![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.johnbradshaw.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/22_china_3.png\")
<\/a>Our first<\/span> stop was at a small old army tent where we had to complete a simple health check form and have our temperature taken. Everyone was wearing a face mask. All appeared clear and we rode a couple of hundred metres, past some immaculately dressed military guys standing perfectly still on little platforms, to the front of a newish looking immigration building. Unlike the normal requirement to park out of the way, we were made to line all the bikes up across the front entrance, and were totally overwhelm<\/span>ed by the welcome. All the officials, civilians, police and military were taking pictures of us and our bikes and asking us <\/span><\/a><\/span>to take pictures of them. They all wanted to <\/span>talk to us and shake our hands and make it clear we were very welcome in China. After all the trepidation and worry you can imagine I <\/a>was gobsmacked. We also met our English speaking Uigher agent\/guide, Abdul Rachman, adding to our sense of having made it.<\/span><\/p>\n A brief and well organised formality of passing over our health check form and a passport check at a small window around the outside of the building, an hours wait for the return of our passports, and finally through a passport control gate and we were on our way to a hotel about 200 metres down the road. Our bikes were all left parked in front of the immigration building overnight. The hotel was a 70’s structure which was fine \u2013 basic and clean. John and I had a twin room which is what we had booked throughout China, paid for in advance by the fee we gave Steve. Our transport support is a 7 seater Hyundi mini bus which will take part of our luggage and I was assured, a bike if necessary. The evening meal was delightful. Abdul took us to a local restaurant where they put the tables together for the 12 of us, and for 40 Yen (\u00a34) I had a couple of beers, rice, a beef and vegetable dish, noodles, chicken and sliced potato. Very tasty and filling. Chopsticks not working too well yet. Our first morning in China started with a 7.30 breakfast in the same restaurant and a return to the immigration building. During the half hour wait to open the gate we were subjected to a bit of hassle from a range of street hawkers, beggars and money changers. Once inside we had our bike chassis numbers checked against the information we had previously sent to our agent. Very cursory. We rode our bikes back to our hotel, waited until late afternoon for Abdul to complete some immigration formalities, and then a convoy motorway ride behind the minibus to Yining. Abdul had to negotiate our way through a few police checks. The most formidable one was as we entered Yining where a row of armed military were lined up, rifles at the ready, behind sandbags. Whilst we were waiting for clearance there appeared to a very regimented ‘changing of the guard’ of an armed riot squad. Quite an ominous start, although I didn’t feel in any way threatened. We booked into a smart hotel (it was now dark) and Abdul took us to a family type restaurant where I enjoyed lamb, noodles and fungi. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" China 2009 – across China Our first stop was at a small old army tent where we had to complete a simple health check form and have our temperature taken. Everyone was wearing a face mask. All appeared clear and we rode a couple of hundred metres, past some immaculately dressed military guys standing perfectly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-full-width.php","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1060","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P5sQ5l-h6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnbradshaw.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnbradshaw.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnbradshaw.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnbradshaw.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnbradshaw.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1060"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnbradshaw.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5504,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnbradshaw.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1060\/revisions\/5504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnbradshaw.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nA sparrow fart start on Friday at 7.15 after a mediocre breakfast only to wait for an hour outside a vehicle testing station where Abdul started the process of registering our bikes and obtaining our Chinese driving licences. Next stop was a very grand police station where after yet another very lengthy wait we had our photographs taken and took an eye test for our driving licences<\/a>. The eye test was to identify, one eye at a time at 5 metres, the orientation of a \u0428, by hand signals \u2013 up, down, left or right. No problem for my left eye but no chance with the ‘reading’ lens in my right eye. John conveniently stood next to me and quietly gave me instructions. By midday we appeared to be cleared when my age was noticed and Abdul thought it might be helpful if I went with him to the guy who had raised the query. No one in China over 70 is allowed to ride a bike over 110cc. Abdul first tried to say he should <\/a>be able to see I wasn’t that old but the guy had my details, so he tried the line that I had ridden 10,000 km safely to get here. There was a long discussion and eventually the guy admitted it would be too much trouble to send me back to Kazakhstan, and so on the understanding that Abdul (who conveniently had a bike licence) would ride it some of the time I was given the licence. Friendly but very insistent unwavering argument invariably produces an equitable solution to an insurmountable problem, so I was never seriously worried about the outcome of this little episode.
\nOn our way back to our hotel we rode into a petrol station only to be turned away from the pumps and made to park outside the station and fill up carrying the petrol from the pumps in kettles \u2013 allegedly standard practice for motorbikes in China. It extremely hazardous as it was impossible to avoid some spillage when pouring from the kettles and the whole process took 3\/4 hour with only two 6<\/span><\/a><\/span>.5 litre (40 Yen) kettles available for 11 bikes.
\nJohn and I had an unusual lunch of fish which we cooked in a two part steel container sunk into our table over a gas ring. Half held herb flavoured water and half was richly spiced oil. Excellent taste from the oily side particularly, but difficult to salvage the cooked fish as it tended to disintegrate in the liquids. The evening meal was the best Chinese meal to date – the sliced beef and spicy vegetables were superb but a shame the fried rice came late.
\nOn Saturday morning we set off on a 460 km ride to Kuyton and I felt our Chinese journey had really begun. We partially retraced our route from the border and picked <\/a>up the G132 and motorwayed to the mountains where to my concern the tarmac ended and I was faced with 50 km mountain pass of seriously rough road. This was not helped by it being watered in places to keep the dust down and by a full compliment of lumbering large trucks weaving to find the best path. I managed without any mishaps, having gone ahead of the rest of the group when they stopped for coffee at the start of the pass, in order that I could travel at my own pace. The top was over 2000 metres, quite cool, and stunning scenery. I met Abdul where the tarmac started and as I pulled up I had a distinct feeling of satisfaction. The rest of the journey to Kuyton was on Expressway. All the main routes in China are tolled and motorbikes are not officially allowed on Expressways. Abdul negotiated us on for free as there is no mechanism for charging bikes \u2013 but they will not open the barrier or let us slip round the barrier \u2013 we have go off road outside the toll gate.
\nA short easy ride of 250 km the next day took us to Urumqi. We took a short diversion off the main road for a lunch break in a very small village \u2013 a great lunch and a surprising number of local ordinary people eating there considering it was such a thinly populated rural area. It had been fairly obvious for some time, by the high pr<\/span><\/a><\/span>ofile police\/military presence , that this region was under strict control, but as we reached Urumqi it tightened with more police checks. We were booked into a city centre hotel and in a very tight security zone. There were military at every major junction with 4 armed soldiers back to back, 24\/7 under small <\/a>gazebos, platoons of a dozen armed riot soldiers slowly marching in a line along the pavements at regular intervals plus about every half hour, 3 truck convoys full of armed riot soldiers driving slowly through the streets. In addition there were armed military or police <\/a>behind wire mesh at large intersections. As you could well imagine everyone was very well behaved and business appeared to be going on a normal peaceful way. What was under the surface I just don’t know, but it clearly couldn’t be normal \u2013 Abdul is a Uigher and he did not want to be drawn on the subject. The city looked to be dominantly Uigher if the densely crowded market we walked through is any indication. They are darker than Han Chinese and sound a bit Indian. Urumqi is the capital and the largest city in the region with a population of <\/span>2.5 million, and really looks like any other Chinese city but with a few more larger buildings. It has a very big modern looking hospital and some very smart public buildings (one with soldiers on the roof with binoculars). The roads are quite wide by our standards, frequently 2 lanes in each direction, with mainly slow moving traffic, very undisciplined, and unlike Kazakhstan, absolutely no consideration for pedestrians. As with our previous Chinese accommodation we are staying in relatively luxurious hotels in city centres. I say luxurious because they look that way from the outside and in the foyer (I wish folks wouldn’t call it a lobby), but the detail thereafter is always of much lower standard \u2013 all up to now have had badly designed ‘wet’ bathrooms.
\n<\/a>We stopped briefly next morning on the road to Turpan to look at what was claimed to be Chinas largest wind farm. It was on a desert plain 60 km out of Urumqi and was massive and still expanding \u2013 there must be at least 1000 turbines. Turpan appears to be the western limit of the tourist trail and was quite striking as we drove in with very wide , clean tree lined streets. Our hotel was down a vine covered avenue \u2013 a very distinctive road and lovely and cool in the hot sun. The Turpan basin is the hottest place in China and goes down to 50 metres below sea level (I only recorded 15 metres on my SatNav). Away from the oasis area the landscape is a gravelly sand and totally barren desert.
\nIn the late afternoon we were taken on our first ‘cultural\/tourist’ visits. To a mosque, an earth city and an old irrigation system. Our first visit was not particularly impressive, the Emin minaret, graveyard and mosque built in 1777 to honour General Emin <\/a>Khoja’s patriatism in defending the unity of China. The problem was it had been restored and looked like a new build. Our second visit to the site of Jiaohe city was intially marred and delayed as a posse of police arrived in two vans and demanded to see our passports and evidence from Abdul that we were authorised to be in the region. After nearly an hours standoff which included the summoning of what could have been the local police chief, and forgetting to look <\/a>at our passports, we were allowed to continue into the site. Now this truly was genuine. Jiaohe was a 2300 year old city, with all the streets, houses and other buildings dug out of the earth on a plateau 30 metres high between two rivers, with a claim to be the best preserved earthen city in the world. Our last visit, unfortunately in the dark, was to the Karez irrigation system, a series of tunnels and wells to carry water, entirely by gravity and without evaporation loss in this very hot dry climate, from the Tianshan mountains and initially constructed 2000 years ago. They were still being developed into the mid 20 century and now there are more than 2500 km of tunnels. Their main function now is to supply water for growing melon, cotton and grapes (subsequently dried for raisins). The tunnels, as we found as we walked down one, also act as air conditioners providing cool places to sit on a hot day.
\nThe next two days, Hami the first night and then to Dunhuang, were quite tough rides, each over 400 km, on normal 2 way roads with uneven surfaces making it uncomfortable riding at 100 kph for long distances. There was heavy truck traffic on most of the journey which passed through barren flat land and even more barren mountain passes. At one stage on the second day I almost <\/a>ran out of petrol \u2013 350 km without refuelling, the furthest ever. We stopped at a small farmers melon stall at the roadside about 50 km before Duanhuang where the guy cut up large honeydew melons for us to eat \u2013 deliciously refreshing after biking on a hot day. I also ate some sun dried melon slices \u2013 chewy texture and very sweet and highly recommended. I went into one of their cotton fields \u2013 all irrigated from the increasingly scarce underground aquifers, and grown initially under plastic which warms up the soil, controls weeds and conserves moisture. Dunhuang is a small city by my Chinese standards (150,000) and characterised by it’s clean wide tree lined streets, wide attractive pavements, an enormous street market, excessive horn blowing and frequent bursts of firecrackers (fabulous in oil drums). The street market was the venue for our evening meal, another enjoyable culinary experience \u2013 I really enjoyed the Chinese food even though I found it difficult to know what I had ordering and was eating. I declined to take part in the mobile karaoke.
\nOur next day, Thursday was a planned, and as far as I was concerned, a welcome and deserved rest day. It’s not that I felt exhausted as I seem to be able to cope with the longish rides with only a few aches that soon disappear after a shower and a <\/a>couple of beers \u2013 it’s just that I felt like a change. In the hot afternoon 6 of us visited the Magao caves, aka ‘The caves of a Thousand Buddhas’, which were in a rock face created and inhabited by monks from the 4 \u2013 14 century in an area is where the 2 silk roads met. We had guided tour and were taken to see the Big Buddha and one in the Nirvana state (many other smaller ones) and original wall and ceiling murals (often telling a Buddhist myth or legend). The caves are also known for the manuscripts found in a hidden library in 1900, most of which were sold off cheaply and are now in a London museum. When will they be claimed back I wonder? The front of the caves have been over ‘restored’ as if they have been recently built, and had no ‘antiquity’ appearance or hardly bore resemblance to an old photograph taken around 1900.
\nSince entering China we had been travelling on the only major road in our direction, the G132, apart from the previous day when we had turned off south for 100 km to Duanhuang. So the following morning, Friday, John, Ron and I set off, with a brief diversion to see the sand dunes, to head off back to the G132, on what turned out to be a first class road south of the one we had entered Dunhuang by. Smooth surface, little traffic, and virtually flat through semi desert. On reaching the G132 (now a new Expressway) a couple of policemen checked our passports and driving licences without a problem but the guy at the toll refused, after many exortations, to let us through. He directed us on to the old road which ran more or less parallel to the Expressway. This was a badly surfaced single track road with stretches without tarmac, and one nasty short stretch of soft sand \u2013 my worst nightmare. We failed to get on to the Expressway at the first two tolls, but at the third we swiftly went round the barrier before anyone saw us. In the evening we visited the Great Wall of China in the city where we staying, Jiaguan, a steel town in the middle of nowhere, quite smart but of no particular character. This is almost the westerly end of the wall and in this case the entrance to the city was through a fort\/garrison \u2013 traders on the Silk Route would have to pass through the wall gates here. It was quite impressive albeit rather ‘over restored’ but did contain some fine old wooden buildings.
\nOn the following morning it was decided to take the scenic route to our next destination Zhangye, taking us alongside the Grea<\/a>t Wall. Our first stop was a couple of kilometres outside Jiaguan where we walked along another section of the Great Wall, up a short spur into the mountain, presumably as a place to watch over the wall in both directions.
\nAfter a period of following the van where it appeared to get lost a number of times (involving hazardous U turns on busy roads) we eventually were on the scenic route. About 20 km along the road (desert country) the police stopped us and after a conversation with Abdul and a number of telephone calls, t<\/span><\/a><\/span>urned us back as we were heading for a sensitive satellite launching\/military area. I spoke to Abdul during our lunchtime break and he was quite concerned and very nervous and said the regional police would now be on our case and virtually accused him of taking this road with the knowledge of it’s significance. He said he may be visited by the police that evening in Zhangye and is worried about any ‘punishment’ that might affect his company when arranging similar visits in the future. He was also annoyed (I’m not sure to what extent) because our driver, Wu, knew about it and didn’t tell him. Wu had been in the army and Abdul says he does not talk freely about his experiences. China seems so normal and it is only when something like this happens that you realise you are actually in an alien environment . We proceeded to Zhangye on the unevenly surfaced main road through undulating semi desert and joined the Expressway for the last 60 km.Our hotel was of the usual standard, very modern on the outside and in the foyer but as we progressed upward and towards the rear it was quite cheap and well worn at room level. In the evening I watched about 100 people practising a dance routine in the cities large open square alledgedly in preparation for next days 60 year celebration of Mao and the communists taking power in China.
\nAfter breakfast next mornin<\/span><\/a><\/span>g I visited the museum housing China’s largest indoor reclining Budhha. Rumour has it that Marco Polo came here. I was eligible for a cheaper ticket to get into the museum on two counts, as a notice at the ticket office clearly indicated, and I quote, \u201cHalf price for students, the old, with perfect instruments\u201d We had a leisurely start at 11 am. but were obliged, after Abdul’s lengthy conversation with the toll staff\/police to pay to get on the two lane Expressway and charged car rate 78 Yen. Two of our group had nipped round the barrier only to have a reception party at the next peage! Our next overnight stop was in Wuwei.
\nMost of our travelling through China to date has been across flat plains at heights up to 1500 metres normally with a mountain range either one side or the other, or both. The vegetation varies from extensive cultivated rainfed fields, large open light scrub with virtually no trees, and gravelly semi desert, and then an unexpected lush oasis. Around the towns\/cities there is nearly always intensive surface irrigated cropping mainly in very small fields, down to 10m x 20m in size. As we entered China it was predominantly maize and cotton with some large areas (up to football field size) of red peppers spread out to dry. Around Hami melons appeared in abundance after which we saw regular huge truckloads of boxed melons travelling east. In one area we frequently saw roadside stacks of onions in red nets, awaiting collection.
\nWe all set off together on Sunday morning bound for Xiahe having decided the night before that as the original next day’s destination of Lanzou was the most polluted city in China, we would go past it and do the 500 km in one long journey. I lost the group I was riding with in a massive gridlock on the bridge over the Yellow river near Lanzou. I didn’t know which way they had gone at the T junction immediately over the bridge. I went left on the advice of my SatNav which changed it’s mind a few kilometres down the road. It was clearly as confused as I was, and as were two policemen I asked \u2013 neither knew where Xiahe was. I rang John (one of ‘my’ group) and he told me to go through a tollgate (which I had already been to and told it was not the right road) and turn left in 200 metres. I found the road easily and rode fast on a good road for 90 km and then hit a large town and for an hour I just could not find my way out despite about 6 asks and with a confused SatNav. Part of the SatNav problem is that the mapping is not accurate so a correct turn could be half a kilometre out with other roads then to choose from. I eventually <\/a>found the correct road, which was little more than a narrow track for about a kilometre, before it turned into a tidy road and was recognised on my SatNav. It was a fantastic ride high along a mountain ridge with stunning scenery, very winding but quite a good surface. I knew I was on the right road but after a couple of hours and darkness came I became apprehensive about finding the others. I finally descended the mountain with some difficulty negotiating the hairpin bends in the dark. As I crossed a bridge in the valley on the outskirts of Linxia I saw Joe waiving at me (with Abdul and Steve). To describe it as a big relief would seriously and inadequately understate my feelings. The group I had been riding with who left me behind at the Yellow river bridge had gone by another road and a ferry crossing and were waiting a few kilometres further towards Xiahe. By the time Abdul had managed to get all the team together at this same place, it was too late to complete the 100 km ride to Xiahe and therefore Abdul took us all into Linxia and booked us into a rather grubby government hotel (as usual it looked fine on the outside). Abdul was very concerned about the group splitting up as approval for our visit was subject to us all being ‘chaperoned’ so Abdul made it clear that in future we must stick together. Linxia is a very muslim city (Hui sect with there own Altaic language) meaning no beer with our evening meal \u2013 Ron went out and brought some bottles in but the staff were quite cross and we made no attempt to drink any.
\nA steady pleasant bottom of the valley ride the next morning took us to Xiahe and the 300 year old Labrang monastery by early lunchtime. This monastery is one of the six great monasteries of the Yellow Hat school of Tibetan Buddhism and<\/span><\/a><\/span> the largest and <\/a> most important one outside Tibet. It includes a 6 faculty university. The town of Xiahe<\/span> h<\/span>as a dominant (70%) Tibetan population which is very obvious as you walk around. We parked our bik<\/span>es in a carpark next to the monastery and once again attracted a lot of interest from all age groups. I walk<\/span>ed up the adjacent hill to get an overview of the monastery \u2013 it was a single story area of about 50 acres with over a dozen halls\/temples, a golden stupa and accommodation for the 500 monks. Not much to look at really and neither was the small temple we walked around later which had little to commend it as I was almost overcome by the rancid butter aroma of burning some ‘sacred’ material. <\/span><\/a><\/span>What I found particularly ominous looking down from the hill was the military presence immediately outside the entrance to the monastery \u2013 one truck load of soldiers, one large riot truck complete with a bulldozer blade and what could have been a water cannon (or even something more sinister) on it’s roof plus a whole load of riot gear laid out on the grass presum<\/span>ably ready to be donned at short notice. A very stark reminder of how China is ‘govern<\/span><\/a><\/span>ed’. In mid afternoon we rode a short distance down the road to what I would describe as a cross between a hotel and a hostal, where we enjoyed an evening meal supplemented by copious quantities of local beer, and stayed the nig<\/span>ht.
\nThe next days ride was another organisational disaster. First Joe got left behind as he had trouble starting his bike, Ron and Paul took what I think was the intended route and then Abdul and Wu took the rest of us down the wrong road but 3 or 4 riders carried on through a toll not realising that the van had turned round. That took over an hour to sort out putting pressure on us to reach Tianshui that day. At our lunchtime break Abdul decided we would take a short cut over the mountains and it proved to a fabulous ride, with similarities to the ride I had taken on my own a couple of days ago \u2013 it was along the ridge of a mountain range with superb views either side, particularly of the amazing terracing on the right hand side. But it was a longer short cut than I had anticipated which ended on a stretch of rough and very busy road before we reached an Expressway \u2013 but an old two way road. Darkness fell soon after we joined it giving me (and I think most of the others) a two hour nightmare ride to Tianshui. The Expressway was extremely busy in places with big slow trucks, occasional long queues, no lighting but blinding headlights, and a slight drizzle so I had to keep my visor open \u2013 all at breakneck speed. I addition I managed a road kill (a cat according to Paul who was behind me) and was nearly taken out by Joe as I was about to pass a truck. Overall, a suicidal experience which only good luck saved us from any casualties. A 13 hour day covering 500 km.
\nThursday was truly a restful day. John and I had a steady walk around the small city (by Chinese standards), in some motorbike shops near the hotel (bought lightweight gloves for 250 Yen), down to the river Weihe, lunched with a restaurant owner\/english teacher who wanted to take us around the nearby Maijishan Grottoes, and around a small museum that was the home of the wealthy Nan Zhai Zi family in the Ming\/Qing dynasties.
\nWe rode off next morning towards Xi’an with a stop off at the Maijishan Grottoes about 40 km away. These were 194 caves cut into a large rock\/small mountain (Maijishan transIates to ‘Haystack mountain) containing over 7000 Budhhist clay sculptures and 1000 m\u00b2 of wall murals dating back to 400 AD. After taking what we thought was the soft option, an electric cart from the car<\/a> park, we still had nearly a kilometre to walk, uphill in at least 25 \u00baC. And that was before we had to climb up steps and walkways attached to side of the 80 metre high rock. We only climbed halfway up as it was very crowded and each small cave, with no access, looked very much the same to me. We had to wait nearly an hour for our driver, Wu to return to the van and we still had 400 km to go to reach Xi’an. I was a little perplexed as to why we hadn’t come here yesterday!
\nTo make matters worse Abdul spent some time unsuccessfully trying to get us onto the Expressway. All this absorbed another half hour of our driving time. The good news, Abdul told us, was that the alternative road was a ‘good’ road. Wrong. It was a very poorly surfaced winding road along a river valley with a number of difficult stretches with no tarmac and deeply rutted and potholed, and more time wasted as I waited at a junction on the edge of a small village for nearly an hour while some of the group had a lunch break. Whilst I was waiting a number of teenage lads took a great interest in me and my bike. One lad came back, as I was still waiting in the sunshine, with an orange and a bottle of water and just would not take any money. Abdul tried twice later in the day to get us on to the Expressway (which was tantalisingly in view for most of our journey), but as it was now dark on the second occasion, decided at the groups ‘suggestion’, to find a hotel in the nearest town, Baoji, about 10 km away. A casual place of 4 million people. It’s hard to get your head round the size of all their cities.
\nWe continued the next morning with a 7 am start on the previous days road, which we were told would improve. On this occasion <\/a>they were right, but still quite slow and it took us till midday to get to our hotel in Xi’an. After a quick shower and change we were in the van on our way to see the Terrac<\/span><\/a><\/span>otta Army . Discovered by a farmer digging a well in 1974, the Terracotta Army site adjoins the mausoleum of the 1st<\/sup> Emperor of China in 247 – 210 BC. The estimate is that t<\/span>here are 7,000 soldiers (only 1,000 have been excavated), 700 horses and 100 chariots in 3 pits. It was a magnificent sight to see them all lined up in ‘real life’, but when you thought that they were conceived and made so intricately over 2000 years they become even more remarkable. The army was meant to take care of the Emperor in his after life. I took around 3 hours to go through the 3 pits, all now under the cover of buildings to protect them. Inevitably, the place was crowded with visitors which did slightly inhibit the experience.
\nWe returned to the city and had a short walk on the city wall and watched some dancers and jugglers before 3 of us, Andy, John Yates and myself went off with our afternoon’s guide to a ‘Dumpling dinner’ and a ‘Chinese Tang <\/a>Dynasty’ floor show. Dumplings are the speciality of the area and we were served up with 8 small, <\/a>different flavoured dumplings \u2013 they were very tasty, but little else other than a small salad starter. We had the very best view of the the floor show \u2013 right at the front of the theatre resting our drinks on the stage. It was a first class music and dance representation of events in the Tang Dynasty period, 6-900 AD.
\nWe all made an early start on Sunday, 8 am, but we not allowed on to the Expressway in rather bizarre circumstances. Abdul asked permission at the tollgate and after some discussion the guy agreed to let us on subject to the agreement of the area police chief. Apparently this was given, then the toll guy changed his mind. I decided not to press ahead of the van at all today. Because the van is slower than we can and normally want to travel it is always a temptation to pass and ride independently and then wait for the van at a break time or at an unknown junction. The roads in China are not always as straightforward as they appear on a map (or SatNav) and today was no exception, the result being a general dispersion of the group. I stopped with the van in a small town (Huaying) waiting for some of the others who were lost and had contacted Abdul, when John came back to us saying <\/a>that Adrian, about 200 metres ahead, had knocked down a child and the police were at the scene. I walked to the spot and Adrian was surrounded by a hostile crowd which the police were controlling. It appears that a child ran out immediately in front of Adrian giving Adrian no chance to stop. It was a slow speed event the child was briefly knocked out, but as we subsequently found out, not seriously hurt with just 2 broken teeth. We, and most of the rest of our dispersed group that Abdul was able to summon, spent the afternoon in the local nick. The police were all very friendly and clearly wanted a non complicated outcome. John and Adrian made statements and Adrian was persuaded to sign to the effect that he would not take proceedings against the child’s father (who had possibly threatened Adrian at the scene of the accident), and the father signed to say he would not take proceedings against Adrian. Job done. What I didn’t know till later, if what Abdul told me is fact, is that the normal procedure in China is that the largest in an accident pays, no questions. In Adrian’s case they didn’t want the complications of a foreign participant so they persuaded the child’s father by saying if he ever had a future problem with the police, they would see him right. Pragmatic or what!
\nBy the time the police let us go it was dusk. We were ceremoniously escorted by a police car and attendant flashing blue light to the regions border about 15 km away, by which time it was dark. Then followed an horrendous 3 hour ride to Lingbao, our revised destination for the night. The hazards were nearly unlimited \u2013 poor visibility from vehicle fumes and roadside fires, no road lighting anywhere, steep bends, unlit vehicles, dazzling lights in front and behind, being overtaken by mad truck drivers, unlit parked\/broken down vehicles, a crashed bike in the middle of the road (with a poor sod nursing his head at the side of the road), obstacles like bricks and rocks, pedestrians. As if that wasn’t enough the guys behind the van didn’t keep up with it so we lost our marker. Heaven knows how we all arrived unscathed.
\nMonday’s journey to Denfeng was an easy comfortable ride despite dropping my bike on some gravel at a junction. On the long straight road <\/span><\/a><\/span>before the short final mountain section we passed through a village which had what looked liked loads of different coloured skeins of wool hanging out to dry \u2013 never found out what it was all about. We arrived at the Shaolin monastery near Denfeng in the early hot afternoon, and walked in and around the various temples and the Pagoda field. At 5 0’clock we watched an exhi<\/span>bition of Kung Fu martial arts and fighting skills \u2013 the most impressive ‘activity’ was when a young boy (no more than 10 years old) slowly, deliberately and very carefully, one at a time, wrapped both feet around the back of his neck. The completed shape looked a bit obscene and unnerving.
\nEveryone had taken a spare pair of new tyres, and next morning, shortly after leaving Denfeng, we called at <\/span><\/a><\/span>a tyre garage and John replaced his rear tyre (had a nail in it for a couple of days) as did Joe as his had worn. The place looked nothing from the outside but they had all the kit but they did struggle a bit to replace Joe’s rear wheel \u2013 didn’t look too familiar with drum brakes. The only event on the 260 km ride to Changzhi was manouvering over a bridge under repair. It must have been at least a kilometre in length with one carriageway open but regularly obstructed by miscellaneo<\/span>us materials and machines. I was within a hair’s-breadth of being pushed off my bike by a ready-mix truck’s rear tyre trying to squeeze past my right pannier. My left ankle took the strain whil<\/span>st my vocal desperate exhortations for help to the road men were ignored
\nWe had a short wet ride the next morning to Pingyao, on a fairly winding road through mountains characterised by the huge number of large trucks, with queues of up to 50 at a time. I assumed they were carrying coal although they were not that dirty. Pingyao<\/span><\/a><\/span> is an ancient city that was the financial capital of China during the late Qing dynasty. The magnificent 600 year old city wall was a bit of an obstacle to us as we needed permission <\/span>through our hotel in the city, to be able to take our bikes through one of the wall gates. Having obtained permission it took some time to find a gate and significantly longer to prise our bikes through the narrow hotel side entrance (and step) into a <\/span><\/a><\/span>courtyard. Our hotel was in a traditional building with all our rooms on the first floo<\/span>r (floor 2 <\/span>in China) leading off balconies which overlooked 2 courtyards. It was rather basic but it felt genuine enough. John and I had to sleep on one bed which I must stress was an exceptionally large bed. We were in the centre of the old city with our hotel main entrance opening out into the pedestrianised main street. Unfortunately this street, and the shorter one that T’eed off it were full of tourist shops, but beyond that the rest of the city within the wall was ‘undeveloped and by most standards it was quite scruffy. I walked around from mid afternoon and didn’t find anything much of interest, not helped by the drizzily rain.
\nThursdays ride turned out be a long affair, and that was after a predictable late start (9.30) as it was a lengthy job getting the bikes out of the courtyard. The road was winding through mountains (apart from a fabulous 10 km of brand new dual carriageway) which after lunch , due to an uneven cracked concrete surface plus light rain, became very treacherous. This mountain area was obviously a large source of coal as evidenced by the large numbers of heavy slow moving trucks which hindered our pr<\/span>ogress, not least by the fine coal dust they laid on the road, adding to our treachery. As dusk descended I found myself, with 2 other riders somewhere ahead, at an Expressway entrance. I swiftly squeezed past the barrier unnoticed, although I didn’t even look, and happily rode the 30 km to Shijiazhuang at a decent speed, arriving at our hotel at 7 pm.
\nThe 160 km journey to Boading the next day was going fine and I was feeling quite relaxed as we were nearing the end of a marathon ride, I was still in one piece and my leg was improving by the day. That was until we found ourselves in the centre of Dingzhou and the road literally morphed into a building site. Much paddling, ruts, holes and a narrow track through an enormous pile of earth, not to mention 4 of us getting lost and having to find the others using co-ordinates. After that the road was fine. We were now travelling through a flat area which was becoming increasingly more intensively cropped with large fields of bunded small plots in readiness, I assumed, for a second rice crop. Our early afternoon arrival gave John and I an opportunity to walk around the city near the hotel and indulge in an Irish coffe, which, with a sandwich cost the princely sum of 180 Yen \u2013 in relative terms our most expensive refreshment of the whole trip. For a change 8 of us had a Thai evening meal \u2013 a great meal, but par for the course, we had ordered far too much food.
\nAs suspected we were ahead of schedule and had a day in hand, therefore we stayed in Baoding for 2 nights. This timing had been on the cards for some time and I had asked Abdul if we could spend 2 nights in Xi’an as I think had some of the others. Boading must rank as one of the least interesting cities to stay in. John and I took a taxi to the city centre, a 15 minute ride, had a coffee in McDonalds and spent a couple of hours in a museum, and that was it.
\nJust one short days riding to the port at Tanggu and I’ve made it was how I thought as I fired up my bike on Sunday morning. I should have learnt by now it doesn’t do to be too complacent on this trip. On the outskirts of Boading we all stopped at a car <\/a>wash to pressure wash and clean up our bikes \u2013 they were all showing signs of a long and dirty journey. The process attracted the attention of a crowd of locals and took about an hour to complete, including, at the insistence of the car wash owner, a group photo session with us, our bikes and his staff \u2013 I reckon we will feature in his next marketing campaign. We had a mid morning delay as we struggled through what must have been a market area \u2013 the major vehicles were small tractors with simple evaporative cooling systems, most of them were overloaded with bricks. In early afternoon we lost tarmac for about 20 horrendous kilometres. The road was the equivalent width of 4 carriageways, unbelievably <\/a>rough (potholes and ruts), sandy in places, and suicidally dusty. The sand could have fetched me off 2 to 3 times and probably would have if my heavy top box had not fortuitously been in the van. The dust was also a serious hazard creating a visibility problem both from not being able to see the ground ahead or, until the last minute, spot a truck coming straight for you. Everybody was trying to take the best line which meant traffic was coming towards me and trying to pass me from all angles and directions. At one point a small truck went past me quickly, stirring up so much dust that for what seemed an<\/a> eternity (in reality probably 15 \u2013 30 seconds) I rode without being able to see anything, and that included my handlebars. I daren’t stop as I could hear engines close by either side and would have been run over and probably not found for days. To add to the difficulties we had first to divert because of a road closure, and then again a short time later because of a demonstration. Abdul got a local guy to guide us by car on to a 6 lane dual carriageway bipass around Tianjin. It was now dark and once again we were into hazardous territory, not quite as bad as on some previous occasions as we were alledgedly all going in the same direction \u2013 a few U turners didn’t help. A few bikes were getting short of fuel, so Abdul pulled rather quickly into a petrol station and we all had to cut across from the fast lane in short order adding another near miss to our portfolio.
\nThe whole group spent all day Monday and most of Tuesday in Tanggu. The only (modest) activity of note was that I had a much needed haircut on Tuesday morning, and what a performance \u2013 first a hair wash and head massage, then a scissors no. 1 haircut, and finally another hair wash and head massage. All for 25 Yen. Abdul was in full negotiating mode trying to organise flights for 3 bikes to Bangok, shipping for 1 bike to Australia and shipping 7 bikes to the UK (Felixstowe). We (i.e., the shippers) were hanging around hoping to be able to load our bikes into a container but by mid afternoon on Tuesday Abdul had not struck a deal so we all went to the railway station to take the train to Beijing. The next available train would not get us into Beijing until 8<\/a> 0’clock so we negotiated taxis (3 per taxi for 400 Yen plus 70 Yen toll) for a 2 hour ride, arriving at our hotel at 6.30. Our hotel was a cut above most of our Chinese predecessors with everything functional including a proper laundry service and cable internet connection in our room. The hotel was reasonably centrally placed about a 30 minute walk, west of Tiananmen Square. Four of us (John, old John (Hughes), Ron and I) walked 15 minutes in that direction, and the down a little side street full of small basic restaurants, for our evening meal. Old John and I had what I had been looking for, and now only just found, virtually since entering China \u2013 Peking Duck. I was not disappointed \u2013 it was absolutely delicious.
\n<\/a>It looked as if Wednesday would be our only full day in Beijing, so John and I planned to see all we wanted to see on that day. First we walked to Tiananmen Square past the spectacular glass domed art centre. Tiananmen Square is just a large open space opposite the entrance to the Forbidden City \u2013 it was quite heavily policed. The Forbidden City was very crowded and big queues at the ticket office. We decided not to utilise the services of the many ‘guides’ that pestered us but to use and audio guide. It turned out to be very good as the device had an inbuilt satellite navigation system which meant it gave you the information in the correct location. Overall the visit was a little disappointing, and really not much to capture ones imagination. The commentary was no doubt very informative, but after an hour in the hot sun and nothing particularly spectacular to see, information overload kicked in. What we actually saw were a series of halls, all of which had different symbolic uses. There were very few artifacts on view and the halls themselves were not that old \u2013 as most were made of wood they had burnt down and been replaced several times over the centuries. The most surprising fact to me was that this place, and it’s system of rule only ended in 1911 with the end of the 300 year Qing dynasty. Our next visit was to the Olympic site where we had a look in the most impressive Birds Nest stadium. We finished our <\/a> <\/a>day with a meal in what I had identified in the tourist blurb as the more social area of Beijing, about a couple of kilometres east of the Olympic site. It certainly was very social with the ‘girly bar’ sales team out in full force.
\nThe expected return trip to Tanggu next day to deal with bikes did not materialise as Abdul was unable to agree suitable terms with the agent \u2013 you bargain for everything in China. I went by taxi to ashop recommended by hotel reception, to buy a mains charger cable for my phone (which I would pass on to John Yates later), and having bought one I took a walk off the main road area and saw some pretty dismal apartment blocks which were fenced off and had police warning notices about drugs (by pictures). A little further on I was in the paper area of Beijing \u2013 a couple of streets with enormous piles of boxes of A3 and A4 copying paper in the little shops and on the pavements. The concentration of trades and activities to a specific area was noticeable throughout China, as I had also seen in other developing countries. The unknown pork dish I ordered for lunch in a very small street restaurant was horrible and inedible. I replaced it with a stir fried beef and they insisted that I did not pay for original dish. I returned to the hotel by taxi \u2013 Beijing taxis are really excellent \u2013 both good vale for money (the 10 Yen meter reading stays put for a long while) and not too difficult to direct them to your intended destination. John and I took a taxi in the afternoon to an excellent flea market with a much wider range of items for sale than I had seen anywhere before in China. Minature bottles painted on the inside, wood carvings, antiques (??), books (I bought Mao’s Red book), stones and inexplicably, bits of broken crockery.
\nUp at 6 0’clock on Friday morning and a taxi to Beijing (South) airport style railway station to catch the 7.15 train to Tanggu where after inumerable delays we loaded 7 bikes into our container, ratchet strapping them to the sides and then across the container between the bikes. Instructions to reduce tyre pressure, drain the petrol and disconnect the battery were suitably ignored. Our information is that the ship will leave next Tuesday with our container, arriving in Felixstowe in 30 days. I am not holding my breath. We returned on the 8 0’clock train (the 4.30 was full) and at 325 km\/h we were back to Beijing in less than an hour to a<\/span><\/a><\/span>n amazingly well organised long queue for a taxi which took us back to our hotel.<\/a>
\nDue to our late return our much heralded ‘last supper’ to commemorate the achievement of successfully completing this momentous journey could only be a few drinks in the restaurant opposite our hotel. It was not a success. I organised a collection of 100 Yen from each rider, for Abdul and Wu in appreciation of their 30 days work with us. Unfortunately a niggly dissatisfaction amongst a few of the troops, mainly over the cost of shipping\/flying the bikes, cast a cloud over the proceedings and three, churlishly in my view, refused to contribute. I was pleased that at least two of them did change their mind later.
\nSaturday after breakfast was settling up time with Abdul (and Steve in attendance), for the bike transportation. It took some time! My final tally was $872 \u2013 the initial estimate of \u00a3500 was not far out. A walk to do some last minute ‘fill in time’ shopping and a final hour ride in the van to the airport and I was on my way home. 18 hours in the air initiated by two large gin and tonics, a ‘full English’ at Chester services, and a couple of hours in John’s chauffeured Golf to Llanfarian left me more knackered than anything else I had done during the last eventful 10 weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n