Xinin

We’re in Xinin tonight, my friends (it’s also spelled Xining, if you look it up on Google).  We’ve been riding through China following the Yellow River all day.  Xinin is a 2100-year-old city with 2.2 million inhabitants.  We’ve done just under 1500 miles so far, and let me tell you, the riding is intense.   We’re off the Tibetan plateau and down to about 7200 feet, and it’s hot and humid again.  The riding styles is about like the riding was in Colombia in the sense that everything is a race and everybody thinks they’re Mario Andretti.   You really have to be on your toes here!

Our Chinese brothers on this ride are all extremely talented riders.  Gresh and I are enjoying the intensity of it.

We’re out of the mountains now.  It’s lots of people, the road is a mix of sometimes asphalt and sometimes dirt, and the traffic is heavy when you pass through the cities.

Mr. Tso has a family emergency, so he left the team to fly home to Guangzhou today.   He rode with us in the US last summer and we will miss riding with him.   Mr. Tso, I know you are going to read this, and we want you to know that we hope your family emergency works out well for you.    We will ride together again, my brother!

Okay, enough of my babbling…on to today’s photos!

My RX3 at a roadside stop after leaving Linxia this morning

Joe Gresh grabbing a photo along the Yellow River

“Mungwa,” a Chinese RX3 rider who met us on the ride to Xining. That’s the Yellow River behind him. “Mungwa” is his biker name. It means mushroom in Chinese. I thought it was because of what we say about being a mushroom (you know, they keep you in the dark and feed you, well, you know), but that wasn’t it at all.  Mungwa just likes mushrooms.

We suddenly pulled off the road in Ledu, and our team leader (Zuo) dashed across the street on foot. He returned with two watermelons, which were fantastic. Here’s a photo of Lu checking his email after we gorged outselves. Life is good.

Joe Gresh enjoys a piece of watermelon in Ledu, China

A bicyclist in China

We are out of the Tibetan Buddhist region and we are now squarely in China’s Islamic region.   We’ve seen enormous mosques, and we’ve seen enormous mosques under contruction.   There’s lots of construction of all types in China.  Bridges, tunnels, skyscrapers (even in the smaller towns), roads, you name it, and China is building it.

That’s it for tonight, folks.   Tomorrow’s destination is Qinghai Lake, Cha Ka Lake, and Wu Lan.