Yiangji

Apart from forgetting to give our room key back to the hotel manager when we left, we had a great start to the day. We rose at 5.00 (3.00 local time) and were on the road by 5.50. By 8.00 we had clicked off 40 kms and by 11.00 we were on the outskirts of Yiangji with 86 kms behind us and the day only just starting to heat up. 

We stopped long enough for me to scoff down a bowl of noodles, Neil was still not well so skipped lunch, then headed into town to find a hotel. 

Yiangji in 1988 had been a tiny town and it was the spot we were arrested and spent 4 days with the police while we negotiated a 'fine' to be released. Today though Yiangji is a large modern Chinese city (still with a Uighur heart to it) with wide roads, apartment blocks and department stores. 

After checking in to a pretty decent hotel ($A 8 per night each) we headed back out and had not gone far before we were again stopped by the police. Instead of over zealous young men this time though we had a couple of very friendly women officers to deal with. Because we were on our bikes they made us follow them while they drove a few blocks to the main police station from where, after the usual explaining about what we were up to, they lead us back to where they thought we were staying - it was the wrong hotel but a nice detour anyway. 

Our hotel was Chinese run and had a large restaurant on the ground floor so, feeling like a change from mutton and noodles, we decided to eat there in the evening. As we ate, the owner's younger daughter came over to join us and very politely asked if she could sit down. She welcomed us to Yiangji and her father's hotel. 

Chinese are normally restricted to 1 child and ethnic minorities 2 but if you can afford the financial penalties involved, Chinese can have more than 1 child and our hotel owner had 3 - 1 boy and 2 girls. Rui was 14 and spoke pretty good English. It turns out her elder sister is studying English in Auckland at the moment (sent by her company) and in all likelihood Neil is her teacher. Most foreign students studying English in NZ end up at Auckland University where Neil has several hundred students. It will be an interesting coincidence if Rui's sister turns out to be one of them. 

We ate well and had a few beers as well as took a few photos together with Rui and her dad. At the end of the evening Rui gave us a beautiful coffee table book of Xinjiang which was full of amazing photos of places we have yet to see. Dinner was on the house when we eventually got up to leave. When breakfast was again on the house the next morning we resolved not to eat at the hotel restaurant again for fear of creating an expectation of free meals and causing embarrassment.