China is a big country and the distance to cycle in this country is around 5500 km. We only have a 60 day visa and we estimate it will take us around 80 days to get through so we will need to extend the validity of the visa somewhere. This puts some time pressure on us. Since the landscape in this area isn’t very exiting and that the towns and villages are far apart we feel we can as well press on and get some kilometers done.

This and the coming weeks we will be chewing kilometers for breakfast, lunch and dinner and although we only cycle and do no sightseeing there are stories to be told but after having done almost 180 km today and 170 yesterday we both feel we should prioritize sleep instead of writing. The forecast for tomorrow is headwind and we hope we will be able to make it to the city of Korla where we would like to stay at a hotel and update this blog with some stories from the road along the Taklamakan desert.

This service area along the highway is unfinished so there are no restrooms and no running water. After 180 km in the sunshine we needed a shower and bought two dozens of 0,5 liter bottles of drinking water. We showered on the stairs next to were we sleep and this is the only photo of Wej showering that will ever be published on this blog.

Wej showering by using a a number of 0,5 liter bottles

Right now we are sleeping under the sky at an un-finished service along the main highway. The photo below is the latest photo taken with our camera and shows me as I write this very blogpost 🙂

Writing this blogpost under the stars