Thanks, for all the photos to get me through my working days.
The biking is holding up so far I guess, didn't get stranded with an empty gas tank yet either!
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Thanks, for all the photos to get me through my working days.
The biking is holding up so far I guess, didn't get stranded with an empty gas tank yet either!
Incredible. Simply incredible. If at some point during my China career I manage to record a ride report that's 1/10th as worthwhile as yours, I will be able to leave the middle kingdom content. Good luck.
Barry! Glad to see you're reading.. and happy I can provide a distraction at work!
Lao Jia Huo, you've got good eyes! I just crossed the 10,000 km marker. I'll start keeping a closer eye on the tires as I continue forward.
Felix, I spent all day working on the next installments, I'm going to try to post something new every day going forward - now that I'm Yunnan, Internet access is pretty easy - although I've noticed it's super slow here in Shangrila, and all the traffic seems to be going through Beijing :confused1:
GJN, thanks for the kind words.. but honestly, this country, its people, and its terrain are all so incredible.. take a trip of any length to any place, and I promise you'll have amazing stories to tell afterwards.
sorry,long time we didnt go to internet
I dont think I am a hero
what i have been done,is everybody can do it,if u want
I read a lot here,but takes me long time,and always tired.........
I will try to write my story in english
2 days later we will back home
have more time for relax,write,put photo
Quote:
Originally Posted by euphonius
G!!!! Those Photos are amazing!!!! I really wonder how your feeling was in such a place like this! Ya know the skys,the airs and the winds.......they must be great! looking at those pics are making me feel kinda high~~
I can't even believe China still got places like these!!! I'm so moved!!! what's you did there was amazing!!! keep going my friend!! Go go go!!!
Oh,yeah one more thing.... do you know where can I buy a moto oil that called Honda-"4 stroke motorcycle oil" or any other oil that recommanded for a 1000cc sport bike?(need oil for my new baby-2008 Honda CBR 1000RR)
Pat, excellent scribing there! beaut photos you've taken too. The trucker seemed awfully diligent with the share number and placement of the rocks etc. perhaps they were anticipating a somewhat lengthy stay so had decided he'd mark out his spot early just in case some other road user had ideas on occupancy. Speaking of occupancy, had you considered asking your new found friend (125cc rider) to try and book another room under his ID card in the first hotel you'd tried to stay in, in Dulan? Incidently how is the top box fairing up given some of the terrain you've been on? Looks to be quite solid construction, is it an ADLO by any chance? (I swear by some of the ADLO topbox models).
How did the spark plug look to you, when the motorcycle mechanic (suitably attired I note) removed it? Have you noticed/experienced any backfiring, miss-firing, pinging under acceleration or running on when decelerating? How about the air and fuel filters?
Day 17: Golmud to Keke Xili Environmental Protection Station
The next morning Wang and I set off for the plateau. The official entrace to the plateau was at Kunlun Shankou, roughly 160 km south of Golmud. We would continue to follow the G109 as it head towards Lhasa.
The area due south of Golmud was even more moon-like than the arid areas of Gansu. Adding to the moon-like effect, the sky was very... overcast - whether it was a sand storm, pollution, of simply fog is a matter of debate:
http://i.imgur.com/Gu39I.jpg
Huston, we have landed!
http://i.imgur.com/d3Yan.jpg
We began to see mountains rise:
http://i.imgur.com/3mDGV.jpg
And passed a caravan of Tibetan pilgrims *walking* to Lhasa. After every few steps, the man who is looking me over here (he was really friendly, I swear!) would kneel down, and then lay flat on the ground with his arms extended in front of him in an act of prayer. The women were pulling their belongings on carts. It will take them a year to get there!
http://i.imgur.com/HzY14.jpg
The weather started to clear a bit, and the snow capped mountains revealed themselves:
http://i.imgur.com/ymEWx.jpg
As we started to climb, gradually, the weather cleared and we reached Kun Lun Shankou, at 4767 meters, the official entrance to the Tibetan Plateau. We stopped along with the other cars and joined the people who were taking pictures of the prayer flags, stupa, and statues:
http://i.imgur.com/HobTx.jpg
These gentlemen were all thumbs up!
http://i.imgur.com/j8pdm.jpg
There was also a monument to a man who had given his life in defense of the Keke Xili nature preserve that extended to the west:
http://i.imgur.com/YFJSk.jpg
The weather on the plateau was just as I'd read Crazy Carl describe - four seasons in one day. We had ridden through a storm into perfectly blue skies:
http://i.imgur.com/pjaRu.jpg
But yet we could continually see storm clouds in front, behind, and to the side of us:
http://i.imgur.com/soU45.jpg
This part of the plateau was remarkably flat, and power lines stretching off into the distance was a common site:
http://i.imgur.com/lG2Z7.jpg
The weather continued to swirl, and as we approached a Environmental Protection Station for the Keke Xili Reserve, we decided to stop and let this bout of rain pass. The storm rolled in:
http://i.imgur.com/7eg1X.jpg
We hung out, watched the storm, and made new friends. The man on the left works for the reserve, the guy on the right was volunteering at the station:
http://i.imgur.com/iWeLt.jpg
And then the storm went from bad to worse:
http://i.imgur.com/UNt93.jpg
Snow! This was more than I had bargained for. I was given the unfortunate opportunity to learn the Chinese word for "hail." A word I'd have many opportunities to use as the days progressed. As the storm got worse and worse, we decided to stay there for the night. And, of course, shortly thereafter, the weather cleared up again! We took advantage of the break in the weather to shoot a little stick:
http://i.imgur.com/LuXHL.jpg
I executed my "let the opponent knock in all his balls first, then keep my balls in the way to prevent him from winning" strategy to perfection. Average game of pool: 45 minutes. And 45 minutes later, after I had managed to get enough of my balls out of the way, he finally put me away (the inevitable outcome of my strategy).
After our marathon pool session, I walked out behind the station next to the little pond:
http://i.imgur.com/LUbGP.jpg
And caught these little fellas staring:
http://i.imgur.com/PWi8c.jpg
And then we climbed the observation tower:
http://i.imgur.com/YKKRg.jpg
For a great view of the surrounding mountains and plains:
http://i.imgur.com/tYmTc.jpg
While we playing around in the back, some more travelers had arrived. A motorcyclist who was descending from Lhasa pulled up and shortly thereafter four bicyclists arrived. The bicyclists were all over 60 years old, retired, and riding their bikes from Shanxi to Lhasa!
A group of us walked across the road to the Tibetan Railroad - the highest in the world - which follows the G109 almost step for step. The passenger train coming from Lhasa soon passed. Out of the storm:
http://i.imgur.com/s0UkK.jpg
And into the sun:
http://i.imgur.com/CUT3a.jpg
We took a group photo - the bicyclist on the left, Wang, myself, and the biker who had just come in from Lhasa on the right:
http://i.imgur.com/psLkC.jpg
Jump!
http://i.imgur.com/IYdBh.jpg
The sun began to go down and we walked back across to the station:
http://i.imgur.com/9b5A2.jpg
We hung out in the living quarters for awhile, watched a few videos that had been shot in the nature preserve, and called it an early night in anticipation for the ride south the next day:
http://i.imgur.com/dAY8l.jpg
Day 18: KeKeXiLi Environmental Protection Station to..Yanshiping, close to the border of Tibet
The first thing I did the next morning was look at the sky. In the day we had spent on the plateau, I had learned to read clouds. No clouds meant no rain, but clouds later. Wispy clouds meant no rain, but fluffy white clouds later. Fluffy white clouds meant no rain, but fluffy, angry gray clouds later. Fluffy, angry gray clouds meant rain. Or in other words, it rains every day.
This morning, we awoke to wispy clouds - behind no clouds, the second best possibility:
http://i.imgur.com/Uwck5.jpg
Wang wanted to make Anduo, the first city inside Tibet. We still had more than 300 kilometers to the border, and then it would be another 100 to Anduo. But the road was flat and in good shape, so if the weather cooperated, it was feasible. And so we started south.
The towns that dot the road between Golmud and the border are mostly one street affairs with only basic accomodation (i.e. a bed and an outhouse). Almost all them (with the notable exception of Budongquan) had gas stations - so it wasn't necessary to bring backup fuel:
http://i.imgur.com/OmfuC.jpg
The road followed the train tracks and snow from the previous night was still on the ground. Wispy clouds began to shift to white fluffy clouds:
http://i.imgur.com/KJduP.jpg
We started to see wildlife - sheep, yaks, and antelope (I think - they looked like deer with white tails to me). The antelope scared easily, so it was difficult to get good photos of them.
Eight and a half full moons:
http://i.imgur.com/pafRb.jpg
Horses (Donkeys?):
http://i.imgur.com/f96Hg.jpg
Yaks:
http://i.imgur.com/F4bV7.jpg
Lambs:
http://i.imgur.com/w0d9m.jpg
Yaks, Lambs, and the inevitable shift from white to gray storm clouds:
http://i.imgur.com/hMQDf.jpg
While the road passed through the plains, distant mountains were our constant companion:
http://i.imgur.com/pd6Qy.jpg
And we passed stretches of snow covered plains:
http://i.imgur.com/n7Gf3.jpg
We passed the second to last city before the border and began the ascent that would lead to Tang Gu La Shankou and Tibet at 5231 meters. We were driving straight into gray, gray clouds, which was, at this point, unremarkable.
But this time, we rode straight into a snow storm. It grew dark, visibility dropped to twenty meters, my facemask was covered in ice on the outside and in fog on the inside. We slowed down to a crawl, letting the trucks still on the road barrel past. This was the first real experience I'd had riding in these conditions and I was simply waiting to hit a patch of ice and go down. ChinaV's phrase came to mind: "You ride, you fall."
We continued to ascend and it continued to snow, not vertically the way snow is supposed to fall, but horizontally, as if the snow was coming directly from Tibet. After what seemed like an eternity, I honked a few times, got Wang to stop, and did my best to convey that I was really, really uncomfortable riding through this and wanted to turn around. He said "Only 200 more kilometers to Anduo!" He's gone insane, I thought. We pressed on.
And the weather didn't get any better. Sometimes on the plateau the weather will change every five minutes. Sometimes not. My engine started to cough a bit - losing thrust. Bad gas? Weather? Altitude? Apparently his bike was doing the same and he finally slowed and turned around. I stopped and asked what was up. He said "Wo de che bu xing" - "My bike is not O.K." Great, I thought - this could get ugly. But at least we were turning around.
I turned around too, and we began the descent. The storm was moving with us and it continued to snow as we slowly made our way back down to the town at the base of the ascent. We finally made it, and safely down, I pulled out the camera for the first time since the storm had started.
Not fun:
http://i.imgur.com/NtU74.jpg
Our.. place of lodging for the night:
http://i.imgur.com/IY15H.jpg
This angry fellow would serve as an alarm clock the next morning (can't blame him, who would want to live outside in this place!):
http://i.imgur.com/D6pPF.jpg
Wet and cold, we crowded around the cow manure fueled stove and warmed up:
http://i.imgur.com/yglTV.jpg
Happy to be back safely and to have a warm place to stay for the night, we crawled into bed and went to sleep, expecting the storm to blow over through the night..
nice
cant wait our stories,hehe
have nice time in kunming
I've been reading from the start, but I'm a bit of a leecher! As pointed out by Jape, amount of views vs amount of replies in this thread.
I see you have learned a bit more about Chinese culture, you went for the family gloves instead of handguards. Two weeks ago I did a good 100 km in (heavy) rain and mostly at night including an off-road part with some nice sliding through the mud as grand finalle, but I was actually enjoying it in the end. My rain gear stayed dry because I left them in the hotel, so I had decent scrotum wash by the water running down from the gas tank and bit heavy feet since my so called waterproof shoes nicely filled up with water. The last 30-50 km back to the hotel I couldn't even feel I was wet anymore, I already got used to it!
Enjoy the rest of you trip!
A life-changing experience, for sure! It sees like 20 years has passed from when we picked your bike up last year - you've certainly compressed what most riders never experience in 20 years, into this past year. Very impressive!
And, IMHO, your new employer should give you a starting salary increase for this "commute".
:thumbsup:
Thanks for the great pics and words, a truly epic adventure. I'll be interested to see which route you take from Tibet to Kunming.
The little bike seems to be taking it well.
Can anybody please tell me how to make these route maps that show the progress of the trip? I've tried it with Google "My Places" but not had any success with that. Is there a download that I can use?
Not sure exactly what you want to do - but this thread has a lot of great GPS/google stuff in it:
http://www.mychinamoto.com/forums/sh...ng-Google-Maps
As far as my setup, I'm using a Garmin Nuvi 1255. There's a GPX folder on the device and a Current.gpx file that it uses to track where I've ridden. There's a file size limit and it will start overwriting itself if it gets too big, so at the end of every day I copy it on to my laptop and then use the device to erase the file and start from scratch the next day. I then use gpsvisualizer.com to upload the gpx file and display it on a google map. It's also relatively straight forward to edit the separate GPX files into one master file. I've done that - but gpsvisualizer seems to think the file is too big now! Haven't had time to figure out a work around yet - but for the day-to-day files it works pretty well!
Day 19: Yanshiping, Near the border of Tibet to Naqu, Tibet
The storm didn't blow over through the night. It parked itself right on top of us and snowed and snowed and snowed.
I was seriously depressed. We stared at the sky glumly. "How does your body feel?" Wang asked. My body was fine. It was my brain that was bothering me. It's one thing to get caught in a storm. It's another to intentionally go barrelling right into it.
Wang could tell I was nervous, in part because I told him repeatedly. He said he'd go see if he could find a truck to take us up to the pass. Part of me thought that it felt like cheating. Part of me thought safety first.
Wang came back, he had found a truck for 1500 RMB, which he thought was too much. He'd talked to several truck drivers who had just descended from the pass, and they said there wasn't any ice. "This time of year, the road doesn't ice over," they said. Ice has more to do with water reaching its freezing point than it does with season, I thought to myself. It snowed all night and it's freezing cold, how could there not be ice?
We pulled our bikes out of the spare room we had kept them in. To my chagrin, they both started right up. We packed the bikes, the gears of inevitability were turning. Wang said he'd go back to the driver and try for a lower price. He returned shortly thereafter and told me that the driver said the roads were fine.
And so full of trepedation, we set off.
We stopped to get gas on our way out of town:
http://i.imgur.com/YrjnQ.jpg
And then drove back into the storm. And this time, it actually was a lot better. It was much lighter out and the snow actually hadn't accumulated on the road. The truck drivers had been right. And after roughly forty five minutes, we saw blue skies!
http://i.imgur.com/7LEM5.jpg
I was absolutely elated, I'm still elated now just typing this:
http://i.imgur.com/4po7V.jpg
The road continued to ascend and we rode past the final town before the border. The realization that we were closing in on Tibet started to settle in. The road started to wind and a group of Chinese bikers came riding from the opposite direction and gave us the thumbs up.
And then we reached it:
http://i.imgur.com/eK0gR.jpg
Tang Gu La Shankou, 5231 meters:
http://i.imgur.com/r6SoC.jpg
Even the trucks were stopping to savor the views:
http://i.imgur.com/sE9WV.jpg
The pass sits in a basin, surrounded by snow capped mountains:
http://i.imgur.com/1lKXj.jpg
I can't wait to get Wang's photos!
http://i.imgur.com/YG2ZI.jpg
A family lives on the pass and were coming in from the fields:
http://i.imgur.com/fVR3x.jpg
And agreed to let us snap some pictures of them:
http://i.imgur.com/8utQm.jpg
We spent a long time on the pass, trying to savor every moment. Wang had crossed it before, but it was too cloudy to see anything. There hadn't been any checkpoints and we continued into Tibet. It started snowing again, but frankly, it didn't matter!
http://i.imgur.com/cOIM8.jpg
The weather had become more typical, changing every five minutes:
http://i.imgur.com/F5xkz.jpg
We hit the first village in Tibet. It turned out that Wang had stopped here before and so we went in for a cup of much needed milk tea:
http://i.imgur.com/WFKwZ.jpg
And by the time we had finished the tea, it had started hailing!
http://i.imgur.com/Vrh6v.jpg
It felt like the clouds were right on top of us:
http://i.imgur.com/dhOhV.jpg
There were yaks everywhere:
http://i.imgur.com/GNY50.jpg
And snow capped mountains:
http://i.imgur.com/QZPz6.jpg
And snow capped mountains:
http://i.imgur.com/63fE3.jpg
And rock formations:
http://i.imgur.com/dxMq9.jpg
I like this picture because it sums up a lot of what we saw - plains, yaks, power lines, and looming storms:
http://i.imgur.com/ORUbk.jpg
Ni hao!
http://i.imgur.com/uBbNO.jpg
We reached Anduo, the first city inside of Tibet:
http://i.imgur.com/ZXSer.jpg
And stopped for lunch in a stretch that looked like any other strip in any other city in China:
http://i.imgur.com/wDVkE.jpg
It was still relatively early, and Naqu, the next city, was only 100 km away, so we decided to keep going. Just outside of Anduo we climbed another mountain. The road we had just ridden wound below us:
http://i.imgur.com/Y4OPt.jpg
We continued to pass Tibetan villages:
http://i.imgur.com/iSHCl.jpg
Clear skies to the left, storms to the right. We got lucky this time, and the road turned towards the clear skies:
http://i.imgur.com/VSOMC.jpg
Another Tibetan village:
http://i.imgur.com/7Lact.jpg
We reached Naqu close to dusk and found a hotel. I rolled the bike into the hotel room:
http://i.imgur.com/sBYkw.jpg
And went to bed, thinking about what a great, great day of riding it had been.
Day 20: Naqu, Tibet to Environmental Protection Station, Qinghai
Having taken five days to get to Naqu, I decided it was time to get back on track and start heading towards Yunnan in earnest. I remembered reading one of CC's posts about a "graded road" that cut across southern Qinghai from Budongquan towards Yushu.
Wanting to make it to Yushu and ride through northern Sichuan, I woke early the next morning and headed back north towards Qinghai. The weather was perfect and riding back over road I had travelled the day before, I didn't stop many times to take pictures.
Although sometimes I couldn't resist:
http://i.imgur.com/2cCe0.jpg
One of several rivers that were still frozen:
http://i.imgur.com/Ti2Bj.jpg
This made me nervous just watching:
http://i.imgur.com/fC6CZ.jpg
I made great time back to Tanggula Shankou, covering 200 km before noon, and stopped for a rest and more pictures:
http://i.imgur.com/8SdjS.jpg
The weather remained perfect:
http://i.imgur.com/LZqLM.jpg
After hanging out with the other travelers who were taking pictures at the peak, I jumped back on the bike and set off for Yanshiping, where we had stayed the day before last. Riding over parts of this road for the third time in three days, the weather was finally clear enough to see the surrounding mountains. The snow fall had left a cool zebra pattern on the mountains:
http://i.imgur.com/JxNJ0.jpg
I rolled off another 100 kilometers, and at 300 for the day, I stopped for lunch in Yanshiping. This little fellow joined me for lunch and stayed by my side as I prepped the bike, but I never did get a smile out of him!
http://i.imgur.com/xNDhq.jpg
I was already a bit sore, but the weather remained perfect, so I decided to take it one city at a time, and I set off for the next city, Duoduohe, 100 km away.
Roughly 20 km later, I saw a group of bicyclists on the side of the road. I stopped, and it was my friends from the protection station three days before! We chatted for a bit and then went our separate ways.
I hit Duoduohe around four. The next city was Wudaoliang 150 km away. I had already ridden 400 km and was sore as anything, but the weather remained great, so I set off.
I was back along the Tibetan Railway, and, looking for an excuse to rest, stopped to take another picture:
http://i.imgur.com/ERk5b.jpg
I hit Wudaoliang after six. At this point, the protection station was only another 60 km away. When the day started I thought there was no way I could make it there. But now it was within reach and the thought of spending the night amongst friends was enough to push me on. So again, I set off.
I finally made it into the station at close to 8:00. I limped into the station with a weary smile - everyone was surprised to see me and immediately pulled up a chair for me at the dinner table. It was a perfect end to a day that began with the disappointment of leaving Tibet. I had ridden over 600 km, blowing away my previous high of 400+, covered two days of riding in one, and was back on schedule to hit fresh roads the next day. Weary, but happy, I collapsed into bed after dinner to rest up for the "graded road" I would ride tomorrow.
Thanks of the report.
Breath-taking stuff pat, you are the man!
So let me clarify, you never hit any checkpoints or anything in qinghai or t*bet? What happened in golmud with that guy, did he get you that pass?
Truly the stuff of dreams.
About the photos, how come you're in them so often? So setup a tripod for every shot? Do you take out the tripod everytime you stop? Man that must take forever .. take a shot on timer, run back and check the shot, then do again if needed .. How do you do it?
I think it's probably just the photos I'm choosing to upload - I remember reading somewhere that pictures with people/animals/etc. in them are more interesting than pure landscape - so if nothing else I try to put the bike in when possible (I feel like 90% of my pictures are bike + background).. I don't have a tripod - so it's probably a combination of occasionally having a riding partner, friends (like at the nature outpost), or if there are other people around I'll ask someone to take the picture.
I've tried the whole prop the camera up, take a timed picture, and run back to check it out.. but you're right - it takes too long and without a tripod they're usually pretty mediocre pictures!
Day 21: Environmental Protection Station, Qinghai to Qumalai, Qinghai
In the morning I retraced another 20 km to Budongquan and the graded road. The only gas station in Budongquan had been shut down, so I turned on to 300 kilometer dirt road minus 90 km of gas in the tank:
http://i.imgur.com/WLM3J.jpg
Behind were snow capped mountains:
http://i.imgur.com/PUhak.jpg
Ahead were the plains:
http://i.imgur.com/hPGeX.jpg
There were antelope running away from me all morning:
http://i.imgur.com/A9WNG.jpg
And yaks around every corner:
http://i.imgur.com/1k56R.jpg
The road was bumpy, rocky, and at times, covered in six inches of dust:
http://i.imgur.com/mGTok.jpg
After over 100 kilometers of wilderness, I hit the first town, Qumahe:
http://i.imgur.com/6AUSZ.jpg
The first time I saw these, I thought they were satellite dishes. On closer inspection though, it appears to be a hot water heater!
http://i.imgur.com/9Xwr3.jpg
The road wasn't completely empty:
http://i.imgur.com/yLcRX.jpg
And a common theme for the day was taking dust baths as trucks rode past.
Here:
http://i.imgur.com/123PM.jpg
It:
http://i.imgur.com/KOyte.jpg
Comes!
http://i.imgur.com/svT9O.jpg
After that picture I curled into a ball and just let the dust wash over me in pure resignation.
There were no gas stations per se, but there were enterprising individuals who filled a hole in the market by opening their own:
http://i.imgur.com/5PNxi.jpg
I weighed risking running out of gas with risking putting these entrepreneurs' gas in my tank... and opted for the later. They only had 90 octane and when I asked where the gas was from, they said "Golmud." They might as well said "from the ground!"
And then I hit this abandoned, demolished town.
Serve the People:
http://i.imgur.com/4ulc3.jpg
It was really eerie:
http://i.imgur.com/zH63a.jpg
Just after this town an approaching SUV pulled over and waved for me to stop. There were three Tibetans in it, and they asked in broken Mandarin if this was the road to Lhasa. I told them to drive 200 km and turn left. *That* was the road to Lhasa. They thanked me, I scratched my head, and we went our separate ways.
All day, my GPS had helpfully identified this road as "road," so I assumed this little road was nameless, but she eventually revealed her name to me:
http://i.imgur.com/I12cy.jpg
Village hoops:
http://i.imgur.com/92gdb.jpg
As the road went east it began to hit mountains. On one ascent, the road was, like everything else in China, tiled!
http://i.imgur.com/HDOGA.jpg
I bounced my way over the tiles and finally reached the last peak before Qumalai at 4558 meters:
http://i.imgur.com/w8JVJ.jpg
And then began the final descent:
http://i.imgur.com/bJYYP.jpg
And at last, 300 kilometers later, pavement!!
http://i.imgur.com/ghY7k.jpg
I rode straight into the first gas station I saw and said "I'm looking for a hotel with a shower" - I hadn't seen a shower since Golmud, in what seemed like an eternity ago. The attendant pointed me down the street, and within an hour I was washing away a week's worth of dust, mud, snow, hail, and rain. It felt great!
Day 22: Qumalai, Qinghai to Yushu, Qinghai
The next morning I set course for Yushu but was slowed by morning rush hour:
http://i.imgur.com/XC6sc.jpg
A lot of herders in these areas live in tents. This tent city was larger than most:
http://i.imgur.com/ZzeX9.jpg
The road followed a river full of these little trees:
http://i.imgur.com/yaISV.jpg
Soon, I reached Zhiduo, the other city on the road to Yushu. The city, like the surrounding area, is predominately Tibetan:
http://i.imgur.com/GrIHz.jpg
The road was mountainous, and prayer flags continued to mark mountain peaks:
http://i.imgur.com/ac3Bb.jpg
As they drive past these peaks, truck drivers often toss stacks of these out the window:
http://i.imgur.com/wqUox.jpg
The roads are always just one turn away from turning back to dirt:
http://i.imgur.com/4a7rB.jpg
And there was still snow on the ground in some places:
http://i.imgur.com/N7VLW.jpg
Coming around a corner, I saw what I thought was another tent city of herders:
http://i.imgur.com/K5kOH.jpg
Riding past the tents, I entered a construction area. It looked like they were building a new city from scratch. There were bricks, heavy equipment, and workers everywhere:
http://i.imgur.com/iyLtC.jpg
I couldn't quite understand what I was seeing, and it was close to lunch time, so I stopped at a local restaurant to try and figure out what was going on. I asked the waitress, and she said: "Earthquake." And then it clicked. In April of last year, Yushu was hit by an earthquake that killed more than 2,500 people. I was still roughly 70 km from Yushu, but this town had been completely wiped out. I rode back through the town, understanding now what I was witnessing. In the tents lived the people who had lost their homes and the workers who had come to rebuild them:
http://i.imgur.com/XhZ7q.jpg
The blue tents that I had seen were sent for disaster relief, and looking more closely had "The People's Government Disaster Relief" written on them in Chinese characters. Over a year later, the tents had become a small city:
http://i.imgur.com/u0qxu.jpg
While the new city was being built:
http://i.imgur.com/ltDX7.jpg
A bit shaken at the scale of destruction in this area, I continued on towards to Yushu, and continued to see the blue tents amidst broken villages:
http://i.imgur.com/82jAY.jpg
Along the road, I passed a couple young Tibetans who waved for me to stop. I pulled over and they told me their motorcycle had broken down and didn't have any tools. I pulled out my toolset and they went to work:
http://i.imgur.com/mKq26.jpg
It turned out that the spark plug had died, I had a spare, which they popped in and went on their way. It was a bit of a role reversal after being so dependent upon others' kindness throughout this trip. They had broken down in front of a newly built village (that was still largely empty...):
http://i.imgur.com/1MrOu.jpg
I was closing in on Yushu when the road suddenly dead ended into a sea of dust and tents. It looked like a refugee camp:
http://i.imgur.com/DnmCR.jpg
The road I was following was gone so I stopped to ask how to get to the city center. I approached four men and they asked if I was there to travel. I said yes, and told them I had heard Yushu was a good place. One of the men replied that Yushu used to be a good place, now it was a place of suffering. He pointed me towards an alternative dirt road that led up around the tents and towards the city center:
http://i.imgur.com/t9AQm.jpg
I rode into the center of the city, only to discover that it too had been largely destroyed:
http://i.imgur.com/HGviA.jpg
The statue that marks the center of the city still stands:
http://i.imgur.com/mY9QY.jpg
The shock of seeing all this was lessened once I started talking to the people living there. Their resiliance was remarkable, and on closer inspection, they were making the most of the situation. Many tents had become stores, I found shoe stores, restaurants, cell phone stores, grocery markets, and even an Internet Cafe:
http://i.imgur.com/lwIJU.jpg
I began riding around looking for a place to stay and quickly learned that some people had converted tents into hotels, although ultimately I opted to stay in the one of the few standing hotels in the city:
http://i.imgur.com/nxMBd.jpg
The manager of the hotel was a young Tibetan man. He had spent five years in India studying at the DL's school, and had only come back a couple years ago. He was in the hotel the morning of the earthquake and told me about running outside and seeing the destruction. His relatives' villages had been destroyed and he now lived in the hotel. He was optimistic about rebuilding, even though the common expectation I heard was three more years. Winters are apparently too harsh to build, slowing the process down.
After checking into the hotel, I went back out to walk around the city, and couldn't shake the idea that it felt like a combination of a refugee camp and construction site..
Unfriggin' believable, Pat. This ride report just gets better and better and better. Your narrative is brilliant, particularly your dawning awareness of the circumstances you were entering, and your descriptions of the resilience of the local residents in rebuilding their lives. What a story. You should be thinking about a book...
You think the building in this image also damaged in the Yushu quake? For MCM readers who don't read Chinese, the five characters above the doorway read are Mao's famed aphorism, Wei Renmin Fuwu, or Serve the People, as Pat noted in his narrative. The image is as jarring as it is excellent. Stunning.
http://i.imgur.com/4ulc3.jpg
As usual, you've ended on yet another note of high suspense. Can't want for the next installment!
thanks and cheers!
Thanks of the very interesting report and good pics.
By the way, you can avoid the dust cloud by driving offroad to the left xD
Pat - I am enjoying your ride report SO much!! I swear, I just got back to work but wish I was out there. I loved the bit about giving the extra plug to the stranded Tibetans, I know exactly what you mean about role reversal....so many strangers helped me out at one time or another. My greatest wish is to repay them and just all the nice people I met. Crazy photos of Yushu....unbelievable. Thanks for the continued (AMAZING) stories on your journey - stay safe and look forward to reading more!
NEVER ever try this !!! F***s private property from "minority group" will cause trouble --- $$$ & life risk :naughty:Quote:
Originally Posted by moilami
That is if they can catch you :lol8:Quote:
Originally Posted by humanbeing
Oh my god!!! A lots of good abanded places to play war game!!!Or sniper training!!!! Nice photo shot Pat!!!!:clap:
This is such a great picture! Out in the middle of nowhere (except for the Yak fans), shiny new hoops. The Yao Ming-effect has reached everywhere.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat
Next year, there will be tennis courts everywhere.
Another fantastic post, keep it up as you've developed a pretty avid following and we look forward to your latest.