Sunday 20 May
I get talking in the corridor to a very pretty young Swedish woman (24) called Malin. Reg chatted to her yesterday. She's travelling alone with her bike, in fact has been across the Gobi desert on it - though ended up hitchhiking (her bike in the back of the vehicle) most of the way. She has her own tent and stove and is self-sufficient - and I tell her, extremely brave to travel alone. Reg and I are going sight-seeing today, to the Yellow River in the centre of Lanzhou, and I ask Malin if she'd like to come, if she has no plans - she says she will, She has cycled in China's traffic chaos, but needs a change, and is flying with her bike to Canada on Tuesday, where she has friends she can visit. She part-dismantles her bike herself for the 'plane, and rebuilds it afterwards - I am extremely impressed.
We catch a bus to the iron bridge over the Yellow River. We hear the usual discordant symphony of vehicle horns, and witness the many near-misses as cars refuse to give way to each other. It's a 30 minute bus ride, but costs only 1 yuan, (10p) the same as in Urumqi. We walk over the iron bridge and back again, noting that the river really is yellow, or at least, muddy brown. We decide to take a cable car across the river and up into the hills on the other side. When we reach the hills, there isn't a lot there except a little cafe where we buy icecreams, and a group of young Chinese people. One of them speaks good English, and asks if we will pose with them for photos, which we do. I think in actual fact it is Malin's lovely blue eyes and curly blond hair which attracts them -not us oldies!! Malin says that wherever she goes in China, people stare at her because they aren't used to seeing blond people in the flesh. She is certainly attracting attention today.
We enjoy the cable car ride, and afterwards take a walk along the promenade which follows the river. We come across a crowded area where people are enjoying listening to a young Chinese singer/guitar player. His friend sings too, and spots Malin in the crowd, and says "this song is for you", and sings something which is supposed to be in English but we only catch a couple of the words. Afterwards the friend comes over to speak to us all in hesitant English.
The guitar player/singer continues his act - he has an amplifier and microphone and I think that his voice is quite good - and obviously so do the crowd. It isn't long before 2 police women arrive and tell the singer with the guitar to move on. Surprisingly, he refuses, and carries on singing, and receives shouts of encouragement and applause from the crowd. The policewomen, red-faced and cross, plead with the singer again - but he seems to be telling them, "Look, the people are enjoying my singing, I'm not going to stop." I'm pleased to see that the policewomen appear unarmed; however one of them is on her mobile, and it isn't long before 2 male police officers arrive, also unarmed. Still the young man refuses to stop singing and playing and as we left, in need of something to eat, he was still performing. We are surprised to see this act of rebellion in China, and would have liked to see what happened in the end - no doubt further police reinforcements were called in.
Once again we have difficulty finding somewhere to eat. Finally we find a tiny cafe where meat in dumplings are being cooked, and we have these, with a small amount of spicy sauce. They are really quite palatable. We ask for tea, but none is available, only boiling water. Reg and Malin manage chopsticks, I get my knife and fork out of my bag.
I think we're all really tired now. I buy some bananas and grapes, and Malin buys a fruit whose name we aren't sure of, and which Reg and I have never eaten before. Malin offers us one and inside the hard skin, it is sweet, juicy and delicous! Reg says the grapes are among the best he's ever tasted, and I agree.
We catch the bus home, and after having a good look at Malin's bike in the hostel, we spend the evening resting and relaxing, and I catch up on my emails and blog-writing.
I get talking in the corridor to a very pretty young Swedish woman (24) called Malin. Reg chatted to her yesterday. She's travelling alone with her bike, in fact has been across the Gobi desert on it - though ended up hitchhiking (her bike in the back of the vehicle) most of the way. She has her own tent and stove and is self-sufficient - and I tell her, extremely brave to travel alone. Reg and I are going sight-seeing today, to the Yellow River in the centre of Lanzhou, and I ask Malin if she'd like to come, if she has no plans - she says she will, She has cycled in China's traffic chaos, but needs a change, and is flying with her bike to Canada on Tuesday, where she has friends she can visit. She part-dismantles her bike herself for the 'plane, and rebuilds it afterwards - I am extremely impressed.
We catch a bus to the iron bridge over the Yellow River. We hear the usual discordant symphony of vehicle horns, and witness the many near-misses as cars refuse to give way to each other. It's a 30 minute bus ride, but costs only 1 yuan, (10p) the same as in Urumqi. We walk over the iron bridge and back again, noting that the river really is yellow, or at least, muddy brown. We decide to take a cable car across the river and up into the hills on the other side. When we reach the hills, there isn't a lot there except a little cafe where we buy icecreams, and a group of young Chinese people. One of them speaks good English, and asks if we will pose with them for photos, which we do. I think in actual fact it is Malin's lovely blue eyes and curly blond hair which attracts them -not us oldies!! Malin says that wherever she goes in China, people stare at her because they aren't used to seeing blond people in the flesh. She is certainly attracting attention today.
We enjoy the cable car ride, and afterwards take a walk along the promenade which follows the river. We come across a crowded area where people are enjoying listening to a young Chinese singer/guitar player. His friend sings too, and spots Malin in the crowd, and says "this song is for you", and sings something which is supposed to be in English but we only catch a couple of the words. Afterwards the friend comes over to speak to us all in hesitant English.
The guitar player/singer continues his act - he has an amplifier and microphone and I think that his voice is quite good - and obviously so do the crowd. It isn't long before 2 police women arrive and tell the singer with the guitar to move on. Surprisingly, he refuses, and carries on singing, and receives shouts of encouragement and applause from the crowd. The policewomen, red-faced and cross, plead with the singer again - but he seems to be telling them, "Look, the people are enjoying my singing, I'm not going to stop." I'm pleased to see that the policewomen appear unarmed; however one of them is on her mobile, and it isn't long before 2 male police officers arrive, also unarmed. Still the young man refuses to stop singing and playing and as we left, in need of something to eat, he was still performing. We are surprised to see this act of rebellion in China, and would have liked to see what happened in the end - no doubt further police reinforcements were called in.
Once again we have difficulty finding somewhere to eat. Finally we find a tiny cafe where meat in dumplings are being cooked, and we have these, with a small amount of spicy sauce. They are really quite palatable. We ask for tea, but none is available, only boiling water. Reg and Malin manage chopsticks, I get my knife and fork out of my bag.
I think we're all really tired now. I buy some bananas and grapes, and Malin buys a fruit whose name we aren't sure of, and which Reg and I have never eaten before. Malin offers us one and inside the hard skin, it is sweet, juicy and delicous! Reg says the grapes are among the best he's ever tasted, and I agree.
We catch the bus home, and after having a good look at Malin's bike in the hostel, we spend the evening resting and relaxing, and I catch up on my emails and blog-writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment