Xian and Gansu

near tibetan lake, originally uploaded by Nazoox.

So I just returned Saturday afternoon from quite a set of adventures. ACC (my Chinese Language program) organized a trip out to Xian last friday, giving us Monday through Wednesday off from class. After two days of travelling around, seeing the Terracotta Warriors (rumored to be the 8th Wonder of the World?) and some temples and tombs, Wills, Ben, Amy and I convinced our teachers to let us take a 15 hour trip to the province of Gansu. After signing a waiver saying that ACC was not responsible for us, we headed out to the train station, and eventually ended up on quite a sketchy sleeper bus, that was rumored to only be 8 hours long. In the morning, we found out that we had an extra seven hours and that the guys below us would not stop smoking.
We finally made it into Lanzhou (rumored to be the world's most polluted city) and quickly escaped to a small town, Linxia, nearby for the nice. Wills and Ben almost bought motorcycles to ride all the way back to Beijing (we wouldnt have made it even in the 5 days that we had). We left that city and finally got to Xiahe where we found that we could rent motorcycles for $20 a motorcycle per day. We rode off and set up our tent about 15 kilometers from town. In the morning we met the guy who's land we were on, but he didn't seem to mind us. We went back through town and off to the grasslands on Wednesday. Wills proved less hardcore than the locals and had a spill in the river, getting one motorcycle and our two bags very wet. We camped on someone else's land and even used our makeshift stove (white gas in a metal mug with holes in it) to cook some instant pasta. In the morning we again met our not to excited land owner who only spoke Tibetan. We managed to get the bikes working (this being about the 5th time that they had trouble) and took off for another grassland. We made it back across the river and Will's managed to drag our bags through the water after they fell off of his bike. That night, after both motorcycles got flat tires, we camped up in the mountains, again visited by our host, who finally agreed to let us stay the night on his land for $10. In the morning, our tent and the surrounding mountains were covered in snow. We hiked back down in the morning and I hitched a ride into town to get a car to pick us up. So that same day we headed back into town, and even got an English speaking guide to drive us back to Lanzhou (6 hours). That night we hit the "Fire Bar" and the next morning got up early, found plane tickets, and flew the two hours back to Beijing. So now I'm here after missing two days of class, trying to catch up and again trying to get used to this enormous city. More pictures and stories as soon as I get my internet back (maybe my punishment for missing class?).