Day 34

3. June 2000, Zhangye to Lanzhou

We are now driving into the greener, more populated and more developed areas of China. Lanzhou is one of the bigger cities of China with about two million inhabitants. The day's drive was mostly long overland with the last bit going through the hills. The police decided to escort us into the busy city of Lanzhou and therefore we have an additional time-check outside Lanzhou. Today we got to see many more people than on our route so far. They also seem to wear better clothes and therefore more well-off than in those areas we drove through before. Lanzhou itself is a stark contrast to the desert cities and villages we have seen before but I will report about Lanzhou in more detail tomorrow, as we have a rest day there.