-- From Lanzhou to Xian

The road tracklog 
from Lanzhou to Xian 
from the 16/07/2006 to the 23/07/2006 

The 16/07, we left Lanzhou to Xiahé. The 120 km of road are partly a highway until Lintao, partly a tarred road partly a track under construction. The entry Gate in Tibet is on the road about to be completed. As the layout shows it, a part is not on the map.

Entry Gate in Eastern Tibet 
the 16/07/2006 

Xiahé, the village visited in 1990, became a tourist city built around a long and broad main street masking the old houses. The 17/07 we visited the monastery of Labrang, Labuleng Si, which shelters approximately 1.200 monks. The visited buildings were restored or rebuilt after the sack of the Cultural Revolution. One of the buildings shelters an interesting exposing museum of the liturgical objects as well as figurative boards of traditional medicine. The prayer room of the main temple comprises 140 wood pillars supporting the roof.

Labrang monastery 
Xiahé 
17/07/2006 

You Sun Jiang of agency CITS of Xinjiang accompanied the group from June 30 to July 19, he had to solve the problems involved in the entry in China and vainly tried to recover the microphones of our CB radio. During all this first part of our stay, he was very attentive with our wishes. Finding the trip conditions in the Michel's Unimog cabin uncomfortable, he decided to travel with me in the MAN. He was for me a pleasant travelling companion. Handling the French language perfectly, he could avoid me the traps of circulation in China with much of humour. During the long hours of driving, on highways, roads as well as on tracks he teased me to maintain me waked up for the hot hours of the day. I live it to leave with many regrets.

Tursum  
Labrang monastery
17/07/2006 

The 18/07, we left Xiahé to Xinning on the way we visited the village of Ganjia Bajiao located at approximately 35 km of track from Xiahé. It was built at the Han time inside a double cob wall of octagonal shape. It is the only example in China of such a shape.

Traditional house 
Ganjia Bajiao 
18/07/2006 

Inhabitants of the village 
Ganjia Bajiao 
18/07/2006 

Xining is the provincial capital of Qinghai. The monastery of Kumbum, Ta' er Si, partially destroyed by the Red Guards, was an important Geluk-Pa monastery for teaching of the Tantrism. Alexandra David-Neel remained several years there. Near to Xining, it is a place very attended by the Chinese tourists.

Kumbum monastery 
Xining 
210/07/2006 

19/07 after the visit of Kumbum we left to the Lanzhou airport where we took Bruno's guide replacing Tursun. The way was done by the highway crossing of the landscapes of great beauties, mountains of red and ochre colour, fertile plains of barley still green and yellow colza creating a resplendent patchwork with colours.
The 20/07 we left Lanzhou to Tianshui by a highway with two lanes until Dinxi then by a pseudo highway with a two-track roadway until Tianshui.
Tianshui is a stage city to visit two monuments worthy of interest, the Maiji Shan Shiku caves located at forty kilometres from the town centre and the Fu Xi Taoist temple.

Caves 
Maiji Shan Shiku 
21/07/2006 

64 hexagrams of 8 trigrams 
Fu Xi temple 
the 21/072006 

The 22/07 we took the direction to Xian while passing by Feng Xian have regard to a landslide on the direct road. From Tianshui to Baoji a good road curves in the mountains offering splendid landscapes, alas the weather was covered with an intermittent rain. The temperature had fallen to 24°C. In Baoji we took the highway to Xian where we arrived towards 22:30. The way of 531 km took approximately fourteen hours stops included.
Xian was the centre of the Chinese civilization. It had approximately 2 million inhabitants in 1982, it counts some more than seven million in 2006.

The Bell Tower 
Xian 
23/07/2006 

The Drum Tower 
Xian 
23/07/2006 

Report of stage: First impressions

The trip in 1982 was carried out shortly after the ousting of the “Band of the Four”, the population still lived under the visible precepts of Mao in the clothes, unisex costume with Mao's collar, encumbered cities by bicycles, carts, tri-cars, tractors and other middle-aged vehicles.
The trip in 1988 took place at the beginning of economic takeoff, but the official doctrines had not moved. The Mao's costume had almost completely disappeared, the women had rediscovered the dress and the skirt of cotton fabric. Quivering of economic release were perceptible, alas the events of “Tiananmen” were going to give a violent one brake application.
The trip in 2006 proceeded in full economic boom, China was in the economic state of overheating. Since the two preceding journeys, the standard of living unquestionably increased. The sector of the building and public works was in full rise, residential building, industrial buildings, roads and highways. In periphery of the cities, districts of residential buildings were under construction sometimes with the sharp colours. Conversely of old buildings or houses were destroyed like erasing a recent sordid past. The town centre were invested by an exuberant youth with the clothes which do not have anything to envy the declining Western (!). I went into cybercafés of more than two hundred computers (?) for twenty centimes of euro an hour. The number of private cars was in exponential growth. The 4x4 Japanese and the high range of German cars were well represented. The Chinese government want to catch up with the Western standard of living in 10 years (?).
But for a Westerner some anachronisms remained, women carry out earthworks, roadmenders sweep the highways with a fluorescent waistcoat and a dust respirator for only protection, people and bicycles circulate with misinterpretation on the highways, toilets remain with the Chinese standard, etc The Chinese worked on Saturdays and Sunday, however they had two weeks of holydays per annum for, officially, spending money. The Chinese government control the springs of the capitalist economy perfectly.
The price of the goods and services was very variable. The goods manufactured in China and the food were not very expensive. On the other hand the toll of the highways was nearly identical to France. The price of the diesel was lower than in Europe. It was fixed annually, a significant rise was awaited at the beginning of 2007.