Minfeng 22/05/13

Today was spent in a bus driving from Minfeng to Ruoquiang, still on the southern Silk Route. We had an abortive visit to an ancient and a museum, both of which were very shut. We had lunch in an oasis, a dead end place where everything was derelict and dusty. And then we ran into a sand storm where visibility was reduced to a few metres and the bus crawled along in convoy. We arrived about 8pm to an extraordinarily grand hotel in a place which was another dusty oasis of 50,000 people. Personally I am off buses and we have another three days of long distance driving.

The lunch oasis.

Very long lived trees which are resistant to drought, a form of poplar.