...keeps my camera busy? ...diminshes one's bank account? ...keeps one happy and sane? (But of course!)
Whatever the reason, it's time to be off again, this time to Zhongwei (中卫) in Ningxia Province and Xiahe 夏河 in southern Gansu. Expect this to be rough: we're beginning with a 22hr. on a hard sleeper train, and our return trip is uncertain (will we get back to Beijing in time for Andrea to go to class and I to work?), depending on the reliability of Chinese travel agents (...). These national holidays stress me out.
On the positive side, there will be deserts of vast proportions, hairy camels, grasslands, Tibetan monasteries, more grasslands, and of course, the sparkling cleanliness of rural China. I very much look forward to it all.
Last month I was in Nanjing & Shanghai, and it was most relaxing. I crashed the wonderful hospitality of Zhenzhen (who lives in a mountain terrace), woke up at 10am, looked for plum blossoms, and wandered around in the nearby mountain.
All this confirmed a realization—slowly dawning all this year—that contrary to what I believed growing up, Beijing is not the best place to be in China. In fact, right now, sometimes it's not very pleasant at all. When you think about cities like Kunming and Nanjing—warm weather, trees galore, clean air, less crowded, no traffic jams, cheaper living—you wonder why you are in Beijing at all. Not that I have lost faith in my home city (for it is still home, despite all the years away and all its annoyances and flaws), but it does make me want to get away. Home is not home because you'll always want to live there, but because you'll belong to it and know it even if you are several elsewheres away.
I've stayed up too late packing again; some things never change.
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