Manzhouli to Baiyin

An afternoon flight brought us back to Beijing where we had sufficient time for a meal in a noodle restaurant whilst waiting for our flight to Lanzhou. The flight was horribly turbulent, especially the last hour – the worst I have experienced in all my years of flying. Our late departure (the flight was delayed by 30 minutes) meant that we didn’t reach Lanzhou until 12.20am.

After retrieving our luggage we trooped out to the waiting minibuses for the drive to Baiyin which took a couple of hours. I finally closed the door on my hotel room at 2.30am. I got to bed at 3am with a slight sinking feeling, knowing that we had an early start ahead of us…