day 178: 兰州 (Lanzhou) = 0km

My ticket was made out for May 5th at 08:10 in the morning, and I had a full day left before that.

So today, I took another long walk around town to pass the time and get used to my new shoes:

I had originally set out to find a post office and mail photographs to some people I had met on the trip, but then I ended up wandering around purposelessly:

…walking south, until the tall buildings turned into flat buildings:

…and the flat buildings turned into mere shacks on the mountainside:

Might as well walk all the way up into the mountains, I thought when I got there, but then the path seemed to turn into some kind of public lavatory:

…so I decided to look for another way that led back downtown:

A much prettier way.

Later, by the end of the day, I would have walked over 18km – and no problems with the shoes whatsoever!

…but then again I was only carrying my photo gear, and no additional heavy backpack.

I was just taking a break in a small restaurant and enjoying some delicious lamb sticks, when a group of girls from an elementary school showed up and stayed for a chat:

I think I’ve said it before: many children over here are just so amazingly intelligent and friendly – what a fun time trying to find answers to the abundance of their questions!

…

My way back to the hotel led through an area that was undergoing changes that can only be described as…drastic:

The tall shiny skyscraper in the back, the people in the foreground going through piles of garbage – a photographic cliché that must have been used time and time again to depict the sometimes rather disturbing face of Chinese urbanization.

Another one:

The little brick house about to be stomped by the construction around it – I was surprised to find people actually living in this house, though.

And furthermore, since I was cliché-hunting anyways:

An old resident of the neighborhood witnessing the changing times.

I found that some of the tall buildings were not only tall to begin with, but they additionally seemed to sit on elevated platforms above street level:

A weird reminiscence of certain 19th-century science-fiction writings ala Jules Verne.

…

And here’s something else that looked pretty weird:

The owner of this beauty was walking two pets at the same time:

Somehow I didn’t inquire, I just stood there and marveled at the sight.

Then, the love dogs appeared:

Out of nowhere, the two just showed up, and they didn’t seem to give a damn about pink poodles or any other thing for that matter.

They were too busy:

…busy boning each other:

At first I laughed my head off at this sight, but then I followed them for a while and felt so… touched…

(I’m having a hard time trying to describe this feeling without making too much of a fool out of myself)

Stray dogs is what I think they were, just running around with nobody to look after them – perfectly happy with what they had.

If there was a turd or anything else that seemed nice, they would sniff at it and then move on, and if there was water they would sometimes take a little drink:

Apart from that, they were just roaming the streets, always busy with romance:

…the wild stormy kind of romance:

I followed them for a while, trying to keep up with their pace through the inner-city pandemonium of people and bicycles and cars and trucks and buses, all the madness flowing up and down the avenue.

Sometimes they would virtually block all traffic, and drivers would go nuts swearing and honking their horns.

But the love dogs didn’t seem to care:

After a while, the two got more and more ahead of me, and I saw them slowly fading into the distant traffic:

Was this…the purest of all loves?

Soundtrack: 2 Live Crew – “Face Down Ass Up”

—total: 2275,5km