Mr. Wang, the leader of this trip, shot a sparrow with his slingshot and then cut it open and ate the heart. Claims it's good for his health.

You can see the contrast in the roads, either smooth as glass or dirt and rutted.

We crusied through I can't remember how many small villages including one where they were in the process of paving the road with blocks. We stayed the night at a town whose name I don't remember, and once again got rooms for about 40 RMB—and the meal for about half. The next morning (another late start) we headed across the Hebei border to Inner Mongolia. There we rode into a state park, got stuck in the sand and generally had a good time.

The roads in Inner Mongolia are either brand new paved or dirt. There is nothing in between. We spent the night in Duolun and headed south in the morning. Here problems started.

One of the bikes lost its battery over the rough roads and didn't realize it until it was way too late to find it. So we towed it for about 100km until we could find another battery. But because the battery was more or less yanked off the bike there was other damage. We ended up towing it all the way to our next hotel. We didn't get in until 2:00 AM and then after a day of riding dirt roads there was no hot water! We had to make a couple more repairs to get started but the bike that lost its battery was running once again. Although it was making a huge clunking sound from a visibly broken rear end it did make it all the way back to Beijing. Unfortunately for me I didn't break my own record for making it back under my own power after eight years of riding in China. About 50km from home "my" bike (which was actually borrowed from Tim Lagonegro) had a transmission problem which locked up the drive. I had to call a truck to haul it back to Beijing but the remaining eight bikes all made it back under their own power.