I'm not referring to a giant bending over, taking both ends, and cracking the city in two.
Rather, I mean, we took our cameras out and snapped some photos.
It started off as a typical winter morning - bleary, grey skies of underpant grey.
Here's the front gate of our university. A friend studying in the UK has herons on an idyllic small lake on her campus. We have runaway Siberian hamsters, open drains bubbling with sewage and undercover cops on ours!
We took the 35 to the bus station or རླངས་འཁོར་འབབ་ཚགས་for those in the know.
Behind the Tibetan market is a large complex of corrugated shop fronts selling giant packs of biscuits (I use the word biscuit in the loosest possible sense - think of chemical wafers), cartons of juice (again juice in the loosest sense of the word -- the closest those drinks came to a fruit was when someone flicked cigarette ash on them in the factory), sacks of tea, and big boxes of firecrackers and fireworks. Nasty things. So I took a photo of something else red.
Zooming through these narrow market alleyways were goods-laden mini-tractors, roaring like they were -- as my friend noted -- in a James Bond movie car chase. Teenaged drivers whooping in boyish, albeit reckless, delight. It was too much for my fragile nerves so after a quick snap of this political blackboard we left this shopping heaven...
...for another building site. This is Xining's old and new train station. Currently under construction, here it is next to the dry, tiled river. Sadly it won't be finished for another few years. Wikitravel says it is being readied for a new high speed rail access to Lanzhou and Urumqi!
On the way east out of Xining you can see new rail tracks being laid down.
Inside the bus station of blue plastic seats and grubby travellers, there are two very good Tibetan bookshops. I bought the "Government Officials Guide to Spoken Amdo!" from a lovely Amdo woman who wore the hint of lipstick and smiled lots.
Healthy living is alive and kicking in Xining. Check out this bike tied up opposite one of the snack stalls (I use the word snack very loosely).
Across the other side of the city is where the KFCs live.
Here is the local paper seller and the busy bus stop nearby my gym. You get alsorts waiting here. Including me.
That's Xining snapped for you!
