Around China in 100 Days

**Roadrunner** · 01-30-2012, 09:36 AM

Dunhuang – Day 57

Had a nice sleep-in and awoke to the paradise we had arrived in the day before.

After a couple of hairy days, we wanted to take it fairly easy. We decided against going to the legendary Mogao Buddhist Caves, because of the absurd prices and we heard that alot of the caves were closed for restoration. The thought of pushing past droves of fellow tourists for a couple of hours was also off-putting. Instead we drove to the Western Thousand Buddha caves (西千佛洞）, about 10kms south of Dunhuang over more roads-under-construction.

Some of the caves have been in use since the 4th century CE when Buddhist traders stopped in Dunhuang to pray for a safe passage through the treacherous Taklamakan (or to give thanks after a safe journey). We looked at six grottoes, the only caves open.

They keep most of the caves closed to stop the degeneration of the artwork, and some caves were being repaired because some of the ceilings were collapsing due erosion caused by water seeping through the soft sediment from the embankment from which the caves had been made. We weren’t allowed to take photos or video, but Lulu (as usual) went ahead took some video anyway.

Going to the Mogao caves may have been more spectacular, but the grottoes, with the accompanying guide, were a great way to get a feel for the history of the place.

We wanted to go to the ‘South gate’, apparently a gate marking the start of the southern silk road route around the Taklamakan desert, stretching off in the direction of Khotan. We stopped to ask some truck drivers how far away it was (20kms), and they told us it was merely a gate just like the one we were standing under, so we saved some time (and jarring) and took a picture right there.

After driving around and exploring on our day off, we needed to relax properly, and spent a couple of hours in the restaurant having drinks with the hostel manager, talking to him about travels in India and Tibet. He gave us a couple of glasses of (rather bitter) wine that he brewed from grapes grown in Dunhuang and Lulu dazzled us with her dancing skills.

**Fred** · 01-31-2012, 01:57 AM

Very impressive RR ! The distance you're riding with those Lifan is really incredible, my hat's off to you 2 !

A couple of questions :
- what kind of average distance are you able to travel daily if the road conditions are basically correct (asphalt or concrete) ? 150, 200km ?
- in all your trip, did you still have trouble finding hotels which accepts foreigners ? Only in remote places ? It happened to me 8 years ago in a big city (Nanjing) and also to my GF last year (!) when she was with her parents visiting and was wondering what to expect for our round-china trip...

**Roadrunner** · 01-31-2012, 02:48 AM

Originally Posted by euphonius

Dear Roadrunner,

Excellent report, a real stemwinder. Starting to read like a coming of age novel!

Thank you also for your (belated) sensitivity toward Lulu and her eyesight. My primary work here in China is in the anti-blindness field. A bunch of us met Lulu when she passed through Shanghai after your ride last year, and we had a great time. What I'm about to say is unrelated to Lulu, except in the broader China context.

(public health message)
This country, for all its brilliance and history and rapid development and bullet trains and skyscrapers and export prowess, has some decidedly unscientific views when it comes to eyesight. One is that when people start suffering from cataract (a normal manifestation of aging just like gray hair), it means not that they should seek medical help but that their "candle has burned to the end" and their useful life is over. As a result, China has one of the world's lowest rates of cataract surgery, even though it's the world's single most common surgery and can restore full vision in 15 minutes or less at very low cost.

Another, and far more pernicious in my opinion, is the very widespread view that giving children eyeglasses actually makes their vision worse. I'm not making this up. Though this view is widely held across China, it's particularly common in poorer regions, and leads to a very malicious cycle of low educational attainment due to uncorrected poor vision, leading to another generation of low socio-economic attainment and chronic poverty. Myopia, or nearsightedness, is extremely common in children in Asia, including China. The primary and secondary school dropout statistics in western China are really depressing, and much of this could be alleviated if myopic children would just wear spectacles -- but their seemingly well-intentioned parents just won't let them. Sad

This is all the more ironic in the context of China's cities, where these days it seems every other girl (and many a boy) is wearing fashion eyeglasses with no lenses at all! Imagine! Wearing spectacles just to look cool, while millions of children are spurning real spectacles due to medical ignorance!

Again, I know nothing about Lulu's vision and don't remember whether she had or wore glasses, but I do hope that if she does have refractive error or other vision issues that she'll see an eye doctor or at least visit an optical shop and get spectacles with the correct, current prescription. She'll be a lot safer on the bike, and far happier in life, if she can correct her vision.

(/public health message)

And now we return to our regularly scheduled ride report...

cheers

Thanks for that Euphonius. Are you working for an NGO here?

It's always great to hear about the causes people get involved with and it would be interesting to hear about other humanitarian and environmental projects the guys on MCM are working with. I know there are a couple.

I spent months searching on the internet and talking to friends trying to find a charity in China trustworthy enough to use the money in the most effective way. I was quite wary of the Chinese organisations, for many reasons, one of the main ones being the large communication gap. Of the few that I found, only Gesanghua Education fund, who provide education to children in Qinghai and which looked to be doing some great work, really appealed to me. I sent an email to them to ask if they would be interested in having me (at the time it was to be a solo journey) raise money for them, but they said they raise money in different ways.

In the end I found HTS just by chance, when a friend met a rep at a student convention and gave him a name card, which he gave to me a couple of months later after I told him about the search. They turned out to be just what I was looking for.

I'm thinking about suggesting that she go see an eye doctor, but we'd probably end up having a fight about it, and after sharing my judgmental opinion about the stupidity and pointlessness of those 'supercool' glassless glasses, she would likely go out and buy a big shiny red pair

**Roadrunner** · 01-31-2012, 03:57 AM

Originally Posted by Fred

Very impressive RR ! The distance you're riding with those Lifan is really incredible, my hat's off to you 2 !

A couple of questions :
- what kind of average distance are you able to travel daily if the road conditions are basically correct (asphalt or concrete) ? 150, 200km ?
- in all your trip, did you still have trouble finding hotels which accepts foreigners ? Only in remote places ? It happened to me 8 years ago in a big city (Nanjing) and also to my GF last year (!) when she was with her parents visiting and was wondering what to expect for our round-china trip...

Hey Fred,

- Our average over the 90 days or so of riding was 200 kms per day. Our average speed was lower than I would have liked, and it would be fairly easy to make 300 kms each day of the road conditions are good (including weather). In one day we made it 500 kms from Aksu to Kashgar, and we had to take time to stop and shelter from a short-but-intense mid-afternoon hail-squall.
- We had problems finding places right up to the last night (which was the worst for me). About 1/3 of the towns we stayed in would be hard on the foreigner rule, and sometimes there was just no room left in the cheaper places (especially late at night). But we were trying to mix oil and water; Lulu wanted the cheapest place possible, and I wanted a place that would take a foreigner. It would be much easier to find lodging as a foreigner if you're willing to pay ￥100 per night, instead of ￥50. The liability of foreignness can make things expensive.

Tip: if you're having trouble in a particular town, try to find a place far away from the train or long-distance bus stations. They are the places that get checked the most often, so are the most paranoid.

We could have made things easier by settling for the more expensive places as soon as we got into town. I could have paid the premium on Lulu's bill (the money that Lulu wouldn't have had to pay at a cheaper place) as well as my own tab because "It's my fault that I'm a foreigner". It was a tempting prospect, but I thought spending my evenings driving around being denied by hostel owners in different towns would be a more dignified way to make sure that I wasn't funding half the hospitality industry of China, just because "It's my fault that I'm a foreigner"

**Fred** · 01-31-2012, 04:05 AM

Thanks a lot for the replies Jeremy, very interesting.
200km/day is exactly the average distance I was planning for the trip.

Finding hotels far away from railway/bus stations is a good tip too. I'll try to remain patient throughout the whole trip when being refused at hotels.
T'will not be easy though... Industrialized & modern country, really ?

**bigdamo** · 01-31-2012, 04:16 AM

Great RR and story looking forward to the Xinjiang part.

On a side note you mentioned "In one day we made it 500 kms from Aksu to Kashgar, and we had to take time to stop and shelter from a short-but-intense mid-afternoon hail-squall."

To give another perspective Xinjiang roads are either really good or really bad and it can change overnight.I can drive from my home town to Urumqi in about one and half hours on the toll road/highway if I take the main back road it is a good three hours if I take the scenic back road(all dirt road) along the base of the Tian shans it's a good five hours.Admittedly that's stopping and checking things out along the way.

**Roadrunner** · 01-31-2012, 07:05 AM

Dunhuang to Xingxingxia – Day 58

Another rude awakening for Lulu. I was also having issues with fatigue, and it was much worse for her, but her strength of will would more than made up for any lack of physical strength.

We got up and had fried rice on the patio out underneath the trees and was a tranquil way to start the day and I got to planning the route for the next couple of weeks with the free wi-fi (what a luxury!!). We weren’t sure about the availability of internet in Xinjiang because I had been told that it could be difficult to get.

Something else I heard about Xinjiang was that the roads were pretty bad, so we asked the guys from the hostel what the roads in Xinjiang were like. They told us that they are building a new road into Xinjiang, and we should expect a lot of roadworks.

As we left, we got some camel-shaped hostel stickers from the hostel manager and stuck them on the bike. It was probably the most comfortable place we stayed in on our trip and we didn’t mind putting it on next to the Eastonk sticker and the Lifan tank badge. I was sure the sponsors wouldn’t mind either.

We got off to a good start as we passed out of Dunhuang and the greenery of the fruit and vegetable crops that kept the oasis town alive, started to give way to big patches of sand until all that was left was brown earth and yellow sand. I was told that the farmers in Dunhuang have been depleting the aquifer that feeds the oasis for some time, so soon there may be much more sand than green on the outskirts of Dunhuang.
As we drove along the G215 we came across a herd of camels at their drinking hole. They were competing for space with a couple of truck drivers taking some time off and fishing in one end. We stopped and watched as more camels and their young camlets joined the group for a drink. It was probably the only source of water for miles around.

The road was deserted except for the odd camel crossing over. The wind was warm enough to drive comfortably and the sky was clear blue and after a couple of hours we met our old friend, the G312, resurrected from the dust and sand, but not for long.
As we stopped for dinner in what seemed like a town propped up solely by the transport industry, we asked about the roads. The restaurant owner said that just out of town, an 80 km stretch of the road was under construction, so going would be slow.
Soon we were driving blind as dust from the gravel road was kicked up by dozens of truck’s wheels. My ski mask and glasses only partly helped keep my eyes and nose working.

Just before dusk, Lulu’s front tyre got a puncture. I took the wheel off and tried to get the tyre off with any of the few tools I had. My laissez-faire attitude to bike tools had us stranded. After 30 minutes I gave up, tied the tyre to the back of my bike and drove 5kms to the next town, Xingxingxia, to get someone else to do it.

In a town where there only seemed to be truck-tyre repair shops, I found what seemed to be the only shop that could repair Lulu’s tyre. After some haggling I got the repair down to a reasonable 10 kuai from 30 kuai. 10 minutes later, it was done and I drove it back to the bike and bolted it on just as the sun set. Good thing that the town was so close.

We got into Xingxingxia (星星峡）, which was essentially just a big truck stop, and only had two places we could stay the night. We took the cheapest. It wasn’t a particularly nice place, but it did the trick. After settling in, we went to the restaurant to have our first Muslim meal in Xinjiang to celebrate.

**Roadrunner** · 01-31-2012, 07:33 AM

Xingxingxia to Hami – Day 59

The next morning we could see our lodging in all its glory.

We had banmian noodles for breakfast and as we were walking out of the restaurant, we bumped into two guys, Chet (from South Africa) and John (from England), who were riding bicycles from Istanbul to Beijing. It was a very impressive journey and showed us what extreme road adventure really is. They told us that the roads ahead were good (which was a relief) and we told them the roads heading back toward Gansu were terrible for the next 80 kms.

I wanted to try to get to Shanshan, 500 kms away by nightfall given that the roads should be good all the way. I think I knew that it wouldn’t happen, but I was feeling pressured to push on so we could have more time in the later destinations.

We figured out that the G312 is also the new G30 at this point, and we drove along newly paved highway. Hopefully motorcycles will be able to use this expressway when it’s completed because the only other national road (and possibly only good road) to Urumqi would be the long way around along the road south of the Taklamakan, the G315.

Lulu tried to pass a car-carrier on the shoulder and collided with one of the mounds of rock and sand that had been dumped at regular intervals along the shoulder. It was a much slower crash than her last one so she didn’t hurt herself and it didn’t slow us down much.

In a couple of hours we drove into Hami, an oasis town known in China for producing good fruit (Hami melon, or 哈密瓜, is named after the town). Dark-green fruit trees and grass lined the road heading in, an instant change of environment from the desert we had been driving through.

Lulu had been contacted by some people who saw her story on weibo (Chinese version of twitter) and we met up with them for a delicious lunch. This was my first taste of Zuafan, rice fried with carrot and a big lamb chop on top. It became my favourite meal in Xinjiang.

We talked about our route in Xinjiang and mentioned we were going through Kashgar. They looked worried and told us that some Han Chinese had been killed near Kashgar, by terrorists taking revenge for the death of Osama Bin Laden, who himself had been killed in the past week or so. I didn’t know whether it was true or not, but I found it odd and it unnerved both of us.

The lunch was great and after they insisted on showing us around Hami. Lulu wanted to visit the museum again, and even though I would have liked to press on we wanted to stay and experience Hami. We were also told that there is literally only desert and wide open nothingness between Hami and Shanshan for over 300 kms. Nowhere to stay, nowhere to eat, nowhere to buy water. Shanshan would have to wait.

We visited the museum, which had lots of nice pictures and dioramas, but everything was in Chinese. Right next door was a Performance Centre and the manager of the centre invited us to watch some Uighur music and dancing. The performance was excellent.

We got our bikes serviced at the local Lifan store while we looked for a place to stay. It took a while as we were in town, where it’s usually harder to find cheap places that will take foreigners.

We had a rest for a couple of hours before our friends picked us up for Xinjiang BBQ and Friday night beer.

The girls tried to teach me Uighur dance. I’ve got two left feet when it comes to dancing, but I almost got the hang of it.

We had a really great time, had plenty of Wusu beer and delicious Xinjiang barbecue fish, and got home after 1am, very glad we stayed in Hami.

**Roadrunner** · 01-31-2012, 08:25 AM

Hami to Shanshan – Day 60

Had a bit of a hangover the next day, so we were up and moving after lunch. With Shanshan (鄯善) just over 300 kms away we wouldn’t have too much trouble getting there before nightfall.

Driving through the early afternoon wasn’t so bad, but severe winds coming off the steppes made driving very hard later in the day. Shortly before we started to hit the big gusts, I noticed clouds being forced through the mountain passes and flowing over the peaks like a slow motion wave. It was early May and we had been warned that in the spring the heavy spring winds coming down off the steppes could make traveling in Xinjiang difficult.
The scenery was amazing in its bleakness. The rocks and weathered mountains added to the intriguing relief of this apocalyptic landscape. There were absolutely no towns or even places to buy food and I was grateful not to have tried this road yesterday coming from Xingxingxia.

My bike got blown over twice while sitting on the stand and my helmet camera nearly got run over.

The persistent looseness of the bolts in Lulu’s back sprocket had to be looked at again and the high winds made things quite frustrating.

The wind dropped and we drove mostly downhill as we neared the Turpan depression and we started to see trees and vine covered patio trellises out front of Uighur houses next to fields of grape vines as we approached Shanshan.

We stopped to watch the sun go down over Xinjiang, at 9pm Beijing time (or 7pm Xinjiang time).

The guys in Hami put us in contact with a friend of theirs, Snow Fox (or 雪狐) in Shanshan who offered to meet us and find a place to stay. We met him riding a scooter on the main road into town and he guided us into town.

He took us to his outdoor/adventure clothing shop where he had arranged a small welcome party, which was really thoughtful of him. We were really tired after fighting the wind all day, but we were rejuvenated they took us to the local food street where we had lots of baijiu and plenty of food. Snow Fox asked us to come to the wedding of his niece the next day and we jumped at the opportunity. I had never been to a wedding in China before.
Snow Fox offered to put us up in a spare room at his place, which was a welcome offer as we were far too tired to drive around Shanshan looking for a place to stay. For the second night in a row, we got back late and more than a little woozy.

**Roadrunner** · 01-31-2012, 10:58 AM

Originally Posted by bigdamo

Great RR and story looking forward to the Xinjiang part.

On a side note you mentioned "In one day we made it 500 kms from Aksu to Kashgar, and we had to take time to stop and shelter from a short-but-intense mid-afternoon hail-squall."

To give another perspective Xinjiang roads are either really good or really bad and it can change overnight.I can drive from my home town to Urumqi in about one and half hours on the toll road/highway if I take the main back road it is a good three hours if I take the scenic back road(all dirt road) along the base of the Tian shans it's a good five hours.Admittedly that's stopping and checking things out along the way.

Cheers BigD,

We took a little longer than 3 hours to do the Urumqi - Shihezi main road. The road crews had torn it all up and there was a detour posted in Chinese to the 快速 (kuaisu). I wasn't sure whether we could go by that route without risking a fine so we kept going on what was left of the national road.

We were told a couple of times that motorcycles can go on the expressways in Xinjiang, and we even found ourselves on one on the way to Urumqi. Do you know if this is true?