The first ten kilometers south from Tianshui to Zaojiao is a singularly unpretty road. The next ten kilometers, unless they've changed a lot in the last six years were unremarkable and uninteresting. On the ride from Tianshui to Yanguan, things don't really start to get interesting until at least the halfway point. So, now that I find myself not only starting from Tianshui but starting from the middle of Tianshui, it behooved me to take a bit of a look at the maps and see if I could find some other way to go.

It seems, no matter what, if I want to head in the direction of Yanguan and Li County that my first 15 kilometers or so are going to have to be on a National Road but if it must be then it must be. Now, instead of going south, I'm going to go west. I'll head to Jikou where I'll turn south, go up what looks like some very gnarly switchbacks, cross the mountains at Qinling, and descend descend descend to Yanguan.

From the topo at least, it looks like it should be a good route. Also, it not only shows up on the paper maps, it's also on both the Chinese and international electronic maps. I didn't check Baidu maps because, well, Baidu maps suck sweaty socks but AMap has it and while AMap might sometimes be a little overly enthusiastic in telling me that things exist, if the paper maps also say it exists, I'm reasonably confident that it does, in fact, exist.

It existed.

It was also road works almost the whole day.

From shortly after leaving the breakfast I was treated to by one of the customers of the farmhouse restaurant from six years ago (he saw me post on my WeChat Moments that I was in Tianshui), I hit roadworks. In the beginning, they weren't so bad. In the beginning, I was close to the city and there were water trucks and misters being sprayed to keep the dust down. Mostly they just used more energy than riding on pavement would take.

The only place they were really, unequivocally "bad" was just past Jikou. I've encountered yet another place where one of the National Roads is being extended and the place where I left the 'National Road to Be" and got back on to the "Country Road that Is" was kind of steep. As in, "they may as well just cut stairs" kind of steep. Except they can't. Cause wheeled things are still using it. 

Once I got back to pavement, it was actually rideable pretty much the whole rest of the day. Even when the pavement went away again. The amount of weight I've not taken in terms of luggage is more or less equally matched by the amount of weight I've added to my body so I think I must be stronger. That or I have lower granny gears. In any case, I oozed my way slowly up the mountain through shady managed forests that I would have thought wild if not for the people raking leaves and doing other forest managing behaviors. 

The sky is a lovely brilliant blue. The temperatures are warm enough to be in shorts and a single jersey with no sleeves. The air might be what a lowlander like me considers 'low on oxygen' but the percentage is higher than it has been for much of my recent past and I did take one of my altitude pills just in case. (Not that, it being an off-label usage, I know if it's at all useful to start the day of.)

A few days ago, one of my friends found the phone number of the Xinmin Township Government for me. I'd already told the Ningxia Bureau of Antiquities about the landslide at the Shiyaowan Grottoes but I figure I should tell the locals as well. I call at lunchtime where I talk to first one and then another person who have never heard of the grottoes. When I call back at 3pm, I get someone who says they know about the landslide already and are dealing with it but I'm not sure. Unfortunately, I also don't have any way to check.

As I descend and get closer to the main road what was the S306 but is now, like so many other roads in this part of China, yet another National Road, there starts to be more paving showing up among the road works. It's also in worse condition. Like it has been around longer and used harder. There are potholes to avoid now instead of just places where the dirt surface suddenly changes because it's had one less round of rollers tamping it down. Even if everything is pretty darn boring afterwards, I'm still very glad to get to the main road and legit pavement.

It's not much farther from there to Yanguan. In the intervening years, Yanguan has gotten an expressway and an expressway exit. It has smeared farther to the east and to the west. The south section of the original crossroads main street leading to the Salt Well Temple that gives the town its name has been prettied up in ye olde fashion.

First hotel tells me they don't have anything available. Sold out. A different member of the family sees me leaving, not realizing I just left, and brings me back. Minor drama ensues. I leave again.

Second hotel tells me they're closed. They might even be telling the truth.

For the third hotel I pick someplace clearly Muslim owned near the mosque. They're super friendly. We don't try the computer because it hasn't worked yet in Gansu and why bother with something that isn't working. They do call the police, however. 

And, the police, other than some minor frustrations with they themselves admitting that they don't actually know what to do, are fine with me staying. Thrilled that I know what is supposed to be done though, of course, they are going to need to call in to their county level supervisors and check anyways that what I've said is right. And, what I've said is right. 

If it weren't for the fact that for the past few years I've been accustomed to just being able to do this with the computer, I'm seriously considering making my own damn photocopies and pre-filled out form.