“I’ll go the National Highway instead of expressway, I’m on this trip to enjoy riding”. Famous last words. The first ~75km or so had so many trucks that it felt like a never ending convoy. Overtaking was no use; system velocity was just too slow.

Today’s route in blue

It was a late start, setting off at about 10am, and at a leisurely pace. The route initially headed in the direction of Lanzhou Danxia so similar rock formations and hills paved the way.

Stripey mountains

The mountains themselves

Once the trucks had peeled off to another route, the scenery started becoming much more interesting. The road traced a rocky canyon, following a silty river. Small villages and their crops painted the banks, offering the scene a muted green. Atop rocky hilltops were lone temples and pagodas. The scene had elements of a Chinese “light the beacons” moment from LOTR.

A hilltop temple

I get the sense that the population density is really thinning out as I head west. There are not many shops along the road, finding restaurants which I feel like going to are much less common. I spent most of the day riding without finding any food! Admittedly I wasn’t looking too hard. A few places seemed dense (lots of high rises) but upon getting closer they were incomplete/uninhabited - so no luck there either.

Drivers here seem like they feel like safety and collision avoidance is someone else’s responsibility. They drive without any awareness of what is happening around them, don’t seem to check mirrors, and must be used to a slower pace of life. This makes riding more tiring; each person that I pass and each junction or even gap in the median strip, I anticipate what could “go wrong”, slow down, pick up the pace after passing. There were a few instances where drivers crossed the highway (either for a U-turn or to overtake a slow vehicle), and cut me off (traveling at very slow speeds while i was at highway speeds). Not one for the absent minded!

Every now and again, a gigantic plant broke the otherwise natural landscape. A cement factory here, a chemicals factory there. These were of enormous scale.

Large cement plant

Large chemical plant (looks like what happens if you scale up glassware)

Another chemical plant?

Eventually the road cut across the river and started ascending. This was the start of the Tibetan Plateau (I assume), and the scenery transformed once more to the grassy hills that were part of Sichuan. Here I stopped for fuel, and while they photocopied my ID and license (for some reason a requirement for filling up here), I had an icecream and a piece of dark chocolate for lunch.

Rest stop at a temple which was being renovated (completely empty besides myself and 2 workers)

The final temple at the peak

Today’s lunch

By the time I got to the destination it was ~3PM. It was a hotel around the corner from Ta’er Monastery, a site significant to Tibetan Buddhism (I think the founder may have been born there). To my surprise, they actually did not let me stay because they didn’t have the systems set up for foreign visitors. This was actually a relief as I wanted to check out the city of Xining, and this place was 30KM out of town.

Monk livestream praying? (not 100% sure what he was doing)

Pilgrims gather at a temple at Ta’er

A quick visit to the monastery and I was off to town.

Xining is quite a small city. It is maybe 4km wide and 20km long, although its residents mostly live in highrise apartment blocks. I spent the afternoon eating at the walking street, visiting the mosque, and finding other small eats at a mall.

Minarets of Dongguan Mosque

It is interesting observing the Hui ethnic group here in China. They look pretty similar to Han Chinese, although tend to be a bit darker in tone, and more weathered. Older men leave long white beards, and generally men of age wear white caps. Women wear modest wear, similar to Indonesian style abayas (generally black/white). The call to prayer is in Arabic. They have a local language that they speak, but also tend to speak Mandarin with a northerner accent.

Courtyard of Dongguan Mosque

Yellow and red watermelons at the walking street

Public use scales(!) at the walking street (which are presumably neutral/trustworthy)

Dinner; instant noodles cooked at an instant noodle shop

Tomorrow; Zhangye! (A long ride…I will sleep until I wake up and then try the expressway route as I heard that the road there is not super interesting.)

Some stats:

• 321 KMs traveled
• 27.5L fuel added
• 2 unique interactions
• 30g coffee consumed

Altitude map of today’s ride

Route to date