(another post added by Mum!)
I am cycling into Delinqa. It looks like a pretty interesting place. It has a large Mongolian and Tibetan population. On the road in I have seen several groups of people prostrating themselves (a Buddhist form of dedication) climbing the road up to the mountains. The town is surrounded by wheat fields too (I think) the first I have seen in China.
I ask at the first hotel if they accept foreigners. Technically we are only allowed to stay at 3 star and above which kind of blows my budget a bit. I get a very definite NO. I walk out, try a few more, to no avail. The chances of my first shower in two weeks are diminishing each time I get rejected. What kind of town is this???
I notice a police car is following me. Here we go I say to myself, and sure enough I get pulled over. This differs from the usual passport shenanigans however as I am hauled off to the station. I am informed in no uncertain terms that I must leave, by bus, now!
"I can't just ride out of town and have you forget about the crazy Australian on a bicycle???"
" We could lock you up and fine you, or you could get on the bus"
"OK, bus it is then............."
Now I am in Xining, having missed much of the province I wanted to see but hoping to try some Yak cheese tomorrow! The following perhaps may explain the paranoia of the police......
from Wikipedia
Delingha (Tibetan:??????????) is the capital of Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai, China approximately 200km southeast of Da Qaidam. It is closed off to foreigners due to nuclear testing. It is the missile headquarter for Qinghai , and houses DF-4s with four associated launch sites. Delingha is one of five locations where anywhere between 10 and 20 DF-4's were deployed in 1998. The facility is the headquarters for one of launch brigades.
From here I will either head to Lanshau in Gansu or back of the mountains to Sehcuan and onto Chengdu. I hope, however, to find a map here in English as translating from the Russian one I have has not been going so well........
Sunday 25 April 2010
Welcome to Qinghai
(typed by Mum - Emrys can't access his blog in China - it is blocked)
It is late in the afternoon and I have just crossed the border in Qinqhai province in the far west of China. I have had a pretty good run with a tail wind for a good part of the afternoon. I am thinking about pushing on a bit to take advantage when the wind swings around. I am now riding into a dusty headwind with spots of rain............blow this.
I start to look for a campsite. It has been pretty desolate with very little cover for much of the afternoon. I am passing a lake off in the distance and I spy some pretty tall looking reeds on the lake shore. I hurl Igor down the slop off the edge of the road and head off down the embankment.
It is about 700m by the time I get there and the reeds are a good 3 meters tall and thick. I clean the grit from the gear using a pepsi bottle with petrol, make my bed an snuggle down.
Bang!
It seems the wicked witch of the west that I was protected from hast just had a house land on her. Glinda is back with a vengeance!!
I sit in my tent and listen in the dark and the wind accelerates. Sleep becomes impossible so for the next four hours I try to stop the tent from disintegrating around me. To her credit she holds up remarkably well, unlike my nerves. At about 1 I finally drift off, waking periodically as the gusts thump against the fly. Dust storm number two, welcome to Qinhai!
It is late in the afternoon and I have just crossed the border in Qinqhai province in the far west of China. I have had a pretty good run with a tail wind for a good part of the afternoon. I am thinking about pushing on a bit to take advantage when the wind swings around. I am now riding into a dusty headwind with spots of rain............blow this.
I start to look for a campsite. It has been pretty desolate with very little cover for much of the afternoon. I am passing a lake off in the distance and I spy some pretty tall looking reeds on the lake shore. I hurl Igor down the slop off the edge of the road and head off down the embankment.
It is about 700m by the time I get there and the reeds are a good 3 meters tall and thick. I clean the grit from the gear using a pepsi bottle with petrol, make my bed an snuggle down.
Bang!
It seems the wicked witch of the west that I was protected from hast just had a house land on her. Glinda is back with a vengeance!!
I sit in my tent and listen in the dark and the wind accelerates. Sleep becomes impossible so for the next four hours I try to stop the tent from disintegrating around me. To her credit she holds up remarkably well, unlike my nerves. At about 1 I finally drift off, waking periodically as the gusts thump against the fly. Dust storm number two, welcome to Qinhai!
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