28-Jul-2008 -- This is the 17th out of 23 confluences that I visited on my bicycle trip to the North-East of China. The story starts from 40°N 117°E.

From Déěrbùěr (德耳布尔), the place of the previous confluence 51°N 121°E it took me two days to get to this one. Due to a lag of roads I had to take an incredible deviation of 70 km via Mordaga on sandy roads. When I finally reached the main road again, it was already time to find a place to stay.

On confluence day, I started from the little town Jīnhé (金河镇), 110 km from the confluence point. Here I should note that currently the road between Gēnhé (根河) and the border to Hēilóngjiāng Province is closed for traffic due to construction. Local people have to rely on the daily train. The nice thing about this is that there is no traffic. But anyway, in sparsely populated areas like this traffic is not disturbing anyway. The bad thing is that the road can be in a really bad condition. Chinese constructions sites can be endless. But this one broke all records, see construction site signage 227 km + 850 m .

In the morning, I had an - even for my terms - early start at 3:40 am (2:50 am get up time). The day was beautiful with mist between the trees. Here, the road was finished rebuilding already. Unfortunately, this surface would last for only 25 km. The return was given right after this with the most horrible stretch of road. Partially I had to push on a surface consisting of fist-big boulders.

However, I used my endurance and patience to overcome this section and reached the confluence in the early afternoon. At a distance of 1.2 km I hid my bike not far from the road behind a bush. I had considered this point to be the closest distance to the confluence. Overshooting resulted in growing beeline distance, so I returned to this point and started hiking.

A little less than an hour of walking on boggy grounds through larch forests, I reached this beautiful point. Unfortunately, mosquitoes kept me from enjoying this place for a longer break. I hiked back the same way and found my panniers opened up. Someone must have seen it. Fortunately nothing was missing. When I continued riding on the road, there came another bend and the road came as close as 360 m to the confluence! I could have had a much shorter hike!

At 16:30 p.m I reached the nearby town Mǎnguī (满归真) where I stayed for the night.

CP Visit Details:

• Distance to an asphalt road: 80 km
• Distance to a road: 368 m
• Distance to a track: 368 m
• Distance of parking the bike: 1230 m
• Distance to houses: 4.8 km
• Time for hiking: 1:50 hours
• Time at the CP: 14:33 p.m.
• Riding time (distance) from Jīnhé: 8:00 hours (113.3 km)
• Measured height: 660 m
• Minimal distance according to GPS: 0 m
• Position accuracy at the CP: 5 m
• Topography: slightly hilly, ascending terrain
• Vegetation: larch forest, blueberries, cranberries, moss, herbs, swamp vegetation.
• Weather: sunny, 25° C (felt temperature)
• Description of the CP: In the north-eastern part of Inner Mongolia, in the Dàxìngānlǐng Mountains (大兴安岭). Deep in the forest, but not far from the town Mǎnguī and the river Jīnhé. Boggy ground. Beautiful landscape.
• Given Name: The Sisyphus Walk Confluence

Story continues at 53°N 123°E.