Wow, time is really flying by. Just two more days and I will be leaving China and entering Kazakhstan. I will be leaving with mixed emotions. There is so much more to explore, so much more to see, so many more interactions to have. But as Lao Tsu might say, I have filled my belly, and seek not to sate the longing of the eyes.

There has been something different about visiting China compared to visiting other places. I don’t immediately feel like a foreigner. When talking to people, it feels like there is a base sense of familiarity and mutual trust. People are generally nice to one another, and I feel like I can understand and empathise with the people around me. It feels like people actually care about the people around them - whether this be police, service staff, or passers-by - there is a certain level of warmth and concern for the wellbeing of others in their tone and their actions. This could just be me experiencing at length what it feels like to be part of the ethnic majority of a place, but it certainly feels different to other places I have been.

A very good friend of mine once told me that he truly feels at home when communicating with his loved ones in his mother tongue of Lithuanian, and that other languages just don’t quite get there. I think the feeling I have might be similar; the people and the land of my ancestors will always create a sense of belonging for me that is hard to find elsewhere. While I leave China, I do feel like a part of me remains here, and is somewhere I could one day call home.

Today’s ride takes me to Ürümqi, the capital of Xinjiang. It is a shorter ride, being ~200kms with one stop at a salt lake. My goal for today is to get to the Ducati dealership, where I have a fresh set of tyres waiting for me - I have been slightly worried about running out of centre tread on my rear tyre. My secondary objective is to load up on coffee before I reach Central Asia. I don’t think I’ll find decent beans for a while yet. (Note: you may find my frequency of posting will reduce in Central Asia, if internet is not readily available!)

Today’s route in blue

The road was like what you might feel a few days into a road trip going from destination to destination by the highway, with beautiful sights along the way; I feel sights are “nice”, but I don’t feel jawdropping “wow i must stop here and recover from the shock of seeing this”. I guess you only get so many of those in a given period of time. The roads were straight and hot, the mountains alongside were nice, and not much else to report!

Endless wind turbines along the highway

The main stop, at a salt lake, was a relatively short affair, in and out within ~40 minutes. I was quite happy with it, because I was allowed (well, I was not immediately stopped), from taking my bike onto the lake itself; I had previously ridden in sand in Dubai and this probably wouldn’t be too different!

The salt lake (and more wind turbines)

Despite how dry and salty it looks, it was actually relatively mushy and I was warned to get out of the lake by staff, because they were concerned if left for a while my bike could sink/get stuck…so after some photos I didn’t dawdle and continued on.

Salty Desert X

Reaching Ürümqi, I was struck by:

• how it doesn’t look like what I expected it to look like (I expected a city of Uyghurs/significant Arabic influence in architecture/layout/etc. It looks like a decent sized Chinese city in general, with a blade runner esque ethnic composition of people who generally speak mandarin but could look European, Central Asian, Han Chinese, or even South Asian)
• how aggressive the drivers/people are - they seem to be in a huge rush to get somewhere, with cars cutting into lanes without warning, beeping all the time, and quickly accelerating/decelerating

Cars in Urumqi tend to drive with their boots open

After dropping off my bike at Ducati, I got a rundown of changes:

• full check up and clean
• replace brake pads
• replace coolant
• replace tyres (going back to the Pirelli Scorpion STRs, which are the stock tyres. Hopefully ok to tackle the Pamir Highway, although will be great on highways I think).
• fix broken accessories (my aliexpress light has lost its bolts for like the third time) I’ll get it back tomorrow, and will report back on how it rides.

Pre glow-up (look at the centre line! no more tread.)

Then was time to restock on coffee. The driver dropped me off at a strip with a few cafes that offered pourover coffee. My usual grinder signal (EK43 or better) unfortunately wasn’t fulfilled by at least they had a hand grinder (which I see to be a “at least you’re trying” sign).

The cafe itself was quite cute, and was themed around a record store. As I had my coffee (try before buying), I got them to put on an ABBA record they had lying around, so vibes were great. The beans were okay; I can have this as my first cup of coffee, but it probably isn’t something I’d rush to show off to someone to convince them filter is the best way to enjoy coffee. I bought the last sealed bag they had remaining, and then rushed off to the store next door to check if they had any other beans.

Coffee on the way!

The next cafe had a more grungy vibe, seemed to be more artsy, and had more people there. They sold coffee, but only in 50g bags, which they quoted $20 for each!!! It turns out that they were pricing based on the opportunity cost of not being able to sell pourovers in store, which is reasonable if you cannot restock in time (I got this sense), but wasn’t something I could stomach. Besides, small bags are no fun because you need to: (1) clean the grinder thoroughly when switching beans (every cup or two basically) to avoid retention and cross contamination, (2) re-dial every brew basically.

Full grunge. Everyone in the cafe looks so cool.

I had an idea and went back to the first store, and bought all of their remaining pour over beans (including the open bags). All in all, about 750g beans which should last me a while (up to ~25 days at 30g/day).

It was then time to actually see Urumqi’s tourist points, primarily being the Grand Bazaar. I was there for a few hours, and did not hear any calls to prayer (although I left before sundown which is at 10pm here). This is primarily a walking street with a lot of shops selling fruit, tourist goods, and jade.

The mosque at the Grand Bazaar

Dinner was across the road and was extremely good (big plate ox tail and noodles, fried beans with chili and peanuts, and eggplant/chillies).

Dinner opposite the Grand Bazaar

Indeed a big plate of ox tails

I stumbled upon cute cats for sale during an evening walk through town

Tomorrow; Sayram Lake!

Some stats:

• 210 KMs travelled
• 7.8L fuel added
• 4 unique interactions
• 15g coffee consumed

Altitude map of today’s ride

Route to date