A Japanese citizens' group will cycle to Turkmenistan in Central Asia at the end of this month on another leg in their 15,000-km journey along the Silk Road.
The group's plan, being implemented in pieces over 20 years, is to bike along the Silk Road from the Chinese city of X'ian to Rome while contemplating environmental problems and conservation issues.
Cycling for about two weeks every summer, the group set out from X'ian in 1993 and arrived in Uzbekistan's Bukhara last year. It recruits participants on every trip, and about 280 people have participated so far. The group is scheduled to arrive in Rome in 2012.