Day 17: Lanzhou to Dongxiang, Gansu

Distance: 205km
Expenses: gas 20rmb, hotel 68rmb
Events:

• Found a small Muslim hilltop town shaped like a crescent with the inner bowl holding a sports complex and pond.
  
• The resident's adherence to Islam forbids them to smoke or drink. Beer is not served in any restaurants in town.
• We all slept in our own hotel room. Later it was agreed that we should have stayed an extra day.
  
• We all went on a walk together, but separated and had different experiences. D and T found a nice family that 'adopted,' fed, and took pictures with them. P was taken via moped to meet some random guys (non-Muslim) to drink some beer and learn the 'hand' drinking game.
• For a tourist town, its people were unusually friendly. We wondered how long it would be before the rude, demanding tourists and their money change the feel of this delightful place and its people. Also, how long can the restaurateurs last without selling beer, a breach of their faith?

Day 16: Into Lanzhou, Gansu

Distance: 70 km
Expenses: gas 0rmb, hotel 43rmb
Events:

• The road into the city was dissected and had been sacrificed in the creation of an expressway, thus the ride took longer than expected.
  
• We were led through Lanzhou, the city with the worst traffic in China, to the dealership where they changed our oil and replaced some parts on D's bike. Tape was heavily used. (see picture)
  
• The 'triad picture' was taken at the Lanzhou dealership.
  
• The most impressive parts of the city seem to be its hot cycling chicks and the 'circus brothel.' As for that fine establishment, no one took part in its circus or brothel components.
  

Day 15: Zhongwei, Ningxia to Lanzhou outskirts, Gansu

Distance: 270 km
Expenses: gas 35rmb, hotel 53rmb
Events:

• A large tourist trap with the world's largest sand slide on the way out of Zhongwei.
  
• We rode through the desert in the morning and then over rolling hills and valleys in the afternoon.
  
• Workers were placing hay in the road and sifting it with pitchforks in a process to extract the seeds.
  
• We came upon the set for the movie Myth, an attempted replica of the Mogao Caves. The real thing awaited us in Dunhuang, so we kept on moving.
• Road conditions and the coming nightfall prevented us from an attempt on Lanzhou.
  

Days 6 to 14: Rundown Continued

Day 6: Jingpeng to Xilinhot (Xilinhaote), Inner Mongolia
Distance: 173 km
Expenses: gas 35rmb, hotel 50rmb
Events:

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Day 7: Xilinhot (Xilinhaote) to Huade, Inner Mongolia
Distance: 275 km
Expenses: gas 40 rmb, hotel 40 rmb
Events:

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Day 8: Huade to Hohot (Huhehaote), Inner Mongolia
Distance: 365 km
Expenses: gas 15 rmb, hotel 50 rmb
Events:

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Day 9: Hohot (Huhehaote), Inner Mongolia
Distance: 0 km
Expenses: gas 0 rmb, hotel 50rmb
Events:

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Day 10: Hohot (Huhehaote) to (Unnamed City II), Inner Mongolia
Distance: 285 km
Expenses: gas 47 rmb, hotel 53 rmb
Events:

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Day 11: (Unnamed City II) to Wuhai, Inner Mongolia
Distance: 305 km
Expenses: gas 25 rmb, hotel 50 rmb
Events:

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Day 12: Wuhai, Inner Mongolia to Yinchuan, Ningxia
Distance: 195 km
Expenses: gas 30rmb, hotel 60rmb
Events:

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Day 13: Yinchuan to Zhongwei, Ningxia
Distance: 220 km
Expenses: gas 20rmb, hotel 30rmb
Events:

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Day 14: Zhongwei, Ningxia
Distance: 100 km
Expenses: gas 20rmb, hotel 30rmb
Events:

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Great Wall, Great Man

The Chinese say you are not a hero until you touch the Great Wall: bu dao chang cheng fei hao han.

Rundown

Since the three of us are doing a poor job of blogging daily, I'd like to do a quick run through of major occurrences for curious readers:


1. Patrick crashed on the second day just outside the city of Tongliao, Inner Mongolia. He was not seriously injured. His bike needed 1000 yuan worth of repairs. It was dark when the accident happened. Memorable quote: Patrick to David: "If you turn on your brights, you can go faster."


2. A day after Patrick crashed, we rode through a construction site that was supposed to be a highway. The turnouts were muddy swaths, some of which led to deep ditches dug out for bridges. The kicker is that we rode the toughest section in the dark. At one point, we followed a van full of construction workers who we believe would have mugged us if we hadn't turned tail. Somehow we picked our way through the dirt side roads and construction equipment using only our headlights. Memorable quote: Tristan to Patrick and David as the sun is setting: "We only have another twenty kilometers."


3. In Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, David was stopped by the police while riding without his helmet. His motorcycle was impounded. After contacting Feiying and paying a 500 yuan ticket for driving without a license, David was able to get his bike back. We left the city early the next day.


4. Two days ago, David and I collided after we passed a dump truck near Yinchuan in the Ningxia Autonomous Region. My bike swerved wildly into the left lane, but I was able to regain control. David's bike tumbled into a dirt turnout in front of some shops, spilling David without serious injury, but doing a number to the right side of his bike: broken headlight casing, bent rear brake pedal, and a cracked engine case (to name the most visible wounds). We were able to get the bike into ride-able condition at a Yamaha repair shop. We soldier on.



On a lighter note:

We have made our way through the long arc of Inner Mongolia and are now in Ningxia on our way to Gansu, Qihghai, and Xinjiang. Before Hohhot, Inner Mongolia is a continuous expanse of grasslands. Most of the highways we traveled are new and traffic-less, save the occasional Jeep, semi, tractor, or donkey cart. Around Harbin, and throughout the Northeast, farming has become mechanized, but in Inner Mongolia you still see donkey-led plows. The remoteness of Inner Mongolia and the simplicity of the lifestyle there make it an enjoyable place to ride a motorcycle. What Inner Mongolia lacks, history and mystery--even Hohhot, clean and orderly, and Baotou, the large urban-industrial complex masquerading as a city, don't have much to offer--, should be plentiful in the upcoming provinces.

Thus far, Ningxia has given us what we had hoped for from the beginning: desert and mountain scenery, places away from motor vehicles and tourists to get off the bikes and walk around, and under-visited and under-preserved pieces of Chinese history.

Today, we were able to visit a temple, Da fu si (Big Buddha Temple), built into the side of a cliff. We also hiked to two remote, crumbling parts of the Great Wall, one of which was high on a mountain overlooking sand dunes. And finally, we rode our bikes up to the rolling desert only ten kilometers from the muddy Yellow River. Standing at the top of the dunes reminded me of the Chinese proverb: bu dao huang he xin bu si.

Tomorrow we ride to Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province and the first major city on the Yellow River's eastward flow.

T