There was no bathroom after all. The men’s common bathroom down the hall on the first floor from the lobby was locked for a reason. I was able to see through a crack in the door that the ceiling above was leaking water all around the room. Trash was collecting in the corners and it smelled pretty bad. Got it - locked. Apparently the rest of the guests who also had rooms with no facilities were all using the women’s common bathroom on the second floor, near my room, which consisted of one working sink (of two) and one working stall (of two). This bathroom also stank and I won’t describe the toilet. You may use your imagination. I’m not complaining though, just describing facts. I did have a large bed in a room to myself, which was heated, where I got some much needed rest.
I didn’t realize it until the night before, but the ticket that I booked out of Jiayuguan to Lanzhou did not leave until 9 PM which meant that I had an entire day to kill before heading into the train station. I was glad for this actually because, as stated earlier, Jiayuguan is also famous for (perhaps more famous for) being home to the end of the Great Wall heading west. So now I had all day to check it out.
I slept in, checked out around 11, left my bags at the reception desk, and struck out. I had seen signs for the Great Wall near the fort the day before so I decided to start there. I took the public bus to its last stop on the edge of town - it's a small town - which was the Jiayuguan Fort, and walked toward the signs (they were like traffic signs above the road for the benefit of drivers) that read: Great Wall 8 km. I had read earlier in my guide book that there were no public buses that ventured out of town further than the fort, so taxis were the only way to go. And once the taxi driver figures out you’re a tourist (this is common all over over touristy China) they will refuse to use a meter and will charge a flat, albeit common, rate to the site. My book said 50 kuai round trip to the wall. The problem is, I don’t like taxis. I think they’re a rip off in cases like this and I don’t like that they charge more for tourists. I also don’t like the fact that the Jiayuguan tourism bureau made the decision to allow taxis to extort budget tourists (in summer, tourist buses take over for those with funds). So I made the decision to walk the 8 km to the wall. Keep in mind I still don't have a strong grasp of the metric system...It was a gorgeous day, blue sky, and the walk took you through a little village in the country side to the mountains beyond. It took me two hours and I was a bit tired and not too much looking forward to the hike up the wall in the mountains, but I had beaten the system and was proud of that. Besides, I had all day to kill.
I was the only living soul in the vicinity of the wall except for one man, sleeping behind the ticket counter, on a makeshift cot. I guess I was his first customer. He charged me the student rate of 10 kuai without looking at my ID (which was cool of him), and I started my ascent. About 20 minutes later, a Chinese man hopped out of a taxi and followed me up at some distance. The wall had been reconstructed in most places but not all of it had and the location was genuine and this location was half the fun, so the wall was actually really nice. I had been to one of the other ends of the great wall, the southern portion outside Chengdu, and it was summer and crowded and the wall was reconstructed and it was almost no fun at all. Here, in Jiayuguan, I was nearly alone, in the quiet solitude of the mountains, with the desert in the distance and the Hexi Corridor (the funnel between mountains that leads the silk road west) in view. I made it to the top (and the end) and sat for awhile staring out at the view beyond. I needed the breather.
The Chinese man caught up with me eventually and, after several minutes of panting followed by several minutes of snapping photos, he asked me if I spoke Chinese and then we chatted awhile. He was a young guy in his early twenties and I didn’t catch his name. He was on holiday from work and headed home from Urumqi to his town somewhere near Lanzhou, with a stopover here in Jiayugaun for the day. When asked, he described his job title in Urumqi as “gongren (工人)” which just means worker. But it really means the all-purpose worker or the common man’s job. He could have been a construction worker, factory worker, coal miner, whatever was needed at the time, and like the gentlemen from the train out of Dunhuang, he goes wherever there is work - this time, Urumqi. Since he had taken a cab, he was short on time (another reason I hate cab for hire's - they are in a rush to get you in and out) and left. I, however, headed to the other portion of the end of the great wall. Fearing the other was the “real” end and not the first one I climbed, I decided to climb both. This one was nice too, I took more photos from the top, and then descended the equally deserted wall to the road below back into town.
I again decided to refuse taxis (there weren’t any anyway) and walk but, somewhat dreading the long, slow walk back, I decided I would give hitch hiking a go for the first time in my life. In a place like this, I think hitch hiking is reasonable. The single road into town through country side was deserted. No shops for water, no places to go, no taxis and it winds through a village for part of it. So I decided that (since I heard that usually people only stop for hitch hikers for an exorbitant fee in China, thinking they will pay because they are in need), I decided to refuse anybody who wouldn’t take me for 5 kuai considering I had the time to walk the two hours if need be. The first car that came by drove right by me but following the car was a motor bike who stopped, told me to hop on the back, and said he was headed in the same direction. He didn’t ask for money. He just asked where I was from and if I was traveling. The ride was great (maybe a little (a lot) cold). We whizzed by farms, I had the chance to look around at the factories belching smoke on the horizon, I had never been on a motor bike before. He dropped me off at the fort where I could catch the 1 kuai bus into town (I asked him to take me here) and then he told me he hoped I have a good time traveling in his country and that was it. No money, just a super cool guy doing something nice for a traveler. That made my day.
I hopped the sleeper train to Lanzhou last night. We left at 9 PM, I found my berth (a lower berth for the first time, it was very nice), and the cabin attendants made it lights out at 10. Everyone was asleep immediately. We arrived in Lanzhou at 7 this morning and considering I hadn’t showered in days and was lugging around my stuff, I picked the first hotel I saw (there are no hostels in this city either) and went in. It’s expensive, comparatively expensive at 169 kuai per night. But this is my last stop before Beijing and I need the rest. This is an actual hotel room with a shower and a sink and a toilet and a bed with blankets and pillows and probably the most exciting thing, free internet for the first time in days (and my VPN is working). So this is a real-time post.
Lanzhou, which I will explore shortly, is a city that is not really famous for anything except its noodles and its bridge. The city is cut in a half the long way, in this skinny, elongated city, by the famous Yellow River. The bridge, I’m told, was built by Germans a hundred years ago and is worth checking out. The noodles are indeed a specialty. You can find them around the rest of China on menus and are called “lanzhou niu rou mian (兰州牛肉面)” which just means Lanzhou beef noodles. But the noodles are made from these specialists who take the raw dough, roll them into huge elongated strands, and pull them over and over again, flipping, throwing, and swinging them in the air. Then they roll it all back up into a dough ball and start again. They do this in the front of the shop so passers by can watch. Eventually they get what is called “la mian (拉面)” which just means pulled noodles and then they mix them with beef and vegetables. It is really good and I look forward to trying them at their source.
I didn’t realize it until the night before, but the ticket that I booked out of Jiayuguan to Lanzhou did not leave until 9 PM which meant that I had an entire day to kill before heading into the train station. I was glad for this actually because, as stated earlier, Jiayuguan is also famous for (perhaps more famous for) being home to the end of the Great Wall heading west. So now I had all day to check it out.
I slept in, checked out around 11, left my bags at the reception desk, and struck out. I had seen signs for the Great Wall near the fort the day before so I decided to start there. I took the public bus to its last stop on the edge of town - it's a small town - which was the Jiayuguan Fort, and walked toward the signs (they were like traffic signs above the road for the benefit of drivers) that read: Great Wall 8 km. I had read earlier in my guide book that there were no public buses that ventured out of town further than the fort, so taxis were the only way to go. And once the taxi driver figures out you’re a tourist (this is common all over over touristy China) they will refuse to use a meter and will charge a flat, albeit common, rate to the site. My book said 50 kuai round trip to the wall. The problem is, I don’t like taxis. I think they’re a rip off in cases like this and I don’t like that they charge more for tourists. I also don’t like the fact that the Jiayuguan tourism bureau made the decision to allow taxis to extort budget tourists (in summer, tourist buses take over for those with funds). So I made the decision to walk the 8 km to the wall. Keep in mind I still don't have a strong grasp of the metric system...It was a gorgeous day, blue sky, and the walk took you through a little village in the country side to the mountains beyond. It took me two hours and I was a bit tired and not too much looking forward to the hike up the wall in the mountains, but I had beaten the system and was proud of that. Besides, I had all day to kill.
I was the only living soul in the vicinity of the wall except for one man, sleeping behind the ticket counter, on a makeshift cot. I guess I was his first customer. He charged me the student rate of 10 kuai without looking at my ID (which was cool of him), and I started my ascent. About 20 minutes later, a Chinese man hopped out of a taxi and followed me up at some distance. The wall had been reconstructed in most places but not all of it had and the location was genuine and this location was half the fun, so the wall was actually really nice. I had been to one of the other ends of the great wall, the southern portion outside Chengdu, and it was summer and crowded and the wall was reconstructed and it was almost no fun at all. Here, in Jiayuguan, I was nearly alone, in the quiet solitude of the mountains, with the desert in the distance and the Hexi Corridor (the funnel between mountains that leads the silk road west) in view. I made it to the top (and the end) and sat for awhile staring out at the view beyond. I needed the breather.
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| A view of the end from below |
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| The end of the Great Wall is glorified by a mighty stick |
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| My ascent |
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| View of the mountains from the top of the second end of the Great Wall |
I hopped the sleeper train to Lanzhou last night. We left at 9 PM, I found my berth (a lower berth for the first time, it was very nice), and the cabin attendants made it lights out at 10. Everyone was asleep immediately. We arrived in Lanzhou at 7 this morning and considering I hadn’t showered in days and was lugging around my stuff, I picked the first hotel I saw (there are no hostels in this city either) and went in. It’s expensive, comparatively expensive at 169 kuai per night. But this is my last stop before Beijing and I need the rest. This is an actual hotel room with a shower and a sink and a toilet and a bed with blankets and pillows and probably the most exciting thing, free internet for the first time in days (and my VPN is working). So this is a real-time post.
Lanzhou, which I will explore shortly, is a city that is not really famous for anything except its noodles and its bridge. The city is cut in a half the long way, in this skinny, elongated city, by the famous Yellow River. The bridge, I’m told, was built by Germans a hundred years ago and is worth checking out. The noodles are indeed a specialty. You can find them around the rest of China on menus and are called “lanzhou niu rou mian (兰州牛肉面)” which just means Lanzhou beef noodles. But the noodles are made from these specialists who take the raw dough, roll them into huge elongated strands, and pull them over and over again, flipping, throwing, and swinging them in the air. Then they roll it all back up into a dough ball and start again. They do this in the front of the shop so passers by can watch. Eventually they get what is called “la mian (拉面)” which just means pulled noodles and then they mix them with beef and vegetables. It is really good and I look forward to trying them at their source.
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