Xinhua Hotel Lanzhou

... you allow these people to win. I'm nervous but in some ways I think canceling would be giving into fear and hate. Even if nobody else knows that, I would know. Of course I should be careful, but the biggest "up yours" that can be given to the people who try to breed fear is to continue living a normal life. After so much violence, whether in protest, against protesters, in hate, or in revenge, ordinary people need as much support now as possible. So I will go, because apart from ...

... just throw their garbage on the ground and the country side and little streams are littered with trash. Our translator, Donald, told us that it is the Chinese way as he threw a food wrapper on the ground. The open sewers are another story completely, but I'll save that for another day. It's almost dinner time.....probably have some Chinese.

... of way...hope you enjoy! Shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings, dumplings stuffed with pungent leek, with crispy celery, with pleasantly bitter winter cabbage, steamed dumplings, boiled dumplings, dumplings fried in the pan until they're golden brown. Dumplings by the dozen, the hundred, the thousand. I am on a mission to eat these dumplings. During a week in Harbin, I make a daily tally and realize I am consuming far too many ...

... overall not a very steep ascend, happy about that! Top of the pass was gorgeous though, no snow which I was a little disappointed about (reading on you will see that I should not have had that thought) and the oddest looking cows, a mix between a cow and a yak, which makes it a hairy cow with a big fluffy tail (or a yow or a cak). After a nice cup of tea we started the descent, which was extremely bumpy and as we were going fast we needed ...

... soup keeps coming, like flowing water (hence the name waterfall banquet). Basically, they bring out various bowls of soup and you can order up to 24 different kinds. Honestly, it's a heck of a lot of soup. Eric and I had to stop at bowl number four, and even that was one too many! Tomorrow we are off to Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of kungfu. Maybe I can learn a thing or two and even stand up for myself the next time I see a hungry monkey.

... around forty kilometers from Xinyang City is a small town where the mini-van will drop you off. Don't bother finding a hotel there as you will then need to grab a taxi to get to the top of the hill and each time buy a new Park Entrance ticket. The first step was to follow one guy's finger and head to the end of the road. Here there were more mini-vans waiting ...

... as the time keeping center for the entire city. at 7:00 pm the bells and chimes were rung 13 times. Every two hours after that, the drums were beaten one time to keep time. Photos of the Drum an Bell Towers We posted all our photos of the bell and drum towers at findoutwheretogo.com. Travel Xian! You will always remember your trip to Xian. Don't be trapped ...

... where they were. Then I realised there was a class on in the school next to the temple. Several of the students came running over to the temple and dragged me back to the school and gave me the tour. The youngest of them all was so funny. Even though she knew I couldn't understand a thing she was saying she chirped away ...

... amount of local culture. Unfortunately when we were there, it was more like a wet weekend in Wales - with the country pub being replaced by karaoke in 'minority cultural tents' and noodle soup. Despite the weather, we managed to get up into the hills for a look at a series of grottos and temples that were precariously carved into the cliff faces, before jumping on the "commuter" bus back to Langshou.

... again we passed the half-finished highway, which was supposedly imminent 4 years ago. For both days' journeys we had an amazing variety of landscape - grasslands, canyons, gravel rivers, mountains, terraced hills, tussock-fields, high passes. It was all there. Even snow, which is always nice - there's nothing that hides a countryside's ills as well as snow. The second day we ...