day 216: 永昌 (yongchang) – 水磨关 (shuimoguan) = 13km

The valley around 永昌 (yongchang) was so green and so nice, a half day’s walk of pure pleasure:

The road construction team from yesterday had passed me again, only this time some of them waved me over for a chat:

“Can I ask you a personal question?” said one of them, “we would like to know how old you are. Are you younger or older than forty?”

WTF??

Here’s the thing: men don’t usually grow their beards before the age of 50 or 60 over here. So I guess 40 was still a euphemism, well sort of.

TLW reminder: Growing a beard might make you look older!

…

Ever since 西安 (Xi’an), I’ve basically been massaging the same highway:

G312.

Only today I met a gentleman with three beautiful horses:

This is 彭文朝 (Peng Wenchao), who once used to be a taxi driver back in Beijing.

He has been riding his carriage for the last 6 months throughout all of the country, in a personal effort to support the Olympic Spirit.

And then, after the Olympics?

彭先生 smiles, then looks up at the sky: “Who knows what’s next? But one thing is for sure: I’ll keep the horses!”

…

There was this big fat rain-cloud that had been following me from the East, so I was pretty happy when I got to 水磨关 (shuimoguan) in the afternoon and it hadn’t rained on me yet:

Lovely place – I keep repeating myself, but it’s just a fact:

It’s the people who really make all the difference.

We took this group picture that I’m going to send to these kids and the dude later:

11 heads = 11 pictures. We would have made a perfect soccer team!

…and then there was this gentleman who had obviously had quite a lot to drink:

I just love this picture. Great photography!

(too bad it isn’t me who took it)

Soundtrack: A.F.I. – “Paper Airplanes (Makeshift Wings)”

—total: 2705,2km