Week 8: Dunhuang to Turpan, 731km
Day 50
Today I left behind the sand dunes and oasis of Dunhuang and headed back out into the desert. What laid ahead was one of the toughest days in the saddle yet. First the weather was pushing 40 degrees again. While I’ve been able to somewhat cope with the dry heat of the desert (compared with the humidity of eastern china), the wind added an extra layer of problems.
The same wind that had carried me so effortlessly down into Dunhuang, I now had to fight against to make my way back out. I knew this would be the case but I still wasn’t quite prepared for just how energy sapping it’d be riding directly into headwinds like that. The other day I was cruising at 40km/h feeling like Chris Froome and today I was struggling to get above 10km/h at times.
The second issue I ran into today was lack of facilities. Near Dunhuang, there was a period of maybe 15-20km that was farm land, nice trees to shelter against the wind and small houses with the occasional shop. After that ended, it was just me and the open desert for 130km until I reached the town of Liuyuan. This is by far the longest distance I have had to cover in China between rest stops.
By the final 20km, I was out of water and starting to get really thirsty in the heat. I knew I was close but with the wind was making progress so slow that it seemed to compound the trouble. Eventually, I was able to push through the final 20km and made it to a shop where I downed a bottle of water and coke, and filled up all the bottles on my bike. I then had another 5km to ride to a hotel where I would be meeting a Japanese guy who I had been put in contact with by one of my previous hostel owners. He was heading the same way, so we decided to meet up. We found a little restaurant next to the hotel and had a bunch of Lamb Kebabs before getting some rest.
Big day tomorrow! I’m going to try to cross the border into Xinjiang!
Day 51
We grabbed a quick breakfast before leaving Liuyuan behind to join the G312 highway that headed towards the Xinjiang border. I wasn’t sure what to laid ahead.
Still, It was nice riding with another person, each taking turns in the front with the other sheltering from the wind behind. We made good progress and reached the border around 3PM. Just as we were arriving, I pulled up with a slow puncture. The border town is called Xingxingxia, although calling it a town is a bit generous. Xingxingxia consisted of just a couple of shops and a hotel that wasn’t even open. It’s more of a service station really.
We made our way through the trucks and motorhomes out into the desert to find a spot to set up camp. Due to recent goings on in Xinjiang, I thought now would be a good time to get rid of my beard so began chopping away at it with my electric shaver. I may have spent a little too long messing around sculpting a horrendous set of handlebars, because just as I started to properly shave, the battery began to die. I feared I would be left with nothing but a hitler tash, and the exercise I had undertaken to avoid suspicion in a politically sensitive area would’ve horribly backfired! Luckily, I managed to get most of it shaved before the battery actually died. I was left with nothing but a few tufts here and there that could more easily be clean up at the next hotel.
The wind had really picked up and we had to secure our tents with some rocks to stop them flying away. We decided to get an early night as we were going to try to make it to the first city in Xinjiang, Hami, the next day which was over 200km away.
Day 52
We were up before the sunrise and packing all our things before heading over to the little shop for a spot of breakfast. It was about 7:30 when we eventually crossed the border into Xinjiang. You’d be able to spot a big gate at first, like a toll booth. There was no police there and we rode straight through. For a brief moment, I thought, wow we were in Xinjiang already. I didn’t know what all the fuss was about.
But of course, a couple hundred metres down the road, we were waved into a police check point and told to leave our bikes and go inside. They took our passports, asked us a bunch of questions, and told us to wait. We waited for over two hours, and as time passed, the thought of reaching Hami that day looked less and less likely.
Eventually, we were warned of the danger of riding in Xinjiang. They gave us two options: 1) the officers could escort us in their car, or 2) they would just drive behind us as we cycled. We decided we would ride it out but had the clever thought, if they are going to tail us the whole way, we might as well make them useful by carrying all our bags. So we threw everything in the back of the truck and set out down the hard shoulder of the motorway with our police escort driving slowly behind us.
Without the weight of the bags on the bikes and with a favourable tailwind, we were flying. We managed to cover the first 100km of Xinjiang in 2 hours 45 minutes! After 100km though, we came to another checkpoint. This time we were told that we were not allowed to ride, and so off we went in the police truck that would drive us to the next city. The officers were always nice, telling us how impressed they were about the journey. They dropped us at the local station on the outskirts of the city where I fixed my puncture. We then transferred our bags to another police car and got back on the bikes. The police just tailed us to a restaurant and then our escort was eventually downgraded to a security guard on an electric bike. He followed us to our hotel and left as we checked in.
Day 53
I took today off to explore the city, pick up a new inner tube and do some video editing and blog writing.
Day 54
We set out from Hami and headed to a nearby town called Sandaoling. Since didn’t need to ride on the highway, we anticipated that we wouldn’t be followed as much by the police. We were following the G312 again and it was much quieter. Our day passed without incident as we seemed to be riding through ghost towns, with abandoned little mud brick houses and only the odd grape farm here and there with their distinct drying rooms. As we got closer to Sandaoling, we were picked up by another police escort who took us to the local police station to register before telling us which hotel to stay in. Again they were all very nice about it, just doing their job. This particular guy even spoke a bit of English.
Day 55
Leaving Sandaoling, we headed towards Turpan and were back on the highway. We passed multiple police checkpoints, and each time it become faster and easier. They basically took your passport and visa info, where we came from, where you’re going, and our telephone number.
Turpan was about 320km away and I wanted to cover that distance two days so I could take a day off and get the video and blog out for this week. That meant about 160km a day, easy!
But no, it wasn’t, accounting for the brutal Xinjiang wind. The morning started out alright, but we were traveling up hill, and then into the late afternoon and evening the wind began to pick up and it was insane. There were times when we had to stop cause we were literally getting blown off the bike.
Even going downhill, I was struggling to get above 10km/h. It was mental, but I was actually kind of enjoying it. The fear of getting blown away really got the adrenaline going. In these brutal conditions I ended up getting separated from Shunji, my riding buddy, and so we each set up camp at a different spot along the road. My spot wasn’t the most picturesque—a truck stop surrounded by rubbish and junk. I did get to see quite a nice sunset though. I had only made it 106km so if I want to make Turpan tomorrow, there was still a lot of ground left to make up.
Day 56
I packed up my stuff, said goodbye to the nearby guard dog, and set out from my little truck stop camp about 8:30AM. That gave me plenty of daylight hours to make the 210km or so to Turpan, given the right conditions.
All did not start smoothly however as I almost immediately got a puncture. Since I’ve been in Xinjiang I’ve had 4 punctures within 300km. That’s compared to the three I’ve gotten in the 3,400km since leaving Shanghai. The truck stops were unfortunately a minefield of bits of wire and glass. Pretty much every time I roll into one, I’d roll out with a flat. It could also be due to wear of my rear tyre. I’m carrying about 30kg of luggage on the bike so the tyres are wearing pretty fast. I’m going to get my contact from Marin to send a couple new tyres to Urumqi and when I get there, I’ll get a little service down on the bike to make sure she’s ready for leg two of the journey and Central Asia.
Anyway, not a good start to a long day! I managed to make up some time on the highway and the police checkpoints were pretty fast. Had lunch at a service station about 100km in, then shortly afterwards, came off the highway back onto the G312. Turpan is the lowest place in China and actually the third lowest place in the world, so I was expecting some long descents. I went from over 1000m above sea level to 50m below sea level. Unfortunately though, that wasn’t the end of my day. I had to climb back up for another 10km, and running low on water and feeling the effects of dehydration wasn’t quite so fun! When I eventually arrived at the hostel, I was told that they don’t accept foreigners…and this was after I had specifically picked one with the word ‘international’ in its name: Turpan Luolan International Youth Hostel.
Back on the bike again for another 3km to a different hostel called Dapu. This one turned out to be really nice; the guy working here even speaks great English!
Day 57
Went to explore Turpan in the morning and had some amazing little snacks. The seller called them kao baozi in Chinese, but I didn’t catch the name in the local Uyghur language. They’re basically like a Greggs Steak Bake, except filled with spicy Xinjiang Lamb. Absolutely delicious!
I then went to check out the Minaret which was cool, but with the construction going on, there wasn’t any other tourists there. I was able to walk around and enjoy the architecture in peace. I spend the afternoon, writing, and video editing, which to me, always feel more tiring than a day after cycling! Tomorrow meant heading to Urumqi, which meant I’ll be near the Chinese border in the next couple weeks!
Some thoughts on entering Xinjiang:
From what I had read online before coming here, I had anticipated it to be much more of a hassle than it has actually been so far. Sure, there are a lot of police checkpoints and they pretty much know exactly where you are at all times, but officers have all been friendly when going about their business.
I had heard that people got all their bags checked, computers and phones searched, and have been asked to delete certain pictures and get certain books confiscated. I even heard that authorities install a spyware app on your phone when you arrive in Xinjiang.
I haven’t experienced any of this. Now this might be for tourists arriving in Xinjiang across international borders, but even people I’ve met who have traveled in from Pakistan have said it’s been pretty easy. I have however had a few phone calls from the police while I’ve been on the road asking if I have passed through certain checkpoints so I have no doubt they are keeping tabs on me the whole way through. Still, it hasn’t overly impacted my ability to cycle through the region.
Now a political/cultural analysis of whatever the Chinese government is doing in Xinjiang is beyond the scope of this blog post and of my writing ability, but I would encourage people to read up on what is going on here and don’t let whatever you may hear put you off traveling to this beautiful part of the world.
