From Lanzhou to Zhangye...

Martin and I spent the last few days travelling from Xi'an to Zhangye. We couldn't get a train ticket directly here, so had to stop off in Lanzhou first. We took the overnight train from Xi'an, booked on hard-seats. We were hoping to upgrade to sleepers once we were on the train but that proved to be impossible. So instead of sleeping, we spent a nightmare 10 hours sitting upright on seats, squashed between everyone and his massive bag of luggage, and listening to the baby opposite my seat cry (a swift kick back to reality after the Hyatt!!).

Once in Lanzhou, we were hoping to get a train/bus ticket straight out of there. We got off the train at about 7:30am and made our way to the ticket office. That's where things started to unravel. We both were trying to get over bouts of diarrhea that seemably crept up out of nowhere and attacked during the night, and didn't have the energy to face the crowds in the queues for tickets. I had a particularly terrible time trying to use the public bathrooms in the train station... I had to wait for over an hour in the queue, being pushed and shoved (and slapped!!) by migrant women, enduring the smell seeping from the toilets and feeling very much the "foreigner". Not fun.

After a few hours, we felt ready to hoist on our backpacks and take the bus to the long-distance bus station. First stop was the South Bus Station, where we discovered that there were actually no tickets to be bought. The only ones available were on a sleeper bus going to Jiayuguan and cost Y200 each. To Zhangye it should only be Y100 each so we refused to pay that price to go half the distance! After that we tried the East bus station, which wasn't much help either. We then went to a small bus station with no name that also couldn't help. This all took over 5 hours and we had to carry all our bags around the whole time! Eventually we ended up back at the train station and Martin managed to get us tickets for the next day. Horray! By this time we were so exhausted and hungry we could barely stand, so we quickly found a cheap hotel and crawled into bed. We slept the rest of the day away, woke for some supper in the evening and were asleep again soon after that.

The next day we took the train for another 10hours-ish to Zhangye. It was quite a nice journey compared to the last one as we had sleepers and spent the day sleeping and reading (plus it had air-con!). Once we arrived in Zhangye, we took a local bus to the centre of town and found a really cheap hotel (Y40 a night for a double room).

Anciently named Ganzhou, Zhangye was a famous commercial port on the Silk Road and one of the biggest international trade markets in the country. The reason we came here was to start our journey along the silk road and to see China's largest reclining Buddha. We've spent a few days here now and I still haven't seen the Buddha. Martin managed to sneak in to the temple the other day for free (admission is ridiculously high for what there is to see - Y41) and was sorely disappointed... the Buddha was covered in scaffolding, as was a lot of the temple's outer buildings. I don't think I'll bother.

Apart from that, we've just been enjoying the 'localness' of the place. The people here are so friendly and always curious about us. One day we spent hours wandering the streets just taking it all in. We wandered through pedestrian streets, ate freshly made yoghurt and steamed buns and delighted the locals.

Martin has been a bit sick lately, which we've blamed on the sudden change in temperature... seriously the weather has become a lot colder around here. I think it might just be a spell, but still - I have to wear my one cardigan everyday and at night I snuggle under my thick duvet to keep warm. Strange. But we're looking into buying some winter clothes around here as they are super cheap and it will be good preparation for the Pakistani/Tibet areas we're going to.

The pagoda overlooking the square where we sit at night and watch the water fountain.


The giant buddha.


(Thanks to TravelChinaGuide for the photos!)