Return to Gansu

I freely admit, even two years into this degree that one of the main reasons for doing it was simply as it would allow me to go back to Dingxi, as part of my third year abroad. Arriving jetlagged and disorientated into Beijing, more or less the first thing I did was to head straight back out again, catching the slow train to Gansu.

Sadly, they only had hard seats, and according to the guy who sold me the ticket the train would take three days... 12 hours in, as my backbone started to  creak and the novelty of the scenery (Inner Mongolia, mostly) and playing cheat in Chinese started to wear off, I began to wonder whether it was all actually such a good idea. Thankfully, at this point, I was beckoned by a Chinese guard, who gestured frantically until I gave him 100 yuan, at which point he led me to a hard sleeper berth, and I spent the next 16 hours asleep. By the time I woke up again, we were trundling through Gansu, and pulling into Lanzhou, a day earlier than expected.

In a very Chinese way, all the problems I'd anticipated (floods, lack of emails/numbers etc) more or less vanished as soon as I actually arrived. Dingxi turned out to be as dustridden and dry as ever, Deanna called as I got off the train, and I spent 15 minutes arguing with a taxi driver who tried telling me he'd be honoured to drive me all the way to Dingxi, despite having almost crashed en route to the bus stop.

Returning to Dingxi was a strange mix - both so reassuringly familiar and subtly strange. The mice taxis I knew have vanished, tower blocks sprung up on every corner, but students still drill at 6am outside my window, and the tent lady who I used to have wonderful conversations with where neither of us understood the other at all recognised me instantly. I spent a week more or less being fed, catching up with friends I'd thought I'd never see again (mostly wonderful, save a few disillusioned former students) and  generally behaving as though I'd never left.

Stranger incidents included walking into the Dingxi All-Comers Spacehopper Competition, auctioning off my stock of British currency to a shouting mob of farmers, and truly off the wall trip to Lanzhou...