Almaty-Yining
Paris-Beijing Tour 2006 / Day 19
After 14 hours, there at last
E-Class Experience crosses the border to China
Longest day to date, from Almaty to Yining
Weather: sunny, maximum temperature 20.5 degrees Celsius
Yining – The E-Class fleet, consisting of 33 E 320 CDIs and three 320 BLUETEC saloons, crossed the border to China in Korgas today and thus began the final leg of the diesel marathon from Paris to Beijing. At this, the largest border crossing for road traffic in western China, all the vehicles were given new registration plates and the drivers were issued with Chinese driving licences.
In glorious sunshine and spring-like temperatures the fourth-phase drivers left Almaty in the early hours of morning, heading for the Chinese border. Although the stage covered only about 500 kilometres, the day was to prove the longest of the tour to date, because of waiting times and long stretches when the vehicles were required to remain in convoy. Not until midnight, some 14 hours after departure, did the teams reach the Twin Star Hotel in Yining.
For two of the contestants the day was even longer: Joe Kyncha, editor-in-chief automotive of carguide magazine, and Michel Crepault of the Group Auto Journal, had already spent 22 hours travelling from Canada before they left Almaty. Crepault, who arrived from Montreal, said in the morning, "I hope that all this effort will pay off." he was not to be disappointed. Following the surprises of Almaty, with its population of more than one million Kazakhs, Eurasian flair, and a large contingent of current and practically every bygone E and S-Class model, the travellers encountered just about every form of life on the broad overland route just a few miles outside the city, including pedestrians, cattle, sheep, horses, dogs, cats and chickens. A donkey and trap and even carts drawn by as many as three donkeys are still part of the everyday road scene in central Asia.
The endless pastures are not fenced, so that road users often come across unrestrained cattle. The drivers responded accordingly, watching very carefully for any four-legged traffic.
The poorer the region, the friendlier the people. The E-Class cars, which must have seemed like objects from a different planet, regularly received an enthusiastic reception from waving crowds. The broad link between Kazakhstan and China, along the Ile valley, follows the historic tracks of the Silk Road but nowadays, with its countless fuel stations, roadside villages and peddlers selling everything from vegetables to engine oil, resembles the legendary Route 66 in the USA. Joe Kyncha remarked, with some pleasure, "Man, I can't believe that we're cruising along in a diesel, listening to Johnny Cash, and can see nothing to the left or right but the Steppes." Low fuel prices also called to mind the good old Route 66 in its heyday. Kazakhstan is an oil producer; a litre of petrol costs about 0.70 euros and a litre of diesel only 0.55 euros.
After 160 kilometres the landscape changed as the tour approached the Zailiyskiy Alatau mountain range. The convoy reached the Charyn Canyon, a gorge as deep as 350 metres in places, on a rough private road. The Charyn is a tributary of the River Ile that has cut its bed in the red sandstone. On the approach, the E-Class cars demonstrated astonishing off-road capabilities. The bumpy journey was well worth enduring, as the Canadian Michel Crepault remarked on seeing Kazakhstan's answer to the Grand Canyon, "It's just like a scaled-down version of the Rockies." This magnificent landscape also provided the backdrop for some stunning photographs, taken by the crews from the ground and from a helicopter. Enraptured by the breathtaking scenery, the drivers spent more time here than was originally planned.
From here the E-Class cars were chaperoned in convoy almost to the border, which normally closes at 6 pm, by a Lada police car delegated by the local authorities. Wen Hongwei of the Chinese Mercedes magazine was looking forward to arriving back home because, as he said, "I can't wait to eat Chinese food again." The young journalist has undertaken to complete the entire tour from Paris to Beijing.
The final frontier en route to Beijing was eventually crossed in three groups after a three-hour wait, which is very short by Korgas standards. The Chinese officials made every effort to accelerate the passage of the Mercedes-Benz fleet, but entering the country involves more than simply stamping passports and visas. The E-Class cars were given new number plates, for example, and each of the drivers was issued with a Chinese driving licence. It is unusual for a car to be given a new identity when it crosses a border, but the crews will encounter many more peculiarities of Chinese traffic regulations in the next few days. In every one of the other eight countries traversed during the tour, the Mercedes-Benz E 320 CDIs were free to drive on public roads with their German number plates. Martin Hintermaier of the GSP support team had brought with him a drilling template and a special bending device so that the new plates could be fitted both quickly and neatly.
The customs officials took a special interest in the three BLUETEC E-Class cars. Because the diesel saloons, which were built in Germany for the US market, disposed of both German and American vehicle identification numbers, the procedure of examining papers, numbers and customs documents in English, accompanied by an authenticated Chinese translation, took a lot of additional time.
As a consequence, the convoy did not embark on the final 80 kilometres to its destination until the sky was already pitch black. The long caravan of contestants and crews' vehicles was preceded by two Chinese police cars. At the request of the Chinese authorities, a convoy was to be formed for the first few miles on Chinese roads, so that the first contestants to cross the border in Korgas had to wait until the last ones had completed their entry formalities as well. Everyone was grateful for the efforts made by the officials to expedite the tour's progress once the border had been crossed. A traffic policeman had been posted at every crossroads to hold up the traffic while the E-Class Experience passed. Many of the contestants were amazed that the Chinese appear never to sleep. Even shortly before midnight, young children were on the streets, shops were open, and building sites were a hive of activity.
A further surprise had awaited the teams a short distance after the border. A large delegation of local dignitaries and media representatives had assembled to greet the teams with a red carpet, inflatable Dragon's Gate and enormous lanterns. The endurance teams felt like film stars again at the end of the stage as they entered Yining, the political and economic centre of the Ili district in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. In the clamour for their autographs, many of the crews soon forgot all about the long hours of waiting at the border.
In view of the late arrival, tomorrow's departure time has been put back an hour. The next stage covers about 700 mkilometres to Urumchi, a city that is farther from an ocean than any other in the world.
PS. The third collision involving a tour car occurred today between Almaty and Korgas when a Kazakh Lada rammed a team of photographers in a G-Class car. As with the two previous accidents – a lorry scuffed E-Class No. 12 between St. Petersburg and Moscow, and E-Class No. 5 was scratched on the side by an oncoming Lada while crossing the Urals – the collision was not serious and nobody was injured.