Ate LanZhou la mian (5 Yuan) at MaZhiLu restaurant. The restaurant is well known and is considered as one of the best La Mian place in LanZhou.

Waiting for LaMian

Went to the train station and bought the 5.44pm train ticket (33 Yuan~USD$5, around 200km)to LanZhou.

Went to ICBC bank and tried to open a Chinese bank account. Banks and cell phone providers in China are fragmented. Withrawing and saving money in the same banks in a different province will get hit by a surcharge. For ICBC bank it’s a 1% surcharge for saving and withrawing with a maximum fee of 100 Yuan.

Using cell phone in a different town/city will get hit by roaming charges and every city has their own cell phone plans.

Bank of China has a better fee structures but they don’t have as many branches as ICBC.

Took bus 58 to the provincial museum at the west part of the city. There was a long line because of holiday and I really like the museum.

This sign mentioned that people who don’t dress nicely and people who are stupid or has brain damaged are not allowed to enter the museum.

an very old dumplings

This exhibit is about how life is formed in the beginning. It’s all about evolution because communism and religion don’t go together.

Dinosaur exhibits

Goods transported from China to the west through the silk road

Goods transported from the west to China through the silk road

Galloping horse

People!!!

Took the 5.25 express train from Lanzhou to Xining

Got to Xining train station at around 8pm.

Bought another train ticket for my next destination tomorrow to YinChuan (7pm, 120 Yuan~USD$17, upper sleeping berth)

After visiting around 7 hotels and ZhaoDaiShuo, finally stayed a hotel across the train station (80 Yuan~USD$12). Many ZhaoDaiShuo were like those in Lanzhou where they don’t accept foreigners.

Decided to sleep in a little and checked out at 9.30am from the hotel. Got to the Southern bus station and tried getting a ticket to LinXia before transferring to XiaHe. XiaHe has the famous Tibetan Labrang Monastery. To get to LinXia or Xiahe, they require photocopies of my passport and my Chinese visa. I guess this is because of the riot in XiZhang province last year.

Got a 11am ticket (30 Yuan) to LinXia. It’s pretty diverse on the bus with Chinese from different ethnicities.

A DongXiang family sitting beside me

GOt to LinXia at 1.40pm and then got on the 2.45pm bus (20 Yuan) to XiaHe.

Arrived at XiaHe at around 5pm and walked to a Hostel 1.6km away. I haven’t really stayed in any hostel recently so I am looking forward to find the hostel.

Got a 8 bed dorm for 25 Yuan

Hosteling International XiaHe

Dinner (8Yuan)

Xiahe is the leading Tibetan monastery town outside of Lhasa. The town is populated mainly by Tibetan Chinese (I guess that’s the politically correct term to mention Tibetan Chinese instead of Tibetan). 60% are Zhang (Tibetan), 20% Hui and 20% Han.

Arrived at LanZhou train station at 9.15am after a 14 hours ride.

LanZhou

Walked around and tried looking for a place to stay. Asked around a few ZhaoDaiShuo, those places are pretty cheap, ranging from 40-60 Yuan but they don’t allow foreigners to stay there.

Finally ended up staying at DunHuang hotel and got the cheapest room with shared bathrooms (68 Yuan~USD$10).

LanZhou is a city of around 3 millions and it’s spread out along the Yellow River from East to West. It is ranked as the most polluted city in China.

First thing on my to do list, Lanzhou LaMian (Noodles)

All kinds of food

Asked around about transportation to XiaHe, a town 4 hours away from Lanzhou. Took bus 111 to the south bus station at the west part of town to get a ticket. The attendant wouldn’t sell me a ticket and asked me to come back tomorrow morning. There were 3 direct buses to XiaHe a day, 7.30am, 8.30am and 2pm.

Across the southern bus station is LanZhou LiGong (Engineering/Technical) University. Walked around the university and had dinner at the canteen.

Had dinner at the university canteen

Walked across the city from XiaoXiWu, located at the west part of town back to the train station located at the east part.

Night View

Got a Lanzhou 10 Yuan haircut (10 Yuan~USD$1.5).

This is my 3rd haircut on this trip so far and the cheapest. I got my first haircut in Luxor, Egypt. Second haircut at Piranshar, Iran and the third one here.

Dropped by GanNanLu at night. GanNanLu is a place with many bars and chatted with the owner of a bar for almost 3 hours.

Then worked on my blog at an internet cafe. To those who want to travel cheap, it’s possible to get a seat at the internet cafe for the whole night (11pm-8am) for just 5 Yuan. The chair is quite comfy and is possible to sleep in the internet cafe.