A rough bike ride on China's Silk Road. This is the first of three episodes about Mel, Ben, and Kate's 2006 bike trip retracing Marco Polo's travels in Xinjiang and Tibet. In this episode, the trio takes off from Urumqi, crosses the Tian Shan mountains, and traverses the Taklamakan desert. This only covers the first three weeks of four months on the open road...stay tuned for episodes two and three, and read about Kate and Mel's upcoming return to the Silk Road here: cyclingsilk.com.