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Monthly Archives: October 2016
Silk
The scope of the Silk Road is truly mind-boggling. I spent a long time staring at this map and then had fun sussing out the place names from their Sinicized forms: 巴格达 (Bāgédá), 大马士革 (Dàmǎshìgé), etc.
Edge
I had come to faraway Gansu province to complete a journey I had started months ago when I visited the Old Dragon’s Head in Shandong where the Great Wall of China dead-ends into the sea. Now I’m here at the Western edge … Continue reading
Population
Like I did with elevation, I thought it would be interesting to compare the populations of some of the places I’ve visited in my travels. Apparently, Jiayuguan is a little bigger than Glendale. Location 地方 Population Tokyo 东京 37,800,000 Shanghai … Continue reading
Elevation
After Qinghai (and looking forward to the possibility of Tibet) I thought it would be a good time to compare the elevations of some the places I’ve been and a couple of the places I plan to go to soon. … Continue reading
Posted in 嘉峪关
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Escape
Inexplicably, the hotel provided me with a plate of cherry tomatoes & fruit and a juice box. I cannot escape DreamWorks. There is no escape.
Channels
In the spirit of the Datong dinner menu, I present to you the English translations of the cable channels available in my hotel here in Jiayuguan. I present them unedited, including capitlization and punctuation. Gansu culture, film and television Gansu public City, … Continue reading
Potable
Why doesn’t every hotel in China have these? (Also, I don’t trust it and will be sticking with the provided bottled water.)
Suite
I was upgraded to an executive suite at the Jiayuguan Hotel, replete with green leather chairs in the sitting room and a teddy bear on the bed, of course. The bathroom was functional and clean. Out the sitting room window, … Continue reading
Posted in 嘉峪关
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Posh
By all accounts, the Jiayuguan Hotel is the nicest hotel in town.The elevators even had the same day-of-the-week floor mats that Debbie and I saw in the hotel in Datong! Apparently, it’s a thing.
Posted in 嘉峪关
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Connubial
I arrived at the Jiayuguan Hotel an hour before checkin, so I decided to have a drink at the bar and read my book in the lobby. I wasn’t their usual clientele so, as has happened before, they had to … Continue reading
Circle
In the middle of the traffic circles in Jiayuguan are the oddest statues. This is the one in front of the Jiayuguan Hotel.
Posted in 嘉峪关
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Progress
I saw these transmission towers going up and over the mountains just like the Great Wall does. I was struck by how much construction was going on, out in the middle of a sparsely-populated province. I saw tunnels being bored through mountains … Continue reading
Posted in 西宁
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Geology
I found the geology of Qinghai intriguing. Parts of it reminded me of parts of California, other parts reminded me of the Rocky Mountains, and still others reminded me of the (frankly, insane) geology of Wyoming and Yellowstone Park.
Posted in 西宁
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Pressure
Coming back from Qinghai Lake, we were running low on gas. And by “gas” I mean actual gas, because the driver’s car ran on natural gas. Or so I thought. At the start of our journey in Xining, we had … Continue reading
Indigenous
Tibetan culture dominated the southern rim of Qinghai Lake. Shrines and prayer flags dotted the landscape. This was the only herder I saw that was not on foot or motorcycle.Every kilometer or so were Tibetans luring passersby to take photographs in the … Continue reading
Posted in 青海湖
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