In the Jailhouse now --- At the  start of this third and final season of this journey along the Great Wall, I had taken the train to the friendly city of Lanzhou in the west of China. After a couple days of inquiring, I found a bus heading back towards the zone where the journey ended the previous year. It was a 6 hour bus ride through this semi-arid region with little to see or do but sleep. Stopping in a populated area, the bus was boarded by an official who walked straight to me and indicated to get off and go with him. Unloading my backpack, the bus pulled away leaving me behind in the hands of the law once again.

All the passengers peered out the window at me as the bus rolled away.  Like before, the interrogations took place, but in Chinese this time with no translator. The Chinese that I picked up in the past two years was slightly rusty but I remembered enough to figure out what was happening. Frustrated, he showed me the money in his wallet. I said "no thank you", but he didn't understand the humor. He was placing a $16 fine on my wrong doings. Not arguing, I paid and he wrote out a very official looking receipt with a carbon copy and then turned his attention to my bags on the floor. He wanted all my film, and I was well stocked.

After a 'heated' confrontation, he finally accepted that the film in the sealed boxes were unused and that I could keep them. With no apology letter, just the fine, I was taken to a building that acted as a hotel and given a comfortable room with western style curtains. There was no lock on the door, so I suppose I could of tried an escape, but there was no place to run to and certainly no place to hide.

Left alone for several hours, an elderly man opened the door and escorted me to a restaurant a few buildings away. Joining the arresting officer, we had a great dinner and drank numerous beers before being taken back to my 'cell'.  In the morning, the three of us had a long breakfast before the short walk back to the police station, where my bags were sitting.  Curious as to what was to happen next, they were not interested in explaining, so I just waited. Occasionally we would catch each other's eyes and just smile.

A couple hours later the same bus that dropped me off was waiting outside and the elderly man and I boarded for the drive back to Lanzhou, where I was set free.  Once again, the night in the hotel, the bus ride, and all the food was 'on the house'!