Back From Gansu

Andy and I are back in Xi'an after a grueling few days of traveling in Gansu Province. We saw some great stuff in Gansu, but the trip did not go according to plan at all.

We made it to our planned destination - Xiahe and the Labrang Monastery - but not without incident. Xiahe is a heavily fortified military state at the moment. Getting into the city was, well, interesting. While in and around the city we were told that we were the first foreigner visitors to make it to the city in months.

It's a long story how we entered the monastic village (we didn't sneak in or go illegally), and is one I'll explain in more detail at a later date.

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to stay in Xiahe or go to Langmusi, another city with Tibetan flare near Xiahe.

So instead of doing more things in Gansu, Andy and I are back in Xi'an. I still have off two more days of work, so in a couple hours we're off to Hua Shan. I've written about Hua Shan extensively on my old blog and have a published article on the place.

This will be my third time to climb the holy mountain. A friend told me last night that this fact proves I'm masochistic. I don't know if I agree with that, I just think Hua Shan is one of the coolest places I've ever been on Earth.

I'll have tons of pictures to post in the coming days.