THUNDER FROM ABOVE / Zhangye / 30.6. 2007

The sound is oh so familiar. Even though I have not heard it since my childhood. And even then only a few times. But as a young boy you do remember these things. Finland used to have MIG 21s… I think. Luckily not any more. If not for anything else but the noise, not to mention the fuel consumption. And somehow I do not trust Russian engineering but I am by no means an expert on aviation

Theses Chinese MiGs are sure upgraded versions and much more sophisticated than the Finnish ones. Our camp was just outside the air base, surprising close in fact. The thunder kept going for the whole afternoon and continued next morning. Every day of the week. These fighter jets are improved versions, copies of the Russian original and they are called J7 or F7 –but the sound is the same. One wonders how these local farmers can stand this noise - We have no other alternative, said our local host. Middle aged man who with his wife kindly let us stay close to their small farm. He said this with no anger or anything like it. Just as a fact. And that describes in a nutshell a very typical Chinese attitude. This is a pragmatic way of looking at things – but with that attitude very little changes. As is the case in this country. Do not question orders from above. Just obey. These jets were in the air for most of the day – good for them that the oil plants are so close. This kind of practicing is not cheap. We finally arrived in Zhangye – or Ganchow as it was called. Funny how these places change names. Not to mention the spelling in Latin letters. And that is one of the reasons for the difficulties to find certain locations on a map. And to find a good map is totally another story. Chinese maps are not good - for westerners at least…but even if you have a decent command of the Chinese language these local maps are nothing that remotely reminds you of good western maps. Why? Because maps used to confidential stuff, and still is. Maps are dangerous documents. Only for the chosen few. Phew.., say I. This would be so much easier with proper road maps. Then again our local crew m embers are not capable of reading maps either. True. And amazing..Not to mention estimation of distances. So, travel in China is really hard work – “ travail” Anyway - Zhangye is a quite nice town. Lot of trees and the quarter around the enormous reclining Buddha is nice – like from an old movie. Lot of small shops with some antiques even. Most of the stuff is new – made to look old. Just like many similar buildings. His is not a foreign tourist town…yet that is. O the prices are decent and everybody looks at you as you just landed from the moon. Somehow we are almost used to it. The reclining Buddha is in a building inside the gates of this more or less old quarter. Everything is under repair – so it is very little one can see of the Buddha on his way to Nirvana. His mouth, with the contented smile is the size of a tall man. The light is a pair of harsh floodlight – no skylight because that is also under repair. Somehow a disappointment. All these construction frames steal, or steel the show. Am I complaining too much – don’t think so. They charged full entrance fee and did of course not mention anything. So, I decided to go out to check out the shops. An hour later I did find myself to be a proud owner of something that maybe is a monks silver chanting box. It is covered with a beautiful cloth and it must be very old… ? ------------------------------------------------------ “ 6.1. 1908 / Ganchow All the other buildings look rather humble. The only decoration is here and there growing big curved trees. The amount of shops is great. They are said to be 2355 and I think that is a correct number. Two branches of Chinese banks can also be found. No restaurants are to be seen but a frightful amount of coffin workshops – everybody is hammering, smoothing and working as if a larger epidemic was on its way. Industries nothing s to be seen but distilleries and some paper works. The paper is then hanged out to dry on almost every house wall in the northern part of the city has a dark brownish color and seems to be of quite good quality… “ -------------------------------------------------------- The people, curious as they are - are in general very friendly. A smile is almost every time returned with a smile. This is true for almost every place we have been to since March. You get the same genuine smile many times a day. A bit likes the food – nice and fulfilling. But the same every day. Hey say that it is not before Xian that the food gets more diverse. Maybe that goes for the face expressions too. If this sounds a bit unfair – it is because it is. No lack of restaurants here - small eateries are to be found everywhere. With almost the same menu. The meeting place for young people on China is the KTV – that is the Chinese version of Karaoke bars. Private rooms of different size – all equipped with a computer, loudspeakers and some microphones. And an electronic library of thousands and thousand of songs. A small percentage is western music, mostly overused evergreens. Our guide Ayken – himself a frequent user of these establishments convinced us to dive into one. A small smoky room with plastic sofas in pink. A few bears and off we went into the Karaoke reality. A few hours and too many bears later we surfaced out on the street. We had been singing all the usual suspects – Delilah, My way, Release me, Sailing, Your song…. Plus a selection of sentimental Chinese loves songs. As we strolled to our hotel in the warm summer night we realized that this street was more or less filled with bars of all sorts. This must be a university town. The next morning felt like Monday morning. Like a very early Monday morning. But better get going before it gets too hot..

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