This was a fast drive today on the highway to Ürümqi, the capitol of the Xinjiang province, which is an Uyghur Autonomous Region, with a higher security protocol. Had one more security checkpoint on the highway, but again, all quick, a face photo (with helmet) and a photo of my passport and it was done. I started a bit after 9:00 but the temperature was already at 38°C. There is a reason why the Chinese call Turpan the ‘hot pole ‘ of China. Yesterday afternoon, while I was walking through the ruins, the temperature was 45°C, however, as it is bone dry, it feels more like 30 in Thailand which is considered as not too bad.
Going up north to Ürümqi, means also you ate peeling off the traditional ancient silk road, which is following the line between the TianShan mountains and the Taklamakan desert until it reaches Kashgar, the other major silk road town where central Asia starts. Instead, I went North, following in some ways the modern Silk Road highway with the trucks lining up to get to Khorgos at the border to Kazakhstan, which has quickly become the main port between China and every other nation, region and continent to the west. Literally, the 49 t trucks are driving the goods all the way from the industrial zones in eastern China to Kazakhstan, which is now the part of the main artery or Chinese goods to any country in Central Asia all the way to eastern Europe. I’m sure, the goods get repacked and redistributed across other trucks and trains until they are reaching the destination in Russian, Poland, Georgia and further into Europe. The ratio of trucks to limousine cars is maybe 30 to one. There was also no other motorcycle on the road I saw, except one Chinese Bike in the other directions. I guess, except for the new Autobahns, there are not so many other paved roads here in the TianShan mountains. Will see how it will be further up towards the next two towns, before I’m arriving in Khorgos.
On the other topic I described yesterday, the massive gigantic fields of wind turbines, this was all topped by a factor of 10 or even 100 today. More or less, I drove for over three hours along one wind turbine Forrest after the other as far the eye could see. When I was guessing there had been 1,000 turbines, today we talked about 100,000 turbines if not more and most of them were turning.
I was thinking about, what great news this must be for Americans, as solid research by the US administration described the fraud of wind turbine Installation and it’s money loosing effect to the economy, when clear proof was presented that only oil, American oil, is the profitable energy in the future and with every turn of the rotors the Chinese economy must loose a lot of money.
But what do I know about wind and Solar Energy and the economics behind.
It also means, I’m having only videos from my helmet camera of the flat desert, the flat straight highway, the wind parks and the journey through the canyons of the TianShan Mountains. No Photos for today, at least for now, let’s see what I can find for dinner, as I’m staying in a nice new hotel, which is located in a new highrise apartment block township outside the main town and I’m not sure I’m keen to get back on the bike to find some dinner. Let’s see what the neighbourhood has to offer, the people in those apartment blocks must also eat somewhere.
Had a nice dinner next to the hotel in a friendly Restaurant who even ask for a picture together at the end. Seems western foreigners are still a curiosity here.
In the meantime, the motorcycles at the hotel multiplied. First time I see such a number of big bikes in Thailand.
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