Lanzhou: the 'real' China?

The taxi drivers at the Lanzhou rail station didn't even bother to try to get me into their cabs. I have a feeling that if foreigners make it this far west, they either have business or are trekking cheap.

I find myself somewhere in between, as my schedule just changed and I had to make an awkward (read: expensive) change to my itinerary. In Beijing, we had a term for what I just spend the last 3 hours doing. We generally called it 'singing the white privilege song.'

I'll be spending a little extra time here because I actually have an appointment at the Gansu Province Library--but it's not till next Tuesday. That means I'll have to skip Zhengzhou (where I had no appointment anyway) and go straight to Hefei, where I am due at 10 on Thursday morning.

Those of you who know the major cities of China probably see where I'm heading with this. For those of you who don't, I've prepared a little graphic explanation of the problem. Yep: that's an impossible train trip to take in under 48 hours. It would be possible if I didn't have to change trains and if it weren't the end of the summer holiday season. However, it's a funny trip, and the trains are crowded, so I sought the help of a travel agent. He hemmed and hawed, and suggested that maybe we could call a travel agent in Xi'an to go buy a connecting train ticket (see, the problem here in China is that you can't buy a ticket from a city where you aren't). The other option would be to buy a ticket for farther down the line (say, Nanjing or Shanghai) because the railroad saves more seats for these more popular destinations, so tickets from obscure point A to obscure point B are hard to come by.

After going back and forth for a while, it was time to pull out the privilege card and ask: so, can I get there on a plane?

Indeed you can sir, let me make a couple phone calls. Being cheap, I opted for a wonky connection through Shanghai that will leave me sitting in the airport for a while and getting into Hefei late, but I should get a good night's sleep before my appointment.

And now for Lanzhou. Where should I start? Seeing as I've only been here for 6 hours, I can't say that I've seen too much. But, on my walk from the train station, I did see a slaughtered, but un-butchered, pig pitched over the back of a motorcycle going down the street. I guess this is what they mean by 'undeveloped.' Sure, I've seen elk and deer tied to roofs in Oregon, but I hardly think it's pig hunting season here in Gansu Province.

Lunch, however, was great. I tried to just have noodles on the street, but the waitress insisted that I had to eat 'inside.' I think because I didn't know the menu. I pointed at the sign and said (in Chinese): "But there's the menu. Noodles. Soup. Beef. Pork." She basically dragged me into the alley, and started leading me to what, after two turns, I thought might be an involuntary kidney donation. I was even more wary when we entered what appeared to be a greenhouse. But sure enough, there was a big, leafy, restaurant deep inside. I'm not sure how they heat the place in the winter, but it was awfully pleasant today.

She insisted I order a vegetabe dish to go along with my meat. After staring at the choices for a couple minutes (remember, the waitresses don't leave you alone to contemplate the menu in China) I pulled out my cheat sheet. Not seeing any vegetables that matched anything I know, I looked up ask for a recommendation and discovered I had an audience of about 5, including two guys who had gotten up from the next table and come over to look. That's another observation about Lanzhou on the street, folks are generally too polite to stare. In the restaurant, they all but pointed and said: check out the guy with the big nose.

After ordering, I was anticipating a plate of beef in some sort of sauce, a vegetable in some sort of sauce (I had no idea what she suggested: it had the word fish in it, but when I pointed that out, she insisted it didn't have fish), and noodles. What I got was a bowl of beef soup (with noodles already in it), 鱼香茄子 (thanks for the correction!) (fish fragrant eggplant, whatever: it was delicious), and a side bowl of noodles.

It was pretty fantastic, and all for about $3. So the random restaurant in Lanzhou is a winner. On my way out I came to discover that the 'back alley' was actually a covered side street that was almost exclusively florists and restaurants. Go figure.