Good news for me: The arrival time was 8:55 a.m., not 8:55 p.m.!
I had used amap to determine the stopovers on the way, and after 24 hours, I more and more suspected we might arrive earlier. This morning, the train stopped at 7 a.m., and the location marker initially showed Urumqi (causing just a slight panic, since this was supposed to be the final stop anyway). Zooming in, I saw that it was Turpan (there are no English signs at the station) and the distance confirmed an arrival in 2 hours.
After arriving, I tried to find the bus station and check if I had everything I needed to actually board the bus. I’m not sure the officer could figure out what I wanted, so I’ll definitely get there early.
In Yunbo, I had a flashback:
Is it possible that the same guy is still lying in the same bed, having his endless phone conversations?!
His voice, the endless pauses when “she” speaks—everything was the same. At least I saw him this time, because he likes to smoke in the bathroom, so he keeps moving back and forth between his bed and there.
Last time, he just coughed; this time, he coughs and smokes.
I’ve washed my clothes, but since I don’t have much cold-weather gear with me, that means I’ll stay in the hostel until everything dries.
The markings above kunming are titelgiving for this blog, those along the Southern coast are from 2019 “planalto” (= Ebenhöh = I) cycled coming from Vietnam to Taiwan
and in Luoyang & Zhengzhou I was 2015
My China cycle comes to an end in Urumqi—a big circle, but still not as big as China. The borders with the 14 neighboring countries alone are about 22,500 km long. But assuming good rail connections, you could do the whole trip in a week! (With the Chinese highspeed trains)