Summer Western Tour: Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang

Greetings all,
I'm posting some photos and a bit of info regarding my solo tour of Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces that took place in July.

Bike: I picked up a Zongshen 200gy from my little Gansu province town for 8,500 rmb. A Chinese friend of mine helped work out the deal that included plates and licensing. The shop didn't exactly go out of their way to get it into great running shape before handing it off to me, and I also had a broken camshaft early on, but other than that, it was extremely comfortable and a decent choice.

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Eastern Gansu proved to be quite difficult to get across. I dealt with a lot of rain, road construction, bad roads and disappearing roads. However, it also provided me with some of the most exciting motorcycling of the trip. I had to readjust my route quite a few times, but essentially I traveled along 312 from Pingliang - Lanzhou. From Lanzhou, I headed on 213 to Dongxiang, Linxia and then broke off to arrive at Xiahe. Although difficult at times, I highly recommend the journey to Xiahe. Especially for those who have not been to other Tibetan communities.

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One of the greatest scenery days of riding took place from Xining, Qinghai to Zhangye, Gansu on route 227. This route is well constructed and also sees a bit of truck and tourist traffic, but certainly worth it.

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Catching 312 again from Zhangye, traveling the length of western Gansu was pretty smooth until Dunhuang. Many sections of 215 south of Dunhuang were under construction and proved slow going until I hit Qinghai via 305. Both 305 and 315 in western Qinghai were well constructed roads, but there's a lot of nothing. I'm thankful I didn't have any mechanical troubles during that section.

I entered Xinjiang from Qinghai on route 315 with some trouble again due to rain mixed with poor construction detour roads. Eventually I rolled out of the Altun moutains and into the desert. Route 218 through the desert was quick, but lacking scenery, so I jumped over to the trans-taklimakan desert highway as well for a peek. 314 between the desert highway and Korla is hell due to trucks. I rode it all the way to Urumqi (arrival pictured below) and decided to do a northern trip rather than a western journey to Kashmir. Mostly this was due to time limitation and I didn't want to rush a trip to Kashmir. So pictured below is the beautiful landscape of the Altay mountains. This area is worth getting to, but can be quite touristy around Kanas lake. Also, be careful which road you take from Burqin, as the 227 route will take you too close to Kazakhstan, which the border police won't like.
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:clap:

Well done I'm surprised no one else bothered commenting on this RR. No back up vehicle no people back in Shanghai organizing everything(trucks) one hellva ride done just by himself.

A true adventurer.

Kudos on what looks like a great adventure accomplished. Let me know if you are ever in Nanjing area.

Must have missed this one during my USA trip. Looks like it was quite an adventure!

More please sir... :popcorn:

Cheers!
ChinaV

I don't know how this one slipped by as BigDamo said, many here do at least read and say g'day. And crazy Carl our site owner usually picks up on reports we might miss, just to keep people involved as it is a quiet forum.
I find reports by checking 'new posts' daily yet didn't ever see this show up, so it must have slipped by when site maintenance was being done or something. Any way, a good report and a great ride, well done, please don't think we were all ignoring you, it can be a slow site sometimes if people are on holiday or busy but can also get very friendly and be very helpful. Looking forward to more, especially as I am hoping to ride some of those routes next year!

Agreed, not sure how this one slipped by! What an amazing trip to do all alone, that's a ballsy undertaking. Would love to go explore that part of the world one day.

Most of those pictures didn't work, any chance of posting them on an external host for all to see?

I tried to retrace your route according to the places and roads you mentioned. Was it roughly like this?

That region is always so much bigger than i think.

Hey all,
Thanks for the responses lately. felix, yes that is essentially the route I took. I screwed up a bit on the picture posting. I'll put something together and link more pics from here in a few days.

ok, here is a sampling:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/3823713...7625153427048/

Great pictures! Right up until the shot with the Vikings t-shirt! It is hard to keep up with real football in China and both my Boys and your Vikings are having bad year but last year was painful because of the purple Norwegians. Anyway, looks like you had a great adventure. Loved the helmet cabinet!

Hey, Naiadhunter, great series of images; some are really beautiful. Your final caption said it was the last stop for that motorbike, and, now that I think of it, your route seemed to be just one way. Did you sell your bike there in Xinjiang? Or trade for something else?

Really admire your solo adventure through a spectacular part of the world.

cheers

Great photos.One of my favorite parts of the World haven't been to Qinghai yet.

Yeah, the plan was always to do it one-way. I had planned to ride back to Urumqi and try to sell it there, but the owner of that white tent in Kanas wanted to buy it, so that's where the bike and I parted. I caught a ride back to Urumqi with 4 Guangzhou tourists. It couldn't have worked out any better.

Very cool story!

So are you still in Gansu? And what are you riding now??

Whoa! Double sorry I missed this one! :eekers:

You chose a fantastic route and, even more, took on the ol' 315 into Xinjiang. When I went through that area (and didn't make it) the road was complete ass and quite dangerous. Can you confirm the entire 315 route is now paved from Dunhuang (215/S305) to 218?

I may need to get things in order for another trip. :deal:

CC

Well, there's good news and bad news about that route from Dunhuang. The good news is that the section located in Qinghai is very nicely paved and was smooth sailing. However, I encountered a lot of construction going on just south of Dunhuang on 215. Equally as challenging was 315 at the Xinjiang border. Very nice roads are being constructed, and in many areas it looks like they are very near completion, but at the time of my ride, traffic was being diverted around and along side these roads. These side gravel roads were often in horrible shape, beat to hell from truck traffic and when exposed to rain, would turn into a complete mess.
I hope this helps.

To answer Euphonius' question, this ride marked the end of my time in China (for now). I'm now bikeless in Tokyo doing research for my Masters.

Cheers to one helluva a grand finale! I'm sure it put everything is a whole new perspective. :thumbsup:

What you studying in Toe-kee-yo?

CC

Totally agree with CrazyCarl -- what a great way to close the books on your time in China. Yeah, and what were you doing out in Gansu, anyway?

Apart from not having wheels now, and despite it being one of the world's great cities, I can't imagine that Tokyo will sustain you the way a bracing ride through rural China can. I can't imagine any Chinese bikes are making a dent in the very saturated Japanese market. I have heard you can rent GS's and other big bikes in Japan with little hassle, and there is some great riding if you can get used to their all being on the wrong side of the road, and super polite. Now there's a contrast with China....

Hope you'll stay on the forum and drop us a note from time to time.

cheers!

Indeed, indeed. I lived in Japan once before and did a lot of riding. It's hard to avoid urban riding here, but yes, you can find some nice twisties up in the mountains. The bike culture is closer to that of western countries, so you have a lot of recreational riders/tourers. Aside from studying Japanese and Chinese here at university, I'm also studying anthropology and doing field work in the Japanese countryside looking at the growth and impact of foreigners in these smaller communities.

Comfort and convenience will be nice for a couple of years, but yes, the call for greater adventure I'm sure will return. I'd love to go back and ride again in China, so, keep me in mind! Hehe.