Stewart Law
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So we made it to Yongcheng after 2 extra nights in Shandan due to bad weather. Yesterday we tried to leave Shandan in hopes that once we left the town the roads would be fine. Well the roads were treacherous!
Arriving at the Great Wall was an emotional experience. Everything flooding in at once – the excitement of it, the scale of the trip, the gratitude to Stew for organising our world cycling tour.
In China they use different hand signals for numbers. At first we were so confused when staff in shops were giving us these odd hand gestures.
We’ve been cycling this barren section of land since August. You can really see the scale of it on the map. I’m quite shocked looking at it. I couldn’t be more ready to leave this behind now.
Well this town cheered me up so much this evening! Chinese towns and cities are fabulous at night. They’re all so beautifully lit up…and can you spot any litter?
We’ve been quite fascinated by this since Uzbekistan. In Asia we’ve been watching people sit in this deep squat position for extended periods of time. I’ve tried to pick up photos along the way and this is the best I can get without being too intrusive.
It’s impossible to get across how frustrating I’ve found some interactions in China. What I’d like to do is write the F word until the character limit fills up, but I’ll try explain…
We made it across 200 miles of dessert in only 2 days thanks to a 100 mph joy ride from the police yesterday evening. When you think about you getting a ride with the police you probably imagine it’s a very serious and professional experience…
I can’t believe we hit this milestone and didn’t even notice – 7,200 miles. That has absolutely flown. If Stew’s calculations are correct this puts us at 30% of the trip complete.
Hitting a road closure in China has the potential to be a total pain! We turned up to this large blue sign today, which was blocking the one road we wanted to take.
One thing that changes in China is cutlery; we’re now using chop sticks. Luckily we were already somewhat familiar with the chopstick and could manage a meal.
So yesterday, police checks did get quite annoying. We went through 2 police checks easily, then the third – nothing major but we had to be escorted through this section.
As I said in a previous post, I’d describe the border crossing as slightly uncomfortable, but overall a breeze. China is, in my opinion, the only country following a decent protocol at borders.
Okay so there are a lot of police in Xinjiang. I don’t have pictures of them for obvious reasons, but in this picture you can see the blue banner at the end of the road, that’s a police check point.
We breezed through the first three days finding hotels for £15 and £20 then some floor space for free. I realise now just how lucky that floor space was.
We woke up in darkness at 07.30. We’re now GMT+8, a 2 hour jump after Kazakhstan. We headed out at 09:00 in our winter cycling gear head to toe – leggings the lot!
The border I’d describe as thorough and slightly uncomfortable, but overall a breeze. China is, in my opinion, the only country following a decent protocol at borders. Well, with the exception of them going through our phones...
We first entered Kazakhstan at Kuryk Port after crossing the Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan. This seems like a bizarre place to build a ferry complex as it’s in the absolute middle of nowhere. The port itself is actually quite well equipped.
Before we leave the ‘stans I just have to introduce you to Alex who we met in a small village outside Batumi, Georgia. He is pictured with his daughter Sofie.
For the first time we woke up with ice on the outer tent. ICE! Stew dealt with the tent and I prepared hot porridge and a cuppa. We set off by 09:00 and made tracks to Charyn Canyon.
After a restful few days in Almaty we made tracks towards Khorgos, China with a plan of reaching Charyn Canyon in 2 days.
We stayed with such a brilliant warmshowers host recently. Matt was an Englishman living in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He has completed his own world cycling tour and published a book of his adventures.
We enjoyed Bishkek – it seemed there were two parts of the town – a more westernised wealthy part which had a little more going on in terms of restaurants, bike shops and recognisable brands. We were so relieved to see Shimano bike parts and the like!
After another bout of sickness and diarrhoea we’re taking a stance! In Tashkent we spent too much time sat on a toilet with the bin in our hands – urgh not again 🤦🏽♀️