Well, Fall has arrived here in Northern China and we have been enjoying the cool air, the different coloured leaves and the harvesting of billions of apples. Due to the generosity of many local villagers, we have also been enjoying eating the apples too. But with the Fall comes the rain, and a few of the previous days of riding have been rather wet. Although most people don’t love to climb, we enjoyed all the climbs on our way here to Xi’an (many of which compared to the killer hills in Turkey). It is all flat roads the rest of the way to Beijing.
Unfortunately we have also entered into a world of smog, even in the country villages. Usually we witness smog hovering over a city like a blanket of smoke off in the distance, but here it is everywhere - often right in front of your face like a heavy fog. At first sight, you think that it is a cloudy and overcast day but, no clouds or fog, just smog.
We entered into the ancient city of Xi’an two days ago with much anticipation. Everyone was ready for a well deserved double rest day but they were also excited about exploring such a huge and historically important city. The inner portion of the city is contained within the confines of a huge wall built over a thousand years ago and reaching over 12 meters tall, 15 meters in thickness with a total length of 13 kilometres!! The city has 4 major entrances, one each on the North, East, South and West walls. If that was not enough to keep anyone from entering the city in the past, there is also a big moat surrounding the outside perimeter of the city wall. The weather was not good. It was smoggy along with consistent rain throughout the whole day and late into the evening.
Today, we all headed out of the city to check out the eighth wonder of the world, the famous terracotta soldiers. This site was found by a local farmer in 1974 while digging a well and houses the 50 sq km tomb of the first Chinese emperor of the Qin dynasty. Over 7000 life sized clay soldiers and their horses have been excavated and still stand guard. They were built by over 750,000 men approx 250 years B.C. These soldiers, all of which have different bodies, faces and army ranks were built to guard and protect the emperor in the
afterlife !!
We will be back on the road in the morning to cover another 100+ kilometres, each one bringing us that much closer to Beijing. Only 12 more days to go!! Where have the last three and a half months gone?
Well, Fall has arrived here in Northern China and we have been enjoying the cool air, the different coloured leaves and the harvesting of billions of apples. Due to the generosity of many local villagers, we have also been enjoying eating the apples too. But with the Fall comes the rain, and a few of the previous days of riding have been rather wet. Although most people don't love to climb, we enjoyed all the climbs on our way here to Xi'an (many of which compared to the killer hills in Turkey). It is all flat roads the rest of the way to Beijing.
Unfortunately we have also entered into a world of smog, even in the country villages. Usually we witness smog hovering over a city like a blanket of smoke off in the distance, but here it is everywhere - often right in front of your face like a heavy fog. At first sight, you think that it is a cloudy and overcast day but, no clouds or fog, just smog.
We entered into the ancient city of Xi'an two days ago with much anticipation. Everyone was ready for a well deserved double rest day but they were also excited about exploring such a huge and historically important city. The inner portion of the city is contained within the confines of a huge wall built over a thousand years ago and reaching over 12 meters tall, 15 meters in thickness with a total length of 13 kilometres!! The city has 4 major entrances, one each on the North, East, South and West walls. If that was not enough to keep anyone from entering the city in the past, there is also a big moat surrounding the outside perimeter of the city wall. The weather was not good. It was smoggy along with consistent rain throughout the whole day and late into the evening.
Today, we all headed out of the city to check out the eighth wonder of the world, the famous terracotta soldiers. This site was found by a local farmer in 1974 while digging a well and houses the 50 sq km tomb of the first Chinese emperor of the Qin dynasty. Over 7000 life sized clay soldiers and their horses have been excavated and still stand guard. They were built by over 750,000 men approx 250 years B.C. These soldiers, all of which have different bodies, faces and army ranks were built to guard and protect the emperor in the
afterlife !!
We will be back on the road in the morning to cover another 100+ kilometres, each one bringing us that much closer to Beijing. Only 12 more days to go!! Where have the last three and a half months gone?
Lanzhou presents many of the amenities which Western China does not possess. One of those amenities is fast food. Personally I have a difficult time heading near one of these establishments, though as a teenager I once ate 4 big macs. Anyway, it’s a frightening development that as we head into inner China we end up using KFC’s as landmarks in the directions we provide our cyclists. Clearly Colonel Sanders has made a mark.
One could surmise that it’s the familiarity the Chinese have with smoking pools of fat (i.e. a hot wok) and the jokingly secret process of KFC’s chicken spice/frying process (I suspect all eleven secret ingredients are MSG) Or perhaps one could configure that Chinese Fried Chicken would never have made an appropriate acronym. The frightening aspect is that the ever motivated, active Chinese are at peril of becoming rounder because of it, and more boring.
A certain conclusion occurred in my mind when I was wondering down a back alley in Lanzhou, searching for a steaming pot of black fungus with garlic shoots, or maybe roast sheep brains. A nameless steel door flung open, peering in I could tell it was a KFC inside, the droid like employee let slip a bag of garbage from his hands onto the alley floor, eroding chicken pieces slipped from the bags mouth. Without pause a group of pigeons (which had been mysteriously following me for sometime) lined up at the bag and with communist zeal, picked up one piece of chicken each and proceeded to fill their low altitude bellies.
The conclusion dissolved as the pigeons finished feeding and flapped their wings violently in my direction.
We have definitely experienced the nicest riding so far (except maybe the 50km down hill into Turpan) in all of China over the last few days. Now that we are in the Gansu province, far from the Taklimakan and Gobi deserts, we’re getting into some mountains, hills and vegetation. The landscape has provided some good long climbs and we had one yesterday that was 10km from bottom to top, tight corners, fast descents and some amazing topography. Leaving from the huge city of Lanzhou and heading to the big town of Jingning, we have been riding through a world heritage site!! We have been witness to thousands upon thousands of very impressive man-made terraces cut into the soft and nutrient-rich mountainsides. The mountains all around look like hundreds of layers of pancakes stacked on top of each other, all slightly offset. These terraces which have been manually cut into the sides of these mountains over the last two thousand years or more and have provided the local villagers with fertile and flat land amongst all the steep terrain to farm a variety of different crops year round. Along with the cultivated hill sides another feature that stands out are the hundreds of caves that have also been carved into the sides of the mountains providing sheltered homes high in the hills.
We had the pleasure of staying in our third home stay of the expedition last night in a small small village. The home stay’s claim to fame in the village was of being that of the only building with heat. The coal heat took the sting out of the air, but you still wouldn’t consider it warm inside. I’ll take the cold any day over the heat, especially the heat of Turkmenistan. One cool feature of the town was the ability to harness the sun’s heat with a contraption that looks like one of those old huge satellite dishes but just a little smaller. They were all covered with small square pieces of mirror (there were 50 of these things around the village) and sitting about four feet above the dish-like contraption, held up with a piece of rebar, were tea pots, one per dish. The light and heat of the sun was magnified and came to a focal point right on the bottom of the pots and boiled the water!!! I put my hand under the pot and it took about three seconds to start burning my hand. I was very impressed.
Another beautiful day of riding today - good climbs and scenery and a comfortably cool temperature. We will soon be in the long awaited ancient city of Xi’an where the famous terracotta soldiers stand guard and where we will have our last double rest day.
We have definitely experienced the nicest riding so far (except maybe the 50km down hill into Turpan) in all of China over the last few days. Now that we are in the Gansu province, far from the Taklimakan and Gobi deserts, we're getting into some mountains, hills and vegetation. The landscape has provided some good long climbs and we had one yesterday that was 10km from bottom to top, tight corners, fast descents and some amazing topography. Leaving from the huge city of Lanzhou and heading to the big town of Jingning, we have been riding through a world heritage site!! We have been witness to thousands upon thousands of very impressive man-made terraces cut into the soft and nutrient-rich mountainsides. The mountains all around look like hundreds of layers of pancakes stacked on top of each other, all slightly offset. These terraces which have been manually cut into the sides of these mountains over the last two thousand years or more and have provided the local villagers with fertile and flat land amongst all the steep terrain to farm a variety of different crops year round. Along with the cultivated hill sides another feature that stands out are the hundreds of caves that have also been carved into the sides of the mountains providing sheltered homes high in the hills.
We had the pleasure of staying in our third home stay of the expedition last night in a small small village. The home stay's claim to fame in the village was of being that of the only building with heat. The coal heat took the sting out of the air, but you still wouldn't consider it warm inside. I'll take the cold any day over the heat, especially the heat of Turkmenistan. One cool feature of the town was the ability to harness the sun's heat with a contraption that looks like one of those old huge satellite dishes but just a little smaller. They were all covered with small square pieces of mirror (there were 50 of these things around the village) and sitting about four feet above the dish-like contraption, held up with a piece of rebar, were tea pots, one per dish. The light and heat of the sun was magnified and came to a focal point right on the bottom of the pots and boiled the water!!! I put my hand under the pot and it took about three seconds to start burning my hand. I was very impressed.
Another beautiful day of riding today - good climbs and scenery and a comfortably cool temperature. We will soon be in the long awaited ancient city of Xi'an where the famous terracotta soldiers stand guard and where we will have our last double rest day.
Lanzhou presents many of the amenities which Western China does not possess. One of those amenities is fast food. Personally I have a difficult time heading near one of these establishments, though as a teenager I once ate 4 big macs. Anyway, it's a frightening development that as we head into inner China we end up using KFC's as landmarks in the directions we provide our cyclists. Clearly Colonel Sanders has made a mark.
One could surmise that it's the familiarity the Chinese have with smoking pools of fat (i.e. a hot wok) and the jokingly secret process of KFC's chicken spice/frying process (I suspect all eleven secret ingredients are MSG) Or perhaps one could configure that Chinese Fried Chicken would never have made an appropriate acronym. The frightening aspect is that the ever motivated, active Chinese are at peril of becoming rounder because of it, and more boring.
A certain conclusion occurred in my mind when I was wondering down a back alley in Lanzhou, searching for a steaming pot of black fungus with garlic shoots, or maybe roast sheep brains. A nameless steel door flung open, peering in I could tell it was a KFC inside, the droid like employee let slip a bag of garbage from his hands onto the alley floor, eroding chicken pieces slipped from the bags mouth. Without pause a group of pigeons (which had been mysteriously following me for sometime) lined up at the bag and with communist zeal, picked up one piece of chicken each and proceeded to fill their low altitude bellies.
The conclusion dissolved as the pigeons finished feeding and flapped their wings violently in my direction.
Here we are yet at another milestone in our expedition. The first being that of our celebration in Kashgar toasting our success of making it through six countries (flying over Georgia which would have been seven) and into our seventh and last country China!! The half way point. The other night we celebrated our second milestone and thoroughly enjoyed what was unfortunately our last camp site on the Silk Route Expedition, but I can guarantee that it was one that none of us will ever forget.
Our last night’s camp was 3km away from any roads making for a very peaceful and secluded evening but the highlight, other then that of remoteness and solidarity of the desert plains, was the company of the spectacular Great Wall of China which we all pitched our tents within 15 feet there of. The Ancient wall built of mud bricks and clay stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions. We enjoyed beautiful clear skies and warm sun all afternoon after a perfect days ride, a short one at that, only 105km!! Miles cooked up yet another amazing meal (chilli and mashed squash), the last of Miles dinners unfortunately, and then the festivities began.
We had a nice bonfire in the company of the Great Wall under a brightly lit starry sky and celebrated with cookies, chocolate, candies marshmallows and a variety of different drinks including some local Chinese wine which was a favourite with Graham!! We also had a small, just for fun, awards ceremony around the fire, a few nice songs were also sung by Joost and thanks to Louise we topped it all off with an interesting array of fire crackers and fire works. This light show caught the attention of some beautiful little kids from a small village 3km away. Although they were to late for the fire works by the time they arrived they were just in time for a whole lot of roasted marshmallows which I’m sure left them with a belly ache that night. We sat around shooting the breeze as the almost full moon rose up from behind the wall and as the coal slowly burned out, so did the riders one by one as they took shelter in the comforts of their tents one last time on this expedition.
Here we are yet at another milestone in our expedition. The first being that of our celebration in Kashgar toasting our success of making it through six countries (flying over Georgia which would have been seven) and into our seventh and last country China!! The half way point. The other night we celebrated our second milestone and thoroughly enjoyed what was unfortunately our last camp site on the Silk Route Expedition, but I can guarantee that it was one that none of us will ever forget.
Our last night's camp was 3km away from any roads making for a very peaceful and secluded evening but the highlight, other then that of remoteness and solidarity of the desert plains, was the company of the spectacular Great Wall of China which we all pitched our tents within 15 feet there of. The Ancient wall built of mud bricks and clay stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions. We enjoyed beautiful clear skies and warm sun all afternoon after a perfect days ride, a short one at that, only 105km!! Miles cooked up yet another amazing meal (chilli and mashed squash), the last of Miles dinners unfortunately, and then the festivities began.
We had a nice bonfire in the company of the Great Wall under a brightly lit starry sky and celebrated with cookies, chocolate, candies marshmallows and a variety of different drinks including some local Chinese wine which was a favourite with Graham!! We also had a small, just for fun, awards ceremony around the fire, a few nice songs were also sung by Joost and thanks to Louise we topped it all off with an interesting array of fire crackers and fire works. This light show caught the attention of some beautiful little kids from a small village 3km away. Although they were to late for the fire works by the time they arrived they were just in time for a whole lot of roasted marshmallows which I'm sure left them with a belly ache that night. We sat around shooting the breeze as the almost full moon rose up from behind the wall and as the coal slowly burned out, so did the riders one by one as they took shelter in the comforts of their tents one last time on this expedition.
Ben Shillington
Situated between the Qilian Mountains in the south and the Gobi desert to the north and recorded in Chinese myths and legends, Jiayuguan has often been referred to as a remote desolate outpost on the edge of the wilderness. It is also the location for the last fort of the Great Wall of China.
The last few days have been uneventful for the most part, flat perfectly paved rods, not much of a head wind (we’re not complaining) and the terrain much the same. We have seen some nice snow capped mountains in the south and both Max and Trine rode two days in one to get to Jaiyuguan ahead of time. This was a perfect time to test their physical fitness and Max’s navigational skills, as well as get an extra well earned rest day in Jiayuguan!!
We have been riding on the GZ45 main expressway for the last few days, and although bicycles are not supposed to be riding on this expressway, it seems as though they had cyclists in mind when they constructed it. They built a perfectly smooth six foot wide shoulder for us to ride on!! Our last camp had us in a section of the desert with one of the busiest rail lines I have ever seen to our South, the expressway to the North, a windmill farm to the West and desert plains to the east. It is always fun to have a variety of different camping accommodations along the way and anywhere is a possible camp sight for the Silk Route Expedition!!.
The next few days will unfortunately be some of our last for camping as we are now getting into the more populated Eastern China, with all of the huge cities we pass through. The distance we cover in a day leaves us only the option of small hotels. I will definitely miss camping out at night, the solidarity of my own tent, Miles’ awesome dinners and crisp early mornings. Onto a new leg of the journey, the urban homestretch!!
Situated between the Qilian Mountains in the south and the Gobi desert to the north and recorded in Chinese myths and legends, Jiayuguan has often been referred to as a remote desolate outpost on the edge of the wilderness. It is also the location for the last fort of the Great Wall of China.
The last few days have been uneventful for the most part, flat perfectly paved rods, not much of a head wind (we're not complaining) and the terrain much the same. We have seen some nice snow capped mountains in the south and both Max and Trine rode two days in one to get to Jaiyuguan ahead of time. This was a perfect time to test their physical fitness and Max's navigational skills, as well as get an extra well earned rest day in Jiayuguan!!
We have been riding on the GZ45 main expressway for the last few days, and although bicycles are not supposed to be riding on this expressway, it seems as though they had cyclists in mind when they constructed it. They built a perfectly smooth six foot wide shoulder for us to ride on!! Our last camp had us in a section of the desert with one of the busiest rail lines I have ever seen to our South, the expressway to the North, a windmill farm to the West and desert plains to the east. It is always fun to have a variety of different camping accommodations along the way and anywhere is a possible camp sight for the Silk Route Expedition!!.
The next few days will unfortunately be some of our last for camping as we are now getting into the more populated Eastern China, with all of the huge cities we pass through. The distance we cover in a day leaves us only the option of small hotels. I will definitely miss camping out at night, the solidarity of my own tent, Miles' awesome dinners and crisp early mornings. Onto a new leg of the journey, the urban homestretch!!
