Back in Europe

After a pleasant China Eastern flight, I am back in Europe after two years in China, looking forward to being able to use again Blogger ot Twitter which were almost impossible to access from behind the Great Firewall. Also wondering how the reverse culture shock will affect me and my friends. Soon my blog will be reimported to Blogger from a previous platform.

Venice of the East

After a 24-hours train journey, I reached Suzhou for an extended weekend, waiting for the time to board the plane in Shanghai. Suzhou is a pleasant town with wonderful gardens and small canals which earned the city the nickname of Venice of the East. In addition to the gardens,a few buddhist and taoist temples are worth visiting, both in the city and its satellite towns like Mudu and Tongli. In the evening local music can be enjoyed in teahouses. There are also plenty of buses leaving Suzhou for both airports in Shanghai, taking only about two hours for the trip.

Impressions of Suzhou

Horsetrekking on the Sichuan Border

Enjoying the end of my contract in China and taking a few days of vacation in the province. It went towards Sichuan, stopping just on the border, the route followed by the bus even crossing into that province. Langmusi was the destination though I only reached it on the second day, a missed connection made me spent a night in Hezuo, a vibrant trade town home to a monastery housing all sects of Tibetan Bouddhism and therefore 8 storeys heigh. It was also a good opportunity to get acclimatised to the increased altitude. Once in Langmusi I explored the two monasteries, one on the Sichuan side and the other in Gansu. Afterwards I started a three days long trek with horses through the grassland, staying in Nomad's tents. The Tibetan nomads live a harsch life, exposed to strong sunlight, in basic tents, although some have small solar panels to provide them with electricity. They herd yaks and those stay close to the camp during the night. On the second day of the trek, we left the horses to climb a sacred mountain reaching 4200 meters after a stenous climb. On the last day, the horse was angry because of the rain and I fell on my first attempt at getting on it, but managed to control my fall to avoid injuries. I almost missed a connection that would have made me stay one night in Xiahe but decided not to linger too long as I had a few last obligations in Lanzhou.

Langmusi Horse Trekking

Pictures:
Hezuo
Langmusi
Xiahe

Tour of Qinghai Lake

This year's international cycling competition, the Tour of Qinghai Lake, finished in Lanzhou province for the first time, with the last two stages ending there. The Saturday went from Xining the capital of Qinghai province to Lanzhou, mostly flat and slowly downhill. It ended as a mass sprint won by the New Zealandese Rico Rogers in from of Estonian Jaan Kirsipuu. The last 500 meters were blocked to spectators. However it was easy to come close to the road just before that place. On Sunday most of the bridges accross the Yellow River were blocked, jamming traffic everywhere to allow the city race to take place with 6 rounds along each sides of the river. I managed to get a good spot to view the race from the bridge of Qilihe. The Italian Sacha Modolo won the race in a sprint, most competitors reached the finish in the same time. The Tour was won by Gregor Gazvoda from Slovenia with a four seconds margin ahead of Dimitry Gruzdev from Kazakhstan.
After the race I went to a trade fair, showing local produces of Gansu province on the ground floor and some products from the rest of China on the second floor, including a small import section with food from Vietnam or Thailand and some jewellry from Myanmar.

Dragon Boat Festival

Happy Dragon Boat Festival!

In China, people eat some glutonous rice and in the South of the country they take part in dragon-boat races. Here in the Northwest, we do not have these competitions, saw some on television. Otherwise, it is one day off work, which gives one more day to relax and prepare some things to be sent back to Europe in the coming days in preparation of my return to my continent of origin.

Qinghai in May

At least I made it to Qinghai lake. Visited with a Chinese tour operator and was the only non-Chinese on board the bus. The lake is at an altitude about 3000 meters and the locals are mostly Tibetans. The tourist spot has been changed into some kind of amusement park for Chinese. On the way, we stopped at Dangaer, whose old town has been rebuilt according to what it could have looked like centuries ago, and a street was full of small museums and tourist shops. We only stopped briefly at the temple of the sun and moon as the altitude of 4000 meters meant it was cold and windy, too much to be worth a visit. After one more night in Xining, I moved on to the Salar Autonomous County and the town of Xunhua. The local are of Turkic origins and on the bus I could hear more Turkic than Chinese spoken. Xunhua is a good place to visit a beautiful lake in the mountains, Tianchi, though in May it can still be cold and I experienced some snow showers during my visit. The Yellow River flows nearby and is still beautifully blue, not as polluted nor muddy yet as it is further downstream. The way back to Gansu led me to Linxia, the Mecca of China, through an awasome mountain pass.

Mayday Business Trip

The traditional May Holiday trip for the foreign experts of Gansu took us to Tianshui, the second largest city of the province, half-way between Lanzhou and Xian. The city features some Taoist and Buddhist temples, a highlight were the grottoes of Maijishan. An unusual features was the visit to a research center for improving the production of vegetables, some of their seeds are sent into space for treatment by radiations and they seem to produce plants that better resist pests, or can grow larger.