Ningwozhuang Hotel Lanzhou

... something dry put some plasters on my blisters and away we went. Outside chungking mansions where i am staying there was 3 lads who we went up to and thought it'd be best to go as a fivesome (1 dutch/2 from felixstowe/1 french and me. We had a bit of a crew going on so off we went to find somewhere 'cheap' to drink. Which as i might have mentioned was a bit of a struggle. Settled on the first place where 6 bottles of beer (with an obligatory 10% service charge) came to about 33 quid ...

... for their high data transmission rate and they are not susceptible to electromagnetic interference. The optical buses are: the MOST bus (primarily used for in-car entertainment electronics), the byteflight bus (predominantly responsible for safety ...

... to say, the Chinese have rebuilt it and placed a guard outside! Fortunately, it was prayer time and we were to witness the arrival of at least 20 monks from various quarters. We didn't have time to walk either the high or low kora, but if I remember rightly, we were at such a high elevation (4,800m) that we certainly had good views anyway! Apparently Tsongkhapa's hermitage and a sky burial site are located above. Sky burial has been commonplace in Tibet ...

... or buying the decorations and then on a certain date during the festival getting together as a family to decorate the tree. This you do together and you do it that way for all of your childhood. You then start a family of your own and pass it down from generation to generation. It is these important things that have been skipped here in China and the only thing you can do together as a couple or a family here is to ...

... and Qinghai provinces where these two religions and the minorities that embrace them are most prevalent. These two cultures, both very exotic in the West are even fairly unknown within China itself. Before we came on the trip I asked my high school class, all ethnically part of the Han majority, about the minorities that I would visit on my vacation. They told me to watch out for offending people because if I did they might have a big knife and ...

... but walk staring straight ahead then you would not only be an idiot but you would complete it in around three hours. But! If you begin around four thirty in the afternoon, stop to admire many of the views of not only the city but the actual wall and its moat, zig zag here and there and do it at a relaxing pace then the walk will take you around five (or more hours). Not only will you get to see ...

... a swan or a cat, you do not reflexively think of sauces and marinades. The Chinese do however. And so you should eat whatever skips across your table. It is here where you can experience the complexity of China. And you will be rewarded. Very often, it is exceptionally good. And when it is not, it is undoubtedly interesting. And really, when traveling what more can one ask for. So go on. Eat as the locals do. However, should you find yourself confronted with a heaping platter of ...

The death toll from last week's quake in Sichuan rose to 40,075 nationwide as of 6 pm on Tuesday, with 247,645 injured, the Information Office of the State Council said on Tuesday. The office also said that 32,361 people were missing. Military sources said that as of Monday midnight, 6,375 people were pulled out from debris. The Ministry of Public Security said a DNA database of the unidentified dead would be built for ...

... 75km from the city center. Lanzhou is the capital of the Gansu province, one of the poorest provinces in China. The airport looks pretty modern but once you step outside it's not difficult to notice how poor and desolated the whole region is. With an annual rainfall around 360 mm the whole region around Lanzhou is a semi-arid, mountanious area. For someone like me coming from a place ...

... went OK, but in the early am MP felt increasingly cold and needed all the blankets, and warm socks. Woke DP to be nurse, administering anti-dehydration, panadol and sponge baths to get the temperature down (it was 40). After a long while, the fever improved, but neither got too much sleep. As he had been on antibiotics for two days, and the diarrhoea was under control, decided that it was probably a bit of heat stroke. Soon after, DP then succumbs to the loo ...