Today’s distance / ???????: 68 miles / 109km
Average speed / ????: 11.7mph / 18.8km/h
Time on skateboard / ????: 5h 48m
Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 5690mi plus 377mi (?) / 9158km plus 606km (?)
Ascent / ??: 155m
Descent / ??: 895m
End-of-day GPS coordinates: N36° 37′ 19.60″, E101° 47′ 02.60″
Scorching day. 109km. Beautiful. As I was lying in bed at 7am this morning, I was thinking that so long as I had a tailwind and downhill all day today, I’d be able to make it to Xining in one day. Downhill and tailwind it was! Awesome.
I left Xihai late. It was not until 10am that I got away. The attraction was this:
The 1st Research Base of Nuclear Weapons China Exhibition Hall. I was fascinated by this, and had to have a look. I waited until the 9am opening time. I got away with not paying the 25RMB entrance fee, and just as well, because everything was in Chinese. It was not all that great, but curious all the same. It seems that there is more to this litte mysterious town of Xihai than meets the eye.
I escaped without any radiation poisoning, and made my way east, downhill.
Short fruit stop in Haiyuan paid off with delicious peaches. Eaten with a spoon, because I can’t be bothered peeling them, and I don’t have any water to wash them with.
Stopped by a lake. Very nice.
Photo taken by passers by who had driven from Beijing to see Qinghai Lake. Took them 4 days of driving. I’ll take about two months to cover a similar distance.
Further down the road, I joined with China National Highway 109, the highway that goes all the way from Beijing to Lhasa (Tib*et). Anyone fancy skating that one? Someday perhaps…two 5,000m plus high passes, and many 4,000m plus passes…mmmmm.
After a while I got bored with the winding, twisting Highway 109, and snuck onto the new expressway. Straight and smooth, all the way down to Xining city, with an awesome tailwind.
Arriving in Xining at 4pm, I stopped in at an internet cafe and searched for a place to stay. I had heard that there were youth hostels here, and I soon found the Sunshine Pagoda International Youth Hostel. For 35RMB (3.5 Euro) for a dorm bed, I couldn’t go wrong. Nice place with lovely staff.