| I decided to take one more stroll around the pilgrim’s route
for exercise, and just to see what I could see. Afterwards, I collected
my stuff and headed for the bus station, not really feeling any need to
roam around anymore, and  I wasn’t feeling the Lonely Planet’s
description of Xiahe as “a good place to take a break from the rigors
of the road.”
October 26th – 20:30 pm
In my hotel room in Lanzhou
The trip from Xiahe to Lanzhou took about 6.5 hours, and was once again
over some poorly maintained road. Along about two-thirds of the way, farmers
were burning SOMETHING, so in addition to cigarette smoke from the inside
of the bus, I got to breath some other kind of smoke from the outside.
There was this thick haze of smoke over any area with more than a few
farms. I found out that this haze in the countryside continues right on
into Lanzhou, said to be the most air-polluted city in the world. It’s
located in a valley, which not only does a nice job of keeping all the
pollutants from Lanzhou in place, but also of funneling in pollutants
from the factories nearby. This place makes Shanghai look almost livable.
Oh, by the way, for anyone who’s been desperately waiting for
me to have a real “Chinese” dining experience (like maybe
Andy), this one’s for you. I had dog meat tonight. It was sliced
and had clearly come out of a vacuum-sealed packaged, and it was cured.
It was fairly soft and smooth in texture, but that may just have been
a result of the cooking/curing process. It did taste a bit gamy, more
so than your standard meats, but not too much. I must admit that I did
find myself thinking about furry, dopey, slobbery pets while munching
it down. But now I’ve eaten dog meat for the first time in my life,
and you got to read about it. Satisfied? I am.
Jeremy |
