Week 76: to Urumqi: Final push into the city

September 7, 2016

“Are we busted?” Rachel says as two police cars pull over in front of us. We had stopped to take a picture of the “Welcome to Urumqi” sign. We’ve been on G30 since entering China, and now we are on the 312 and for the first time we have been told to exit the expressway.

We take the next exit and find a parallel side road to try to make our way in the general direction of the hotel we have booked. We run into several “roadblocks” and finally an expressway is in our way. We have to find a way to cross it and after another 10kms and another hour, we finally make it to our destination.

We left Hutubi on a wide bicycle lane flanked for a couple of kilometers by colorful flowers. The landscaping is all-out. On the way out we see several interesting buildings. Then a lot of fields, a large town and the outskirts of Urumqi. We pass the airport and the 312 starts looking more and more like a real interstate with heavy traffic. When the cops boot us off it was probably time to look for an alternative.

After another hour or two of frustration we find the location of our hotel as marked by booking.com, but it is not there. Fortunately we have the name and address in Chinese characters on our confirmation email and people direct us to the correct location at least a kilometer away. The hotel is nice and has no problem with foreigner check-in.

We clean-up, walk down the street to a Carrefour, a large French supermarket chain where we have a chicken sandwich for lunch and start our shopping for supplies.

Interesting buildings on the outskirts of Hutubi.

Four lane highways have been constructed to nowhere, probably for future sub-divisions. For now they can be used to dry produce.

Passing through a good-sized town on the way to Urumqi.

Busted! Just as we are setting up to take a photo of our entrance into Urumqi a cop comes walking up to tell us we cannot cycle on the express way.

Today's ride: 82 km (51 miles)
Total: 21,937 km (13,623 miles)

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