Around China in 100 Days

Hohhot to Xiashihao – Day 42

We were up early-ish and I was keen to get going. Jennie was heading off to a bowling alley with some of the friends I had met the night before.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/128-M.jpg

Lulu went to see the museum which we had waited an extra day to see, and I looked after the packed bikes (which couldn’t be locked so someone needed to be there to look after our things) and read some Emerson because there was no secure parking at the parking lot.

Lulu had asked Maria in Shanghai to send us some WangBaoBao (chemical hot packs) so that we could drive comfortably in the cold weather we anticipated we would come across. Maria sent them to the Half the Sky centre in Hohhot, so that’s where we visited next, but it took us a while to find. I saw some Muslim influence on the architecture of some of the buildings, and I started to feel the effect of the ancient silk road.

As we got out of the city, Lulu had a go at me for not stopping at the Wangfu (palace) that she saw (but I didn’t). The sun was very low on the horizon, so keeping her temper in check, we got going back up into the mountains that separate the lowlands from the steppes, heading for Guyang.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave...T/0/O/1311.jpg

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave...Mn/0/O/130.jpg

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave...Lt/0/O/129.jpg


After 100 kilometers or so, when it started getting dark and we knew we wouldn’t make it to Guyang, we started looking for places to stay. No towns and no choices, we were soon competing with trucks and their high beams for space on the country road.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/131-M.jpg

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave...sZ/0/O/132.jpg


Another 60 kilometers and we found a small town which seemed to exist solely from the food and accommodation that long distance truckers need on a long country road.
We stumbled around in the dark and chanced upon a small, grubby, but entirely adequate room with no shower for 40 kuai for the night.

Xiashihao to Wulate Qianqi – Day 43

We found a shortcut around Guyang to Baotou, which saved us some time. I had been against the idea of going to Baotou, basing my travel assumptions on my trusty Lonely Planet, thinking that there weren’t alot of interesting things to see there. Lulu thought that only relying on the Lonely Planet to judge which places we should go, was a bad idea, and she wanted to see the Russian architecture of a city built with help from the Russians some 50 years or so ago. Again, I relented (even though I would have liked to continue along the easy and more enjoyable country roads), hoping to gain some favour for the next time I would need it. Mountain roads greeted us again as we swept back down into the lowlands to Baotou.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/133-M.jpg

It turned out that motorcycles aren’t allowed in the centre of Baotou, and the only interesting thing in the Lonely Planet (Wudang Lamasery, fairly important - I had forgotten to check the Lonely Planet that morning) was back near Guyang. I was a little annoyed with myself because it would have been great to see.

The road leading west out of Baotou left a fair bit to be desired. A jumble of dirty, smelly factories, a power station here and there, pillars of dust kicked up by the wind coming down off the mountains, and generally just boring roads with more trucks. The sky continued to darken in to the afternoon as the northerly winds kicked up tons of sand and dust.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/134-M.jpg

We got to Wulate Qianqi with a couple of hours of sunlight left and we decided to call it a day. We drove around looking for a place for us to stay, but this town is one that is very hard on the foreigner license rule, despite being out in the middle of nowhere. We drove around for almost two hours, unpacked and repacked my bike after one guesthouse had second thoughts, were offered a price that was too high for Lulu, and then gave up on the centre of town and started looking along the road out of town.

We came across a nice hotel, which was supposed to open the day after we got there but opened a room for us. That was our first hotel for the trip so far and with a price that we could both agree on.

Wulate Qianqi to Balagong – Day 44

The kitchen downstairs didn’t have any food for breakfast, so we ventured back into town for some seriously tasty, mildly spicy noodles. It was the peanuts that made them unforgettable. Lulu ordered them, so I have no idea about the name.

It wasn’t enough to fill me up though, so we found a roadside Mongolian burger stand, which also served some great food. We had to wait though, because a driver that came after us was “in a hurry”. Local priorities.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/135-M.jpg

Back on the road, we came across a convoy of trucks carting new versions of the concrete gers that we have seen so much of in Inner Mongolia, obviously in anticipation of a bumper tourist season of people who would love a taste for the nomad life. Not something I would pay to stay in though. I’m not sure concrete gers are such a big thing in nomadic Mongolian society.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/136-M.jpg


We looked on while a gust of wind toppled my trusty, top heavy steed.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/137-M.jpg

I spotted a Lifan sign on one of the shops as we passed through a small town, so we stopped to get the bikes an oil change. I think the last time we got them looked at was after Chengde, so they definitely needed some love.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/138-M.jpg

The shop didn’t have the spares that we had wanted to get our hands on for the past month or so, but we were told that in nearby Bayannur, there was a bigger dealership where we could find what we wanted.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/139-M.jpg

They were a little reluctant to hand over spares for parts that weren’t broken, but I wanted them just in case because I knew it could be hard finding the right size for our bikes in an emergency. We came out with an extra set of ball bearings for each of our bikes and some clutch plates for my bike. They didn’t have the right size for Lulu’s.
For the second time, we crossed the Huanghe (the Yellow River), the last time being in Shandong a couple of weeks ago. This is just one of the many dams designed to control the flow of a river that has caused so much destruction and loss of life throughout China’s history.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/140-M.jpg

Not long after crossing the river, we started to encounter bad roads which made going slow. We were told that the next town was 4 kilometers away, and after that it was 60 kilometers to the next place where we could find accommodation, so we stopped for the night in Balagong.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave...fT/0/O/141.jpg

This was one of those small towns where I could tell that everyone in town knew there was a foreigner there, where he was and what he was doing at any time. I was quite used to people staring at me by then, but here I could feel the whole town had eyes on me. It wasn’t too hard to find a place to stay though, and we had a nice Xinjiang style dinner.

Balagong to Dawukou – Day 45

We explored the local market and found some Guagua (translation: melon melon, i think) which Lulu is a fan of. A little bit expensive and apparently from Myanmar (???) it tasted pretty good and I got at least half of my 5+ a day.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../XL/142-XL.jpg

After breakfast, Lulu was pulled aside on the way to the public toilets (because our guesthouse had no private toilet) by a policeman who knew she was traveling with a foreigner. He asked where we were going and wanted to see my passport. She told them to wait, and then told them to give her a ride to the restaurant we had ordered food at. After presenting the required documents, they asked me what my job is, where I am going and how long we will be staying in the town. After attempting to tell them, in random Chinese words and hand gestures, that we were leaving after breakfast, they appeared satisfied and told me to be on my way.

The roads got worse as we traveled south along the G110, and I was impressed at how Lulu managed the roads on her bike. She did have a small fall or two in the sand though.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/143-M.jpg

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/144-M.jpg

After about 10 kilometers, the roads started to get better and we sped up, driving alongside the Huanghe, with scrubland reaching to the distant mountains on the other side. We stopped in Wuhai as we tried to find the short way over the river and through the desert to Alashan Zuoqi, and stocked up on provisions because we were sure there are no towns or shops on the way.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/145-M.jpg

We didn’t see a bridge or the way across the river that was depicted in the roadmap that we have, so we continued on to Wudang, a heavily industrialised and polluted city which had me breathing shallow breaths most of the way past the lines of factories producing solar panels, apparently part of the “green revolution” (solar energy: the solution to environmental degradation? really? I was barely able to breathe the noxious fumes coming out of that factory). Now that we couldn’t find the short way, we had to go through Ningxia, a province that Chairman Mao created especially for the Hui, the Sino-Muslim minority that live in many parts of China.

The Helan Shan mountains jumped out of the ground to the right, and the sun was low enough to make them look particularly beautiful. We turned down a road and I stopped to take a couple of photos while Lulu went on ahead to explore the road.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/146-M.jpg

She found a new-looking temple in the foothills asked an old lama who was having dinner if we could stay the night. Initially, he said yes, but when he knew that she was traveling with a man, he refused. We were a little disappointed because it would have been great to stay there. I got a picture with a monk who we suspected to be quite drunk. I had always associated Buddhist monks with abstinence and celibacy. I was starting to feel like being proven wrong would be a major theme for this journey.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/147-M.jpg

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/148-M.jpg

It took a while to find the nearest town and dusk fell quickly. We ended up driving in the dark to an unknown town, over torn up roads and dodging the ever present trucks.

Dawukou to Alashan Zuoqi – Day 46

After looking though the travel guide we found a couple of interesting places to visit. The Helan Shan rock carvings (or petroglyphs??) date back 10,000 years and are the oldest remnant of the early nomads that first lived in this area. We had to stop and ask for directions a couple of times, but found the usual tourist billboards to point us the way. The entry fee was 60 yuan to get in, but the clouds were free.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../X2/149-X2.jpg

Most of the carvings were small etching on rocks in hillsides of animals and hunters. There weren’t many, and with the crowds of tourists (something I had grown unused to during the past couple of weeks in Inner Mongolia, and were more than annoying) and the addition of pointless signs drawing attention to random things like rocks which had fallen down the mountainside I felt the faint taste of disappointment. The highlight was the distinctive carving of the Sun God.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../X2/150-X2.jpg

Just down the road were the Xixia burial mounds (also known as the Tanguts), tombs of their emperors and some of the few remnants of an empire that reached its peak about 900 years ago, before Genghis Khan came along with his army and wiped them out.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/151-M.jpg

The museum inside the compound really added to the experience and I felt like I learnt something about a civilisation that I had never heard of. But I had to be quick, because Lulu was looking after the bikes and it was almost closing time.

We left Ningxia, a fairly small province as Chinese provinces go, and headed over the Helan shan to Alashan Zuoqi which was apparently 70 kms away. It turned out to be more than 110 kilometres away and once again we were driving in the dark.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/152-M.jpg

We were back in Inner Mongolia, with plains stretching to the horizon.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/153-M.jpg

Just before Alashan Zuoqi, I happened to look up at the stars and saw something strange. At first I thought it was a jumbo jet and its’ streams of exhaust, but it was glowing and round. It exploded in a shower of yellow sparks and I figured that it was a satellite or some capsule crashing to earth. It was breathtaking to see that just by chance. A small piece continued to fall into the distance.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../X2/154-X2.jpg

Alashan Zuoqi’s streets were lit up like it was Christmas with neon lights hanging off the streetlights. We had no problem getting a place to stay, which I was particularly grateful for. We have figured out a system where I ask if they have rooms to spare, and if the potential host has issues with the foreigner thing, we know straight away and we move onto the next place.

Around Alashan Zuoqi – Day 47

I had been keen to get to Alashan Zuoqi in time for the Sunday markets, but when we turned up to the small carpark where it was held, there were only about fifteen vendors, their wares spread out on blankets on the concrete. We had a look around and I wanted to find some interesting things to buy for friends back in Chongqing, but nothing really caught my eye.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/155-M.jpg

We left the market and spent a while trying to find the Wangye temple, and had to ask several people where to go until we finally found it. The whole area looked as though it was under construction with scaffolding blocking footpaths and rubble closing off roads. The temple itself was undergoing restoration, but we were allowed to visit.

To the side of the temple was a deserted carpark littered with rubble and tools here and there. It turned out that this carpark was where the Sunday Market used to be held, but it had been shifted because of the renovation and new construction. I bet the relocation had played a part in making the new Sunday market less than noteworthy.

The temple itself was great. The buildings were weathered and looked and felt authentic (the parts that hadn’t been ‘restored’anyway), which was a welcome change to the cheap veneer of many of the temples we had seen so far. We didn’t meet any monks while we were there, but wondered if drinking Baijiu was a part of their Buddhist prayer ceremonies after seeing several bottles stashed under a table in one of the prayer rooms.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../X2/156-X2.jpg

We drove halfway to Guangzong Si, 40 kilometres outside of Alashan Zuoqi before I realised I had forgotten to fill up my nearly empty fuel tank. Lulu was perfectly happy to be left on the desolate side of the road while I went back to town to fill up.

When we got to Guangzong Si (Guangzong Temple) we realised that it wasn’t just one temple, but a series of temples spaced out across the mountain. We were allowed to drive the bike around on the roads there so it was easy to get between the temples. My favourite place by far was the temple clinging to a cliff face looking over the deserts and wastelands, exposed to the rough desert winds.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../X2/157-X2.jpg

At the main temple tolling gongs told us that a prayer ceremony was about to begin. The monk at the door told us that we weren’t allowed to take photos or video inside the temple, but Lulu took some video with the helmet camera anyway, concealed by her jacket.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../X2/158-X2.jpg

Alashan Zuoqi to Bayan Nuorigong – Day 48

We had a hard time getting up so we only managed to get going at about 2pm, but thinking that it was going to be an easy 190 km day, I wasn’t bothered too much. I was more bothered about the possibility of not having enough petrol to get us to the next petrol station. No-one we asked in town could give us a definitive answer where the next petrol station would be on the route we had chosen for the next couple of days. I filled up my spare bottle with about 1 litre just in case, which wouldn’t do much in an emergency.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave...J/0/O/1601.jpg

What looked like clear skies as we left the guest house turned grey and grumpy as we started out of town and drops of rain started to patter on my helmet. We stopped and got changed into our waterproof gear just before the rain stopped. It didn’t start again for the rest of the day, but the wind really started to pick up as we drove through the afternoon.

The roads were desolate and the landscape on either side of the road was barren and lifeless, apart from tufts of grass and the odd camel families.

About an hour into riding, the wind was so bad that, even though the road’s surface was perfect and there was no traffic, we had to slow down to below 40km/h. Lulu was having a particularly hard time controlling her bike as it was much lighter than mine. Several times she was nearly blown off onto the shoulder. We both kept riding through the gale until we found a town to find shelter in and have a snack. Trucks were lined up all along the road and I guessed that the truckies usually stop when the wind gets so bad and wait for it to blow over.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave...SJ/0/O/159.jpg

After the town, the wind died down a little, and we could get some speed up for the next couple of hours, sitting up against our bikes to shield ourselves from the wind during our breaks.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/160-M.jpg

We arrived in Bayan Nuorigong, a town of no more than 30 buildings and driving up the main road (the only road in the town) looking for a place to stay, we noticed that two of them were police stations, at each end of town. I was anxious about attracting the attention of the police (as we had done in Balagong, less than a week before), still unsure whether we needed some kind of permit to be in this area of Inner Mongolia. We found a guest house at the end of town and expected to have ‘foreigner’ problems. We were relieved to find that a couple of places would take us and we could take our pick. Still paranoid about catching the attention of trucks drivers as I was certainly the only foreigner in town, I took to wearing my ski mask until we had unpacked our bikes and settled in. We had done just under 200 kms in 4 and a half hours despite the problems with the wind, a trip record so far.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave...f3/0/O/161.jpg

After night fell and I stood outside our room, the stars shone down with more intensity than I had seen so far in China. It was a very tranquil atmosphere, even with the pigs grunting in the corner of the yard next to the open-air toilet.

I entered our room and the harsh sound of truckers playing cards or mahjong pumped easily through the plywood thin walls from the next room until quite late. I tried to get to sleep and held myself back from cursing loudly enough for them to hear. Tranquility is short lived on the arteries of China.

Amazing report. I am enjoying every part more than the last. A proper adventure. Thanks so much!

Bayan Nuorigong to the Badain Jaran desert – Day 49

Still conscious of the fact that I may have needed a permit to be out in that part of Inner Mongolia I wore the ski mask as often as possible and my heart would skip a beat whenever a police vehicle would drive past. We are a fairly conspicuous duo on the roads and, if I did indeed need a permit to be out there, it would only take a curious appendage of the law for our drive to the Badain Jaran desert to turn into a costly and seriously inconvenient detour back the way we came.

The going was easier today, possibly because we started earlier and we have found that the wind doesn’t pick up until mid-afternoon, so our arms were given a respite from fighting the wind. We saw many more camels and came across our first real desert sand dunes, so we stopped for a picnic of food and sand.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/163-M.jpg

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/164-M.jpg

I was determined to get to the desert area that night, hopefully before dark, so I was already prepared to fend off any ideas that Lulu got about getting distracted and driving off somewhere possibly “interesting”. We had a sharp discussion about visiting a temple that was signposted as three kms down a gravel track. Lulu wanted to go because all she had to look at all day was sand, rocks and dead grass, and she wasn’t giving up, so I ended up following her down the track. I’m glad I did. We drove up to a cluster of about 5 buildings at the foothills of a small mountain range. The temple was closed, but as we walked around the complex we came across a herd of young goats who were resting in the shadow of one building. Once they saw us they ran up to us bleating greetings and putting their front legs up on ours, either asking us to be their friends or asking to be fed. I think it was more that they were hungry, but they were very cute and they just loved the attention we heaped on them. We crouched there surrounded by these balls of affectionate white fur for about 15 minutes before the goat herder approached from the hills with the older animals, who seemed a little distressed about us being around their young ones.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/166-M.jpg

After the turnoff to the Badain Jaran desert we drove down the road for about 20 minutes, the darkening skyline meeting gigantic mountains of sand in the distance, before we came to a space-age looking complex and, not seeing any obvious places offering lodging, we kept driving until the road petered out into the desert. A bright yellow jeep rolled up and a couple of people piled out, one who introduced himself as Andy, the supervisor of the tourist centre that we had passed. We asked them if there was an entrance fee to walk into the desert and have a look around. One of the girls said 200 rmb to get in. I was livid.”200 kuai to walk around in some sand? Are you joking?!!”. The smile on her face told me that she was, and I buried my (rather overdone) self-righteous rage. Andy, the centre manager told us that there were no places to stay for 30 kms, as it was the off season, but we could sleep in the spare room. He was very concerned about the cold when I half-joked about sleeping in the sand for the night.

We rolled out what blankets we had on the hard marble surface of the spare room, and put on most of our riding gear to keep us warm. It was fairly uncomfortable, but it was a novel change. Until in the middle of the night I woke up shivering and had to put on more clothes, and even then it wasn’t enough. Not the best night sleep I had, but at least we had shelter.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/167-M.jpg

Badain Jaran desert to Alashan Youqi – Day 50

We got up fairly early for a change, mainly due to the fact that there wasn’t much point trying to pretend that the floor would encourage a sleep-in. The guys offered us breakfast in the tourist centre and we went for it. All we had was some sweet bread and processed sausage that we had in the packs for lunch if we couldn’t find anywhere to eat on the road. Before we had breakfast though, we had to fill up three 20 litre cans with water. Curious about where they got there water from out in the desert, we asked to join them. Four of us hopped in the jeep and sped off into the desert, roaring up and down sand dunes. After about five minutes, we stopped at the bottom of a sand-bowl where a well had been sunk. The water was a bit salty, but it was surprising that I didn’t need to pull the rope and can up very far to get it back up. The water might have only been about 10 metres down.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/168-M.jpg

After breakfast we set out towards the sand dune that looked as though it towered over all the others. There was a noticeable lack of wind and the weather was quite cool, so trekking over the dunes wasn’t as hard as I thought i might be, but still very slow, especially in heavy, steel-capped boots which I found weren’t exactly designed for walking in the sand. But we loved it. Our first real trip through a real desert (if it doesn’t have sand dunes, then it’s not a real desert). After about an hour and a half of walking, Lulu got quite tired. I egged her on. The dune didn’t look far away at all, but she sat down and insisted that I go ahead while I waited. We had only taken one 1.5 litre bottle of water so I left it with her and the small amount of food that we brought, and headed on by myself.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../X2/169-X2.jpg

It took at least an hour to walk that ‘short’ distance to the foot of the sand-mountain. I guess distances can be deceptive in the desert, or maybe just I misjudged my speed and stamina, but I got there. That was the easy part. By that point I was tired and thirsty, but certainly able to make it back without too many problems, especially as I had brought my GPS with me. If I thought walking through sand was hard, trying to climb sand was nearly impossible. Halfway up the ridge I was stopping for a breather every five steps, but finally when I got to the top, I was rewarded with an unforgettable view of the surrounding desert. This dune really did tower over the others and I could see for miles around at the other oddly shaped and coloured dunes, spattered with shadows from bits of cloud overhead and framed by the azure horizon. The only sound was the grainy patter of sand on my clothes as the wind puffed at the edge of the dune ridge.

http://aroundchina.smugmug.com/Trave.../0/M/170-M.jpg

Tired, I thought I would take the short way down instead of the ridge I had come up on. I zig-zagged down the face of the mountain, setting off rivers of sand above and below me as I moved down the mountain. I thought to myself whether sand-avalanches might be possible on a sand mountain.

I made it back to Lulu and drank most of the water. Fuzzy headed, I had to rest for a while before we got going again.

We finally got back to the centre after 5 hours of desert hiking. My GPS read 14 kilometres. Less than 3km/h. The slowest speed so far. After a long rest we slowly packed our bikes, said goodbye and thanks to Andy and his friends for their generosity and helpfulness and we were off to Alashan Youqi, the last town we would stay in inside Inner Mongolia.

It wasn’t so easy to find a place to stay that night. Lulu and I got a bit cranky at each other. We were both exhausted from our desert so that was bound to happen. We found a place and each put our things on a bed. I went back outside to lock the bikes together, and then came back to see her watching TV and lying on MY BED! The bed I had chosen, and dumped my things on! It was my bed! “Why are you on my bed?” “I’m watching TV!”. “Why can’t you watch TV from your bed? It’s barely one metre away from mine and you can watch TV perfectly fine.” “No, I can’t see it from there!”. I was not going to back down. “How can you not see it? Your eyes can’t be that bad” and on and on. In the end she jumped off, aggressively threw herself on the other (her!!) bed and rolled over with her back to me, in the obvious gesture of “Oooh you’re going to pay for this”. Maybe I should have let her have the (my!!) bed.