More on July 11

We knew before leaving that Inner Mongolia would be remote, with a lot of natural scenery and few cities. In fact, the route was chosen for these exact reasons. Every other route out of Harbin would have taken us through big cities, each being very similar to the last. The route has turned out to be what we expected and more. Conditions have been prime: pristine highways much of the way, little traffic, and perfect weather. However, things rarely go as expected, even with great conditions.


Day 1:

Tristan and I left East College and our students a little after 6 in the morning. Following a little pre-departure picture taking at the delearship, we were led out of town by the Harbin Feiying manager driving his Volkswagen. We quickly learned that we needn't pay tolls on the highways. Instead, we can just go around the toll stations without worry or a lighter wallet. We learned the stares from the toll workers were not because we weren't paying the toll, but because we were foreigners riding motorcycles.

We figured we would get better gas mileage than we really are. It seems we get around 200km for a full tank of gas, far from the 400-450 Martino said he got. The reason for the poor gas mileage might be our speed--80-90km/hr at 8-9,000 rpms. The bikes redline at 10,000 rpms, so we are pushing the bikes almost to their limit. It is hard not to go fast when you have well maintained, traffic-less highways.

The easiest way to find directions is simply to ask someone. Almost every highway, hotel, and city we've found by asking locals. Usually, they are friendly, and usually, they know at least the direction we should go. Before leaving we thought about buying a GPS, but decided against it thinking it wouldn't be that useful. Instead, for directions we have one full map of China in pinyin and "the paper." I bought the map online and had it mailed from the US. Pinyin is the Romanized form of Chinese that makes it easier for foreigners to read and speak the language. The map is fairly nice and we had laminated copies of it made. We also use "the paper," which is a list of cities on our route in both Chinese and pinyin. "The paper" has turned out to be our best tool for getting directions. We can show the Chinese characters to random people we meet on the street.

The map on the other hand has not been as useful. The pinyin doesn't help us decipher street signs. The map has also proven to be unreliable: the first day we found that a city called Songyuan was misnamed Fuyu (later we would find whole highways missing from the map). Lastly, pinyin doesn't help our pronunciation, so showing the characters is easier than trying to pronounce the cities name...usually.

The sights the first day, while interesting, were typically Chinese. Little villages separated by a tremendous amount of farmland. Coming out of Harbin, the land of concrete and taxis, this was a welcome sight. We all know that it will only get better as we enter the grasslands of Inner Mongolia and then the valleys and deserts of Gansu and Xinjiang provinces.

We made our way to Baicheng, approximately450 km from Harbin. Our goal was Wulanhaote (Ulanhot), the first Inner Mongolian city on our route, but it proved too far and the weather didn't cooperate. We slept in a guest house for only 27 yuan a person. Typically, these guest houses are just a room with a bed or two, maybe a window, and, if your lucky, air conditioning (not very comfortable). They do the trick though if all you want is sleep. We finished that night, tired and a little wet. We did have enough energy to go out for a few beers and chuar (grilled meat on a stick). It was exciting...we were on our way.

P (edited by T)