Sending letters is quite an Adventure in the whole Adventure China... Every time I am courious about how much I have to pay this time...

The first letter - i was asking the post office lady twice and thrice - arrived in austria with a stamp 230 fen (=2 yuan 3 jiao 0 fen = 23 Eurocent)
For the second letter I had to pay 8 yuan, the lady at the kiosk at the 3gorgesdam told me, that my letter had overweight.
The third letter
Finally I found out, that letters to Austria cost 450 fen. I bought lots of stamps. the third and fourth one i just threw into a postbox. Still they didn't arrive...
Some more letters arrived in Chinese-record-time withing one week, even if I bought the stamps for them at the youth hostel, because the postoffice at Chengdu (!) didn't have enought stamps of that kind (450)... I just threw them into a post box, but in a VERY small town.
Inbetween I send a really huge box home, it should arrive at Vienna within 45 days and arrived within less than two weeks...
three days ago some more letters. I went to one postoffice. they told me, that i have to go to another post office, close to shizi. I went to shizi, found a post office. The clerk complained about the envelopes ... there should be some special ones... AND it was the wrong post office... so I went to the third one and threw them into the post office ... courious if they will arrive.
Some more letters today. same town as three days ago. another postoffice. I went in, the lady started to call around, finally told me, I have to pay 600 for the small ones and 800 for the big one...
I couldn't other than laughing... because finally for the large letter it was one readyprinted stamp 230, some additional stamps I put for reaching 540, and today the lady could hardly found enough space to add some more stamps for reaching 800... please, keep this envelope (if it reaches Austria...) I want to take a picture of that... :)
Courious what happens to the next letter... :D

Now I'm sitting at Xining in the WangBa (Net-bar), listening to fm4 liveradio ... the biggest joy of the internet: MUSIC!!! Not that thing that Chinese people claim to be music... *sigh*

After a stopover at Xining, I left to lake Qinghai - the largest saltwater lake in China. I had there the most peaceful days of my whole journey. initially I wanted to go to Heimahe, to rent a bike, and cycel along the lake, that is also very famous for its bike-race every year in July. I got to Heimahe, but that little village is so small, and so remoted, that noone has a bicycle: for reaching the POI in the village there is no need for one; for going to the next Village it would take too much time... so everyone has or a motorcycle or a car... or a horse, obviously, as this place is sourrounded by nomads.

So after my arrival, I went to the lake, to a tibetian prayer place, sat down, and was drawing and dreaming the whole afternoon. I also tried to catch some geese - in a picture, of course - as the lake is very famous for its variety of birds.
I met Stephanie again, a woman I met at Songpan. I went to Heimahe for to be REALLY on my own, without any tourists (as the place wasn't in LonleyPlanet: Great Chance!), and now I meet Stephanie - Individualist as I am... :)
We were chatting the whole evening, I was doing some handicrafts as well, until late night.

Next day I wanted to get up early, as I chose the place because I could go to the westend of the lake, so that I could maybe catch the sunrise... unfortunately there were clouds... back into bed again, I stood up at 7 instead of 5... Finishing my drawings, I got to the lake only at 11 (the way - this time I wanted to go to a different place - was very long... longer than expected, but no problem.) there was no place to sit-down, because of the swampy area over there. So I got back in the middle of the grasslands, lay down in the high grass, and enjoyed the silence, the loneliness, the nature... mmmmh!
Time was passing, I went back to the binguan (you can't call it hotel - there wasn't even running water), and then to the restaurant. I met James, a Tibetian guy studying Tibetian and English. We were a little bit talking, and he would invite me to go to the grassland to his home (he is still living with his family in a nomad tent - he showed me pictures). Unfortunately I had to leave that day, because my train to Beijing is leaving the next day. What a pity, I really would have enjoyed that experience ... maybe next year, he told me... :)

So, back to Xining, a little bit of sightseeing (well, a little bit of sightseeing is more than sufficient for the few sights in this city...), I found out what happens to all the fruit the faithful offer to Buddha: The workmen at the monasteries give it as a gift to the very nice tourists ;) Thank you! But the market here ... WOW!!! I could pass hours just walking around and looking at the strange, colorful, intresting, various things that are offered here... how many types of mushrooms you can find in austrian markets? maybe 5? here exist shops only for mushrooms!!! WOW...

I checked where to find food supplies for tomorrow, and now I am here. Tomorrow I will take my train to Beijing - last stop of the journey.

I'm courious about the train trip: nearly 24 hours continuous journey - on a seat... I didn't get a ticket for a bed... maybe I can pay an upgrade tomorrow at the train, maybe I don't want it after I saw my travelmates ... who knows... however, in more than 36 hours I'm back to internet, because I need to check some things.
I never did a traintrip like this... when we travelled to spain, we needed 24 hours as well - but I don't remember how many times we had to change... here it is 2100km without changing train... well, even without changing seat... I hope my neighbours are nice.

So, waiting for your stories! :) As I can see you all are using your free Sunday afternoon for something more comfortable than sitting in front of the computer - none of you online on skype.... :) good girls and guys!

Enough for today, too smoky in here...
See you soon! :))))
Angi