Day 49 May 28 Mon - Shanshan to Turpan

Many of these cage-like air ventilated for drying the grapes into resin
Sand mountain views on downhill slope to Turpan
Oasis of greenery and stream flowing
Statue of Sun Wukong at the entrance with Flaming mountain at the background
There are few caves at the far end where we saw round openings like doors

Watermelon stop, ohmmm... so nice so cool when you riding under hot sun at temp 42 C
Now I know how many kilo I lost after 49 days of hard pedalling 4 kilo but 70 kilo I am still overweight according to my BMI.
Road side watermelon around 5 rmb each taste no different from Malaysia
Great temptation to fall asleep after we finished the whole watermelon under nice "bed"
Muslim architectures are commonly seen in Xinjiang

Guesthouse entrance in Shanshan
Our 20 rmb each room in Shanshan
Chicken drumstick and BBQ lamb sticks with roti nan

Today's Distance: 97km
Today's Temp: 30 -42 degree C
Average Speed: 17.3 max:51.0
Time on Bike: 5 hr36 min

Ave climb: 1% max: 6%
Trip altitude: 236m max: 498m
Today's spending: 45.0 rmb
Total Distance to date: 3486 km
Total spending to date:3211.0 rmb

The journey to Turpan the hottest so far with midday temp recorded 42 C and known to

be the hottest spot in China . At 154 m below sea level in Lake Iding ,the 2nd lowest depression in the world (after Dead Sea ). The temp is believed to be above 50C in summer. Along the G312 road , as you descend, the sand mountain and the oasis green valley views is heartbreaking ,never seen before in my life . On a hot day like this ,we had eaten 2 watermelon kept cold in icebox and 3 bottles of cold soft drinks, plus 2 very nice cheap ice-creams. We also passed by a tourist spot in Flaming mountains where the popular Chinese novel "Journey to the West" Sun Wukong used a big magic fan to extinguish the braze to protect his master monk Tang Xuan Zang. Another tourist attraction is the Grape Valley but being not the harvest season in Sept , there is really no point to pay 40 rmb. Anyway we had seen many by the road sides. Turpan is apparently named as the Grape city in China. By 6.00pm we checked into a guesthouse for 20 rmb each . Dinner we have Lok-Lok ,not dipping in hot water but everything went in a tank of hot boiling oil under deep fried .