Xi’an – Yuncheng

31st May 2014       18-29’C        323km
Xi’an – Yuncheng (Shanxi Province)

When the guide vehicle made a last minute change of direction, I was left stuck headed onto the on-ramp of the freeway with no escape. So I was left with the only option of trying to get onto the freeway. At the toll gate I was turned around, and now had lost the guide vehicle, as the police forced me to use a different exit. After much discussion with the guide on the phone, it was agreed we would meet in Yuncheng in the evening, as I was unable to locate them. It seems GPS devices in China do not allow you to find out your location coordinates, so the guide couldn’t tell me where they were.

So, as I was left on my own, I chose my own route, and unsurprisingly it was far more interesting than the boring roads I have been forced on by the guide previously. With very little traffic, the road passed through old farming villages, with packed earth dwellings, and fabulous old towers and town gates. Eventually I reached a lake, covered in water lilies and with a number of people fishing. When I stopped for a photo, my back was turned on the bike for only 5 seconds, and when I turned back around, there was a middle aged guy sitting on my bike! His friends taking photos. They had all been drinking a fair bit, but fortunately all were in good humour.

The GPS guided me through another village, and down a dirt track as it started to rain, and I had visions of being stranded as the trail got narrower and steeper as it zig zagged down the side of a steep mountain. There were a lot of washouts, some of the holes were 2M deep in places. Eventually it reached the bottom and rejoined the proper road north to Yuncheng, and I arrived an hour earlier than the guide.

I saw a couple of police walking on the street, and after asking them for directions to the hotel, in Chinese, I found myself only 100M from where I should have been, and was quite chuffed with myself, having navigated in Chinese all day. As the GPS shows some roads as lines, but not town or road names, I’d been stopping and asking for directions regularly.

Tonight, after dinner, I was walking around town when two guys, reasonably well dressed got out of their car and after offering a cigarette, indicated I should get in the back seat. I had no idea what for, or if they intended to drive somewhere, but I declined and kept walking, they didn’t seem in any way offended, and I wondered what their intention was. About 20 minutes later, I was walking past a tea house when the owner and his wife invited me in for tea. Soon a few of their friends arrived and word got around to the local motorcycle club, who sent their president around to look at the bike and say hello. A nice evening drinking tea and trying to converse in Chinglish.