Left Zhangye early this morning and headed for Minle County (75 km) to see 2 historical sites - the Yuan Tong Pagoda in Liu Ba and the Ba Gua Ying site (Ancient Tomb). We arrived at 1000 and were surprised to see it snowing. It rained, snowed and hailed until about 3 pm when the sun suddenly popped out and melted all the snow off the ground.

Minle is a nasty little town, construction everywhere with piles of sand and rocks in front of every other store being renovated, every other store is closed and empty (dead town). Brought me back to reality (China) with people yelling rather than talking, cars blowing their horn without stopping, cars double parked everywhere, cars making U turns in the middle of the road and the horns just blow even more. Sidewalks are filled with garbage and unpaved so everyone walks on the street rather on the sidewalk which only adds more to the traffic congestion and horn blowing. Nasty, Nasty, Nasty!

Taxi fees are 4RMB/2 km + 1.20/km, however, no one uses their meter. Hard to get a taxi because they all have their meter light open although their are passengers inside.

ZHANGYE - Small city but very nice - both old and new parts of the city are equally clean and well maintained. Many small buses everywhere but not too much traffic. No construction going on and very few high rise buildings. Most of the scenic spots are centrally located in downtown (old) area.

Da Fo Temple - 41 RMB - A bit pricey but well worth the ticket price.

Xi Lai Temple - Free - A historical site - very nice and well kept. Sits directly across from Wan Shou Temple (Pagoda).

Zhang Ye Gu Lou - Drum Tower right in the center of downtown - very nice and well kept.

Will visit some historical sites in 2 counties of Zhangye (Minle + Gaotai).

People in Guandong are friendly to strangers and willing to help. Hong Kong people are very civilized and helpful to strangers.

Least helpful and outright rude = Kunming and Hunan.

Travelling to Xinjiang is like visiting another country. The people are remarkable, they talk to one another, they laugh, they smile. They behave this way amongst each other and also with complete strangers.

When crossing the street, they do NOT blow their horn at you, they let you walk by without nearly running you over as they do here in Kunming.

There is a lot of Green energy being used in both Gansu and Xinjiang; wind turbines and fields of solar panels are found along the roads.

The high speed D trains are a real blessing. They get you from A to B in a very short time and there is NO smoking aboard these trains. The nasty smokers are first in line when the train stops so they can take quick drags of their nasty cigs as the train stops briefly to drop off and pick up passengers. Some stops are very brief and the conductors yell at the nasty smokers as they are forced to drop their cigs before they can finish smoking.

There are NO smoking signs in every public space in Xinjiang. Thats right, no smoking at the bus or train stations. Unlike Kunming where there are sings and everyone ignores them.

When people see that you are taking pictures, they either wait or walk around you - these people are aware of their surroundings and care about others. Don't expect to see this in Yunnan or Hunan.

If it wasn't for the cold weather, Xinjiang would be a great place to live - truly wonderful people.

Hope to get a reply from the OP about the questions I posted above and hopefully get the thread back on TOPIC. Interesting topic!