Xiheying - Guangling; Truckers Highway

Xiheying

The day of 1,000 trucks. The morning was spent climbing to 1,200m with an almost continuous stream of trucks passing us in each direction. One attempt was made to hop onto a smaller side road, but after 5km of rough riding we decided to battle it out with the trucks again. The day ended with a nice drop of around 200m to settle in to the bustling village of Xiheying and a gorging on deep fried street food.

X457 road

Guangling

Morning rush in Xiheying

Coal truck madness

The day of 1,000 coal trucks. Travelling in both directions, blindly reversing in and out of side streets, trying to pass each other whenever there was the smallest of gaps and all the while we were squeezed to the side of the blackened road. Loose. Our faces were blackened, and perhaps even our lungs. Our foray onto a side road was once again thwarted when 2km down the road we found the road being ripped up by machinery and a group of men signalling that we could not pass. 5km back down the highway we made another attempt to get away from the trucks, only to realise that it was true, the 20km of side road had been totally ripped up for... well we’re not really sure, so alas, back to the trucks we went.

Attempting to get away from the trucks 

After finding a hotel, we set off for the police station to once again register. After 30 minutes of confusion in the station we were finally told to go back to our hotel. Upon arrival we were called over to the reception and directed to fill in the online police register – in Chinese. After 20 minutes, and the very helpful use of Google Translate, we hit part of the form that we didn’t understand so were sent on our way back to our rooms. After an hour a knock at the door saw three policemen and three hotel staff huddled around our door to take photos of our passports, find out where we had come from, and then just as quickly leave. It’s no wonder so many hotels in China don’t want foreigners when it is so difficult for them to find out how to register us. Luckily, there were not hard feelings, and another round of get-photos-with-the-tourists ensued.