China: 5 Rozzers are after us and we don’t know where we are

5 Rozzers are after us and we don’t know where we are...

We started on our quest to get into China at 8am when the border opened. We had valid Visas and all the necessary stamps having made a detour to Almaty Kazakhstan earlier. 

The exit from Kazakhstan border post is 147 km from the Chinese entry border where you finally receive your entry stamp. Between the two we had to get a taxi and had a total of nine separate groups of army and police each of which had a separate process, each scanning and photographing the key pages + visa of our passports and scanning faces, fingers, thumbs and two completely separate X Ray machine episodes and a full 3D body scanner and take everything out episodes followed by our phones and laptops being taken away with all access passwords provided for we found out later preventing internet access and downloading details from them to their servers. The phones were effectively useless now on WiFi.

Taxi across the border waiting for 2 hours for 'lunch break' about 50 miles into the boarder crossing 

Amazing sights in 'no mans land' between the boarder crossing

Wow that’s exciting, cycling in China’!! But it was 4:30 pm and with over 100km to cycle to Kashgar we decided to stay in the weird border town village of Ulugqat.

Hotel scanner, much tamer than the boarder ones and we could film this one, yes the bike did bleep!

We once again got x rayed and swiped down and passports taken away in the foreign hotel, the only one that would take us. We did however have the best meal out we have had yet. The restaurant with all the locals in it! We had no chance with the menu and google translate was not working, surprise surprise, so we just made eating jesters and pointed to other people’s food and ended up with the best meal so far.  The cleanliness rating being the only thing understandable in the restaurant, smiley face wise, and they had the worst score!! Red sad face!!

Thats the menu!! 

and the smiley face hygiene rating (red face)

The Chase

The old road was being repaired and was shut so we hit the highway hard shoulder as the only other way to Kashgar we could see. 

After the 2nd Police checkpoint and collaborative chat with translation tools and six police officers of differing rank we were politely informed that the smaller road would be safer for us so we were to be escorted to that road. They wanted to put our bikes in their truck but we refused asking if we could just follow their truck.

After some negotiations they agreed and we set off. 

A local eager to be photographed, but refused to smile to the camera!

However when we stopped for lunch another police car had spotted us and as we were eating lunch a group of another 5 officers came into the restaurant with machine guns and asked to see passports and visas and with much tut tut tut ing more scans of passports questions and they took photos of us eating. 

All ok until we left the restaurant and they were in their police car waiting for us. 

The police didn't want to be photographed so this will have to do

From there we were followed by a series of police cars (5) all the way to the Kashgar checkpoint, about 50 miles, which proved useful for directions at least. At that point we were handed over to their city forces. It’s pretty weird being followed by police with their lights flashing all that way at bike speed. We were a bit conspicuous.

Heading into Kashgar on the road for bikes and mopeds the traffic was getting busier by the mile until we joined the scrum at the lights and crossings for a who dares wins dodgems, actually quite fun. 

We got a local recommendation for a hostel which proved to be a good and cheep. 8 to a bedroom, one toilet and shower proved a bit of a challenge but not as much as the legendary Chinese snoring.

After a few days exploring Kashgar we set off on the KKH proper G314. All well till the first checkpoint 10 miles down the road where we were escorted for questioning. Eventually they got an English speaker on the phone who asked how many hours would it take to get to Tashkurgan, well that took us by surprise, it’s about 300 miles so 70 hours I guess. Pause then, well you need to plan your route very carefully and stay in the only tourist hotel on route, actually a Yurt, strictly no camping allowed. 

Of course as model citizens we made it to Tashkurgan.

One of the searches on the way a guard discovered Pedr’s leatherman bicycle repair tool. Knife, pliers and alan key set and tried very hard to confiscate it. We had other ideas, Pedr kicked up a big fuss saying it was the only toolset we had for the bikes and we needed it.

Eventually we got to keep it. Phew another close shave. 

Their face scan and passport checking software was either not conditioned to beards or to British features, I don’t know which, but we both kept failing the scan checks to the obvious frustration of the guards. 

One morning after a particularly big thunderstorm in the mountains. The whole Highway was blocked by a landslide. Two trucks were partially covered and completely stuck in mud and rocks. Glad we didn’t cycle through that one then.

Mushitagefeng (Mu shit age feng) on some maps) is an impressive 7500 meter peak which cleared its cloud cap to reveal beautiful glaciers feeding down to our road as we cycled around its base. What a beautiful way to spend my birthday. The tough climb to the 4000 meter pass being rewarded by not just the views but also a wonderful 30 mile cycle downhill to a Tashkurgan.

We had a few days to recover, there were no busses to Pakistan at the weekend, and Tashkurgan is the boarder town to Pakistan, even though it is 100 miles away from the actual boarder. The only way to cross  from here is by bus, we did try to fashion a way around by bike but it became clear that this was not going to work. 

Next stop Pakistan!