The Really Great Wall Of China 2

Towards Civilsation Again

Beautiful views as I left Qingshui.

I've been following the G312 on and off on my northwestwards adventure. Today it got a second, really creative name.

There was so little to satisfy my trigger-happy photo finger that I even took a pic of my marked territory.

Sad isn't it. And even sadder that it's now appeared in this blog. I've been away from civilisation for so long now that I'm not sure what's acceptable and what's not.

Hot pink.

Corn bales

Lunch pasta

Now I've literally seen it all

Oh ok, no I haven't

The growing city of Jiuquan, which has a population of over a million. I bypassed it, and stayed a little further down the track, as I wanted to be closer to that Great Big Beautiful Wall.

Jiayuguan

This large town, with a population of around 350,000, is famous because it's the site of the western edge of the really Great Wall of China.

The town is growing rapidly, like almost all Chinese urban centres. Just for interest, around two thirds of China's population is now urbanised, and the percentage is growing. But China is still less urbanised than most other major economic powers.

For example, around 92% of Japan's population live in urban areas, 87% in Australia, 85% in the UK, 83% in the US, and around 78% in Germany.

And at the other end of the scale, in the countries I've been visiting, Thailand's figure is about half, in Vietnam it's 40%, Laos 38%, India 36%, Cambodia 25% and Nepal only 21%.

I rolled into town through the usual neverending rows of new residential developments and highrise apartments.

They looked game, but luckily they obeyed the traffic lights.

I eventually found a hostel to stay in, and chose it because they have cheap capsules to stay in. Yeah, capsules, just like Japan and the International Space Station!

Yay, I get to star in my very own sci-fi romcom, set on a space station on a desolate barren planet which looks remarkably like this one does when you get outa town.

It's actually super comfy, bigger than it looks, and the people are so sweet here. No foreigners, of course.

I immediately met Mareiun, the most beautiful young Chinese guy, who spoke really good English.

He's done something that's quite hard to do in China, given the family and societal pressure here - he's quit his job, and has been travelling around China for a few months, and plans to go to Kazakhstan and Egypt.

He just doesn't want to settle down, but wants to see the world.

Well, he came to the right person for that discussion. We spent the evening and the next morning together, and when he left to catch his train to Dunhuang he said he was way more inspired to follow his dreams, and not someone else's.

Hooray for him.

For dinner we had the most scrumptious veggie casserole soupy thingy ever. Veggies, mushrooms of all varieties, tofu, seitan (gluten blocks), you name it, it was in there and it was all absolutely divine. Mareiun, who goes by the English (Italiano) name of Mario (of all things) insisted on paying. Molto dolce, Mario.

We decided to have brekky together, I pushed it back as late as possible, and we agreed to meet at 9am for baozi.

We tried them all, including this carrot and vermicelli one, the vermicelli's made from sweet potato. Bloody divine, the food of Godesses and Gods.

And the black rice porridge was good too, especially with a bit of sugar.

We went to the markets around the corner.

At last! I've found the spice that makes my tongue numb and makes me wanna wee my pants! It's known here as Sichuan pepper. It's just an innocuous harmless looking peppercorn, but I had just a half of one here, and my tongue and throat felt like death for about five minutes.

It honestly feels like someone's sprayed a strong toxic chemical on your tongue.

It's really nothing like pepper, although it's the same family.

This must be the rogue son who never prodigalled.

Now I finally know the secret ingredient of all those hot pots that I could hardly eat in Sichuan all those years ago.

Nuts and seeds. The middle tub is full of peanuts from Xinjiang, which are smaller and harder than regular peanuts from here. And with a harder shell too, and slightly bitter.

Sunflower and melon seeds.

Homemade fresh tahini and sesame oil.

We tried some of the seed excrement. It was quite delicious. Crunchy and a little bitter, but very sesame-ey.

Mareiun tried to tell me that these were fish lungs, a delicacy. But I know in my heart of hearts that fish don't have lungs, so it must've been a language thing. I really couldn't find out which part of the fish they are. They look like skinned fish fingers to me, but I know in my heart of hearts that fish don't have fingers either, so, what to do?

Some things we may never know.