Week 9: Some Down Time in Ürümqi
Day 58
This morning I set out out towards Urumqi, and with about 200km to cover, I decided I would break it up into two days ride, 100km each day. There was a city about half way in between called Dabancheng that I planned on setting up camp for the night near. I knew it would be uphill since I was leaving the lowest point in China, and I knew it would be windy just as it had been when we entered Xinjiang. But on paper these northern winds didn’t look to be anything out of the ordinary, and therefore perfectly manageable over the course of two days.
About 25km in, I cleared the outer reaches of Turpan. The road had been rising steadily but nothing drastic, which allowed me to maintain about a 17km/h average speed. I stopped at what looked to be the last service station for a while to fill up my bottles. After that, I suspected there’d be nothing on the road but the barren desert. After a quick snack, I got back on the bike and started heading north.
No more than about 3km in, the wind really started to pick up, only there was nothing around to give context to how strong the wind was…only me and my bike which was becoming harder and harder to ride. I fought on for a bit, telling myself that once I crest this hill it would be better.
It didn’t get better. I was down at about 3km an hour with gusts blowing me off the side of the road. Eventually, the wind got so strong I couldn’t get started again and had to push my bike along the road. Luckily I was surrounded by a rocky desert and as such, the gusts were not blowing too much sand all over the place. Although perhaps luck isn’t the right word choice, as every now and then, a gust would swoop in so hard that pebbles would fly, and pebbles hurt a lot more than sand when they’re blown at you!
During one of these gusts, I turned my face away to try to protect my eyes (not wanting a repeat of what happened in Dunhuang) and as I turned, the wind blew my sunglasses right off my face. They didn’t even touch the ground as they flew away, and after a few seconds, they all but disappeared into the desert without trace. While I hadn’t quite predicted this, I had been prepared for the possibly of losing my glasses, so I reached to pull out my extra pair of prescription sunglasses.
While I was still searching, a truck driver pulled up and told me to throw all my stuff in the back; he offered to drive me to Urumqi. We made some space amongst the boxes of grapes in the back for my bike and bags. He said it would be impossible to cycle this road and I didn’t doubt that it would take me much longer than the two days I had planned for. By this time, I was a couple of days ahead of Shunji. I would later find out that the exact same thing happened to him when he tried to cycle the same road. He also made it about 30km before getting picked up. Apparently, the cool air from the Tianshan mountains often rushes down the slopes into the warmer air of the Turpan Basin, causing the gale force winds that we were trying to cycle through.
It was about a two hour drive to the fruit market, which was situated 20km outside of Urumqi where this guy was making his delivery. He dropped me there and despite my best efforts, he refused to accept one of my Hongbaos; this time I lost the game! Even though we had only travelled a couple hundred kilometres, the difference in the weather couldn’t have been more pronounced. I left 40 degree desert and arrived in 10 degree rain and wind. Quickly throwing on some extra clothes, I found a hotel for the night about 7km away and rode over.
Day 59
I had booked into the Mai Tian Youth Hostel in Urumqi, which was just over 20km away. I noticed that I would be passing a Decathlon on the way there and decided to make a stop.
But everywhere you go in Xinjiang, there is a really strong security presence. They are just trying to avoid any further terrorist attacks, so I don’t like complaining about it. This means however, that most shops, hotels, subway stations, etc. have airport-like security with bag scanners, metal detectors, and facial recognition.
Decathlon was no different, and since I was bringing my bike, I had to get all my earthly possessions scanned before they would let me in. All I really needed was a new camping towel as I left mine in the previous hostel, but I ended up spending about £90 on random stuff (editor’s note: this is typical Ross style to spend hours here and splurge)! The winter cycling clothes will come in handy though as the weather seemed as if it was about to take a turn. I had also recently read that the UK is expecting to have the worst winter in 30 years!
Day 60-64
I had contacted the guy in Shanghai who sold me my bike and asked if he could send out a new tyre. With so much weight over my back wheel, it had begun to wear out much quicker than I expected. This might have contributed to the growing number of punctures I had been experiencing since arriving in Xinjiang. I also got him to throw in a couple of extra inner tubes as well since I had an ever increasing number of patches on my other spares. He agreed but it would take about 4 days for the delivery to arrive from Shanghai. This meant spending the next 4 days relaxing, resting, and exploring the capital of Xinjiang. I managed to explore the Grand Bazaar, Hongshan Park, the Western Tianshan Mountains, and Tianchi, the heavenly lake.
Getting to Tianchi was easy. I just headed to the south gate of People’s park where there was a woman selling tickets for the bus. I arrived at about 9:30AM and was told that the bus had already left, but she would arrange a taxi for me. If the car was full it would be 100RMB for the return trip, but it was just me and a Georgian girl who had missed the bus, so we split a taxi between 2 for 150RMB. The drive itself was uneventful. It took a little over an hour to get to the main gate. The driver then took us to the police station where we had to register before we could buy tickets and enter. Like everywhere else in Xinjiang, you need to bring your passport. An American guy behind me in the queue was able to get in with his driving licence and a photocopy of his passport, but they weren’t too pleased about it.
Once inside, we got on a bus for a beautiful drive up the mountain. We were dropped off by a bunch of souvenir stalls, but this was also a great opportunity to grab some breakfast. After yet another queue, we the bus that would take us to the lake. There are thousands of people visiting the lake each day, but it was a rather slick operation and I noticed that buses were filled and replaced with an empty one almost immediately, so even though the queue looked massive, it moved fairly quickly.
This bus dropped us off at the lake where we could get on a boat or just walk around the side. Choosing the latter option, we walked around to one of the lakeside temples which offered great views. After that, we headed back to the bus area and bought yet another ticket which was for the cable car and the next bus. This took us to one of the peaks. The ticket was expensive, about 250RMB, but that meant we could escape from the crowds of other tourists who mainly congregate around the lake. This next bus dropped us at the cable car station, which was empty. After the five-minute ride up the mountain, we got out into a little boardwalk area with stalls selling food and souvenirs. We continued up the wooden steps to the summit.
After a while, the steps ran out and we were left walking along a tiny single track. It was completely worth it. We enjoyed the most amazing views of the lake and the surrounding peaks. The walk itself took about hour and a half. There was also a path that goes up all the way from the lake, so it is possible to get to the summit without paying for the bus and cable car, but that would probably be a full day’s hike and we hadn’t planned in that time.
When it was finally time to leave, we did the whole trip in reverse and met our driver who took us back into Urumqi by 7PM. A great way to spend my last day in Ürümqi.
