Steering around roadblocks
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[Photo provided to China Daily] |
"In the end, I didn't have to push my car back to Beijing."
He enjoyed driving a few days before a family emergency forced him to pull an all-nighter, racing from Qinghai province's capital, Xining, to Beijing in about 20 hours.
Krasnopolksy, who has conquered three cross-country routes, believes China road trips are worthwhile, despite occasional roadblocks.
"If you want to see things, you have to get your own wheels," he says.
"In the morning, I don't know exactly where I'll be at night."
He loves veering off-road to discover villages.
Krasnopolksy and Webster once got their cars stuck in a bog in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. A tractor came to rescue them. It got stuck, too.
Eight hours later, a larger tractor extracted all three vehicles from the muck.
"Still, driving is more convenient," Krasnopolksy says.
"Public transportation isn't that reliable outside main cities."
Webster recalls waiting six hours for a delayed long-distance bus in Sichuan province. When it pulled in, police arrested the driver and told everyone to return the next day.
"That was the moment I decided to actually get my license," he says.
He'll lose that license on June 20, 2028. National law bars people over 70 from driving.
"That's the day I'll leave China."
