Day 52 May 31 Thu - Da Bancheng - Urumqi

Today's Distance:95.0km
Today's Temp:25C - 39C
Average Speed:14.6 max: 39.0
Time on Bike:6 hr 39 min
Ave climb:2% max:23%
Trip altitude:304m max: 1182m
Today's spending:78.5 rmb
Total Distance to date:3688 km
Total spending to date:3358.50 rmb

Da Bancheng good-bye! This town brought back my old memory about a childhood song " a love story of a man on a donkey cart". The song goes like this: Dabancheng's rock is hard & flat ya...
Watermelons ya..big and sweat ya...
There is a beautiful girl,with two long tied hairs
and two beautiful big eyes...
If you want to marry someone,don't marry others but me....
Brigs along all your marriage stuffs and your younger sister
Follow me on my donkey cart....
Thats the end of the song,I am sure some of you also remember this song,right? Well back on the journey,Our target today is Urumqi which is 95km. We prefered to follow G312 old road instead of going back to the highway. The reasons being there are 3 towns that we'll pass by according to the map:YuanHu,Zaiwopu and Huafeizang,that means we can have frequent food/drinks stop.We passed by the "Dead Sea of China" YuanHu or Salt Lake in English but the entrance fee is too expensive for 45 rmb.Another reason is Heather needs to rush to Urumqi to sort out her visas for China and Kazakhstan.By 5pm we finally rode in to Urumqi,the traffic is very heavy with trucks dominating a narrow road.The dust is flying around.This time Heather wanted to make sure no "kickouts" so we checked into a "grand hotel" called Sailimu for 168 rmb. Urumqi is the capital of Xinjiang and is surrounded by mountains.