Hopping through towns without getting the feeling.

1 In the small town of Qikou I found my first tranquil and true Chinese life without the hordes of tourists. Arriving at night, in pooring rain, I was lucky that this last man in the bus owned a family home with rooms for rent who took me along.

Next day I made a wet and very pleasant walk to Lijiashan. No cars can get to this cave houses town nestled in the lush hills. The surroundings were misty-mystical.

All hill were prepared like those, with cave houses in their sides.

4 Then, back at the courtyard of my home stay, I met this family who was travelling themselves. Invited for dinner and later to come along in their car. They were going the same way.

5 Driving along the brown Yellow River we took a little boat to see 'special' rock formations. Up until today I have no idea WHY they were so special.

6 Also we visited a big, rough waterfall. Not the waterfall, but this man with his tourist donkey got my interest.

7 They dropped me in the very well preserved traditional cobblestone town of Dangjiacun. I got really inspired to start a garden here, and the six-storey pagoda  in the middle of all those courtyard houses was really pretty.

8 Detail of wood carvings which are presented in front of all windows.

9 On I went by train to the city of Xi'an, world famous for it's army of Terracotta Warrior. It's a massive archaeological find and sadly most soldiers have scattered.

10 So now many people are working on fixing them so once again this army of thousands can stand guard over the soul of China's first unifier, which it has done for two millennia now.

11 another train to Luomen where I fell pray to this girl who desperately wanted to practise her English and share her kank-bed with me. Here they are watching my photo’s.

12 With dad I learned how to fold nice dumplings.

13 Next day we visited the Water Curtain Caves for which I came here. Pretty temples and carvings in the cliffs with a colourful 31m-high painting of Sakyamuni as the main sight.

14 In the smoke filled temple you could shake a box with wooden stick until one fell out. This one will tell your something. Mine said that I was a very lucky person..... duh.

15 A man grinding red peppers at the market.

16 The babies and little kids have no diapers and open pans so they can pee any time. This means all Chinese have walked in their bare butts on the street in their lives.

17 In the next bus a teacher helped me with getting into the next direction, which was hers. Because night fell she offered I could sleep with her and other teachers in the bunk beds at campus. It was very funny with the bloodiest toilets I've seen so far.

18 And then I got my first feel of Tibetan life in the pretty pilgrimage town of Xiahe.

19 Around the holy Labrang Monastery a 3km Kora (pilgrims path) leads you around 1174 prayer wheels which you all have to spin. 

20 Of course I went as well in the still dark morning and in one of the little chapels I stumbled over a small old woman who had to chuckle herself too about it all. I could just pretend her from falling to the ground, oops !

21 Pilgrims walking the kora, spinning their private  prayer wheels beside the ones along the path.

22 One of the monks calling the other to enter the temple. 

23 I saw many ceremonies. Humming, chanting, ringing bells under colourful scarf’s and decorations.

24 Youning sounded like another far-flung cave temple /monastery where I finally could camp. Prayer flags were scattered across the hills.

25 Mandela’s drawings made from collared sand by monks.

26 camping under those nice green trees who soon will become yellow.

27 Back to a big city, Xining. My hostel at the top floor of this huge flat gave a view to this sports field with a great variety of activities. The first time I LOVED my binoculars. 

 28 Street vendor selling meats and veggies on a stick. You pick and he will BBQ them for you.

29 Mati Si, temples build into the sandstone cliffs with twisting staircases and balconies. Indeed impressive how they did this between the 5th and 14th centuries.

30 A few hours hike along pretty autumn colours brought me to a waterfall and a nice camping spot.

31 On my way to the Jiayuguan Fort which turned out to be too expensive I met those three guys who took me in for free. Inside one of the temples one of them made a offering.

32 Hello funny boys, they thought I was really funny with all my ways of trying to make things clear to them.

33. My dad skiped a nude picture, me running in somewhere.

34 My last train for a while, through the deserts to the town of Dunhuang.

35 Here you have big sand dunes for which (again) you have to pay. So I found the end of the gate and had a dune all to myself with sunset.

36 Yuan worked at the hostel I stayed, she spoke English, was different and really fun. A girl with good intuition and a different attitude then most Chinese. I loved her. Here we are buying shoes for me.

37 Desert nuts. I've never seen them before, but they were really jummie.

38 A guy was snoring really loud in the dorm house, so I moved to the hammocks, did they ever sleep good!

39 And from then on it became hitch hiking time. As you can see there was nothing much besides the road, so this was easy.

40 One night my driver brought me to this house where I was welcome, fed and slept on a groovy bed. I liked the roof, hand made.

41 So I got to Golmud, I town from where you can take the train to Tibet. Hotels were really expensive, so I slept somewhere in the street. Even though my parents offered to pay my visit to Tibet, it took too long to wait for a permit.

42 Have you ever seen a rainbow like this?

43 So I hitch on to another big snowy mountain who is also holy to the Tibetans.

44 Prayer flags are sold like this.......

45 ...and used like this.