well, that never happend to me before: in a land, in which foreigners are easily identified, they (or better: we) develop a common sense of beeing alien: whereever I go, and see a "foreign" face, I start smiling, and the other one as well.
strange phenomenon.

First of all:
The pics I put online while travelling will not be all, there will follow much more after my return, i will make them clickable like I did it for finland, I will crop them so that one can see the interesting parts better, and provide better qualitiy, its just to give you an impression of my journey.

so, here we go:


The first very touristic stop during the boattrip through the three gorges.


Same time same station. I was impressed by the man in the middle of the green.


2nd day of boattrip: early in the morning (6.30) at the white city.


same time same station. In the background the hills of the gorges.


What an impressive moment - not only the picture, but also the light on earth - wow!


the first moments after totality of the eclipse.


still you can notice the socks I wore for cycling: new chinese shorts, that colour still everthing they touch (bags, sheets, underwear) even after washing them twice ;) and my new shoes for touristic life.


The tieta. The Iron Pagode. The Computer refuses to accept all the colorful pictures I wanted to show you. sorry.

As I do no go 100 km every day, I have much more time for exploring the cities. Some days ago I wrote, I'm going to be a traveller, now I am a tourist again.

But as China has lots of very colorful and detailed buildings, I could spend hours just taking pictures of the different temples and parks. Who knows me, knows that I am keen on details and colours - so: perfect for me.

I didnt stay much time at zhengzhou: I arrived at 4 am, and left at 6 am. In the train I got to know a girl, He Xin, from Beijing.
We spent lots of times with learning and teaching chinese and its pronounciation - she even knew the IPA!!! So I tried my best - but its hard. I can now write "I am Angi" and "I am austrian" in chinese letters. :) (imagine: in the signs for "Aodili" = Austria, there are the signs for rice, large and fields ... well, it describes Austria very well, don't you think?) and said my first correct sentence: You are my friend: Ni shi wo de pengyou. Cooooool!
btw: the sound for "Angi" in chinese means Angel ;) quite like my original name, funny, isn't it?

However, the trainstation at zhengzhou was very strange: everywhere people lying on the ground, sleeping and waitig for a train to come... amazing, unbelieveable, as so many things here in china.

Kaifeng was my next stop. An old city with lots of temples and much bigger than I thought it was. Thanks to the map in my lonley planet, I could easily find, where to go. First I visited the prime minister temple, I stayed there for some hours, then I had lunch. and what lunch! Guys, Girls, I will return fat as a ton, the food is soooooooooo good! And so cheap as well, at least for me european... I ate: (well, I paid, i didnt eat all) 13 small fried fish, I large bowl of noodles (freshmade! right next to me) with egg, algen (dt.), a kind of flower Ive never seen before, zitronenmelisse (dt.) and garlic in lots of humid, a beer(?) with annanas: 16 yuan = 1,8 euro. And everyone who knows me, knows how much I love trying new tastes...

In the afternoon I had a little sleep, as the last days were quite exhaustig, with not that much sleep. In the evening once more exploring the city... I discovered only now, that the city is much bigger than expected: lots to do tomorrow.
In the evening I was at the super"store", bought a new travel-backpack (hopefully the 4-bag-system has an end now...) and once more I met a group of young chinese, they all wanted to help me. I tell you, chinese people are sooooo friendly and nice! They accompanied me to the hotel and we made an maybeappointment for today.

Well, plans changed, and we met only by accident today. I was strolling around the parks, had rests, wondered about all the red-yellow dots (weiss nicht ob nur punkterln oder auch blaserln oder auch dippeln... wenn man dran denkt, jucken sie, wenn nicht, dann nicht.) on my legs and arms, and have a headache as well and noticed, that I even forgot my headache medicine at my bike...
well, now waiting for train to xi'an, one more very cultural and historical city and sorroundings: the terracotta-warriors. and I want to go on the mountain there. still I don"t know if this is a good Idea, because I miss my rain jacket... you know, where it is...

On 1st of August I will return to Chengdu. Lorraine (see blog some days ago) is organizing an english language course, and I will join them, to teach a little english to little children. I decided to do this, as chinese people are all so nice, to help them as well - at least a little bit. I asked Lorraine also for help for getting back my bike, and He Xin was so nice to offer me the possibility to keep my bike at Beijing until I arrive there for flying home again. So, problems seems to get less, but I know more only at the beginning of August.

So far for today, pics will follow, but only few... blaim it on the computer... :) (He doesn't like too much of my pictures - don't ask me why).

bye!
Angi