Another way way way too short day. However, and especially on the basis of what certainly looks like a total lack of lodging after Xihua and before the top of the mountain, it may have been the only choice I had available to me.

Knowing this, I was prone to dawdling, and the twenty minutes that I took to work on something for Big Media Client were part of the hour I spent getting a foot massage and pedicure.

I also tried very hard to get a phone mount for my handlebars so I could try for some hands free video of the climb, the tunnel, or the descent. Unfortunately, it was an exercise in futility where no solution could be found that didn't result in a large portion of what the camera could see being anything other than the handlebar bag.

If not for my actively trying to waste time, this might have even annoyed me.

However, I was trying to actively waste time, so it was okay.

Tomorrow will be the third time I cross Guanshan. The tunnel at 2200m isn't even the highest I've been while biking. However, not counting the Tour of Qinghai Lake¹, it's the highest I've been while not actively medicated for my altitude linked breathing issue.

The first time I crossed Guanshan, back in 2012, was the episode that led to me spending a hospitalized night on oxygen and which sparked my habit of things like carrying a pulse oximeter and is why I had lung function tests during this trip's Hainan interval.

Xihua isn't very far from Huating County but it's far enough that it's 8 less kilometers of climbing tomorrow, it's far enough that I can sleep an extra 100 meters higher than if I spent the night in the city, and it's far enough that my day is merely short rather than pathetically short.

As is beginning to be the pattern for Gansu, I'll start my evening at the police station. First by getting shouted at by some nervous Han who don't like someone that looks like she might be an ethnic minority just riding a bike with stuff on it past the police station gate without stopping and then by an overwhelming excess of friendly "okay, sure, does anyone know the steps for registering foreigners" that it isn't until I'm in my hotel room² that anyone realizes they forgot basic Covid related checks for all travelers³ (like my green code and my vaccination status).

Out of the four nights total I've spent in Huating now on three different trips, while most of my foreigner rejection data remains self-reported by myself, I've definitely got enough data points now to say that the issues with foreigner registration being a "problem" in some places and not others—while still far more likely to happen in a county seat than anywhere else—are definitely linked to policies, habits, or leaders at the county level.

If it's going to be an issue, it will be an issue no matter what I do to make it not an issue. But if it's not going to be an issue, even though the people involved may not know what to do or how, they won't be obstructionists. Furthermore, once any place in a given county has been an issue, the chances of any other place in that county being an issue go up enormously.

¹ Where I was staff, rather than doing anything physical; where I had multiple episodes of passing out while trying to do complicated tasks such as "getting out of the Secretariat van" or "walking down the street"; and, where I first experienced the joyous highs of an oxygen starved brain being given oxygen

²At 50y a night, the cheaper of the two in town

³ As is the way—it doesn't matter how long I spend still dressed—any realization by anyone official that they need to come by my hotel room after I am in it will happen immediately after I've taken my clothing off.