Heavy Air is Good For You

Right? Because after all, we just can’t guarantee getting all the minerals, chemicals and various substances we need from our diet. And we can’t just add these things to water, like fluoride, when you are in a town where most people drink bottled or boiled water. No, no, the provincial government in Gansu is far smarter than that – they have come up with an innovative air distribution network for these vital nutrients. OK, OK, it does make it a bit difficult to see more than 200m, and some people think that Lanzhou has the worst air pollution in the world, but they are just lack the true vision of the future that China is trying to realise. Not to mention the side benefits – no need to buy sunglasses or sunscreen, even on a cloudless day, the “heavy air” is filtering out those harmful UV rays. And of course I don’t need to buy cigarettes any more, living here is like smoking a pack a day.

So here I am, relaxing in Lanzhou, one of the most polluted cities in the world. I presume it gets worse in the next month or two, as vast amounts of coal get burnt, to provide heating. Speaking of coal, I’m starting to see more coal trucks on the road, but nothing like what is coming up, based on others’ accounts. The thing that I don’t get though is that I’ve seen fully laden coal trucks going in both directions on the roads. Some sort of market failure happening there, surely.

Fairly good time riding here from Jiayuguan, 5 days on the bike, no more monster days, but some up near the 200km mark. Back in the hills too – a couple of big long slow climbs. Of more concern was a freezing cold day of rain. It was the first day out of Jiayuguan, and I didn’t realise it was going to be so bad when I got up. Started out cold, then after a little while rain started coming down, and just kept coming. If I’d known it was going to be like that, I would have stayed in bed. They wouldn’t let me onto the expressway – shocking that, surely those no biking signs only apply to locals, not laowai? – and so I had to stay on the old road. A couple of days later, the old road disappeared, so I jumped through the gap, and back onto my preferred position riding along the “Urgent Lane” of the smooth expressway.

It wasn’t too bad, but the surface is not so clean, with more glass and sharp objects around. I’m running very slick Maxxis tyres now, much faster than my XRs, but not nearly as robust. So of course I got a puncture. Problem was, since I don’t have full finger gloves anymore, my fingers were frozen and didn’t work properly. I found a bit of shelter in front of a service station in the middle of nowhere, and started trying to sort out my puncture. It took me about five minutes just to remove one fingerless glove. I was really starting to wonder what the hell I was doing there, and why I didn’t just go and find a hotel, then get a train to Lanzhou. But then the girl working at the service station came out, and said, in English, “Can I help you?” She invited me inside, to the warmth, where I could thaw out a bit, and sort out my tyre. There was one other staff member there, sound asleep on the couch – nothing unusual there. I was left in peace, no hassles, just warmth. Rather different to other times when you get crowds gathering to watch you do the most mundane tasks.

Later on, the weather eased up a bit, the rain stopped, the road was downhill, and the wind stayed at my back. Considering I stopped twice for punctures, I still quite easily did 175km. Some more good days after that, but had a few issues. One pump had been playing up for a while, and I’d gotten a new one. The new one didn’t want to come off the valve, and I delivered it a swift kick…resulting in two half-broken pumps. Neither entirely useless, but I couldn’t get my tyres above 40psi, meaning I was having to work harder than I needed to for the next few days, until I could get to here. I have since purchased a new main pump, and a basic, small lightweight backup.

A few interesting places along the way – obviously I was visiting places that very few tourists go to – but clearly almost every tourist that does visit is on a bike. You know that, because looking on your map, it’s the obvious only place for a cyclist to stay in the area – and then when you turn up, they don’t even blink at the bike, and help you get it up the stairs, and put it in your room. Always the best option if you can get away with it, but some hotels don’t like it. Generally the cheaper places are OK with it – not usually carpeted – but then the rooms can be small, making it a bit crowded. For a different storage location, at the enormous hotel I’m staying at in Lanzhou, it’s in the gatehouse, in the guard’s bedroom.

I’ve posted my tent and Thermarest ahead to Darwin. Camping is difficult from here on, and there are many cheap places to stay. This drops a few more kilos from the bike. I could maybe have changed to just all my gear on the back of the bike, saving some more weight, but decided to stick with four panniers, so that the weight is distributed more evenly. I’ve now dropped a few kilos from my gear over the last few weeks, which should make it just that bit easier getting up some of those big climbs. Just checked my body weight today – 78kg – which is only a little bit down from my starting weight of a little over 80kg. Certainly not dropping weight like Jan has been – he’s dropped probably more than my whole luggage weight! But I think I’d be looking pretty unhealthy.

Off to the visa office yesterday, to try and get an extension. Remarkably helpful, very polite, no queues or fuss, excellent English spoken, some of them must have lived overseas. They said I could have gotten an urgent same-day service, but I was planning on being here until Tuesday anyway, so I said no problem, will pick it up on Monday. Fingers crossed of course, but it looks good. A little bit concerned about hotels being full for the first week of October (national holiday week), so have already booked my hostel for Xi’an. It may be the first time I’ve booked a place in advance for this whole trip. Problem is that it means I must leave on Tuesday, and I must do several big days to get there in four days. But I’m feeling up to it. Ate some dodgy street food last night, which came back up in the middle of the night, but that seemed to be it – once it was gone in the first go, my body just returned to normal, and I’m eating well again. Have eaten plenty of food from little carts on the side of the road, not normally a problem when lots of other locals are doing the same.

A bit more mucking around here for the next couple of days. General relaxing, maybe a bit of sightseeing. Apparently the museum is good. Has surprised me a little, this place – it doesn’t really get many tourists, yet I’ve run into many local people who speak English. This is quite a change from most of the places I’ve been to. Thankfully I haven’t had any requests to look at my pianist yet – read Jan’s blog to understand what I mean.