I woke up in the morning before dawn to run to the village and take pictures of sunrise. Surrounded by mountains, the village can be seen with wisps of fog as the sun rises. It is only 3km away with a nice loop that goes around the village. But it was very cold which was still a nice change from the Guangzhou heat.
Breakfast had some wonderful small dishes of cucumbers, eggplant, eggs, Russian brown bread, baozi, and others. The air was still cool but the sun was warm.
We really wanted to stay longer here. Hemu village was a very peaceful place with beautiful scenery. But it was the beginning of a very long day of driving to begin heading back to Urumqi.
And yes, the car still followed us switching back to the black car (I think they switched to the white car because they knew we spotted them as there was a white car at the Hemu police station – I notice a lot of things when I run). When we stopped to take a picture of the winding road and scenery, they pulled off behind us. Of course I let them know we saw them. They followed us until the checkpoint area where we first entered Kanas reserve.
We passed by Karamy (which is Ulghur for oil), the famous oil city, and travelled along the Gurbantunggut Desert to the Urho Ghost City. It is also known as Wuerhe Wind City. It is a wind-eroded geological area. It gets its name because of the frequent howling winds. They are called Yadan Landforms. The shuttles are little trains. At the various stops you can take pictures, ride camels, or take a ride in a powered paraglide, which I did.
If you look closely, that is me coming in for a landing. There is also a short video of the landing below. A video of the flight is here.
We stayed in Karamy for the night and it was a very luxurious hotel. After a long day of travel and a ridiculous amount of time spent at checkpoints, it was great to soak in a big tub and sleep in a really soft bed.