From Muleihe we have been riding through a greener and more cultivated area studded with neat little Kazakh houses traditionally painted white with pale blue doors and window frames.
It appears to be a prosperous agricultural area - we have seen no ploughing animals as in other parts of China, and American company John Deere have a strong presence, though large pieces of machinery such as shown below outside a farmhouse are likely to be contracted. We saw a lot of agricultural eqipment such as this being transported across the Gobi.
We have even had some rain, and had to negotiate this river weir just outside Muleihe - the wooden bridge described by French and Cable is no more, although the main road crosses a modern bridge to the south of the town.
The horses were not at all impressed by the swift sheet of floodwater, and Peng sacrificed himself to the cause by dismounting and giving us all a lead - but he had a change of clothes at the ready!
Arriving at Laoqitai (Old Qitai). In the days of French and Cable it was called Qitai, whereas the current Qitai was called Gucheng (Old City).
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