Competition in China Rallying in China is easy, especially for navigators. At each major intersection, a police guard is been posted to ensure we stay on the prescribed route. We can never quite figure out if the police are there to guard us or help us. The truth is probably a little of both. Thousands of men, women and children stand alongside the highway and cautiously wave as we motor past.
Some roadways are completely closed to other traffic until the rally passes by.
We are warned that it is forbidden for us to make deviations from the route or even to make unnecessary stops along the way. Before reaching Turfan proper, we had a 47-kilometer long timed section that included the original paved but very bumpy road down into the Depression. The temperature was hot, perhaps 100 degrees F or more and the average speed required was quite high. Most cars managed to run this section without penalty, but a few were late enough to add a few minutes to their score. Gobi Desert Leaving Turfan we face the daunting Gobi Desert.