China - another milestone!

Visiting China has never really been my plan on this journey. The 15-day visa-free entry to China has enabled me new opportunities to continue my journey further east though. Crossing the border to the autonomous region Xingjiang, which is home to ethnic minority groups such as the Uyghur, went much smoother than expected. After a quick luggage scan and a few basic questions about my stay, I was in China. Unbelievable, now that feels like a real milestone.

There was no visible sign on the motorway access that cycling was forbidden. Let’s give it a try! Navigating here is easy and the progress is fast. It took maybe five minutes until the police stopped me. Completely surprised, I played the naive tourist not knowing what I did wrong. The officer took a picture of me and my passport and politely showed me the road I was allowed to take. I bowed, apologized several times and continued. Ten minutes later, I arrived at a police checkpoint. The officer complained that I was not cycling on the designated motorway. Oh come on, it’s not happening. Kindly, I explained him the earlier situation with the other police officer. He nodded with a smile, took a photo of my passport and let me pass.

Many kilometers later, I was followed and stopped by a random car. My first thought was it is the police again. Not quite right, it was just a man who got out of his car and approached me with two cans. He passed me one of the cans and said “cheers“ (It looked like a soft drink but the taste was like beer with milk. Later, I found out that milk beer is quite a thing here in China). What a terrific welcome I thought! Slightly tipsy and fully energized, I cycled towards Yining with a few more stopovers to take photos with locals.

But what pleases me most of all is the fact that people give you a smile. No matter where you go and who it is - the cashier at the supermarket, the security guard at the train station or a random person on the road. I missed that recently!Read more