign supreme. Actually, it wasn’t all that bad, but we had to get from here to Linxia, the next stop on our trip. So we needed a van that fit… seven people, and bags. The boat owner from Binglingsi had told me to not let them charge more than 4 quai a person, so I bartered the fellow down from 5. :) not too hard. Strapping all of our gear on top, we set off, crammed into a van that exactly fit our girth. The bumps of this trip were nerve-racking at first for me, because I was expecting the hastily tied luggage to be strewn across the mountainside. I kept looking back like I had inner tubes tied to my trunk and was heading for the Ichetucknee at sixty mph. Nothing fell off though. Apparently, the driver had tied things on his roof before. Go figure.
LINXIA
So, after bumpy ride number one (the numbering system we weren’t aware of at this point) through semi-mountainous terrain, we fell into another trough of buildings and cars and tons more people than you’d expect a road curve before. It was quite smaller than Lanzhou, but still had the same busy city atmosphere. We went straight to a hotel listed on the Lonely Planet guide (not exactly adventurous are we, road most traveled) and checked in. As we were taking the bags off of the roof, we were at the same time trying to figure out whether Megan and Kyle could get to Xiahe in the same day or whether they had to wait until early the next day (we, meaning Megan Kyle and I, the others were already inside throwing down the money). During this question answer session, I was taking a bag off the back and stepped on the bumper to do so, totally denting it with my heavy ass. From that point on I spent a lot of time looking at the scenery and whistling foreign nameless tunes. There were no more busses to Xiahe at that point, so the answer was to stay the night.
Linxia is much more friendly than Lanzhou, the people more willing to talk and, as always, blatantly stare. The activity prepared for that night was simply to walk around the town and find somewhere to eat. We got an interesting soup that night with a bready substance in it that looked like fish.
Ooh, I forgot to put this in earlier. There was a hotpot dinner experience on our first night in Lanzhou. We were walking around looking for food and finally decided on a hotpot restaurant that looked warm and inviting on a cold night. We had such a problem ordering and I was so tired that I was no help whatsoever. I had a bunch of menus pushed in my face and everyone had that expectant look on their faces as if I’d be able to spot translate. Nope, sorry, I tai-tired, go way monkeys. So we ended up sending some representatives into the kitchen to look at types of fish and pick. And then we also ordered standard hotpot fare, different meats, veggies, and tofus to dip and eat. So we get one bowl brought out with deep fried fish in it that was amazingly good. Yum. THEN, we get a real hotpot bowl brought out afterward with all of our ingredients. All of us are stuffed at this point, wo de tian. When we leave that place, there is still a pile of meat and a forest of veggies left uneaten. Wasteful foreigners on the loose. Hopefully the food was put to good use (near the end of our meal a (stray? prolly not) dog ran through the eating area back into the kitchen area and no one blinked an eye, just shut it in the back. Hopefully they fed it our leftovers and not it to other customers.
So yeah, Linxia, a good place with friendly shop keepers and street vendors. The night there was kind of cold with no heat in the pad, but there were three small beds in this hotel, so I didn’t have to take the couch like I had in Lanzhou. Plenty of covers and I was out.
The next morning we made our way around the corner to the bus station. We kinda sauntered there, having woken up mildly latish and not in the mood to hurry. We stopped a couple of times to check out huge piles of green, red, and yellow curry, assorted dried fruits, and the local candies. With supplies in store, we moved onto the station. As it happened, a bus was leaving pretty much right then for Xiahe, what luck! So after scrounging around for our insurance forms (I had kept all but one in my secure fanny pack, but scott had kept his on him and succeeded in slightly misplacing it, finally finding it five minutes later) we bought the tickets and got on a bus where we were the only passengers, what luck! Then came the unlucky part.
We drove around Linxia for an hour, stopping at this gas station and that, trolling the streets for anyone willing to shell out some dough to get to Xiahe. The whole time the bus matron leaning out the door yelling “XIAHE! XIAHE! XIAHE! XIAHE!” Yeah, I was tired of that after about five minutes. When we finally did leave Linxia (after our third stop at the same gas station), we proceeded on a similar type of casual driving trip, where we’d stop every so often to check if the people on the side of the road couldn’t be possibly convinced to go to Xiahe. We weren’t the only ones on the bus anymore. They filled that sucker up. My seatmate was once again decided, and this time it seemed to be a Tibetan-looking fellow in woolen garb who smoked pungent cigarettes and was interested in purchasing my gloves that were five sizes too big for him. He even tried sleeping on my shoulder on the bumpy #2 trip, so cute, wish someone else had had my camera. An interesting part of this trip would be when the matron would run to the back and squish in with some people to make it seem like the bus wasn’t overcrowded to the cops they were passing. Ah, China.
I swear, it took us an hour to move the last twenty miles, but we finally did make it to Xiahe. The place of my dreams, why I came to China, the whole purpose of this trip.
To be continued… :)
Thursday, October 07, 2004
PS
check out my picture site again. there's some new stuff
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elliotbyrne
buhbyE
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elliotbyrne
buhbyE
First installment - Gansu Trip
I'm going to have to do this in parts, cuz this may take a while to recount. I just got back from my trip over October break, but have to go directly back to work tomorrow for the next eight days, boo. wah. so yeah, i'll try to get all the trip info in when i can. this is as far as i've gotten, enjoy. i made amend this later, so be warned.
e
GANSU
Friday – Got out early from Shanghai. Flight was at 10 am and we were all ready to leave the city and find a horizon (shanghai clearly (gunkly) lacking one with all of the smog). The flight was about three hours and, since I was tired from the night before (teaching done for the week, went to ju lu lu, you know the rest), I tried to sleep through most of it. But upon entrance of Gan1Su4 airspace, my mind became alert, and the windows over my neighbors’ shoulders became acutely interesting. Not so much rolling hills and not quite mountains, it was something that you would only think would be in Crouching Tiger or some other movie far removed from reality that met my eyes. That moment was a refocusing of reality for me. The seat partner and her bladderful husband before me faded into the periphery as the window view of parched golden hills and shock blue sky became my foreground. I was going to set foot on that land and drink of its waters (2 kuai/bottle) and breathe its air. The rest of the plane ride was no more real to me than a faded memory, as I was already on the ground.
LANZHOU
Friday (di er) – Yes, it really was cold in Lanzhou, the weather forecast did not lie. Stepping off the plane told you that fact immediately, but cold doesn’t matter so much when your eyes are in control of your body, urging on the legs and helping pump blood to whichever body part is in need. The airport was on the outskirts of town, and we’re talking one of those big hoop skirts with eight layers Elizabethan style, not no Lanzhou shopping mall street perform mini skirt, oh no. Took a bus into town that was in no hurry and then found our way to one of the hotels on the Lonely Planet copied pages that Jeanne brought with her. Oh, let me backtrack. The Players: Scott, Jena, Toersten, and Jeanne. Couple 1 and couple 2 plus me and a camera. And I hope I’m spelling Toersten’s name right, he’s German, I’m only part. So yeah, found a hotel and shelled out some money in order to spend the night. For the most part I shared a room with Scott and Jena and all five of us settled numerous money sharing, doling, splitting problems along the way quite well.
Lan2zhou3 is a city of 2-3 million, the capitol of its province (Gansu), and is set in the valley that was carved into this mountainous landscape by the Yellow River (Huang He). So when you approach Lanzhou, say by bus, you are always going towards it from above, sliding down the edge of a bumpy bowl. You don’t expect this city at all. You go through several burbs and toll booths and tunnels and keep seeing mountains and dirt and not much else, until you come around one last pass and see the extent of Lanzhou. It’s kind of like driving down a dirt road that is a bit hilly on your way to some destination, but then as you top a rise, there’s a large puddle preventing you from crossing the next dip. Lanzhou’s just one big puddle in the middle of nowhere that pulls everyone towards it to get a drink, but they find that the water is dirty and shallow and they leave as soon as they can. Now, that might be a bit prejudiced of me, since I am writing this after the fact and have since left and returned and left again, but I stick to what I said. The rest of Gansu is what is worth looking at, not Lanzhou. That being said, we were eager to look around.
First we tried going to the Lanzhou Historical Museum, so we took taxis there (multiple since you can’t fit five in one taxi) and got out at our destination. However, that museum was under construction, aka not built yet, and we were out of luck. But there was a nice travel agency right next door where we went and had a chat with the man there, asking him how to get to Bing3Ling2 Si4 (our next destination) and then from there to Lin2xia4 and then Xia4he2. After a long drawn out conversation with the man and his English counterpart on the phone, we figured out that we a) didn’t need his help, and b) simply needed to go to the bus station, hop a bus to a city near BLS which was clearly marked in the Lonely Planet guide, and take a boat from there. No prob. From there we went to a nearby temple (I forget the name, sorry) and climbed up its many stairs and through its many tourist traps to the top, where we could get a good view of Lanzhou and the Huang He. It was a very nice day and the town was bustling with activity for National Day October First. Everyone was happy that their vacation had begun and the temperature plus the sunlight made it feel like springtime. The temple was unremarkable, except for the arcade-style handheld gun video games scattered on the hillside that made bleep pow and kerchow noises all the way to the top. However, the trees were old and exuberant, the paths worn in some places and made of closely scrunched pebbles in others, and there were beautiful birds kept in wooden cages calling to me pitifully. These are things that I would not get in Shanghai and every time I looked up and actually saw blue sky and that alien horizon, I was so very happy to be in Gansu. We were all giddy from a long day and all of the newly processed information tickling our brains, so we went and ate dinner and then went to bed relatively early, for the next day we would venture out beyond the city.
BINGLINGSI
Saturday – The next morning we awoke in the same place, but I was far more prepared for new input then I had been the day before. And we were moving on. We had bought some bread the night before and partook of that to break the morning fast and headed off to the bus station. We had gotten some wrong information from the hotel attendant (they never know what they are talking about) and so went to the east bus station. From there we took a bus to the west bus station (harrumph) and then finally were able to leave the city and head on out. First though, had to buy some traveling insurance. In Gansu province, all foreigners must pay 40 kuai for traveling insurance so that the province won’t get in trouble if a foreigner dies. It doesn’t actually do anything for the purchaser. With that out of the way and tickets bought, we boarded a bus and knocked out our first leg. Bus travel is kind of odd there, since the driver is always trying to get more passengers on the bus and so is stopping as many times as possible to accrue the greatest amount of payload. Of course, it is illegal to overload a bus (one of the things the police actually monitor, not speed or safe driving), so it’s a tricky game. I, being the fifth wheel, got to sit with someone outside of our group, and it was quite amusing to watch the dance among the newly boarded passengers as they tried to figure out who would be my seatmate. At first it looked as if a young 13 yr old girl would be forced into it, but she basically ran away and a 16-17 yr old boy was laughed into place. This was typical for most of the subsequent bus trips we took.
We arrived at our destination, a port city of a very large lake on which Bingling Si (Bingling Temple) resides, and caught a 10 kuai van ride that took us about three feet to the dock where all of the boats were kept. After blowing that guy off (still paying the money), we went in search of a boat. This wasn’t very hard, as all of the boat owners were nipping at our wallets. We met up with two other foreigners (Kyle and Megan, teachers from Yunan, recent grads from Stanford, Kyle polisci, Megan EALL) and got on a big boat that slowly took us in the direction we needed to go. It was a nice boat ride with scenic views and interesting people, but it took a while to get there, that’s for sure. The boat had yellow and red peppers curing on its roof and rocked not so gently each time a powerboat came by delivering their guests in a third of the time. I was enthralled by the coastline and the goats and animals clinging to the cliff walls, so the time flew by (gaung1yin1 shi4jian4).
To be continued…
e
GANSU
Friday – Got out early from Shanghai. Flight was at 10 am and we were all ready to leave the city and find a horizon (shanghai clearly (gunkly) lacking one with all of the smog). The flight was about three hours and, since I was tired from the night before (teaching done for the week, went to ju lu lu, you know the rest), I tried to sleep through most of it. But upon entrance of Gan1Su4 airspace, my mind became alert, and the windows over my neighbors’ shoulders became acutely interesting. Not so much rolling hills and not quite mountains, it was something that you would only think would be in Crouching Tiger or some other movie far removed from reality that met my eyes. That moment was a refocusing of reality for me. The seat partner and her bladderful husband before me faded into the periphery as the window view of parched golden hills and shock blue sky became my foreground. I was going to set foot on that land and drink of its waters (2 kuai/bottle) and breathe its air. The rest of the plane ride was no more real to me than a faded memory, as I was already on the ground.
LANZHOU
Friday (di er) – Yes, it really was cold in Lanzhou, the weather forecast did not lie. Stepping off the plane told you that fact immediately, but cold doesn’t matter so much when your eyes are in control of your body, urging on the legs and helping pump blood to whichever body part is in need. The airport was on the outskirts of town, and we’re talking one of those big hoop skirts with eight layers Elizabethan style, not no Lanzhou shopping mall street perform mini skirt, oh no. Took a bus into town that was in no hurry and then found our way to one of the hotels on the Lonely Planet copied pages that Jeanne brought with her. Oh, let me backtrack. The Players: Scott, Jena, Toersten, and Jeanne. Couple 1 and couple 2 plus me and a camera. And I hope I’m spelling Toersten’s name right, he’s German, I’m only part. So yeah, found a hotel and shelled out some money in order to spend the night. For the most part I shared a room with Scott and Jena and all five of us settled numerous money sharing, doling, splitting problems along the way quite well.
Lan2zhou3 is a city of 2-3 million, the capitol of its province (Gansu), and is set in the valley that was carved into this mountainous landscape by the Yellow River (Huang He). So when you approach Lanzhou, say by bus, you are always going towards it from above, sliding down the edge of a bumpy bowl. You don’t expect this city at all. You go through several burbs and toll booths and tunnels and keep seeing mountains and dirt and not much else, until you come around one last pass and see the extent of Lanzhou. It’s kind of like driving down a dirt road that is a bit hilly on your way to some destination, but then as you top a rise, there’s a large puddle preventing you from crossing the next dip. Lanzhou’s just one big puddle in the middle of nowhere that pulls everyone towards it to get a drink, but they find that the water is dirty and shallow and they leave as soon as they can. Now, that might be a bit prejudiced of me, since I am writing this after the fact and have since left and returned and left again, but I stick to what I said. The rest of Gansu is what is worth looking at, not Lanzhou. That being said, we were eager to look around.
First we tried going to the Lanzhou Historical Museum, so we took taxis there (multiple since you can’t fit five in one taxi) and got out at our destination. However, that museum was under construction, aka not built yet, and we were out of luck. But there was a nice travel agency right next door where we went and had a chat with the man there, asking him how to get to Bing3Ling2 Si4 (our next destination) and then from there to Lin2xia4 and then Xia4he2. After a long drawn out conversation with the man and his English counterpart on the phone, we figured out that we a) didn’t need his help, and b) simply needed to go to the bus station, hop a bus to a city near BLS which was clearly marked in the Lonely Planet guide, and take a boat from there. No prob. From there we went to a nearby temple (I forget the name, sorry) and climbed up its many stairs and through its many tourist traps to the top, where we could get a good view of Lanzhou and the Huang He. It was a very nice day and the town was bustling with activity for National Day October First. Everyone was happy that their vacation had begun and the temperature plus the sunlight made it feel like springtime. The temple was unremarkable, except for the arcade-style handheld gun video games scattered on the hillside that made bleep pow and kerchow noises all the way to the top. However, the trees were old and exuberant, the paths worn in some places and made of closely scrunched pebbles in others, and there were beautiful birds kept in wooden cages calling to me pitifully. These are things that I would not get in Shanghai and every time I looked up and actually saw blue sky and that alien horizon, I was so very happy to be in Gansu. We were all giddy from a long day and all of the newly processed information tickling our brains, so we went and ate dinner and then went to bed relatively early, for the next day we would venture out beyond the city.
BINGLINGSI
Saturday – The next morning we awoke in the same place, but I was far more prepared for new input then I had been the day before. And we were moving on. We had bought some bread the night before and partook of that to break the morning fast and headed off to the bus station. We had gotten some wrong information from the hotel attendant (they never know what they are talking about) and so went to the east bus station. From there we took a bus to the west bus station (harrumph) and then finally were able to leave the city and head on out. First though, had to buy some traveling insurance. In Gansu province, all foreigners must pay 40 kuai for traveling insurance so that the province won’t get in trouble if a foreigner dies. It doesn’t actually do anything for the purchaser. With that out of the way and tickets bought, we boarded a bus and knocked out our first leg. Bus travel is kind of odd there, since the driver is always trying to get more passengers on the bus and so is stopping as many times as possible to accrue the greatest amount of payload. Of course, it is illegal to overload a bus (one of the things the police actually monitor, not speed or safe driving), so it’s a tricky game. I, being the fifth wheel, got to sit with someone outside of our group, and it was quite amusing to watch the dance among the newly boarded passengers as they tried to figure out who would be my seatmate. At first it looked as if a young 13 yr old girl would be forced into it, but she basically ran away and a 16-17 yr old boy was laughed into place. This was typical for most of the subsequent bus trips we took.
We arrived at our destination, a port city of a very large lake on which Bingling Si (Bingling Temple) resides, and caught a 10 kuai van ride that took us about three feet to the dock where all of the boats were kept. After blowing that guy off (still paying the money), we went in search of a boat. This wasn’t very hard, as all of the boat owners were nipping at our wallets. We met up with two other foreigners (Kyle and Megan, teachers from Yunan, recent grads from Stanford, Kyle polisci, Megan EALL) and got on a big boat that slowly took us in the direction we needed to go. It was a nice boat ride with scenic views and interesting people, but it took a while to get there, that’s for sure. The boat had yellow and red peppers curing on its roof and rocked not so gently each time a powerboat came by delivering their guests in a third of the time. I was enthralled by the coastline and the goats and animals clinging to the cliff walls, so the time flew by (gaung1yin1 shi4jian4).
To be continued…
