Day 3

24h train ride! Soft sitter is surprisingly more comfortable than I thought... but no wifi :( I looked out of the window and saw mountains flashing past. Upon closer examination, there are actually beautiful farmlands and dilapidated houses on smoother parts of the mountain! I started to wonder, has these parts of rural China been abandoned as they do not have any tourist attractions? Has the Chinese government been focussing more on the more famous parts of the Silk Road to gain more publicity and in the process, ignoring these rural areas? In my opinion, this is entirely plausible and these places will remain agrarian until further policy changes.