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Coup de coeur Ouighour! August 2005 The Xinjiang province… we continue our way with this feeling of being alive... Around us, all these smiles, these thumbs up to cheer for us! Often, Chinese as well as Uyghurs, offer us water bottles and watermelons.  Here and there, clay houses with straw roofs, donkeys pulling chariots, men and women who make us forget the madness of this world, men and women with a sense of humility that makes us appreciate sharing a moment with them, here, now.   To progress in this environment, where Uyghurs try to counterbalance the massive Chinese presence, makes us realize the importance of this emerging Chinese nation, and the concern society should have towards this situation. It isn’t tens, but rather thousands of coal plants we see on our way. They even seem to be part in the landscape in some regions.  We also feel like being in an anthill because of the high number of people working on the roads. We don’t know China, we are in the Xingjian province, but we still have the impression that the Chinese nation will have a profound influence on the rest of the world. These moments… Some moments are remembered forever; they are rare, unique…  Yesterday, we woke up early, before sunrise, to film the immensity of the salt desert. The beauty of this moment was memorable: this emptiness, the immensity, and the desolation.  Then, softly, the wind started to blow, very slowly. But suddenly, what first seemed to be a morning breeze turned out to be a real sandstorm! We could feel it in the air when we breathed. A wall of sand was surrounding us. We didn’t have any other choices than continue biking, since the villages we passed by where abandoned and our water and food reserves where going down quite fast. We progressed in this natural chaotic environment, our faces covered with a scarf, with the wind blowing sand miles away. This chaotic vision was rough but soft at the same time, because we knew that we were living a unique moment, the kind you experience only once in a lifetime. 
Furthermore, this desert we were crossing since three days transformed itself in an endless sea, on the both sides of the road. We where shocked, astounded, how was it possible? Water everywhere, at least up to the sand wall the storm had created. Even marine birds flew over this surreal landscape! We will never forget this images, these moments… The absurdity of nature can sometimes make us smile. Then, five kilometers further, we were back in the real desert, with its sand and its 45°C. !!! Tibet is now very close. Tomorrow, we will bike our first col more than 4000 meters high. But most of all, we are getting ready to cross this border that is forbidden to cyclists.
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