yinchuan and zhongwei

yellow river





protection from sun and sand
sand sculpture
harvest

yinchuan was not the right city for me to stop. it was poluted, crowded and full of people who stepped on each others feet without apology or shouted to each other. on the next day i left to zhongwei (29.06.09). zhongwei is known for the famous gobi-sanddunes called shapotou. the train was horrible overcrowded first. but after some time it seemed people disappeared and i had enough space to throw my backpack to the ground and had a comfortable seat then. just sometimes i got disturbed by people passing by and dropping a bit of cupsoup on me. i arrived zhongwei in the morning and left at night 1 am. i knew it was a chinese famous tourist spot so i thought i would not need more time. the city is a nice mixture of laid back and bustling. as the guidebook describes it reminds you of a beachcity. people are gathering around in chairs in the shadow, smoking, chatting or playing cards. the sanddunes where really nice! i would say they looked more beautiful than most of the dunes i have seen in the mongolian gobi. the only thing disturbing: it is a real chinese tourist attraction. people arrive in buses and rush from spot to spot. there are no people living there except the employees of the "adventure park". you could do rope-flying over the yellow river, camelriding (in groups not below 10), sand surfing, picture shooting in "traditional cloth", self-cardriving, .... you were also able to escape from all this activities and i enjoyed a layed back afternoon in the sand.
entering a train at 1 at night is interesting: there was no light and i somehow had to manage to climb the upper one of three beds in a cabin with total 6 beds (5 snoring men and a toilet-running heidi). why did i pack my headlight into the big backpack? on the upper bed there is not enough space to sit up. so you climb there and lay down immediately. for those who want to know how i managed not to fall down, please email me and i will answer privately. hahaha... this can't be written here. anyhow i arrived safe and sound in lanzhou.

---

Auch in den Ferien mit Freunden chatten? Nimm deinen Messenger einfach mit aufs Handy!