In the morning of 28 September it was only half an hour to lift up the chassis of the Terrano with the help of two central screws (why the hell had no one informed us about these screws in Germany?). After a farewell-photo with our crew and the owner of the service station we left Xian for the first “roadway” on our return. By the way, the service company intends to use that photo for advertisement, is that a good idea? It was a hazy day as often in Northern China and we arrived in Tianshui in the late afternoon, to find a twirly boom-town with excellent and cheap food in one of the well cared-for restaurants (7 pers + lots of beer = 10 $), good hotel services and even an invitation for the hotel’s annual staff party with Karaoke: The boys had something to do for the fact, that 80% of staff were young and female. Ueli, as a brave dancer, collected credits for Switzerland.

The next day we had rent two cabs to give our cars another rest on the hotel’s parking and visited the scenery and grottos of Meijishan. Fog and clouds transformed the rugged and totally wooded mountains into classical chinese ink drawings. Three hours of hiking along deep precipises and small Taoist temples to a romantic basalt top like a needle, covered with old pine trees, refreshed our tired limbs. The following buddhist grottos in a steep cliff, dominated by two huge Buddhas flanked by Bodhisattvas, by sure belong to the most important sights in China! Entrance fees take this importance into account, but under hundreds of visitors we – astonishingly – remained the only foreigners.

We had rain all night and in the morning cool temperatures and a strong northwestern wind. On good roads we did the more than 300 km to Lanzhou in only three-and-a-half hours. Halfway the thermometer dropped down to only 1°C and we even had to pass snow showers – a bit early for this time of the year. The boys are using the free afternoon for shopping and we will do a walk through the (heavily polluted) streets of the city.

(GA)