After my quick trip out of the country I decided to tick a few more places off the remaining China bucket list.
Gansu has long been on my radar but from Kunming it was always just too far. From Qingdao though, it is much more manageable journey. I flew to Lanzhou, number one on the picture above, and then found transport for the 8 hour drive to Langmusi, number 2. The road was small, bumpy, slow, unpleasant and very very long. But once we got into the mountains it was actually quite pretty.
The town itself is more of a tourist road on the way to the monastery. There were a few restaurants, shops a supermarket and plenty of souverir spots. As a result of COVID lockdowns, self driving tours and holidays have had a bit of a surge in popularity and so has this part of the country. The upshot being, it was a very busy and bustling place to be and a usual I caused quite a distraction. A foreigner speaking Chinese in the middle of nowhere does seem to stand out. For the most part, it was fine, but I got a fair amount of angry people personally offended by my presence in their holiday destination. Business as usual.
The first day I was feeling a little under the weather, combination of being exhausted and a drastic change in altitude, so I took it easy. It was fine, the weather was not great so a slow wander about town was fine.
The second morning the weather was much better so I went up to the monastery. The entry and ticket gates were packed with people but once inside it was OK. Bottle necked in places but nothing I couldn't handle. The majority of the monastery is open to the public with only a few section off limits. The monks were happy to explain anything and were generally quite chatty and friendly. To be honest they asked me more questions that I asked them but as I was in no rush, I didn't mind answering them.
The most impressive part in my opinion was one of the "look out" spots up on a small hill. On the one side you could look over the monastery itself with some stunning and dramatic mountain scenery behind you. Just stunning!
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