Hey Hey and a big G'Day
 
What a wonderful life and what a wonderful place to live.
 
I've spent the last two evenings walking the city and changing my Chinese map into English. Have got lost a few times but the city is not that big so in the end I always walk past something that looks familiar and I know I'm somewhere where I should be able to find my way back home again. It doesn't help that it's dark and when I pass by another old alley I'm drawn into it to explore. What usually happens is that I end up totally confused and lost again and the search for something familiar begins again.
 
Mate I love exploring new cities.
 
Lunch times so far have been spent walking along the river bank to the second bridge, crossing that and heading back along the other side of the river. All up it takes around fifty or so minutes. After school I've been chatting to some of the kids and then head out to find an alley full of street eats and spend an hour or so moving from stall to stall. The next three or four hours have been spend simply walking and getting lost in the excitement of life.
 
Tonight I finally found what I've been looking for several months, a decent lightweight pair of hiking boots. In Lanzhou they had 'hiking' boots, meaning heavy and thick and terrible to pack. Baiyin, well Baiyin had sheep's wool boots and not a lot else I'm afraid.
 
And Tiger Beer never appeared on the Great Supermarket In The Desert shelves again.
 
Where was I...oh yes hiking boots. Tonight I found a great pair of lightweight boots. I was after hiking shoes but these boots aren't as high as normal boots so they should be cool. They'll be used mainly for what I do best, walking!
 
That is when I'm not walking in my sandals!
 
Tonight I made my way to the huge stone archway and spent a lot of the time walking the dimly lit streets of the old quarter. It was a beautiful night and I ended up winding my way through the little streets until I reached the farm land on the cities edge. I stopped to pat a few fat happy cats lazing the night away on some of the little store counters and really gave some of the locals something to talk about. I don't think there have been too many foreigners in Shaowu City, mainly teachers I'd say and I don't think a foreigner has ventured that far into the old quarter before.
 
Anyhow that's it from me this evening.
I hope to post some photos soon but right now it's time to hang some washing out.
An entire load finished and I never had to fill a single bucket!
Life just keeps getting better and better!
 
Below is some information my buddy sent me on Shaowu City.
 
Beers N Noodles to you all.....shane
 
Inner City area: 10 km2
Population: 120,000
Per Capital: 7500 RMB
Forest Covers: 70% of land area
Farmers Per Capital: 3400 RMB
Schools Of All Levels: 164
Pupil Enrolment Rate: 99.8%
 
Weather Forecast: Thursday 21st: 1-17, Friday 22nd: 1-18, Saturday 23rd: 5-17
Now that beats -10 to -20!