Our first day was quite short, and this was a good decision. WE cycled 69km only, through a flat and uninteresting landscape. As I was not cycling for two month, this first stage scared me, but finally things went much better than I feared. We spent the night in a rather repellent hotel, but inside it was acceptable, besides that there was no electricity for quite a while. At 23.30 h, the police knocked at our door: passport control! When will they leave us alone?

The next day was our first real stage: 118km. We all have slick tires on our mountain bikes, on so we progressed really well. We were much faster as expected and reached Baicheng Hotel in the city with same name, early afternoon. This hotel belongs to the government, and it is the only one where we were allowed to spend the night.

As it was quite early, we decided to drive to Tiereke, a hot springs site to relax a bit. We drove through a depressing landscape, where there is coal mine after coal mine. Everything is black and dirty. Concerning the “bath”, I was quite curious to see this one. This thermal bath is just a quite disgusting swimming pool, half-full with hot water from a natural spring. It is totally dirty and neglected. We were the only visitors, but still enjoyed this unusual “thermal bath”