These were the people sitting by us on the train to Yinchuan. It was a 19-hour train ride that turned into 21 hours. We killed the first 6ish hours by chatting with these gentlemen and playing a card game. After that, the ride was pretty brutal because it was overnight, we were tired, and we had seats instead of sleepers. The beginning of the journey was really beautiful as the train was travelling through the mountains. When we weren't in one of the 106 tunnels the views of the mountains were breathtaking! The boy in the front is named George. He also had the picture on his camera and we are now email friends. His English is really good. The other two could not speak English but thankfully I had a translator with me. 😉 She slept more than I did and one of the guys even commented that they wanted to talk but couldn't because the translator was sleeping!

Gretl and I arrived in Yinchuan a day ahead of the rest of the crew so we had some time to explore before the camel adventure. Here is the only picture I took of Yinchuan on the evening that we arrived in town. Yinchuan is a city of 1 million people. (a very small city in China standards...but still pretty large) Our full day (the next day) was to be spent out of town in the mountains of Dawukou climbing to the wild great wall!

I noticed that they were both wearing Wyoming shirts! 🙂 I had to take a picture!

After walking through the sand river (that's not the name, just what it was) we climbed part of the mountains to get to this spot. This is an unrestored section of the Great Wall. I was kind of a chicken because I have this immoderate fear of heights. I didn't climb the steeper part of the wall but chose to stay on this tiny little section of it!

Gretl and me in front of the mountains. People in this part of the country are not used to seeing foreigners. Needless to say, I got a lot of stares and even more "Hello"s.

Coming off of the mountain, we stumbled upon this little boy. He looked so sad. I can only imagine what he was hiding from. He tried to 'hide' from me in the picture, but I waited long enough until his curiosity got the best of him. I couldn't resist.

Also on our way out of the mountains we came across this wall. Apparently, barbed wire isn't known in this part of the world. I actually like this security method better. It's much more light reflecting and beautiful!

Sometimes when you are waiting or you have nothing better to do, you practice the squat. I'm not so great at the squat. To be really good at it you are able to have both feet flat on the ground and both legs together. I have seen many-a Chinese man in this position, on a curb, smoking a cigarette, for at least 30 minutes. My knees would get tired. I'm glad there are only a few times when I HAVE to be in this position.