Beijing to Kunming : A Commute to Work

[Pat]

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:




Behind were snow capped mountains:




Ahead were the plains:




There were antelope running away from me all morning:




And yaks around every corner:




The road was bumpy, rocky, and at times, covered in six inches of dust:




After over 100 kilometers of wilderness, I hit the first town, Qumahe:




The first time I saw these, I thought they were satellite dishes. On closer inspection though, it appears to be a hot water heater!




The road wasn't completely empty:




And a common theme for the day was taking dust baths as trucks rode past.

Here:




It:




Comes!




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:




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:




It was really eerie:




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:




Village hoops:




As the road went east it began to hit mountains. On one ascent, the road was, like everything else in China, tiled!




I bounced my way over the tiles and finally reached the last peak before Qumalai at 4558 meters:




And then began the final descent:




And at last, 300 kilometers later, pavement!!




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!

[Pat]

Day 22: Qumalai, Qinghai to Yushu, Qinghai

The next morning I set course for Yushu but was slowed by morning rush hour:




A lot of herders in these areas live in tents. This tent city was larger than most:




The road followed a river full of these little trees:




Soon, I reached Zhiduo, the other city on the road to Yushu. The city, like the surrounding area, is predominately Tibetan:




The road was mountainous, and prayer flags continued to mark mountain peaks:




As they drive past these peaks, truck drivers often toss stacks of these out the window:




The roads are always just one turn away from turning back to dirt:




And there was still snow on the ground in some places:




Coming around a corner, I saw what I thought was another tent city of herders:




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:




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:




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:




While the new city was being built:




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:




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:




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...):




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:




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:




I rode into the center of the city, only to discover that it too had been largely destroyed:




The statue that marks the center of the city still stands:




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:




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:




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..

[euphonius]

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.



As usual, you've ended on yet another note of high suspense. Can't want for the next installment!

thanks and cheers!

[moilami]

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

[MeowZeDong]

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!

[humanbeing]

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

NEVER ever try this !!! F***s private property from "minority group" will cause trouble --- $$$ & life risk

[moilami]

NEVER ever try this !!! F***s private property from "minority group" will cause trouble --- $$$ & life risk

That is if they can catch you

[Forrest Speyer]

Oh my god!!! A lots of good abanded places to play war game!!!Or sniper training!!!! Nice photo shot Pat!!!!

[Lao Jia Hou]

Village hoops:

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.

Next year, there will be tennis courts everywhere.

[robtho]

Another fantastic post, keep it up as you've developed a pretty avid following and we look forward to your latest.