(Part one and two were written together, but are too long to post together. Here is the link for part two.)
My group of friends and I decided that today definitely felt like week five, as opposed to day five. I am already in my third town, a small city of three million (yes, in China that is small) called Lanzhou. It is in the middle of the China, and the Yellow River runs directly through it. I feel as if I’m overdosing on Chinese culture, and I love it! (Though I wish my stomach would get with the program.)
Consulting my itinerary here (yes I need that to remember what I did), it appears that I left off at yesterday morning (Day Four). I woke up, went to the breakfast provided by the hotel—a nice Chinese breakfast complete with brown rice and hard boiled eggs—and left for the Weijin Tombs in Jiayuguan with half of our group (around 20 people).
These tombs were created starting over 2000 years ago, and though there are thousands, only one (or two) is open to the public. The tomb was several yards underground, and so small that only ten of us could fit in at one time. The official whose tomb we saw had two wives buried with him, and pictures with detailed instructions on how to slaughter animals. Afterwards, a group of us sat around and joked about what our ancestors were doing at the same time the Chinese were building these impressive tombs and displaying advanced cookery knowledge—yet another reminder of the immensity of Chinese history.
After seeing the Weijing Tombs, we went to another section of the Great Wall. The climb was not as steep as it was in Beijing, but I was still winded afterwards. The view was fantastic. We had mountains to one side and a large green space on the other side. I will never tire of these views.
One of my friends commented of the juxtaposition of the trees with the smokestacks in the background. According to a student’s presentation though, China is making an effort to implement more green energy options. (We passed by a new wind power farm on the way back to the city.) They are also using more solar and hydroelectric power—such as the controversial Three Gorges Dam. Pulling China from the 20th century to the 21st century is a massive undertaking, to say the very least.
We came back to the hotel, where I learned that I lost my perfect purple earphones. I remembered that I left them in the bed, but when I checked the room, the maid had already changed the sheets and my Chinese wasn’t good enough to find out where those sheets went (or the woman who changed them). It was a sad moment.
For lunch, I went to a restaurant with a couple friends and one of the trip leaders who actually only graduated a year ago and was a student of the Beijing Center program. We ate dumplings, which were delicious and only five yuan a person (that’s less than a dollar). I bought a Pepsi for three yuan and sprayed everyone when I opened it at the table. Now I’ve learned my lesson with Chinese Pepsi (open slowly).
On the way to the bus, a few Chinese men started talking to us and wanted to take a picture with me, but my trip leader said “Sorry, we don’t have time” in Chinese. At the train station, we saw the same two guys, and let me tell you how awkward it was pretending I didn’t see them. We waited about 45 minutes, and then boarded the train that lasted from 3 in the afternoon until 11:15 in the evening. My first Chinese train experience!
