Day 43:

I'm in Lanzhou now, which a few years ago was named the most polluted city in the world. What fun!

The hotel I'm staying at here is a real treat. It very much encapsulates what is great about hotels in this country... that they have something for every budget. This place has nice single rooms starting at 10 bucks, doubles for 15, and a number of deluxe rooms starting at twenty (as well as a 150 dollar "Presidential Suite.") But it also has a number of five dollar "common" rooms that are very clean but lack a private bathroom. Unlike many places, the staff here were happy to give me a common room, though I am sure they are confused about why ninety percent of the rich western travellers who show up in Lanzhou ask for the cheapest bed in the joint.

Lanzhou is a decent enough town, and other than some haze across the afternoon skyline, I can't really see any signs that this place is the epicentre of modern pollution. I strolled around a bit in the afternoon, first to Dongfanghong Square, which is a very modern, very green public square with lots of trees and large and immaculately tended lawns. I was struck here, as in other towns, by the LACK of a Mao statue. Lenin is everywhere in Russia, even after the USSR fell apart, while even with communism going strong here, Mao is nowhere. Odd.

Later on, I went to Wuquan Park on the edge of town, near one of the mountain ranges that hem in Lanzhou's urban jungle, but with the zoo and the bumper cars and the "magic cave" the place was TOO MUCH and I wandered back to the hotel for a nap.

And here I am! Tired, because last night was spent in the hard seat carriage of the train leaving Xi'an.