Got an hour y pico antes del salida de mi tren. So I’m chillin’ sitting outdoors at a little cafe I have been to before ouside the Chamartín station. (Don’t remember if I ever mentioned that for the last few years all high speed trains between Valencia and Madrid go to Chamartín instead of Atocha.

And now… on the train in my seat

Xi’an to Shanghai

yikes! I’m being followed!

And now a leisurely 14 hour ramble to Madrid.

Look, look! I think I can almost see the Prado from here!! 🙂

I wanted to see something new before I left China. But with so little time available I had to find something close to my hotel. So I went to see the Beidu Iron Tower (Ming dynasty?)
​Didi dropped me off near the site, but the gate from the street seemed securely locked. This wouldn’t have been the first time I arrived somewhere “after hours”!
​I saw a man coming out of a nearby building. In answer to my question her gestured toward a gate at the adjoining building and told me to just push on the gate. Well, although this new gate looked very securely locked, all it took was a little ttle push to open it and go inside. Then another ” locked” gate seemed to prevent getting to the area of the tower. Well, I pushed and pulled, and that gate magically opened too!
Cool!

Well this Iron Tower is certainly not the #1attraction in the Xi’an area, but I thought it was pretty interesting (especially after the “Iron Pagoda” in Kaifeng that wasn’t really iron!)

It looks as is on a good day, you can even get inside this tower and perhaps climb up. But the gate around the base actually was locked!

So I enjoyed looking around the outside, and then ordered another car from Didi to take me back to the hotel.🙂👍

October 1 is the Chinese national holiday, sort of like our 4th of July. It was October 1, 1949 that Mao Zedong proclaimed the Peoples Republic of China. So this year is the 75th anniversary.

Celebrations of the holiday stretch out for a whole week. Because so many people are off work, this strains all sorts of holiday/travel systems. Hard to book hotels, trains, buses, flights…

Also it means crazy traffic, and a crush of humanity at various destinations.

Add those factors to a lack of organized planning on Pere’s part, combined with sleeping late this morning…

My selected first destination of the day was Maijishan temple/grottoes – A site about 25 miles out of town.

Well, I successful hailed a cab, and the driver agreed to take me there at a good price- 80 rmb.

The route included some localized traffic jams early on. But when we got onto the (only) road leading to the destination, traffic ground to almost a full stop- a parking lot inching its way forward.

I hadn’t anticipated this, nor had the driver.

Three lanes of traffic creeping along. She opened a navigation app, and I could see from the backseat that the road was coded solid red all the way forward.

After a bit more of that, I told her just turn me around, and take me to my second destination – Fuxi Temple. She agreed it was for the best.

Fuxi is the legendary, mythical founder of Chinese civilization, sometime about 4000 years ago.

Although we tend to associate Lao Tse (who lived at the same time as Confucius) with Taoism, its origins go much farther back… All the way to Fuxi!

It is not uncommon that conflicting claims to historical sites occur in China. One of the reputed birthplaces of Fuxi is Tianshui.

So here are just a few photos from the temple complex here celebration the original creator of Chinese culture

No! The guy in the photo is old, but he is NOT Fuxi!

By the time I had explored that area it was time to try to get a cab back to the hotel. Major undertaking! Trying to get a Didi was generally a failure in this town. So I stood out at the curb and ultimately was able to get a taxi.

For my final dinner in Gansu, what could be more appropriate than… Wait for it… Beef Noodles!

A big splurge … Less than two bucks including my favorite soft drink!

Here are a few pics from my room at the “Xana Hotelle”:

A nice hilly landscape view.

Train tracks…

And the train station itself!

( And nice gentle train noises. I left the windows open so very soft gentle clickity clacks could lull me to sleep.

🙂

addendum

I love the lighted mirrors in some hotels here

I had no luck finding baozi and congee for breakfast! So I had to settle

ready to roll

Tianshui has a strange layout. It is almost like two towns joined together. The bus dropped us all off in the western part, but my hotel was in the eastern part! Unfortunately Didi (like Uber) was useless to get out of this part and on to where I wanted to go. (Most places Didi worked really well, but I did not have a lot of luck in many parts of Gansu Province)
Luckily was able to find a cab. Looooong ride to get to my hotel.

I planned a brief walkabout this morning, then arrival at bus station ah hour before departure to be sure to get s seat. A woman from the hotel had offered to accompany me to the station since I didn’t know exactly where it was. Well, getting there an hour early wasn’t good enough. All the tickets for the 12:00 bus had already been sold. The next bus was at 2:30-3:00… Crap! We moved away from the counter to consider options. The lady from the hotel asked if I wanted to consider a private car. I said I would consider it, depending on the price. (My mention of cost was gratuitous. My little remaining time in China was precious!)

She made some calls and waited for response on price. The she heard back: 350rmb (about 65 bucks or so) She said to me: “I think the price is too high.” As context, the bus ticket would be 35.
Well I wanted to get back to Linxia as soon as possible and see some more things! It would be my last opportunity.
I told her that although yeah the price was high, I wanted to do it. She didn’t judge me and spoke to someone on the phone.
OK she said, lets go meet the driver. As we left the station she told me she had “argued the price down 60”.
Well, anything helps!

After we gotten a bit further I decided i’d better make sure I understood and got the math right. “So the price will be 290, right?”

“No, 60”.
OMG! She had gotten the price dropped from 350 to just 60. Indredible!!
What an angel! From that moment on, I thought of her as the “Hotel angel”.

We met up with the driver, and the car already seemed full .. multiple riders I supposed.
A lady in a hijab got out of the passenger front and insisted I sit there. Well, it transpired that she was the driver’s wife, and the car was filled with their kids. I conversed a bit (using translator device) with the wife and with the older daughter who was behind the driver.

They were all super nice and friendly, and curious about who I was and why I had been in Xunhua. I gave my stock answer which interested them a lot.

Turned out the family was getting dropped off at their home, and only driver and I were going to Linxia. As the family got out of the car they were all warm smiles and waves.

As the driver guided the car through the city and onto the highway the diver and I got into a lengthy discussion about Islam, the troubles in the world, and my experiences teaching English to immigrants of diverse origins.

He was a super nice guy and we got along really well.

As we got onto the superhighway and we had to back off a bit our communication via translated text. But he wrote to me again, saying that I was a good person, clearly a great educator, and that he had admiration for me. (I also admired him from our short conversation)

OMG sometimes I want to cry. Really I am just a schmuck, but people are really nice.

By the time we were in Linxia we were good pals and had exchanged Wechat contact info. And yes, it really was only 60 RMB fir the ride.
People really do make the difference!

I had already committed to meeting up with a friendly front desk clerk from my Linxia hotel. He he wanted me to try local specialty mutton. In American English “mutton” seems such an ugly word, and conjures up thoughts of terrible British food.
He told me he was taking me because he wanted to practice his English. But I think it was actually that he was a very nice guy.
After I had gotten back to the hotel (he was off today) I texted him to see what time he wanted to eat.
What I was thinking was that there were a couple sights I wanted to see. And if he was going to be delayed I’d go see them first.
But, he said hey, he’d like to go see those places too.

We went to the first on my list, which was the oldest mosque in the city. We arrived and I was asking him about the history of the mosque, when a young guy nearby inserted himself into the conversation.
The new guy (Ali) spike English pretty well (better than my new friend Junhua from the hotel) and we all decided to visit the places together.
Ali is Muslim and spoke to an old guy with a big beard to help get info.

After learning a bit about this mosque we went in to a Daoist temple and then a Sufi mosque. Ali was great and explained some things about the difference between Sufi Muslims and some other groups.

Then the three of us went to eat dinner before moving on to the “8 squares and 13 lanes” city landmark.
The restaurant that Junhua had chosen was phenomenal. The food was delicious, and to start things off we had Ba Bao Tea (eight treasures tea). Ali mixed the ingredients up for us from bowls of the individual components, talking all the while.

All three of us had a great time, and then moved on to the landmark neighborhood of “8 squares and 13 lanes”.

Linxia was truly a wonderful and interesting city! I’d really like to go back there sometime soon!

After checking into the Jinheyuan hotel (AKA the Rezen Select Hotel), I took a cab to a nearby Salar (Muslim minority group,) village.

{What I thought was) the community exhibition center was closed for siesta.

So I wandered until I found a restaurant. Lovely place with a peaceful courtyard.

I ordered some food and a woman brought me a gaiwan (special tea cup like the ones Bamboo sent with me on my last trip.)

The tea (leaves) were already in the gaiwan, and then she added hot water from that huge thermos shown in the photo.

mmmmmm ba bao tea! (and it was GOOD!)

You may remember that the reputed origins of ba bao tea was Muslim merchants trading along the ancient silk road. Well, Lanzhou is situated where the silk road intersected the Yellow River, And both Linxia an Xunhua were important Silk Road towns! The legacy of the Silk Road and all its magic are very strong in these cities with their large Muslim populations! (over the centuries Muslim traders were a crucial component in Silk Road trade!)

Some random photos from Xunhua:

Footnote: Did I mention that my hotel in Xunhua was luxurious?
Did I mention that my room is huge and has all kinds of cool extras and classy touches?
Did I mention that its price is $37/night?

Truly the biggest factor in hotel prices is the city the hotel is in…
Big famous, well traveled cities tend to have higher prices.
But it is still possible to get good comfortable lodging at a reasonable price even in places like Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi’an..

One last note about the details of this hotel-

Although of course the rooms have glass- drinking glasses to use with the bottled water. But they also clearly think some people might plan on steeping their tea “to go”. So they provided slightly heavy duty take out cups

Pre-loaded with a “lite” dose…

of ba bao tea! (Some people will do anything to get out of springing for teabags!) 😉

OMG- What a highway! To get over a range of mountains this modern highway gains altitude coiling its way through a tunnel inside the mountain!!

And as we emerged from the tunnel we were inside a cloud!

Sadly it was essentially impossible to get photos of anything. It was cool/ cold outside so the windows were foggy and even if you tried to wipe them enough for the camera, they fogged tight back up!

And after bursting out on the other side of the mountain, the highway began a steep descent. At these high altitudes, sheep were grazing on slopes that looked to be at a 40 degree angle.
And now as we dropped down a bit- herds of yaks! chortens! Tibetan temples on the hillside! Prayer flags! As we the bus descended and near enough to see some sheep up close, you could see they had horizontal twisted horns jutting out to each side.

As we dropped yetlower, villages and agricultural fields appeared. And the population was once again Muslim. By their appearance they looked Hui. Women with head coverings and the men wearing either skullcaps or the kind of short flat topped beanie that is usually white, though some are lavender.

And finally are descent was complete as we were once again along the Yellow River.

There were still some Tibetans here and there though.

When we finally got to Xunha, I checked into my room. Luxury!!! An angled view of the mountains. OMG, when you approach the toilet the lid opens itself. (After some discrete interval, the lid closes itself. Bidet with wall controls. OMG! I’d be more than willing to “slum it” in this room for a week and enjoy myself without even leaving!

But, no rest for this old man. I need go poke around and see what this down is like!