Around China in 100 Days

[Roadrunner]

Dalongchi to Kuqa – Day 70

Our friend left early (I’m terrible with new names). He asked us to call him and have dinner with him that night when we got to Kuqa. He drives to Bayin Buluke twice a week for business, spending three days a week in Kuqa with his family. A true veteran of rough mountain roads with his appropriate steed.



It was a crisp, cool early mountain morning emerging from the ger into this beautiful valley nestled in the mountains.



We had a relaxed morning, not rushing because we knew we would get to Kuqa, 130 kms away. And we wouldn’t want to rush this anyway. It was the best driving yet.

Dalongchi (大龙池) is a popular local tourist destination in the high season, when it’s a bit warmer and I could see
why.





We set out on the persistent gravel roads, fording a couple of small streams, with high winds gusting through the gorge and dust flying in all directions. Lulu was managing the gravel remarkably well. My opinion was that she was more comfortable on the rough roads than city driving. Her country road driving was certainly much better than her city driving. I was still a bit concerned about getting another flat, thinking that my tyre still had metal slivers in it, so tried to make it easy on the back tyre over the bumps.

After about 40kms of gravel we got out of the gorge and onto asphalt into a geologically fascinating landscape. It looked as though the ground had been thrust up in places so that there were 45 degree inclines shorn off to show layers of rock millions of years old.





We stopped at the self-named ‘Grand canyon of China’. After the amazing scenery of the past couple of days, paying for a ticket to enter a tourist area that wasn’t so spectacular seemed like a waste of 40rmb. It was still a mini adventure though, and the tourism centre assured us that this was a ‘top 10 scenic beauty of China’. However, Lulu said that there were plenty of places with that accolade, and she had never heard of this place.



After a couple of hours hiking around the gullies of this canyon, we kept driving until the mountains gave way to flat desert. We looked back at the Tian Shan, and reflected on the first real experience of adventure motorcycle riding we had had so far.



Crossing the last band of hills before reaching Kuqa.



Lulu had tried to call our mate from Dalongchi, but his phone was out of service so we couldn’t contact him. Sadly, this would be our only opportunity to accept an authentic Uighur dinner invitation.

When we arrived in Kuqa we started looking for a friend from the Xinjiang motorcycle forum who offered to take us through the post that Lulu had diligently updated. The regional forums were her only way of communicating with motorcyclists from the areas that we would pass through, as motofans had deleted her posts and banned her after the problems in Guangdong. As we wound through the streets, the army presence was rather noticeable, with dark-green canopied trucks driving through main roads and personnel here and there on the streets. Maybe this was some kind of precautionary measure in case one of Osama’s friends decided to cause some trouble.
We met up with our host and drove with him to a restaurant for dinner with his family, who were all very happy to see us, and customarily wouldn’t let us pay our share of the bill.

Soon after, we found a guest-house nearby, followed by a Kuqa welcome party which involved several beers, more food and a couple of games of pool. They invited us to stay in Kuqa for an extra day so we could tour around Kuqa and go to KTV with the guys in the evening.

[euphonius]

I couldn't get big pictures either until I started to deselect the "Retrieve remote file and reference locally" box, which is automatically selected each time the photo-posting-box-thingy is opened. If you're not already doing that it might help.

Many thanks for that! Can't wait to give it a try. Your pix are looking fantastic, by the way.

So we're now up to Day 70 or so, and I'm rueing the day we reach Day 100. Keep 'em coming, but nice and slow, OK?

cheers!

[MJH]

I do not think that this is a live report…maybe I am incorrect?

[bigmonkey]

your pictures are fantastic

[Mouse]

Best read I have had in ages ..can't wait to get back to China....thanks.

[Roadrunner]

Kuqa – Day 71

Kuqa is a city that was once the home of the ancient Buddhist Kingdom of Kucha and one of the most famous Chinese Buddhists. The fourth-century Kuchean linguist Kumarajiva lived here for forty years until, in 386 CE, he was imprisoned by a Chinese general who had been sent with an army to bring him to the Chinese capital of Chang’an. Instead of sending the famous Buddhist back to his emperor, the general declared a new state, became a warlord and held Kumarajiva prisoner, the general not being a Buddhist but loathe to give away such a valuable person. There he remained until a new emperor had overthrown the old one and requested the general-turned-warlord to send Kumarajiva to Chang’an. He refused and only after the new emperor sent an army to take Kumarajiva by force was he freed from his prison and traveled to Chang’an to take up the position of ‘National Teacher’.

Over the years, giant monasteries were built here, but there isn’t much to show of them now.

Our friend came to pick us up early to visit his house. He owned a KTM 640 adventure, and even though he hadn’t used it very much, he wanted to sell it to buy a BMW 1200GS. He used to work at the local waterworks, but has quit to start up an automotive accessory business.



We had a nice home-cooked lunch, and sat around chatting before we drove out of town to Subashi monastery ruins, while the harsh winds whipped sand into our eyes. Xuanzang, another famous Chinese Buddhist monk stopped here in 630 AD on his 17 year pilgrimage to India and back.



We drove around in red-tinged sandstone hills nearby, an area known to our host as he used to work around the area for the pumping station, but we had to turn around after our route was blocked by a dam under construction.

A day earlier, Lulu had noticed that the top bolt holding her triple-tree to the frame had come loose and fallen off somewhere on the rough roads of the G217. I thought it was important that we get it fixed as soon as possible but we weren’t able to find a fastener that fit. The mechanic had a look at the bearings, tightened the bottom nut and was confident we shouldn’t have too much trouble with it. It still nagged at the back of my mind though.



While Lulu’s bike got tended to, I went out and bought a big adjustable wrench so I could fix my back tyre if I needed to. My lazy-as**d approach to the possibility of breaking down would have to take a back seat.

Later, after dinner, we met the guys who gave us such a great welcome party the night before and we went to KTV to finish off the day.

[Roadrunner]

Kuqa to Aksu – Day 72

We got lost heading out of Kuqa. The newly constructed expressway confused the GPS and pointed us in the wrong direction. After an hour of fluffing about trying to find our way, we got onto the G314 to Aksu, 270 kms away.

I was feeling sick and my stomach was giving me trouble again, something that can make long distances on a bike rather uncomfortable. The scenery wasn’t so remarkable either, so it was mainly just a 270 km getting-to-Aksu day, interrupted here and there by road-works detours and emergency toilet stops.



We made it into Aksu easily and quickly we found a place to stay just outside town for ￥40 for a double room.



After we got settled in we started talking about the next day. On the map, there were very few marks near the road that we would be taking, and nothing that suggested there would be anywhere to stay until Kashgar, which meant we would have to do nearly 500 kms. We decided to wake up at 6am the next morning for our longest day and potentially our earliest start.

[Roadrunner]

Aksu to Kashgar – Day 73

Despite our ambitions to get up at 6am （Beijing time), we were still moving at our earliest time to date, 8.30am (6.30am Xinjiang time), in our effort to make Kashgar before nightfall. I took a litre bottle of extra petrol because I was concerned about the lack of petrol stations on the way even though, if I ran out of petrol in the middle of nowhere, the spare stuff would take me a maximum of 35 kilometres.



Kashgar had been an important destination in my head since the beginning, and knowing that there was always a possibility of something going wrong to mess up the journey, if I was to get to Kashgar, I would feel like I had accomplished something by getting to the westernmost city in China.


I was really interested in tasting the Xinjiang food while I was there. So far, we had been limited to Laghman (pulled noodles) and I was itching to try something different, So when I saw a pile of bagels at a street-side stall, I stopped for the opportunity to appease my curiosity. I had been trying to learn a bit of Uighur, just the basics like numbers and a couple of questions, and I wanted to see if anyone could understand me. I asked how much it was for one bagel. He replied “One”. “Yep, just one thanks, how much?”. “One”. “Yes, the price for one bagel”. I was getting a bit hot under the collar and it was only after I switched to my marginally better Chinese that I realised the price for one bagel was one rmb. My feeling of stupidity lasted until I took a bite. It was fresh, and the best bread I had tasted in China. Have them with the sultanas from Turpan and you’ve got top quality sustenance for the whole way to Kashgar, which I needed because there were no places to eat until Kizilsu, 30 kms out from the city.



I caught up to Lulu not long after and we continued through the treeless landscape until Lulu stopped for a mid-afternoon snooze on the road-side.



Not too long after that we started to see a violent storm start to cross the hills to our right, and in the distance we could see the sheets of rain obscuring the horizon and flashes of lightning above the hills. We drove on for a couple more minutes, confident that we could stop in time to get changed into our waterproof gear before the rain hit us. Just as I was about to get my waterproof pants on (I wasn’t quite finished because I was busy taking photos) a ferocious gust of wind almost had me on my rear end, and seconds after that stinging pellets of ice were flying horizontally at my exposed face. I quickly had my ski mask and helmet on, and we both sheltered behind the bikes while lightning bolts had me concerned about what would happen if our bikes were struck.



We couldn’t drive in this tempest. Not only were our bikes rather light (allowing heavy gusts to push us into the path of incoming traffic) and visibility poor, Lulu couldn’t drive because the hailstones were so venomous that it was too painful to put her thinly protected hands on the handlebars. Her gloves weren’t thick enough.





After about 15 minutes of cacophony and cold, the wind died down and the hail was replaced by rain. In another 20 minutes we were out under blue skies again. I relished surviving a killer hailstorm on a relatively uneventful day, but Lulu had little to say and she just kept going.



We drove past the first petrol station in a long time with Lulu far in front. I was low on petrol, but assured myself. “She’ll be right, we can make it to the next town”. But I couldn’t and I ran out of petrol 35kms outside Kashgar. Luckily, the nearest town was 5 minutes down the road and I rode Lulu’s bike to get some from the petrol station there.

We had dinner at the truckstop near the petrol station. We ordered a dish of laghman to share, just enough to get us into Kashgar where we would find a nice restaurant to try something new. Lulu told me to order an empty plate so we could share and, instead of asking what the Chinese word for empty plate was, I told her (a tad belligerently) to order it herself. Why make things difficult? She exploded, letting me know in no uncertain terms, that she was not my translator. She gathered her gear, got on her bike and drove off. I learnt later (for anyone interested) that the term is kong panzi (空盘子). I could understand that she was tired and hungry after riding 430 kilometres and enduring that hailstorm, so was I. We are both as stubborn as each other at times, and our refusal to back down almost always led to arguments.

I finished eating, but I didn’t know where she went. Did she keep going to Kashgar, or did she stop in the town to find a place to stay for the night? I called and texted her because I wanted to ride into Kashgar together (and also because I thought that we could be separated for the night, making things much more complicated). It was a milestone after all. I figured that she was probably on the road to Kashgar and she soon called back to tell her she was waiting for me at the toll gate on the way into Kashgar.

We drove into Kashgar well after nightfall and were to meet a guy who had contacted Lulu offering to help us find a place to stay, at the ‘International Youth Hostel’. It wasn’t too far from central Kashgar and the location was great, but the owner told us that they couldn’t take foreigners, which was more than a little frustrating for both of us. So much for being an ‘International’ hostel.





So we were off looking for a hotel, any hotel, that would take us, but for some reason, most hotels were full. If there was ever a night that I wanted to splurge on a hotel, this was it. But we would need to travel through the city and 7 kms down the G315 before we found a place that would take us. It was almost 2am by the time we settled in and we had driven 499 kilometres and been on the road for almost 16 hours. We had covered over 12,700 kilometres since we left Chongqing 73 days earlier and made it to the ancient Silk Road city, despite the problems that may have seemed insurmountable at the time. We were there, together, alive and (reasonably) healthy.

[Roadrunner]

Kashgar – Day 74

After our biggest day of driving we had a massive sleep-in. It was well after 3.30pm before we got going to explore Kashgar.

Kashgar is a city of around 350,000 people has been a major trade hub, particularly during the time of the overland Silk Road, for over 2000 years, with five countries (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afganistan, Pakistan and Kazakhstan) bordering the nearby areas.

I was the nominated driver again, something we never seemed to disagree about. We were looking for the grand bazaar, to find some gifts for friends and family. I had been looking forward to this market since Inner Mongolia because I had been looking for something made locally, not made in the factories of Tianjin on the east coast.

We found a small market first, guided by the ubiquitous brown tourist road signs. We had a nice walk around, but it obviously wasn’t it and Lulu asked some army guys that were hanging around the parking lot under the trees where the big one was, and they pointed us in the right direction, which happened to go through the Old City. The Old City, despite being small relative to the modern sprawl surrounding it, is an amazing collection of buildings that looked as though they had survived from the Silk Road era. We would save a thorough exploration for the next day.

The traffic was much more chaotic than usual, which is saying something in China. The odd donkey and cart generally behaved well, but it was the scooters that made driving through Kashgarian traffic the most unpredictable.

We didn’t have much trouble finding the market. It was easily identifiable by the number of huge carpets hanging outside the bustling road-front.



The bargaining and sales techniques that the vendors used was very reminiscent of the energy used by vendors in Pakistan and India, indeed many of the vendors were from Pakistan. I bought a knife with a bone handle, supposedly made in Yengisar (where all the good knives in the region are made) and some pashminas, goat hair scarves decorated with intricate designs and bright colours.



We wandered around for a couple of hours but needed to get going before the Id Kah Mosque closed. I would need to come back the next day to finish my shopping. Lulu wasn’t interested in buying, just in soaking up the atmosphere, which was free.

I had imagined the Id Kah mosque to be much bigger (as it’s the largest mosque in China, supposedly able to hold up to 20,000 worshipers), so it was a little bit disappointing. This may have been because I was comparing it with the Badshahi mosque in Pakistan, which is the fifth largest mosque in the world. It was still a very, beautiful tranquil place with tree lined courtyards.



The side street outside the mosque held all sorts of intriguing antique shops and restaurants. We tried out charcoal roasted Shish Kebabs with round naan bread; a simple but satisfying foray into the culinary delights of Xinjiang.



We were still very tired after the couple of day’s drive since our last rest stop in Kuqa, so we relaxed at the hotel before an early night.

[Roadrunner]

Kashgar – Day 75

In the morning we finally found a bolt for Lulu’s triple tree. The bikes got a look over while we stood in the shade of the workshop, avoiding the heat from the harsh sunlight.



We explored the Old City, an authentic taste of Uighur architecture. It felt like another world; something out of Arabian nights.



We immersed ourselves in this world for a while, insulated from the noise and traffic of the modern world by the narrow alleyways and brick houses, but it wasn’t long before we again found ourselves face to face with a street full of scooters and beeping taxis.

I left Lulu to walk around and went back to get my laptop. We had planned some internet time at an internet cafe (we only had internet at our lodgings a handful of times in the trip) and I had left it running at the bingguan to resize some of the photos I wanted for the blog. On the way, I stopped at the Bazaar to pick up a couple more pashminas. Meanwhile, Lulu continued walking around the old quarter taking photos.





I picked Lulu up to find an internet cafe. She mentioned an internet cafe nearby, but I kept going on the way back to out guest-house as I had seen one the day before. She got a little bit annoyed that I didn’t listen to what she said, which simmered away for later.

At the internet cafe, we had a stupid argument about a photo I didn’t want her to put on the internet. She walked out and I kept working for a couple of hours. I texted her later to let me know when she wanted to be picked up, because she didn’t know how to get to the guest-house. She called a couple of hours later and I headed to the Id Kah mosque to find her. Driving in Kashgar at night is a very pretty sight though, especially when the Old City is lit up facing the the bright, modern neon Ferris wheel.



As we drove home, my ears insulated from arguments and comments by the wind whistling past the helmet, I kept thinking about the possibility of heading up the Karakoram highway, the highest paved road in the world. I was told that I may need permits to travel that road and it was the weekend so offices would be closed. Thinking it could be another bureaucratic nightmare, I forgot about the idea. Pretty slack attitude really. I’d really like to drive that road one day.