Our policeman friend Sou Bing assured us that the roads were mostly flat from where we were in Sanmenxia to Xi’an. [mediaplayer src="http://www.brakingboundaries.org/wp-content/uploads/video/flattoxian.wmv"] To watch movies on the Braking Boundaries site you need to install Microsoft Silverlight. This only takes a couple of minutes. If you do not want to wait you can download Flat [...]

I’m sure everyone remembers the story of our night under a bridge. http://www.brakingboundaries.org/under-the-bridge/2009/04/30/ Here is what it was like for us. [mediaplayer src="http://www.brakingboundaries.org/wp-content/uploads/video/underthebridge.wmv"] To watch movies on the Braking Boundaries site you need to install Microsoft Silverlight. This only takes a couple of minutes. If you do not want to wait you can download Under [...]

I’ll be the first to admit: riding the Dragon’s back hasn’t exactly been a cakewalk. I’m not sure what I expected, having signed up to cycle across a country notoriously recognized for its uncanny ability to baffle and befuddle even the most seasoned of travelers. How could I expect anything less from a place that [...]

Yeah right. [mediaplayer src="http://www.brakingboundaries.org/wp-content/uploads/video/sunnyday.wmv"] Movie taken in our first 2 weeks on the road to Beijing To watch movies on the Braking Boundaries site you need to install Microsoft Silverlight. This only takes a couple of minutes. If you do not want to wait you can download Another Sunny Day in Windows Media Video (WMV) [...]

It’s been seven days now since we were sitting in the comforts of our Xi’an hostel (elevation 500 meters) surfing the net on our wireless computers trying to overcome the boredom of the 8 day visa delay and wanting nothing more than to ride. That feeling has fast been replaced by the struggle to recall [...]

Here is the latest interview with tbseFM 101.3 recorded live from Xi’an in the Bell Tower Youth Hostel. Listen to the interview : tbseFM Interview WMA file

If we aren’t being stared at we are being followed, on foot and on bike. [mediaplayer src="http://www.brakingboundaries.org/wp-content/uploads/video/pipereffect.wmv"] Movie taken in our first 2 weeks on the road to Beijing To watch movies on the Braking Boundaries site you need to install Microsoft Silverlight. This only takes a couple of minutes. If you do not want [...]

The sound of explosions has been a regular feature of our travels – hardly surprising, I suppose, in the country that invented gunpowder and fireworks. Barely a day goes by without the the machine-gun staccato of firecrackers, rockets and other pyrotechnics. Riding through some of the smaller cities was an experience akin to driving through [...]

This video was taken on the morning of our ride into Beijing, 10 days after starting from Dalian. The town that you see represents a lot of the types of places we went through in the first 15 biking days up until we turned west and headed toward the mountains. Movie taken in our first [...]

Ok, confession time. I’ve got a serious coke habit. I thought I could handle it. It started off small; just a lunchtime hit to get me through the afternoon, but before I knew it, it was out of control. In the hot days before Xi’an, I was on 4 bottles a day. At 600ml a [...]

Being on the road with one day off in five means having to come up with creative ways to keep our clothes and gear clean, especially with the amount of dirt and pollution we are going through. So I have devised step-by-step instructions for anyone else in need of keeping clothes semi clean while cycling [...]

Beijing to Xi’an – 11 cycling days, 1300km and, if you’ve read Jared’s post with the elevation data, a lot more climbing. We’ve already documented a few of the events, so here’s a recap of the rest. The terrain was tougher than the first leg of the trip, but the beautiful scenery we saw towards [...]

There is nothing like a free ride by tailgating a hay truck. Here is an idea of what it is like when on a bike [mediaplayer src=http://www.brakingboundaries.org/wp-content/uploads/video/hayride.wmv] …and from David’s point of view it looks like this [mediaplayer src=http://www.brakingboundaries.org/wp-content/uploads/video/hayridefromdave.wmv] To watch movies on the Braking Boundaries site you need to install Microsoft Silverlight. This only [...]

I have finally found a nice way to put videos up without using youtube which is not available here in China. Here is the first video I took in one of the first days of cycling here in Korea. I call it “Tom versus Truck.” [mediaplayer src="http://www.brakingboundaries.org/wp-content/uploads/video/tomvtruck.wmv"] To watch movies on the Braking Boundaries site [...]

Below is the map of our ride from Beijing to Xi’an and an elevation chart that shows the hills we encountered 300 km from Xi’an. Each flag represents the place that we stayed a night at. Alternatively the map can also be viewed using google maps here. Elevation Chart