Broken Route by Political Nonsense

Some cyclists are quite strict about their route only hopping on a vehicle when absolutely necessary. Some would go around an entire lake instead of taking a boat. For us it was possible to stay on land entirely from Tianjin to Lisbon, however that is no longer the case due to certain areas the government believe is not safe for foreigners.

First sign heading in Xinjiang "注意安全" which means to "take care, be safe"

Since arriving into Xinjiang we've become used to the daily routine of cycling through Xinjiang's police checkpoints. There is one on every road entering or leaving a district. Sometimes they process us fast, other times it could be 30 minutes to an hour. One time we helped them enter our birthdates into their phone's "foreigner registration app". They weren't trained well so were repeatedly tapping the back button "«" on the date selector to get to 1992!

Good Cop, Bad Cop

As they are only doing their job, some police staff are friendly towards foreigner as they know they are wasting our time. Occasionally we'd be given water, and if you don't ask specifically for cold water you will get hot! (It's a Chinese custom drinking hot water even during summer in 30℃).

Free taxi service for 56 km

East of Ürümqi we had no issue with our route, but heading westward we encountered our first problem at the Qutubi (呼图壁) checkpoint. Sadly foreigners are not allowed in this area and if caught inside you will be fined or worse removed from the country. Their reason was it is the regulations, and perhaps for our safety. We may know why we can't go there but will share it after leaving China.

Cool Ride

We argued that our route has been completely on bicycle but to no avail we had to hop into their vehicle and enjoy a "cool" ride.

↕ Loading our bags into the police vehicle

Finally on our way

It was a cool ride alright — AC on full, siren and lights, and music playing. We habitually put on our seat belts and watched as we zoomed through the highway at emergency speed. Were we glad that we had the seat belt on! We almost crashed into a big truck! The police driver was going so fast, overtaking casually without indicating and as he tried to overtake a big truck, it too was trying to overtake a smaller truck ahead. Full breaks on, we were pulled forward bracing in anticipation of a collision!

Soon enough we got back on the road and the police in the passenger seat called out for the truck driver to pull over. We sat inside watching the poor truck driver getting told off by the police. We actually think it was the fault of the police for driving too fast but they obviously have the "authority" to tell other drivers off — even when they're wrong. Luckily the truck driver only got a warning, perhaps next time both he and the policeman will use the indicators and watch for blind spots.

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