A study in frustration

I am now substantially into my third day of trying to move on from Xining. Today I got as far as the bus station, presented my carefully gathered and prepared script in Chinese requesting the bus tickets for a sleeper bus; and was prepared to follow up with questions designed to get me information about where and when it left and other such details. I was met by the blanket refusal - not possible. No indication of why. Possible reasons include:the bus don't go there from here; the area is closed; the area is closed to foreigners; it doesn't run until the roads are clear of snow; I was asking for the wrong location (a possibility, because I had made one mistake on the ordering of locations on my itinary); or I don't have a flying saucer licence. So now I am back to the cycle, oft repeated with variations, of garnering information; liasing with the tour operator to try and get tickets and tour round bus stations, taxi operators; and lunatic asylums - the last looking for a place to lay my exploding head.

Last night I had a reminder of a question that I find frustrating, because I don't know the answer to it. Why is it that otherwise liberal, cosmopolitan, tolerant, non-prejudiced, people find it all right to be attrociously racist when it comes to the Chinese; expressing sentiments that in other circumstances would be viewed as more racist than the views of the National Front? The attitude seems to be "oh, its all right, it doesn't count as racist because it's only the Chinese". I had an example of this not long before I left on my travels; and last night a repeat of such views from a fellow guest at the YHA - a Swede no less.