As soon as we entered China, there was a sense of order. The roads are excellent. The extensive police state that exists in Xinjiang, with constant time-consuming checkpoints and all kinds of surveillance technology, made this part of the trip unpleasant and tedious. Anyone who thinks international criticism of China's treatment of the local Muslim population is going to make any difference whatsoever is fooling himself.

Old town Kashgar, an old Silk Road trading stop, was beautifully restored and a pleasure to visit. We also toured Islamic and Buddhist religious sites, rafted down the Yellow River in Lanzhou, and saw the terra-cotta warriors in Xi'an.

Once again an AMAZING trip with Helge. We had a great group, lots of hilarious fun over dinners, and saw and learned so much that it will take me a while to digest it all. I'm glad I have my photos for that!

The last part of this ride had one very enlightening aspect. We visited countries where the people were pleased to have a controlling government that kept peace and prosperity even though they had less freedom. Many conversations with individuals about their government were positive and supportive of the people in charge of their countries as they would tell us the alternative could be worse. They felt having someone keeping control was good as long as the economy was fine and people had enough to eat and were prospering. If things became bad, then people would not be pleased and uprising may happen. This was a perspective that I had not considered. They questioned why we would want the uncertainty of changing leadership every 4 to 8 years because with that is the possibility of having a bad "ruler".

A majority of the people I spoke with said that they would like to be able to travel more in the west if they had the permission and the financial ability. We in the US take it for granted that we have the permission to travel. It also seemed to me that the more oppressive the country or province the more the people seemed to want the opportunity to get away which is definitely understandable.

Traveling through ten countries in 60 days was a whirlwind. For myself, each day was made all the more memorable by sharing the experience with the other riders in the group. Their unique personalities and perspectives on what they saw and heard during the ride added an element that cannot happen traveling solo and I so much enjoyed the conversations that happened at meals or over a beer or during a bus ride or on a tour.

This ride had a few milestones: four birthdays happened (Neil, Lisa, Rob and Zoe), one of the oldest riders (Neil) in the history of Helge's 20 year old company and the youngest participant (Zoe at 20 who turned 21 on the last day of the ride). It was special to be able to share these personal events while on the ride.

Having the ability to move "like water" along the Silk Road with such a group of fine people was the icing on the cake of an unforgettable two wheeled adventure.

We handed over our smartphones at the border for inspection by Customs/Police and that was just the welcome song to China. We had arrived in the remote Autonomous Region of Xinjiang.

To get a better understanding of what is going on in this part of China I suggest that you take the time to visit the following links.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/02/technology/china-xinjiang-app.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/02/chinese-border-guards-surveillance-app-tourists-phones

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?i=1000443745793

To be fair I'd like to quote a reader’s comment on the New York Times article demonstrating that China is not alone entering your personal space when asking for permission to enter their country and I quote from a man from Jamaica: “The US Embassy is demanding access to the cell phones of applicants for visitors visas. They demand passwords to your social media accounts and no one knows for sure what other data is accessed when your phone is in their custody. Like China the rationale is national security and the fight against terrorism, but who knows, worse yet they get access to your private data and you may not get the visa.”

We were the lucky ones as we could leave Xinjiang and look back at having ridden our motorcycles through the most surveilled place anywhere on earth. It was a stressful experience with daily police checks that could take an hour or two each. Passports were photographed, mugshot of our tired faces were taken at check points and even at reception on arrival at our destination hotels we had to pose for mugshots. This was not a one-time deal and you were entered in to the “system”, no, we had to repeat this at every check point, totally ridiculous.

At one hotel we were even told to stay indoors and not allowed to leave the hotel property. Another day we were escorted by police the last leg in to our hotel as we entered a large city. This was for our safety we were told, and they did not follow the GPS suggested route we had taken 4 years prior.

Gasoline stations were fenced off with barbed-wire like a fortress would require. Armed guards manned the entrance and exit gates. We got stuck many a time ahead of these gates as we were never given the special ID card that let us pass through the gate. At so many checkpoints it was all based on facial recognition technology. Telephone calls were made, and police called before we were granted access to fill our tanks. Usually we were told to push the bikes through the gates to the pump or we had to pick up gasoline in large cans looking like gigantic tea kettles. One place there was even a special fenced in cage where the bike had to be pushed in and you would leave before an attendant could fill the gasoline tank with a large can. Pretty extreme way of handling a gasoline stop.

This was not the China I had experienced on so many other rides to China dating back to 1996. Last time I did the Silk Road Adventure was 4 years prior in 2015 and we had no issues like this year.

Leaving Xinjiang the police stops and barbed-wire fenced gasoline stations were gone and we could finally start to relax and enjoy the ride.

Unfortunately, these first days in China will sit with us for a long time and our thoughts will go to all the people that have to live and adapt to these conditions to secure their own survival. We met many wonderful people, but every time we tried to talk about the security issues we were met with silence, very sad indeed.