30-Jun-2008 -- Story continues from 34°N 112°E.

We are pleasantly surprised to find that our nice, clean, very economical hotel in Yīchuān also includes complimentary breakfast. After enjoying this, we check out and head on over to the long-distance bus station, where we learn that, to catch a bus to Rǔzhōu City (汝州市), we must first take a commuter bus 4 km east to another bus station in the nearby town of Shuǐzhài (水寨镇).

We don't have to wait too long in Shuǐzhài for a passing bus SE to Rǔzhōu, and arrive in Rǔzhōu at around 9:30 a.m. The confluence is 25 km SE. The air pollution is quite bad, "even worse than Hong Kong," Ah Feng remarks.

A brief tuk-tuk ride takes us to another bus station in Rǔzhōu, from where we are immediately on our way again, on a bus SE to Lùzhài Village (路寨村). Along the way, we pass a horse-drawn cart, with a spare in the back!

The confluence is just over 3 km SE of Lùzhài, across the county border in Bǎofēng County (宝丰县). We engage another tuk-tuk, and after one false start, where we end up at a dead end in the middle of some fields, we soon find our way to the point, parking just 35 m NE of it. In fact, the confluence is just 375 m SE of the main road.

Like the first confluence of this trip, this confluence is also in a wheat-cum-cornfield. Zhāngzhuāng Village (张庄村) lies just to the north, on the other side of the track where our tuk-tuk is parked, across a small, dry canal. To the south, east and west, there are simply more fields. A few dozen metres SE is a large tree with a mound at its base - perhaps a grave.

Story continues at 35°N 114°E.