We are a young couple from Poland. We have been traveling for 3 years in Asia and have visited many countries. In February this year we bought bicycles in Thailand and the plan was to cycle back to Poland.
A few days ago we came to Urumqi and after 2-3 days here, we wanted to cycle toward Kazakhstan border. Unfortunately, on the afternoon of Sunday 26th of August, our bicycles were stolen, here in Urumqi.
HOW DID IT HAPPENED
We left our bicycles for a moment because we wanted to say “hi” to our friends and check our e-mail. We’d locked our two bikes using two locks. It was next to the Youth Hotel. After we’ve found out, that the bikes are stolen we went immediately to the local police station, which is exactly on the other side of the street, made the statement and asked them to show us records from the video surveillance camera.
We’ve also contacted Polish Embassy in Beijing and they have promised to follow the official way and keep asking the police about their progress.
ABOUT US
We have been travelling around Asia for a few years, visiting many countries and seeing lots of interesting things. Now we are heading back to Europe and are on the last bit of the trip. We have met many wonderful people in China and elsewhere and never had any problems. Suddenly, as we are about to leave China, our bicycles have been stolen. We are stuck, we can’t go on and we can’t stay because our visas are running out.

Our impressions and observations from the travel has been described on our Polish blog since July 2009. There are many nice and colorful pictures from China and other countries. That blog has around 700 visitors every day from around the world. After returning to Poland we are going to write a book. So we are going to tell about our adventures and all the incidents that happened to us during the travel. The part about Urumqi will be very sad if we cannot find our bicycles and get back home cycling.
However if somehow we get the bikes back we’ll write sincerely about the friendly and nice people living here who helped us a lot.
Our bicycles have of course some material value but mainly they have a huge emotional value. We rode nearly 8000 km on them days, nights, in rain, wind and in strong sunshine. Sweating when climbing steep hills and laughing while riding down. This makes these bikes very special for us. It was our dream to cross China by these bikes and get home safely. Now someone has destroyed our big dream in very cruel way. However we are not looking for the thieves or do we want revenge or punishment. The only thing we want is to get our beloved bicycles back.
The big issue is also the language barrier. We don’t speak any Chinese and it’s very frustrating for us. We always have to find or call someone who speaks both English m Chinese which is not easy as people are busy and working during the day.
WE ASK YOU FOR HELP
We need people to help us find the bicycles which were stolen beneath a surveillance camera and we know they are close. We don’t want to punish the people, just get our bicycles back and cycle back to Poland.
We are only disappointed and upset about that incident. We are in China for the third time and really like this country, especially the people, food, nature and culture. Until now we felt safe here and appreciated the Chinese people who are always helpful despite the language barrier.
Please help us to get back our bikes back and restore our faith in Chinese cordiality and hospitality.
WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR US?
You could release TV footage or an interview which shows how our travel was suddenly stopped by bicycle thieves. How can one minute destroy someone’s dreams and efforts of more than three years?
We have many interesting photo on our blog, hundreds of interesting stories to tell and memories to share.
We believe we are able to touch spectators hearts and get their compassion. As a result we might be able to find people who will help us to track down our bicycles and get them back.
With kind regards,
Alicja n Andrew
CONTACT
For more details you can call us: 15099366275 (English) or the police local station in Urumqi: 5851039 (Chinese only).