A while ago, I saw Spring Airlines selling a round-trip pass to/from Lanzhou on a Douyin live stream. Each pass costs 100 RMB and can be redeemed for flights operated by Spring Airlines to or from Lanzhou. Originally, I planned a three or four-day trip—flying from Shanghai to Lanzhou, then transferring to Ili (Yining), Hotan, or Altay in southern Xinjiang from Lanzhou. But when I finally arranged my schedule and tried to redeem the pass, there were hardly any tickets left. So I changed my original three-day itinerary and, after some adjustments, decided on a three-day, three-city tour across three provinces: Lanzhou, Hohhot, and Datong. To make this consecutive break happen, I went without a single day off for a full twenty days just to swap for this three-day mini-vacation.

As usual, I took the G1985 train at 21:09 to Shanghai Hongqiao Station. Since my flight tomorrow morning departs from Shanghai Pudong Airport and the departure time complies with the airport's overnight check-in regulations, I can skip a night's accommodation—heading straight to the airport, checking in, and spending the night in the departure lounge.