Off to the land of superlatives, contrasts and surprises

(Photos of the diary entry can be found at the end of the text).

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Now the stay in Erenhot has become longer than planned. Our trailer drawbar has still not arrived. Spring told me in the last phone call that she was mistakenly sent to the city of Baotou and then redirected to Erenhot. Although we waited until today, she hasn’t turned up yet, which is why we decided to set off yesterday anyway. Even if the weather is sometimes beautiful and warm, Mother Nature shows us on some days what sharp teeth she has. Yesterday, a sandstorm with wind speeds of between 60 km/h and 70 km/h (wind force 8) swept through the streets of Erenhot. The fountains of dust and sand were impressive to say the least. After that, the temperature plummeted to minus 2 °C at night and the receptionist at our hotel said that snow would be coming soon. Brrrrrr, let’s get out of here. We can now only hope that the drawbar will continue to hold out, at least until the next larger town. If she hasn’t gotten lost in this insanely large country, Spring wants to have her sent there. Let’s see if that works. If not, we will have to have the important part sent to us again from Germany.

Riese und Müller actually managed to send us ten replacement shells and twelve inner tubes. It was an expensive undertaking and required a great deal of effort. We were all the happier when the courier delivered two large parcels to our hotel a few days ago. Fantastic! After I’ve put the new tires and tubes on the rims, I head off to find a tire patcher who repairs tires in a small wooden hut on the side of the road. When I give him our coats and hoses, which are still in good condition, he can’t believe what’s happening to him. Then he shakes my hand very gratefully and we wish each other a good day.

Because of the many spare coats, which are not available to buy in China due to the special size, our luggage is now even heavier than before. Nevertheless, we are looking forward to finally setting off for China, about which so much is said, reported and sometimes even fabricated in the western world. We are curious to explore a country that will surely surprise us with its strange, highly modern, hopefully a touch of the past, its history and amazing contrasts. A country that is 27 times larger than Germany and, at 9.5 million square kilometers, is about as big as the United States or all of Europe up to the Urals. And this only includes the area of mainland China, as the Middle Kingdom also has 4.73 million square kilometers of territorial waters and 5,400 islands. China is the fourth largest country in the world in terms of area after Russia, Canada and the United States. The People’s Republic of China borders 14 countries and, together with Russia, has the most neighboring countries in the world. It is undoubtedly a country of superlatives whose dimensions, in every respect, are so enormous that I find it difficult to comprehend them. The north-south extension alone is 4,500 kilometers and from east to west it is 4,200 kilometers. Even the highest mountain on earth, Mount Everest with its 8,848 meters, whose southern slope belongs to Nepal and the northern slope to Tibet, which is annexed by China, is located in China.

But the superlative figures are not only to be seen in areas, heights and sizes, but above all in the number of inhabitants. No other country in the world has experienced such enormous population growth. In 1740 there were around 143 million inhabitants and in 1750 there were already 430 million. 200 years later, in 1950, the population had risen to only around 554 million and today, just 65 years later, the figure has almost tripled to almost 1.4 billion. Despite the one-child policy, the population is growing annually by the number of inhabitants of Austria, i.e. by around eight million people, and if the UN forecasts are to be trusted, the population will rise to 1.5 billion in the coming years, only to decline continuously from 2050 onwards. According to forecasts, China will have less than one billion inhabitants in 2100. Although these speculations make me feel confident and one might think that our Mother Earth is taking a breather, population growth will continue to increase rapidly in the developing countries until the year 2100. According to forecasts by some UN researchers, 9.6 to 12.3 billion people will then have to share our beautiful blue planet.

But back to our trip. As the population density, industrialization and air pollution are highest in the east of China, we decided to cycle to the much emptier and, for us, more interesting west. We will certainly encounter the foothills of the high mountains in the far west and therefore have to cross mountainous terrain. Although it will be very cold in this region, we are hoping for little rainfall due to the continental climate, but strong winds in places. We will see. From the town of Bayanur, we head downwards on the map, always heading south, until we reach the Vietnamese border. We can hardly wait to see what awaits us on the next 7,000 kilometers of cycling through the provinces of Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangxi…

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