Wrong Route to a Random Ancient Chinese Town S8 EP.65 | Pakistan to Japan Motorcycle Tour
We are passing through a small village and you can see that it is very well organized. Typical architecture of China. I think this is a ghost town.
Check out this city. It is completely closed. Only a couple of shops. Assalam Alekum Everyone and welcome back to the channel from Beijing. As you can see, we are ready with our motorcycles. We are leaving Beijing for our next destination.
Today we will leave Beijing and go to the west. We will visit a very historical town of Yixuan, which is about 225 km from here. And we will continue our journey like this.
You can say that today's ride will take 5 to 6 hours. Because all the travel we have done before was mostly on the highway. And you know that the highways are boring. You don't get to see anything special. So we have planned to leave the highway now. Because you need 2 to 3 days in China to understand China.
People, roads, culture, how people ride on the roads here. So that you get an idea. And now we will go out of our comfort zone and ride on the national highways here. And we will try to enjoy the beauty of China and move on. So let's leave here. I'll be making a stop on the way.
Yesterday I met Mr. Muhammad Ayyub from Pakistan. I'll have breakfast with him. Everyone else will probably go on. I will join them later.
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Prayer for the journey May Allah make this day a blessed one. It's a long ride and we will take the national roads for the first time.
Let's go Rangeeli. All your problems have now been fixed. Now, full support is expected from you for the rest of this tour.
Overall, so far, everything is going well. There were some petrol issues at some places. The sensors are broken.
It has been a rough and tough tour so far. Today, we are mostly going on our own, taking any route of our choice. We just have to stay in contact with the tour guide. We know about our final destination; the hotel or camping ground. So we'll get there.
Motorcyclists in our group are not doing camping. Mostly the guys in their camper vans. It is more comfortable for them. They can park their car there and stay for the night.
People don't leave their mobile phones. One hand is on the handle and the other is on the phone. And all of that while being in the middle of the road. Navigation is taking us through small alleys of Beijing.
But even here, you can see beautiful roads. Clean roads. Out of all the countries that I have visited, there are just a few that are not clean. I don't want to take any names. You know better. From Africa to South America.
Wherever I have been, even Central Asia. Those are just three or four countries. I think all the cafes are here. We have taken breakfast. Coffee. Muhammad Ayub has a tuna sandwich and some bread.
You have been waiting for almost an hour. Right? That's right. He has been waiting for an hour but he didn't find any cafe. He was just standing outside. He gave me the address of a cafe that was in the mall.
There was no place to sit there. So we took the coffee and came out. Starbucks is in front of us. But we are not going there. We will sit here and have breakfast on the bench.
Then we will leave from here. I was hoping I could have a proper breakfast with Abrar. But he doesn't have time. I told you that it gets very difficult in the morning.
I slept at 2 o'clock in the night. Couldn't get up timely in the morning. Let's have breakfast and then leave. I got some dollars exchanged to Chinese currency. I got 100 yuan notes. Pictures of Mao Zedong are printed on them.
These are 10 yuan notes. I think I am getting 7.5 yuan for 1 dollar. I asked her to transfer it in Alipay and she agreed. I waited there in front of the bank for half an hour. After that, she told me that I should have an account in the bank for Alipay. And I was like... you could have told that earlier.
Let's leave from here. Let's go. I think we have to turn from here. Absolutely. It is quite cloudy here. Let's see how it is on the way.
I think our signal is red. Can we go right? Let's go. He said we can go right. But we have to give way to the cyclists. I think this is the bus lane.
Better take the other lane. This is a car called Ark Fox. I have never seen it before. You will see a lot of different models of cars in China.
It's a very big city. We were not even in the middle of the city. You can say that we had booked a hotel on this same side of the city. If we had been in the center, it would have taken us an hour to reach the hotel from there. But it was a fun ride in the city and we have covered the right distance in the city. We didn't find any big traffic jam like this at all.
On our way, we have reached the University of Muhammad Ayub. It's a very big and beautiful university. What's the name of this place? North China Electric Power. And you are doing electrical engineering from here? Yes.
Last year? Yes. Let's turn back from here. It looked like a very big company from a distance. There are a lot of Pakistani students here.
Some of them are studying in Chinese and some in English. Those who are studying in English are paying fees. And those who are studying in Chinese are mostly in scholarships. And even they get a monthly stipend.
The expenses of living in a dormitory. They get food separately. The Chinese government supports them very well. I think it's a good opportunity to come here and study. And learn their language.
It's very important. If a person has done a degree from here and learned their language. It has a lot of advantages. If you are doing a job anywhere in the world. And you know Chinese language. I think it's a big advantage.
There is a lot of construction going on here. And from here we have to take the G6 side road. Looks like there has been an accident here. A motorcyclist has crashed into that car. We have almost reached Badaling.
This is the same place where we saw the China Wall. We have to go near it. It took us almost an hour to reach here. How many kilometers have we done? 25, 15, 40 kilometers in an hour.
I am thinking of refueling from here. And take a look at my route. We are going the right way. But I am always a bit cautious. That's why I am checking if to make sure we are on the right way.
We have to turn right from here. Now we have come out of Beijing. These are the outskirts areas. We have taken the national road from here. We have to continue on this road. Hope to see some interesting villages and spots along the way.
We don't have this F7 model in Pakistan. They have a lot of different models here. We only have two or three. You can see their fast train passing by. We won't get a chance to use their high speed trains in this tour.
I sometimes find train travel rather interesting. We are passing by a small village. You can see that it is very well organized.
So far, all the small and big villages I have seen here... There is a lot of infrastructure. But another important thing is that you see a lot of things by the roadside in our country. Some people park their vehicles by the roadside. Some people set up their roadside stall.
Because of this, the roads become narrower and cause traffic jams. That's not the case here. You can see the mountains in front of us.
They are slightly hidden in the clouds. It's fun to ride on such roads. Look at these beautiful trees.
And this highway right next to them. Although our speed here will be a little slow. But the scenery will be amazing. We will pass by such small and beautiful villages.
I find this architecture very unique and different. We haven't seen such houses in China yet. As we go from one province to another, the culture will also change. I think we'll see different parts of the Great Wall along the way.
I just saw a signpost here that it is 3 km ahead. I think the big buses are going that way. Look at the Great Wall of China on the right. I think we will pass through here. I think this is exactly the same place where we came a few days ago. The area we visited was a little ahead.
The Beijing Great Wall is the National Scenic Route. We came here unexpectedly. I didn't look at the map carefully. Because almost everything is in Chinese in the A-map that I am using.
Typical architecture of China. Look at the people standing on the Great Wall. I think as far as we are riding beside the sections of the wall, where tourists are coming, there will be a rush of buses. After that, it might get better.
They have so much local tourism, that all the places I have visited so far, you can say that 98% were local. At least as per my understanding. It's possible that some of them are from Southeast Asian countries. But it is difficult for me to differentiate between Chinese, Malaysian or from other countries. But there weren't too many Westerners fro sure.
I don't know where our navigation has changed the route. It has brought us from the other side, from where we didn't plan to go. There is a highway alongside another highway, which we needed to take; that's also a national highway. But it is going through the mountains.
It has brought us out of the mountains. Now we are going on the over-mountain route. We will meet again at some other point. I am a little angry at it. But what can we do? It has brought us from the same route we took to come here.
We didn't plan to go there. But it happens. They don't look around when they get on the road.
They just get on it. You are responsible for your own safety. This looks like a ghost town. There are a lot of ghost towns like this in China. During the property boom here, there was a lot of construction.
Then the value fell declined. Many of them were not even completed. It is apparent from their condition.
But I can't see much from outside. There is nothing special around. Such big buildings. It is normal to see such buildings in a city or a town. But there was nothing here.
Oh there is a lake on the right side. I couldn't see it because there is a lot of population. I mean it is surrounded by these buildings.
I was wondering that there is nothing here. Then why there are so many buildings here. Check out this city.
It is completely closed. Except for a few shops and a small kiosk. Everything else is closed.
And it seems like all the buildings here have been newly built. Today we have seen many places that were built to be cities or towns. But people did not come there.
Or their construction was not complete. And those who came, might have gone back. Or shifted to some other place. We are not finding any particular stop on the way. Where we can take a break to eat or drink something.
Or at least buy something. It seems like we are going to stop at the first supermarket we see. What a beautiful view.
The colors of the autumn. Golden. Red. It is the beauty of the countryside of China. I don't need petrol. He might need it though. This is a small supermarket.
Our ride so far has been great. How was yours? I am getting tired now. We have covered about 170 km. The ride was good. The scenery was good.
We passed through some ghost towns. I thought we would see some lively cities, towns and villages. But there was nothing like that.
But the countryside was beautiful. We stopped at a place, but did not find anything special. We had this tuna sandwich for breakfast. You can have one and I will have one.
There is no other option. We have not found anything yet. I guess we find something in the city now. This is banana bread.
I make tea every morning and keep it with me. Let me share some with you. I was telling him to go back. No point in getting himself tired.
But he wanted to keep going. You know, with Abrar, this is my first and last chance. We will get more chances.
You are on a long tour. I told him that I am not gonna miss this chance. Sure. Keep enjoying the ride. It is a tiring ride. I don't know about you but I am more tired. Because mine is a sports motorcycle.
I have gone on 2-3 long tours. But I am tired today. I'll go back by motorway and reach in just 2 hours.
We have made sure that he's warmed up now. I am ready now. I was actually shivering and couldn't control my body. Most of the riders I met in Pakistan, especially the new riders.
Or those who have small motorcycles. They don't carry proper equipment with them. The buff that I have given to Malik I told him to wear it on his way back.
I told him to cover his head and neck. Because you catch cold through this area. I told him to wear it.
Thank you so much Abrar. No problem. I don't need it as I have another 3-4 of these. So you can wear it. I am thinking of sending you back from the next turn.
We are almost there. So I'll drop you before I return. We have finally reached Yuxian at 4.30 pm. We have another 10 minutes ride to the hotel. I have been told that the hotel is right next to the ancient city. We can take a walk and visit the city.
This is the entrance of the city. There are huge buildings on this side. And similarly behind these small shops as well. It looks like we are entering a city. Mostly in Central Asian cities or villages or towns, there used to be gates like this.
Here, there are traditional Chinese style gates. It was a little different there. But almost everywhere, there were gates like this. So, welcome to Yuxian. This city has the vibes of a small city. It's a relaxed city.
There is no rush of traffic. It's peaceful. There is a hotel on this road ahead. This is the vegetable market. There are a lot of fruits here. Everything except China's fruits, goes to the whole world.
It looks like an interesting city. Central Asian cities or villages that we have visited, everything is almost different here. Some things are similar. Like the vegetable market here, these were also there in the beginning of those cities.
But those countries did not have this much population. Life here is much different from Beijing. People follow a lot of traffic laws there.
It's almost relaxed here. Just like in our countries, people park their vehicles on the roadsides. It's the same here. Some sections of the road are completely surrounded by shops.
That's why there is sort of a traffic jam here. But very few people use horns here. Let's go inside for reservation. The entrance looks good.
We have checked in at the hotel. I have noticed something. In our tour so far, China has the cheapest hotels. Let me show you the room first.
The room is very decent. The bed is very clean. The washroom, back there, is also very clean. They have given a table here.
You can find a kettle almost everywhere. There is a small table here. I have paid around $12 for this room. We have paid around 90 yuan.
I think this is the cheapest hotel where you can comfortably stay at night. There are two issues. One is that it is a little cold inside. Because the natural light is not coming through the window.
They have built it in a somewhat secluded area. Secondly, the air conditioning system is not working. I think we can comfortably stay here.
It's not that cold. But if needed, we would have paid a little more for that. Anyway, there are no complaints. Let's go outside and explore the city.
This is the Jade Emperor Pavilion or Trump Tower. There are many dynasties in China. Some of them are very famous.
Like Qing, Ming, Han, and Liao. Ancient cities like this were built at that time. Some of them have been preserved.
Some could not be preserved like this. You can see the view of the ancient city from here. It's very beautiful.
I will show you some shots. I will try to capture some of the architecture of this pavilion. I don't want to go into very detailed history. But at least I will try to capture the most worth seeing things with you. There are a few more important buildings here. As we walk towards the ancient city.
You can see some Chinese snacks here. I think these are dried fruits. I think these are figs.
And some nuts on this side. Hello I was flying the drone. And I really liked the city from above.
When we are walking now. One side of the city has been modernized. The other side is still in the same historical style. But there are very few lights. If there were a little light, the city would look more interesting. I have fallen in love with these electric scooters in China.
But for these electric scooters, you need roads like this. Not on the highway or other roads where there is so much traffic. People will run you over.
We have come to a restaurant to eat. It is a Xinjiang restaurant. Look at the food. In Beijing, they serve in small plates.
I expected the same here. But these are big plates. It has rice, vegetables, and beef. I think there are potatoes in it. They have mixed it. It looks delicious.
I was thinking of trying chicken today. But it was not available here. I have drunk the soup. This young man is serving the soup.
I was feeling cold today. Bismillah We are done eating. You can say that the city is almost shut down now.
All the shops here will close after a while. You may hear some noises. Most of the lights are off. But you can say that it is a very chill city. Overall, we had a good day.
The only thing is that we took the wrong route. If we had taken the right route, as our tour guide told us, then we could have enjoyed the scenery of the mountains. But anyway, it happens. When you travel to a foreign country, such things happen. Despite that, we enjoyed the day. We will rest now.
Inshallah, we will leave from here tomorrow. We will see where we will go next. You will find that in the next vlog. That's it for today. Remember me in your prayers. Please Like, Subscribe and Share. Allah Hafiz
2025-02-14 17:20
