| "When you get to Lanzhou, an overnight train ride from Xian, you feel that you have arrived in Central Asia. Lanzhou is the biggest city in Gansu Province, a largely Muslim place but with a large Buddhist temple that Hsuan Tsang probably saw on his own brief visit. On the train from Xian we met the man, pictured here at an outdoor noodle stand where we had a delicious lunch, who ended up accompanying me all the way to the border with Kyrgyzstan. His name translates from the Chinese as Brave King and that's what I called him."
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