The first book ends just before China, turning right. This book begins with not turning off.
After the rally to Tajikistan, one direction remained open. The road east was not finished yet. From Kazakhstan it continued to Zharkent, to the Chinese border, to the place where Central Asia does not simply end, but suddenly opens another door.
The beginning was short and still large enough for the feeling of an entire book. A few days in a border town. Streets, waiting, questions, wrong assumptions and the attempt to enter China on foot. In the end, two kilometres became a small border marathon. Not far on the map, but large in the head.
We ended up at the Nur Joly Border Crossing, practically a few kilometres too far south and therefore at a crossing that looked more like trucks, processing and transit than like the simple entrance into the Chinese city of Horgos. On the Chinese side, we had to move back toward the actual city. That is where the first scene begins: China does not start with a grand sight, but with a bus, waiting, walking and the strange feeling of finally really being on the other side.
From there, the story continues into a country that I increasingly experienced as one of the most underrated travel countries in the world. China is not only large, fast and modern. China is also calm, spacious, rich in culture and full of places that you only begin to understand once you stand there yourself. Beijing with its parks, temples, lanes and wide avenues. Hainan with tea hills, rainforest and warmth. Cities, markets, trains, hotels, encounters, food, misunderstandings and the constant mixture of strangeness and wonder.
Later, several stays in China followed. The first short border story gradually became a longer China story. During the latest stay, three weeks of travel with my partner became a book about exactly that journey: cities, roads, food, tea, hotels, train rides, small misunderstandings, large impressions and the question of why China has so much more to offer as a travel country than many expect.
Whether three weeks of travel with one's partner are really enough material for an entire book is something the reader will have to decide. I will only say this: in China, even the way to breakfast can contain more plot than a whole holiday day elsewhere.