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Our train journey out of Zhangye that evening was probably the best I've ever had. Shortages of normal hard seat tickets meant we'd had to pay for more expensive soft seats - very exciting, as it was the first time any of us had done so. Soft seats are arranged in rows of two, they have more leg room, they can recline and there are no people with standing tickets sharing your carriage and blocking the aisles. Not just that, but thanks to some very complicated seating switches made to appease other travellers who wanted to sit with their families, Hannah, Cat and I ended up all sat around a table together. It was beautiful, although I don't think the man sharing the table with us really appreciated our excitement. He especially didn't appreciate it when Hannah burst out laughing mid-drink and spat a mouthful of water all over him and his fancy laptop, and we were all suitably embarrassed after this (and our subsequent fit of hysterics) that we settled down quietly to read for the rest of the journey.
Things went rapidly downhill as soon as we arrived in Jiayuguan. The whole point of stopping off there was to visit Jiayuguan fort, the last and most westerly fort on the Great Wall and the one through whose gates exiles would be marched out into the desert. Unfortunately, the fort was a big disappointment. It was full of people costumed as Imperial guards and soldiers, stands selling tacky wax models of opera characters, little old women with elaborate obstacle courses through which they'd send a set of mice if you paid them 10Y, a 'jousting arena' where teenagers who'd signed up were being trained in acrobatic stunts for scheduled demonstrations... and most of the actual fort was wrapped up in green netting for maintenance and reconstructive work. On the plus side, there was an interesting and very detailed display, full or archive photos, all about the history of the Great Wall... and also a decent array of not-too-expensive ice creams. On the down side (again), my skirt got caught under my backpack at some point, and I was strolling around with my bum and knickers on show for none-of-us-know-how-long. I caught on about twenty seconds after Cat, Hannah and a random old lady after I heard hysterical cackling whilst I was leaning over to look at a display in the gift shop. When I turned around, Cat and Hannah were rolling about on a bench, pointing and laughing, and the old lady was smirking and giggling and trying to avoid eye contact. Fantastic.
Having completed a circuit of all walls of the fort that weren't fenced off for the construction workers, taken the customary photos of ourselves peering through the battlements etc., and made a spectacle of myself, we fled the main fort compound for the park area outside. Here we rented a three-man tandem bike and spear-headed a campaign of terror against all nearby pedestrians. Three-man tandems are death-traps. We were careering all across the paths, nearly crashing to the floor every few minutes, screaming and shrieking and scattering other tourists as we went. Things improved as soon as I was removed from the position of control at the handlebars, and Cat stepped up as an impromptu tour-guide, narrating our progress in minute detail.
Our train out of Jiayuguan wasn't until 3am that night/the next morning. Luckily, we'd already found a 24-hr internet cafe just opposite the station so we set ourselves up there in the evening. All in all, we were there more than 6 hours. We were definitely the only three people in the room not involved in intense online gaming; instead we killed the time with marathon Skype sessions home and extensive trawling through the Daily Mail website (I know, I know. We judge ourselves). The night was livened up by a panic when Cat's passport was discovered missing just minutes before our train was due to leave, but it all worked out okay and we made it onto our train, this time to Dunhuang.
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