Abandoned

In 1998 I bicycled from Shanghai to Kashgar via Beijing. A trip of some 6,000 kilometers over the spand of six and a half months. About a third of that distance skirted the edge of the Taklamakan desert, a vast expanse of sand second in size only to the Sahara. I didn’t see much of the sand, but plenty of the high desert wasteland which surrounds it.

This highway roughly followed one of the ancient Silk Road routes.

I saw many a strange sights in China. Few stranger than the occasional lone individual standing along a desert roadside hundreds of kilometers away from anywhere. No bags. No hat. Just standing there. Patiently. Waiting for . . . I will never know what.

Several times, there was no building or other road to be seen. Just the highway and one puzzled face, watching as a Western mountain bike, towing a fully loaded trailer, cycled by, its rider looking back with an equally puzzled face.