06-Jul-2015 -- This is the first out of 17 reports of confluence visits while cycling from Kashgar (喀什) to Xī'ān (西安). I cycled through the Chinese provinces of Xīnjiāng, Qīnghǎi, Gānsù, and Shǎnxī, 3600 km in 25 days.
From my home in Zurich, I flew via Helsinki, Beijing, Ürümqi to Kashgar, arriving in Kashgar in the afternoon before confluence day. I managed to buy a touring bicycle in the evening. The next morning, I intended to visit this confluence point as a warm-up during my way south-east to Hétián (Hotan). The confluence is located in the desert, but not far from irrigated plantations. The plantations can be accessed by tracks from the road that runs between Ākètáo (Akto) and Yīngjíshā (Yengisar) in 7 km distance.
However, before even reaching Ākètáo, I was stopped at a police check point. It took 45 minutes until I got my permission to continue cycling into town. Unfortunately, the permission was given only orally, such that I had no evidence with me. In town, I was stopped and interrogated another 2 times! And when I just left Ākètáo, I was stopped again. This time, they decided to guide me by car. And I was not allowed to leave the main road. When I asked if I could go to the place of the confluence, they rejected my proposal. But they immediately got suspicious asking me repeatedly whom I know there. And I repeatedly answered that I just had pointed randomly on the map. So, I had no chance to visit this confluence point. I couldn’t even take pictures at the nearest point.
In Yīngjíshā the police controls continued, they even got worse. In the evening, I decided to leave the area the following day by bus and try my luck further east.
CP Visit Details:
- Distance to the road: 9.6 km
- Distance of bicycle parking: 9.6 km
- Time at nearest point to the CP: 11:15 AM
- Given Name: The Police Guidance Confluence
The story continues at 37°N 80°E.