THE site of many mountaineering expeditions — the 25,000 ft.
ground. Photograph was taken in China's Taklamakan Desert.

ADVENTURE

A road less travelled

Retracing the ancient Silk Road through Central Asia by mountain bike

Brady Fotheringham
Contributing Writer

NOTHING se spurs a man upon a journey as the cautions of his friends:
“dangerous,” “impossible,” “when you get there there’s nothing worth
seeing,” and the like. All show plainly that the thing is worth the venture.

So T found myself standing in Tiananmen Square facing the wails of Beijing’s Forbidden
City, as Mao’s portrait stared ominously down on passers-by. Nine months of planning had
brought me to the ancient Middle
Kingdom, whose history of concubines,
foo-binding, gossiping mandarins and
massacres past lingered on.

Everywhere billboards proclaimed “Visit
China in °97 —- experience our one gov-
ernment, two systems,” China was brac-
ing for change bur didn’: know how sr
in which direction to turn. [ had arrived
10 days after che return of Hong Kong
as the last vestige of Pax Britannica disap-
peared into the bowels of die world’s
oldest civilization.

About to embark upon a 3000-mile
across Chinese Central Asia and Pakis

I would retrace the ancient Silk Road
route by mountain bike.

My legs took me across four nations, nwo
deserts and five mouniain ranges, includ-
ing the Himalaya. I travelled through
war-torn Afghanistan, got arrested three
times, dined with Pakistani royaity, dis-
cussed the finer aspects of Afghan
hashish with local police and visited the
Indian subcontinent.

Leaving Beijing on a hair-raising flight to
Urumai that would make a Valium-
addict out of anyone, I landed in the
Muslim province of ng. Centered
in Chinese Turkestan, Xinjiang is
enveloped by the Tien Shan mountains
to the north and the great Faklamakan
to the south. This 1000-mile extension
of the Gobi with 300-foot-high sand
dunes has rarely been traversed success-
fully. Skelecons litter parts of its arid
basin, lending credence to its name,
which means if you go in you don’t
come out.

Heading towards the fabled ancient city
of Kashgar, I cycled with ovo British mates through casis towns with names like Korla, Aksu
and Yangi. Many had little more than roadside stalls selling metions, mutton kebabs, nan
(bread) and an orange drink calied Jin Li Bao. I camped in the desert, along river beds, on a
33,600-foor glacier and at the base of the 25,000-foot peak Muztagh Ata under a full moon.

Many of the oases from the Silk Road days have since disappeared in the sand, although
some Buddhist art has survived the centuries of plundering in areas like Dunhuang. Pillaged
by the likes of Alexander the Great, Marco Polo, Genghis Khan, the Huns, Parthians,
Mongols and Romans, East and West were brought together through trading. ‘They would
ride great camel caravans for months bringing wool, ivory, glass and amber to the Orient. In

FOTHERINGHAM cycling alone on the
Karakoram Highway from China to
Pakistan (near the Kryghizstan/China
border) in August 1997.

Muztagh Ata Mountain with yaks in the fore-

return figs, spices, wal-
nuts and sitk (which the
Romans thought grew
on wees), flowed west to
the Mediterranean.

Although largely a
trucking route now, the
Silk Road still retains
many of the mystical and
romantic trappings of
centuries past. Camels
still graze by the road
while Kazakh herdsmen
tend their sheep. Tajik
vurts covered in cotton
quilts built with wooden
lartice panels dor moun-
tains and valle
sll throw rocks and
dogs larger than wolves
called Kurt- Kopegis
chase you as though
you're their take-out
dinner.

Whether drinking
chai alongside groovy old men with funky beards or cycling the Grand Trunk Road of
Kipling fame in 115 F heat, kept one cule in mind throughout my tip — do nor judge. |
had come to step back ia history and other cuicures, sample celeetic cuisines and meet the
world’s children. i had just begun.

— Brady Fotheringham is a West Vancouver writer. This is the first in a series of instalments
documenting bis trip via bievele shrough Asia.

Photos Brady Fotheringham

WELCOME Hong Kong T-shirts emblazoned on.
Kryghiz children outside desert town of Upaer, China.

A yurt, the home of Kryghiz nomads, near Kara Ku!
Lakes, China.