I take some time to pen the first notes in my journal, a hardbound black and white diary roughly the size of a letter with the thickness of a modest paperback book.
We left HK yesterday by bus and got here by noon. But no tickets for 3:10 pm train to Lanzhou. I bought hard seats for today. Praying to upgrade to sleeping berths.
HK is the most impressive city... in the world? Incredible. I was blown away.
The cycling draws near but is yet so far away, if not in days at least in distance. We will train to Lanzhou, switch tracks and train to Golmud. Will spend a couple of days acclimatizing in Golmud. Then the daunting challenge of 15,900-foot Kunlun Pass, within 200 kilometers of Golmud. That will put us onto Tibet's highlands. We feel like we have the gear to do this, the right compromises between weight and utility.
Guangzhou is at China's southern flank and is so much less than I've expected. No outward signs of the prosperity which is supposed to be found here. Northern China remains one of the best places in the world, and Lanzhou beckons.