By the Yellow River
This is an irrigation canal, hooked up further upstream to a pump that
may or may not still work to bring water directly from the river up
the this level, about 100 feet above river level or so. After this
you’ll see two shots that show the contrast: a downright Disney-esque
castle that serves no function I could see: it was empty. In the
foreground there you will see some agricultural workers walking the
road in front of it, but the castle itself appeared utterly empty.
I’ve a feeling it was built in anticipation of a glut of tourism that
has yet to fully materialize here. You’ll also see some weeds piled
next the bicycle their picker rode to work and will load them onto for
the return home. As you’ll see in later shots taken from the train,
and you may have seen in other shots from Guangxi, the vast majority
of farm work here in China is still done individually or by families,
by hand.
Tongjia Guesthouse
What I love about this sign is how it shows pheasants and grouse or
some kind of bird that I just don’t imagine really hangs out here on
the edge of the desert, but the proprietors were clearly going for a
farm and country feel. Indeed this is a lovely little guesthouse
(don’t get excited and think spa in the desert – I won’t go into the
sanitary details, but assume Chinese small town standard) with
orchards and gardens from which they make their food, and where guests
are welcome to pick grapes or apples for snacking. The Yurt in the
next shot is also theirs – something new this season, that they say
has been very popular for visitors.
Tongjia Guesthouse
What I love about this sign is how it shows pheasants and grouse or
some kind of bird that I just don’t imagine really hangs out here on
the edge of the desert, but the proprietors were clearly going for a
farm and country feel. Indeed this is a lovely little guesthouse
(don’t get excited and think spa in the desert – I won’t go into the
sanitary details, but assume Chinese small town standard) with
orchards and gardens from which they make their food, and where guests
are welcome to pick grapes or apples for snacking. The Yurt in the
next shot is also theirs – something new this season, that they say
has been very popular for visitors.
Landscape from the Train
The train ride from Kongtong Shan into Ningxia was lovely – small
agricultural valleys and enough railway tunnels going through the
mountains I lost count. A few times I grabbed my camera to capture a
passing landscape that struck me. Also, after the two kids one seat
over kept peeking over the top of their seat to see what I was doing,
I decided to start engaging them…first by taking their picture, then
by letting them take my picture, pictures of each other and/or of me
with them. I’m giving you a few of these. They’re classmates and had
just been happy to see each other on the train. By the way, don’t
think this is a typical hard seat train: it was morning, and the train
filled up very fast so that the last five hours or so were spent quite
crowded, with folks in the aisles.
Then you’ll see shots of the southern Ningxia agricultural landscape
as seen from the train. Lovely, sparsely populated, towns built into
dry hillsides, and so on.
(so much world, so little time....) 