Harbin to Kashgar, and wherever else theres time for

[HarbinSteve]

After hanging out at the lake for 2 days, it was time to keep going west. There were a few mountains, and the land started turning to desert.


(28 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

I'm from Arizona, and the landscape and plants in that area reminded me a lot of being home. It was strange.


(29 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

We usually try to find places hidden from the road to camp, but because it was so flat you couldn't get out of the way. I thought it would be ok, since we were pretty far off the road, but it was really noisy with all of the trucks going by all night.

Setting up camp. We drank some of the tibetan baijiu and watched an incredible sunset before setting up the tent and crashing.


(31 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

It was that night that I learned my lesson in desert camping. In Arizona, the dirt is mostly sandy, and doesn't get kicked up too easily. There, in the middle of nowhere Qinghai, it was incredibly fine dust. As we were sleeping, a strong wind blew, and by morning, even though we had the fly up, the inside of the tent had almost an inch of dust everywhere. It wasn't the kind of dust you could just wipe off either. It was so fine that no matter what you did, it just kind of stuck. So I accepted my fate of being covered in dust for the remainder of the desert portion of my trip. Luckily my camera bag had a rain cover that kept the dust out pretty well.


(1 of 1) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr


The next part of the trip, between there and Geermu, was the most barren place I have ever seen in my entire life. Seems ironic that it would be in China. Probably 300km of absolute nothingness. Only a road, sand, wind, and the power lines that followed the road. This was one of the toughest sections of the trip. I have no idea how anybody could have possibly done that before motor vehicles existed. The whole time (and according to the people I talked to pretty much always) There was a strong wind, blowing West to East. The poor overloaded 125 could barely do 50km/hr. It was hot, and we had to stop to let the bike cool off from time to time, but whenever you stopped you just got barraged by sand. There were no buildings, signs, or even big rocks to hide behind. On that entire stretch the only thing we passed was a gas station. I can't even imagine how bored the people who work there must be. There were big tanks of water that got refilled by trucks every so often, and some barriers to keep the sand from swallowing the gas station.


(32 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

Mandatory middle of nowhere selfie


(1 of 1) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

[HarbinSteve]

Once in a while we would come across places with some kind of grass growing. The ground was really salty.


(33 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr


(1 of 1) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

We camped on night in one of these areas and there were more mosquitoes that I ever imagined could be in one place at one time. I don't know if it has to do with the salt or what but it was weird. We set up the tent while wearing full gear, helmets, gloves etc.. but still got tons of bites. We dove into the tent and spend the next 30 minutes or so killing all the mosquitoes that had gotten in on our clothes. Going out to go the bathroom was awful. Needless to say, it was an awful place to camp.

The next day it was more of the same. Flat. Straight. Windy. Hot.


(2 of 2) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr


(1 of 2) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

Then in one of the salty grassy stretches, Camels!


(1 of 1) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

Then more sand.


(1 of 1) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

[HarbinSteve]

I don't know if I just didn't take pictures, or they got deleted, but at some point we got to geermu (golmud). Since my pictures don't exist, I will paint a picture of golmud for you with my exquisite prose. (thats sarcasm) Really dirty and tired from being in the desert for the last few days, we decided to find a real place to crash. After some baidu-ing we found an "international youth hostel" I was happy to see the word international, because that meant it wouldn't be a big hassle for me to stay there. Or so I thought.

After scarfing a huge bowl of hundun, we found our hostel. They had showers and hot water, empty beds, a good place to park the bike etc... but there was a problem, foreigners couldn't stay there.

"Aren't you an international youth hostel?"

"yeah"

"But foreigners can't stay here?"

"right"

"international?"

"yes"

After talking in circles for a minute, the boss explained to me that originally they were able to accept foreigners, but the police had made some rules or something, and in that city foreigners could now only stay in 3 star or above hotels. (Later in xinjiang I would run into this "rule" a lot) He seemed genuinely sorry, and tried to help me resolve the situation. We called the police and asked a bunch of questions but they wouldn't budge. The police in those places have to be getting pretty good kickbacks from the big hotels for making these groundless bullshit rules.

After we failed, the owner generously let us use his showers, wash our clothes, change the oil in my bike, and hang out in his lobby all day, all for free. He just asked that we leave before it was dark. He ended up being a really cool guy, and was fun to talk to. Unfortunately a bunch of his business had gotten screwed awhile back when the police decided foreigners couldn't stay at hostels in that city anymore.

The funniest part of the day was when a girl from Taiwan showed up at the hostel with her mainland friend. Since the Chinese ideas about Taiwan are "disputed" it was really funny to see the reactions of the other people in the lobby when the owner told her she wasn't allowed to stay there. It caused a heated political discussion among the enlightened youth, most of who were traveling around the motherland after graduating from university.(毕业旅行)

"I'm sorry you can't stay here"

"why not"

"foreigners aren't allowed to stay here"

another person in the room "she is not a foreigner, she is from Taiwan"

After a while the police were called again, and it was decided that because she didn't have a Chinese ID card (she wasn't a foreigner, after all) she would have to stay in the foreigner hotel.

It was pretty funny to watch how delicately the police were trying to handle the situation.

After that I changed my oil in the courtyard. While I was changing the oil, I saw a hui minority skinning a lamb. Since my bike's seat is terrible, we had been sitting on a sheepskin, and since it was getting matted and dirty, I wanted to add another layer. I went to talk to him, and it was hilarious. I don't mean to stereotype people, but he perfectly fit the stereotype. He was like a character from Aladdin or something. His really thick accent and traditional clothes (and the fact that he was causally gutting a lamb in a hostel courtyard) made me feel like I was in a movie or something.

"hello, I see your skinning a lamb, I've been looking for a skin to put on my motorcycle seat, do you know where I can by one?"

"how about this one?"

"Ummm... I want one thats dry, to sit on, like this one" I showed him the one on my seat.

"Ah yeah, this one is very nice, very nice"

"sure, I can get you a skin, wait an hour or two."

"ok"

"do you need anything else? I can get pretty much anything you need"

"The skin is all I need"

"how about..."

The guy proceeded to list like 100 things, some of which were drugs, and a bunch of things I had never heard of before/ didn't understand, and I just kept telling him I only wanted a skin, but he just kept going. It was hilarious.

A little while later his pal showed up with a stack of skins tied to the back of a motorcycle. Unlike the one I had, this one was from a lamb. It was pretty small, and it was the whole skin. Just like it was cut off and hung up to dry. There was dried mud/crap all over it, the skin was just dried hard, so it cracked when you bent it, and the hair was pretty short, so it didn't provide much padding.

"just wash it, and it will be beautiful like your other one"

He only wanted 50kuai for it, and I thought it was awesome to be buying a sketchy lamb skin from a man in the courtyard, so I bought it. I really regret not asking for a picture with him.

After that we failed at trying to find tibetan food (strange for a tibetan city, so close to the tibet) and had a crappy sichuan meal instead, before heading out to the desert to find a place to sleep that didn't cost 400rmb, like the 3star hotels in the city. We found a kind of cool place between some sand dunes, and stuck some candles in the sand and enjoyed to cool desert air for awhile before crashing.

[HarbinSteve]

Sand. (don't remember if this was taken before or after geermu, but it was all pretty much the same)


(1 of 1) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

Baxi holding the new skin so it didn't blow away in the strong wind while we rested.


(3 of 3) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

The beast conquering the silk road...


(2 of 3) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

This bird's friend was dead, but he just stood there, waiting for here to wake up. I tried to scare him away, but he always came back and waited by here side. Poor guy...


(36 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

Not even power lines to keep us company while we wait for the sandstorm to come kick our asses.


(1 of 1) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

[HarbinSteve]

At this point we were getting pretty close to the border of Xinjiang, which was a major step in the goal of getting to Kashgar. We had been camping a lot, and hadn't got a place to stay in Geermu, so as it started to get dark we looked for a place to stay. After failing to find a place in the small town where we stopped to get gas, we ate dinner in one of the truck stop restaurants. They said they had just opened that day, and didn't have menus yet.

"What do you have?"

"normal dishes"

We asked all of the dishes that us easterners were used to, and every time she replied "no, we don't make that"

After awhile we gave up, and told her just to make something with meat and vegetables. In the end we got something like 芹菜炒肉 and some mantou to eat. It was alright. For some reason everything out there was about twice as expensive as it should be. I guess customers are few and far between, so they have to have higher prices?

Anyhow, after dinner it was starting to get dark, so it looked like it was going to be camping again. Then all of a sudden in the distance there was a giant tank in the road. And a lot of soldiers. And some jeep mounted machine guns. It looked like we had just entered iraq or something. Then the man standing in the tank motioned for me to pull over. We got out. They all looked really confused to see motorcycle there, and were way more confused when I took of my helmet and they saw that I was a foreigner. After a lot of confused talking (most of it in uighur, so I didn't understand) they shuffled us into a small shed/office. I figured out that this was the border to Xinjiang.

This was shortly after a lot of police were attacked in the far west, so I guess they were trying to find some suspects, and being extra cautious, so every person entering or leaving Xinjiang had to register. They asked all about what we were doing, who we were, where we were going etc.. and were satisfied with all of our paperwork/answers, so after awhile we were allowed through. I really wanted to take a picture, but that was not gonna happen.

At that time it was getting close to dark, so we wanted to find a place to sleep, but didn't want to be anywhere near all of the tanks and stuff. I don't know what exactly the rules about camping in China are, but finding people camping would probably raise their suspicions, since it seems Chinese people never camp. We drove for a few more ams and pulled over. We were in one of those salty/grassy/sandy areas again, and even though there wasn't any trace of water anywhere around us, there were millions of mosquitoes again. We set up the tent and dove in.

Getting near the border


(1 of 1) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

Home sweet home


(1 of 1)-2 by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

The morning after. Still tons of mosquitoes.


(38 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

[HarbinSteve]

Where the 315 goes over the mountains was really cool. It was a nice change from the flat desert we had been in for the last few days. The dirt and rocks were very colorful, the road was curvy, and in good condition.

This section


Screen Shot 2014-01-17 at 4.52.12 PM by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

Into the mountains


(39 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr


(40 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

Even more amazing in person


(41 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

The only traffic on the road was semi trucks. At the peak there was a truck repair stop. Whoever lives/works there must be pretty lonely.

A less maintained section of road


Û?ÿÓáqéñøÙJô+Q_jñ3áUËú©ÿÃÄx4éä 2(jæï<(°IUª¶é·]ë»ÓEê»öR3Aìk¶;*"dÐ&¬`U¦NNð5§Zû)ËA±åÖy ÜoõA¦¦1ùXñUÆêhIÕÃÀ¶ÛèV±·)eõo¿êþ%à^4Jiúj(º×áQ×çSEKÑ ,£bA2VSº4(xÔ¢£Ãý¬4X×$nXüºb«íGêÛ®*±®**H½0ªÆ1µjÞñWFÛ zôÅWzèСp¸P»qÛúâ¨KÖ^ý0%7´õÎÄ>!ï¤!Ñ&SêD*Ç*wü Ú{fQ^¬8Ñhßv Ökº¢³7G1Æ£ð ®DÚ by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

At one kind of blind turn, two overloaded semis' trailers had collided. It caused a backup several km's long. I'm not sure how long they had been there, but all the drivers in line were walking around, playing cards, and eating with each other. It seemed like it was going to be a long time until the two drivers figured out who was going to be paying for the mess. Luckily it didn't matter for me, I just went around. While I was crossing I passed two guys on motor scooters with huge backpack on, and in full moto gear going the opposite way of me. They each had twice as much gear as baxi and I combined, I thought they were crazy.


(43 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

miles and miles


(44 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

Towards the bottom of the mountain, as it was turning back to flat boring windy desert, we crossed a guy who wasn't so lucky.


(45 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

Not sure what he was hauling, but I was suppressed some "entrepreneurs" hadn't helped themselves to his load.

[felix]

I'm still reading! Love your pictures, and the stories are great too.

By the way those trees you talk about in qinghai are, i suspect, a part of the "great green wall of china". It's a project to try and prevent the Gobi desert from spreading south and eating away at china's precious arable land. It surrounds all of inner mongolia, from gansu all the way out to helongjiang. Massive project that the government rarely gets credit for.

[modron]

Im reading too. Great story. I regret that I didnt have my girl with me when I was on the road

[HarbinSteve]

I'm still reading! Love your pictures, and the stories are great too.

By the way those trees you talk about in qinghai are, i suspect, a part of the "great green wall of china". It's a project to try and prevent the Gobi desert from spreading south and eating away at china's precious arable land. It surrounds all of inner mongolia, from gansu all the way out to helongjiang. Massive project that the government rarely gets credit for.

Thats interesting, I've never heard of it. I bet you're right. Also, its a bummer I didn't end up going through xian on my way back. It would have been fun to meet up.

Im reading too. Great story. I regret that I didnt have my girl with me when I was on the road

Thanks. As for having somebody with you, its got both pros and cons. haha.

[HarbinSteve]

So, we were finally in Xinjiang. We had no real plan other than to go along the southern roads to Kashgar, and then loop around the north on the way back. I don't know if any of you have ever noticed, but Xinjiang has a lake (at least part if not most is already dried) bigger than Qinghai lake. (upper left corner of pic, Qinghai lake is on the lower right)


Screen Shot 2014-01-19 at 8.37.15 PM by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

I had never heard of this lake, but it seemed pretty cool, and there was a road leading to it not far from where we were. We couldn't find much about the lake online, other than it was a salt lake, the fee to enter was apparently really really high if you were in a vehicle, and that there wasn't really anything else there. Feeling up for adventure, we decided to give it a try. The intersection with the highway was very clearly marked with official blue signs, and there were also the brown senic spot signs with the lakes name. There was also a sign for some town near the lake as well. Once we got to the intersection, we saw that it was a dirt road, and it wasn't in great condition, but we figured the lake probably just didn't have many tourists, so it wouldn't be worth paving hundreds of ams of road just for that. It was clearly marked, so we decided to give it a try.


(1 of 1) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

There was about 200k to go on this road before we would get to the town by the lake. We figured about six hours on the sketchy road. It was pretty slow going, but if you road fast enough the washboarding kind of didn't matter too much. Going fast was a little dangerous, since the bike has terrible suspension, but we found a good balance and were cruising. After about 30km, we hadn't seen a single other car on the road, but we just figured there wasn't much tourism in the middle of a huge desert in the summer, and kept going.

Obey all speed limits!


(1 of 1) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

This pic pretty much defines the word desolate


(1 of 1) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

We cruised (and slowly destroyed our backs) for about an hour before we saw a semi truck heading that way. We figured he just wanted to take the short cut from Urumqi, and saw it as a good sign that the road actually went somewhere, so we kept going. After another hour we made it to a huge sign. It was written in 3 languages, Mandarin, Uighur, and English. It said "DO NOT CROSS THIS LINE, MILITARY TERRITORY, SEVERE PENALTY FOR TRESPASSERS. I was soooo pissed. We had ridden two hours over a bunch of S+++ road following signs to a town and a tourist site, all to run into a sign telling us we couldn't go there. Are you F***** kidding me China? You couldn't have put that sign 100km back at the intersection? That road only goes one place, so it was really annoying to waste all that time, when they could have just put in with the other signs, letting you know that you are about to waste your time. I was hot tired dirty and super pissed, and we had a two hour ride to get back to the highway. I wanted to kill whoever was responsible for that, and to top it off, the rocks/washboarding/lack of suspension had caused my front fender to crack in half, and it was about to fall off.