According to our friend Yoni, a poli sci professor, the Gansu province is one of the poorest in China. It is completely rural, isolated and although we crossed only the southern corner of it, it had a very backwater and isolated feel. The views out the window alternated between staggering mountains and tiny rural villages, valleys planted with rice and corn sandwiched in between.
The farm work was being done all by had or with animals -- most of the farmers were harvesting their rice crops. No Golden Week holiday for them, someone pointed out (or maybe they are harvesting with help from family members home from jobs in the cities)?
At one point our bus was pulled over in a small town..never did find out why, but after some discussion we were on our way. By the way, I want to give proper phot0 credit to Yoni, who took some of these photos. although we were shooting many of the same sights -- his camera and skills were better and he was kind enough to share some with me.
We stopped for gas and a brief rest (which included peeing at the side of the road for the children...nice). While there we managed to catch the eye of this mother and her 2 month old baby --don't you just love the hat! Western tourists were quite a sight for this town.
Most of the houses we passed were hung with husks of corn drying out along side chili peppers. we saw this sight many times, hard to get a photo from a bouncing bus! The houses were mostly courtyard style, and some of the courtyards had potted plants or other touches to spruce them up, but in general the housing stock appeared to be quite poor, including a fair number of what appeared to be mud brick construction.
See the satellite dish?
How about this cute little guy?
On the road we were frequently passed by animals, or passed them on the rare occasions when the road was good enough to go over 20 mph. Besides the donkeys we saw lots of goats as well as some oxen in the fields.
It rained most of the morning and the road condition deteriorated a bit as the day went on -- not that it was that great to start! We stopped for lunch about 2 pm. In this small town the guides asked around until they located the best restaurant, which looked to be a quite simple place. It was empty and the proprietor was just settling down for a rest, probably. After a little lead time to get going, we were then served a fabulous eight course meal! The most frustrating thing about the bad food in the hotels, was that here we were in Sichuan, world-renown for its tasty cuisine, and hadn't had a decent meal in days. This food was hot, fresh, spicy without being overpowering, and absolutely delicious. It helped that the beer flowed freely at our table. and the staff apologized for having done so poorly with short notice!
We got underway again, but the rain had picked up during our meal, and by dusk it was clear that the mud and gravel roads were not doing too well, not mention not being wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other, so the driver was always having to lean on the horn to warn others of our approach. Here is one of our devoted and tireless drivers:
Here is a view of the muddy road. this was another rest stop -- the women took turns going behind that ruined barn for a little privacy. After dark, what had been an annoyingly long and bouncy ride took on a more serious feel, and at points we were giving each other pep talks and mostly trying not to look out the windows or pay attention to the bus or the road. In a couple of places the driver got out with a flashlight to look at the road and see if it was washed out. When we arrived at the hotel, all the passengers clapped for the driver.
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