So I was nearing the end of my journey. I would have had time to ride back to Beijing. But that would have cut short my time in Xi’an and would have meant no rest day in Beijing before going back to work. Also my tires were pretty worn down with 8000km on them. So I decided to take it easy on the last leg.
I had texted felix and one route that he recommended was just following G108 through the mountains south of Xi’an. That worked very well with my schedule so I followed his advice.
After filling up on gas and water I went back onto the G108 which was still not nice but early in the morning there was not so much traffic going on.

morning on the G108 by fahni, on Picuna


Lots of Farmers working their fields. After 80 km the road takes a turn north and immediately the first pass begins. Up I go into the mountains and further along a river on nice black-top.

Mountains along the G108 by fahni, on Picuna


River along the G108 by fahni, on Picuna


Then comes the next pass with a long, ice-cold tunnel at the end. From there on, the road goes down again through some nice hills with bamboo and all into the town of Foping.

more roads by fahni, on Picuna


Foping has a Panda breeding center and there seem to be even some out here in the wild. I didn’t know they exist so far up north… I stop for a roadside lunch and have a big smile on my face when thinking of getting to Xi’an.

So I hop on the bike once again to go over the next pass. When coming down, two bikers wave me down when passing me on their way up the road. I pull over and first think there must be a problem of sorts but the two turn out to be bikers from Hebei on their way to Lhasa. They were on the road for 5 days by then and reaffirmed that 3 days from Xi’an to Beijing was the absolute minimum.
We took pictures, marveled at the bikes, swapped cigarettes and praised each other’s adventures before we parted ways again.

biker colleagues by fahni, on Picuna


It was further downhill on the nicest twisties of the whole trip.

more roads by fahni, on Picuna


When I hit the valley bed, I had another break and inspected my tires. The high speeds over the last 200km did not help their profile and they were really bad by now. So that was it. I decided to fly back to Beijing. I took the jerry can and poured all the gas into the tank so that I wouldn’t need to stop for fuel anymore that day. At about 1430h I got out of the mountains and into the hot and dusty flat area surrounding Xi’an. It was so much hotter than anything before. This had been only the second day I was not driving in long johns and now I even had to stop and get of my scarf and zip out my inner jacket.

closing in an Xi'an by fahni, on Picuna

Now the G 108 is just a dusty stretch through (at least in my mind) uninteresting villages and this picture continued until I was in Xi’an at around 1630h. I had terrible problems with orientation and only the third hotel accepted foreigners.
So I only had a short shower before I went off (not on bike) to have dinner and drinks with a bunch of friends. It was good to talk to some guys I know and share a little bit of what I had experienced.

I was out longer than expected but enjoyed the company. It was not until I got home until I realized: my journey had come to an end after 2787 km. ..