day 152: 安国 (anguo) - 蒿店 (haodian) = 19km

There’s a small mausoleum near 安国 (anguo):

马先生 (Mr. Ma) is watching over the building, which has been reconstructed in the 1990s after being completely destroyed during the so-called “Cultural Revolution”:

The main building holds the body of a Muslim missionary who had lived in this area about 800 years ago:

Interesting.

One thing that 马先生 said later over a cup of tea made me think though: he said when the mob was destroying the mausoleum back then, it wasn’t so much the 汉族 (Han-Chinese), but more the 回族 (Hui-Muslims) who were living in the immediate surroundings and had fallen from the faith - brick by brick they were tearing down the building, and up until today the community hasn’t been able to retrieve all the different pieces.

This thing really got me thinking on that long stretch of road that lay ahead of me:

…

I was listening to my feet going tap-tap-tap-tap, when I entered the province of 宁夏 (ningxia), an area inhabited and officially self-governed by a majority of Hui-Muslims:

My first rest in this new province:

And a good rest it was.

I even fell asleep - which wasn’t that hard though after that night in the restaurant…

Then I continued my walk under the blue sky with its tender clouds:

Saw a weird house halfway underground:

Then the highway took a turn:

And there was more where this came from:

A massive stone pit, pulling 20.000 tons of gravel out from the mountain every day:

Twenty-thousand tons, WTF??

Well, at least that’s what 周先生 (Mr. Zhou), the manager of the place, told me:

We had dinner and tea, and I got invited to stay for the night.

The only downside was the noise, something that neither 周先生’s little niece nor myself ever really got used to:

It felt weird unpacking my stuff and getting ready to go to sleep in an office room of the gravel pit.

But I liked it.

Soundtrack: Adriano Celentano - “Azzurro”

—total: 1944,4km