My roomates of the previous night were all farmers and were up before sunrise, so so was I. Getting an early start was necessary as it was another long day to meet up with the Silk road and then on to the small city of Wuwei. The temperature was chilly the whole day but with little, if any, wind.
 
After the steep initial downhill the roads were graciously flat until the Silk road loomed. Could be the happiest moment of my life reaching that Silk Road, I took a few minutes to savour it and then was on my way again. A few hills and a bumpy side road later and I was in Wuwei. Wuwei (pop of 1.8 mill) is a small agricltural city, yet a pretty good stop-over, so will take a rest day I reckon. This also marks the half way point (round about) between Beijing and Urumqi. About 3 weeks in and very thing is sweet!