In Urumqi, 7500km(4500mi) complete, our last picture

Day 32: Day 2 in Urumqi

Day 32 in Urumqi was a busy one. First we were treated by the Feiying boys to some chuar that was quite different than the imitation stuff served up by the Han Chinese in Harbin. The real stuff has larger pieces of meat and less spice on it. Next off to a museum dedicated to the minority people of Xinjiang region. After the museum we were dragged to a lively Uighur market, and finally the last supper at a buffet style Brazilian restaurant.

Day 31: Turpan to Urumqi, Xinjiang

31 days later we had finally arrived in Urumqi were we greeted by the Feying peeps and taken to an apple orchard for some home cooking and beers.

Day 30: In Turpan, Xinjiang

Day 29: Hami to Turpan, Xinjiang

Distance: ? km
Expenses: gas 69rmb, hotel 60rmb
Events:

• Our hottest ride was the last 30km into Turpan.
• Stayed at the "Disco Hotel" though the disco wasn't open the two days we stayed there.
  
• D ate some awesome rotisserie chicken. The next day, P had to go back and try it.
• T got sick, we think from the heat, so P and D went out that night on a pub crawl. Went to a few bars, learned a new hand drinking game, and took a 10rmb donkey cart taxi. That was 10rmb well spent!
• D and P then stopped in a Muslim bar/disco. Some gerk tried to charge us 20 rmb for a beer, but after a little inquiry with the locals, we found that each was only 10 rmb.
• The Muslim bar was an interesting cultural experience. The boys would dance to a song, then the girls would dance, and then another chang in music would bring the boys back out. Later during other types of music, the boys danced with the girls in some kind of courtship ritual.

Day 28: Dunhuang, Gansu to Hami, Xinjiang

Distance: ? km
Expenses: gas 50rmb, hotel 55rmb
Events:

• P lost his camera on the ride into Hami.
  
• While P &T were waiting for D at a town about an hour from Hami a family came up to t and p and offered them some delicious watermelon.
  
• D bought some home made flat bread baked in a brick oven unique in shape but common in this region of China.
  
• Again D had mechanical problems which he manged to fix and refuses to talk about.

Day 27: Anxi to Dunhuang, Gansu

Distance: 150 km
Expenses: gas 30rmb, hotel 65rmb, mogao caves 180(peak season price)
Events:

• After a relatively short ride, went directly to the Mogao Caves after reaching the outskirts of Dunhuang.
• It was a hard call whether to enter the Mogao Ku at the price of 180 per person. P had to do some soul searching and in the end he decided to enter. His soul was wrong.
• We had a bad guide. She went into little detail about the paintings and questions about destruction due to the Cultural Revolution were avoided more than once.
  
• Ran into Evan when while shopping around for a hotel in Dunhuang. "It's a small world" was playing in the background.
  
• In Dunhuang they sell a special apricot juice. More dried fruit and assorted kinds of nuts are on sale the closer we got to Xinjiang.
• An outdoor chuar restaurant gave us the boot because we didn't order expensive food and were just drinking beer. Another tried charging us 5rmb for free sunflower seeds. Evan's Chinese is really good, so he had the waitress have it.
• Overall, we were disappointed with the site and the city, and it was probably the worst place we visited.

Day 26: Jiayuguan to Anxi, Gansu

Distance: ? km
Events:

• Rode about 250km through the desert with strong winds and no road except the expressway that forbids motorcycles. Later we learned that Evan took the expressway without a problem.
• A sign in the middle of the desert said, "drive careful harsh weather." From Anxi on, all the roads were nice.
• There were some sections, maybe a total of 1km at a time that were ok, but mostly included a variety of off-road terrain. We were lucky not to crash into a sinkhole that was 3m round and a meter deep. Of course there was no warning sign.

Day 25: Jiayuguan (Qiyi Glacier), Gansu

Distance: 260 km
Expenses: gas 0 rmb, hotel 27 rmb, taxi to glacier 350 rmb, qiyi glacier 52.2rmb
Events:

• We took a 2.5 hour ride to Qiyi Glacier. P and T slept most of the way.
• Paid 50.2 rmb for entrance to the Glacier, we all thought the .2 was strange.
  
• Cool 2 hour hike to the Glacier. On the way down, P and D decided to get closer to the Glacier and T spent some time writing.
• On the trail there was a man wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and rubber sandals. It was 40 degree and drizzling, but he didn't seem to mind.

Day 24: Jiayuguan, Gansu

Distance: 0 km
Expenses: gas 0 rmb, hotel 27 rmb
Events:

• We spent the day in the city and visited the much anticipated Jiayugaun Fort, where T and D rented tandem bicycles, but P couldn't because they did not fit him. He sat on the back of D's bike.
• D, P and T went out with FuJie and his friend for a night on the town, starting with a visit to a public opera performance, proceeding to the "German White Pride" bar, and finishing the night at a local Chinese bar. Our joyful night was not hampered by our inability to speak Chinese or theirs to speak English.

Day 23: Zhangye to Jiayuguan, Gansu

Distance: 290 km

Expenses: gas 20rmb, hotel 27rmb
Events:

• We said goodbye to Evan as we headed onto Jiayuguan.
• The Feiying mechanics in Zhongye were very helpful and did what they could for our bikes before sending us on.
• Arriving in Jiayuguan, we couldn’t find the Feiying dealership. A guy named FuJie came up to us, and mistaking him for Feiying, we followed him to his shop. While he wasn’t Feiying, he turned out to be a good mechanic and friend.
• D got new shocks installed by the inept Jiayuguan Feiying dealer, paid for by the Feiying dealership in Lanzhou.
• D found a German expat owned bar. He later discovered their interest in country music and in their belief that the South will rise again. They even had a Leonard Skynard CD, among others. D later returned a bit jaded after being told to leave the local chuarbar for no apparent reason.
  
• FuJie showed up at our hotel with beers in hand at 11pm, late by Chinese standards. FuJie and P had a few beers and simple conversation (very simple) in the lobby before getting the personal night tour of Jiayuguan via his motorcycle. The best part was riding around in Jiayuguan's Triathlon Park.

Day 22: Mingle to Zhongye, Gansu

Distance: 190 km
Expenses: gas 30rmb, hotel 25rmb
Events:

• P, T and Evan visited a Buddhist temple with Tibetan style stupa. They were treated to a breakfast of fruit and tea by the local caregivers. After driving around all day looking for Mati Si, they found it in the late afternoon
  
• Mati Si is a Buddhist temple built into a mountain's rock face. China has rebuilt part of it, but it is obvious, only for the purposes of tourism. The Cultural Revolution was mostly responsible, as it was for many Buddhist places, for its destruction earlier this century.
  
• D paid a shepherd 10 rmb to watch his bike while he went for a great two hour hike. On this hike he was also chased by a yak.
• D opted out of the scenic route and went directly to Zhongye to have his moto fixed. While in Zhongye, he was also able to explore the city, including its unique outdoor garden area.

Day 21: Xining, Qinghai to Mingle, Gansu

Distance: 285 km
Expenses: hotel 15rmb
Events:

• Ascended again on an amazing ride over a mountain range, topping over 12,000 feet (3700 meters)
  
• D's bike was having a little trouble on the climbs, reasonable considering his welded engine case.
• Ate lunch at a local place in the valley run by perhaps the happiest man in China. The noodle dishes he served us were great.
• Met Evan as we continued along the valley and again over some peaks. Evan is a French expat and full-time student in Kunming. He had ridden from Yunnan province and was going as high as Dunhaung, in the Northwest of Gansu province, before turning back. He filled us with wondrous stories of the cold Tibetan Plateau and its people.
  
• We stopped together for a break, only to have P's and T's bikes both fall over and break thier clutch handles. The probablility of this happening boggles the mind. We rode without clutch levers to the next small city, Mingle.

Day 20: Qinghai Lake to Xining, Qinghai

Distance: 100 km
Expenses: gas 23rmb, hotel 25rmb
Events:

• Woke the next morning to light rain which dissipated as we packed up.
  
• We rode to checkout the lake. The water was cold and the weather overcast, nobody attempted to swim.
  
• It began to rain again as we left the lake and headed down in elevation. We rode furiously back to Xining to outrun the threatening rain.