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.
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
No comments:
Post a Comment