Outings in Lanzhou

Yesterday, after naptime, we visited the Ganzu Provincial Museum. This is the home of the Galloping Horse. This a bronze statue that is considered one of China's national treasures. It is considered so precious that it is the only item in the museum that can not be photographed. Oh... and I found out that you can not take pictures of any other displays in the room with the Galloping Horse. This was a lesson learn after I snapped a picture near the statue and the security guard came running toward me. There I go again!

The museum focused primarily on the China Silk Road and items that were unearthed from the road, the history of pottery in Ganzu, and fossils found in Ganzu.

We were on our own for the evening. We have arrangements to have dinner each night in the dining room downstairs which serves a buffet. In need of an adventure, we loaded up the kids in the stroller and started walking. Speaking of our stroller - everyone here is fascinated by it. We thought it was because it was one of the new sit-and-stand strollers where Tru sits in the front and Lin-Ley can sit on stand on the back. But the comments are "Look it holds two babies." So I thought about it and I finally figured it out. In China you can only have one baby so there would be no need for a double stroller....

Our adventure led us to a shopping area and a Kentucky Fried Chicken. It took about 15 minutes to order (thank goodness for picture menus). The chicken was spicy. We were hesitant to eat it but were hungry enough for some "American" food that we ate it all and then ordered more. I think it was safe to say that we were probably the center of attention. We sat by a window and everyone around us in the restaurant was turned to look at us and people would stop to stare into the window from outside.

Today we visited Five-Spring Park and the Lanzhou zoo. There are two pandas at the zoo but just like the Beijing zoo they were either sleeping or kept their backs to us - so no good photos. But there was

an opportunity for a camel ride. I convinced Dallas to take Lin-Ley for a ride. However, they both agreed that just sitting on the camel was enough...

The park was a beautiful, shaded trail up the side of a mountain. Many people walk the trail every morning for their daily exercise. Some of the older people walk up the mountain backwards for good luck. One of our stops was at a Buddhist Temple. Today was one of two days each month that people would come to the temple for prayer.

Lin-Ley and Amber (one of our local guides).

Lin-Ley is performing a few ballet moves.

For lunch we had Ganzu's famous beef noodles. They brought us sooo much food. One of the side dishes was what looked and tasted like roast beef. We found out later that it was roast yak!