Cycling Beijing to Xian: the flat, straight and busy Chinese roads
Wednesday 31st August 2005
LA to Beijing - Air China Flight
Leaving Las Vegas (and Los Angeles)
Cycling:No bicycle mileage, as we pushed the tandem to the airport. Bike went in oversize luggage for approx $300.
We spent 12 hours waiting at Los Angeles airport for our nightime flight. Travelling has given us a much wider patience threshold though so we hardly noticed the time passing. And in any case, it meant time to think about the last month in the USA.
Ben's family, Andre and Helene picked us up from the border town of Calexico on 5th August and made us feel especially welcome in Palm Springs. I was really pleased to meet two wonderful Sarda family members and they made us feel perfectly at home. A few days to relax, collect our thoughts and enjoy new company was perfect.
Next stop was Ben's friends' house in Santa Clarita, LA. Sadly, Ben and I unknowingly caused a lot of disruption to our friends and since receiving an upsetting email along those lines, we haven't been in touch. Not cool we know, but these things happen. Luckily, the rest of our stay in California was excellent. We embarked on a family road trip with my parents and brother, taking in the coast, San Fransisco, the national parks, the deserts, Vegas and even a once-in-a-lifetime helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon. To everyone's amusement, I was airsick in the helicopter but luckily the pilot was a lot nicer than a Leeds taxi driver would have been!
Of course, I was chuffed to see my family again - only my sister was missing - and with King's of Leon as our holiday soundtrack, we cruised around the country cramming as much as possible into two weeks. All good fun.
I celebrated my 29th birthday, twice in fact,once with Andre and Helene and then again with the Sketchleys. We took a San Fransisco cable car, went to an LA comedy club and crossed Death Valley with a packed-in air conditioning system. All good memories.
But before long, and after some tearful goodbyes, it was just Ben, me and the tandem again, ready to hit China.
Thursday 1st September 2005
Beijing
First Day in the East
Cycling:Rest day.
Eastern Morning Sun Youth Hostel - 120 Yuan $US15
Taxi from airport $40
Lunch $5
Tuk-tuk ride $12
Wednesday didn't really exist for us as we jumped forward 16 hours during our flight. Before we landed, the airline played an exercise video of stretches passengers could do in their seats. I thought the participation was great. Normally noone listens, even to the safety announcements.
The weather outside was especially misty for 5am and very sticky, although later in the day, the sun improved the visibility and the wind dried the air and carried Chinese kites off, way into the sky. The wind also animates the scores of red flags marking areas like Tianenmen Square. The taxi whisked us and the tandem into the centre of Beijing, a city which petrified me, being roughly the size of Belgium and not seeming to have any recognisable reference points. Lots of people practiced early morning tai-chi in the parks and everywhere old simple Chinese bicycles outnumber the cars. Riders are rigidly upright and calmly propel themselves along wide boulevards. Slowly this did start to have a relaxing effect on me though and eventually, at the end of the day, I was even happy to walk home in the dark.
Before hitting the streets though, we had to find a home and we stopped at a Youth Hostel where tiny sterile rabbit warren rooms occupy the 4th floor .... underground! Maybe they are earthquake proof, or maybe they simply avoid premium land prices but whichever, it is definitely a strange sensation descending to the earth's core to sleep. As we unpacked the bike, a man appeared to take the cardboard off our hands and promptly gave us 2 yuan for it. We returned his money to him, thankful he was helping us out. But throughout the day, there was always someone to take our empty drinks bottles or plastic packets. It shows the extent of poverty in a huge city but could also explain the lack of litter throughout the city centre of Beijing.
Our first linguistic challenge was to get fed. We found a bright and busy foodcourt in a luxurious mall and eventually managed to load an electronic card with currency and then point to steaming hot dumplings for me and rice and chicken for Ben. The food was really fresh, really flavoursome and spicey, totally unlike Chinese stodge at home. But more importantly, we realised we weren't going to starve after all, at least not yet.
Beijing is preparing for the Olympic Games in 2008 so there are cranes and holes everywhere and everyone is talking about it - at least the people we can understand anyway. You can sense a buzz in the city. For an introduction to something more traditional though, two students, Jongben and Lise, showed us round a Chinese art and calligraphy exhibition. There are a lot of students patrolling the key areas to try to get tourists to part with their cash but at these exhibits. But if you have time to spare, there isnoobligation to buy and it is a little bit different. They explained the important elements of several ink on canvas pieces and wrote us a message about our travels in delicate calligraphy letters. We hope it is about our travels as it could say anything.
For the rest of the afternoon, we wandered about around the Forbidden City (although we didn't go inside) amongst the Chinese tourists. It was a little like playing Chinese bingo today spotting kite flyers, old men spitting, locals playing chequers, tea shops, men with long black wispy beards and women in soft black pumps. We eventually got hussled into a tuk-tuk tour around the old Hutong area; Beijing's ancient Feng Shui alleyways, where a strong sense of community is evident. Everything was very interesting but under the influence of a new timezone, we slowly started to fade and a long walk back through a surprisingly glitzy shopping district finally finished us off. After just one day, China is still very unfamiliar and we won't win any Mandarin conversation competitions withour one-word sentences. But I don't think we'll starve or get too lost. And if we can keep it together with the pointing, pleading and patience, we may get to experience some of the treasures of the East.
Friday 2nd September 2005
Beijing
A Bug Sandwich
Cycling:Rest day.
New cycle helmets $55
Subway ride $0.40
Today was a peculiar day. After waking up feelingmildly petrified by the thought of another day in confusing Beijing, we infact finished the day having successfully completed all our chores. We made an efficient trip to the airport and back to discover that our cycle helmets couldn't be found. We located about half a dozen good bike shops and replaced our helmets and my counter. We also purchased six assorted but detailed maps and atlases of China. We completed everything in record-breaking time and with far less effort than we would have expended in South America. Hooray for China!
Our cultural experience for the day came at Donghuamen Yeshi street food market. Under bright red awnings and lanterns, about half a kilometer of exotic snacks was neatly presented: locusts, scorpions, silk worms, goats' balls, snake and snakeskin, tripe, bird foetus on skewers, squid, seahorses and kidneys. Ben and I were culinary heros and stuck to eggplant, lotus and melon which were very palatable but not very daring! Incidentally, we haven't found ourselves overeating the past few days.
Saturday 3rd September 2005
Beijing
"It sure is a great wall" - Richard Nixon, 1972
Cycling:Rest day.
Tour to Great Wall $11 each
Peking Duck $11 for two
Today we daytripped to Jinshanling to walk 10km of the Great Wall to Simatai. As we passed factory after factory, where all our "Made in China" products are born, I was pleased to see the wide tree-lined roads had large cycle lanes, pretty much all the way. These cycle lanes compensate in part for the fact that Chinese drivers are totally crazy. For example, they honk agressively at oncoming traffic so that it moves out of their white-knuckle overtaking. Not only was our bus suspension shot, but I wondered if it had ever been fitted. Ben and I definitely feel safer travelling on our bike than in buses.
With Ben feeling a little better after two days of tonsilitus, we decided to do the walk, along a stretch of wall in pretty good condition after 2000 years. The wall is quite stunning and does not disappoint as it snakes over the crests of jagged, green Chinese/Mongolian hills. At each hill, the wall is dotted with a cool watchtower and a farmer trying to sell you ice cold water. At first my instincts were to keep saying no, but then I realised that I would actually like some fresh water and I was grateful they were there. It was a lot quieter than we had expected which made for a calm walk. We were a little disappointed to come across the International Great Wall Marathon prize-giving ceremony though. Just as we were celebrating walking a tricky section, these runners had defeated 26 miles worth! Still, good fun, very scenic and a once-in-a-lifetime trip which called for greasy Peking duck to celebrate.
Sunday 4th September 2005
Still Beijing
Relaxing in Chinatown
Cycling:Rest day.
Groceries $25 (we need to find a cheap market!)
Foodcourt again - our favourite $5
Phonecard $6
Today was quite a straightforward, simple day for us. Ben spent the morning getting the bike ready while I tried to match up Chinese names on our maps with English translations. Quite tricky, even with rivers and motorways to help.
We had lunch at our favourite food court. I picked out skewers of spinach, oyster mushrooms, two non-identifiable mushrooms, vegetables and spam (!) and they all got speedy boiled in a vat of soup flavoured water. Then we found a crazy supermarket; crazy to us as everything looked like toy food. But we managed to identify emergency rations as we are still worried our language skills will be the death of us. I even found a pic n' mix confectionary counter where a little lady held open all the lids for me. I think she was holding out for a sweet but I couldn't spare any!
Monday 5th September 2005
Still Beijing
Toilet Humour
Cycling:Rest day.
Internet 6Y - 10Y per hour (75c to $1.25)
Dumplings $8
Highlighter pens $1.25
I pestered Ben to leave this morning, even though he's not fully recovered, and then found out that a delayed reaction to our Great Wall climb is that both my legs are totally mashed. I have subsequently been hobbling about all day - my fault for being pushy.
We have both had funny experiences in Chinese public toilets now (!) At the hostel, Ben always tries to get a proper lavatory rather than the hole-in-the-ground toilets, but some people are not so fussy. A man Ben saw this morning was squatting down to do his business, whilst also having a quiet smoke. And in the ancient streets of the Hutong, in my toilet, a lady made herself comfortable so she could send text messages! Today's random object to find for our maps was highlighter pens and we even managed to buy those. Everything in China is a mini victory for us.
Tuesday 6th September 2005
Beijing to Zhuozhou 46.2 miles (cumm 46.2 miles)
Cashing in our Fortune Cookies
Cycling:All flat. Cycle lanes everywhere, not as busy as a city of 14 million should be.
Dumplings $0.75
Hotel Taoyuan $16
Meal $4
With the paniers packed on the tandem, we left this morning into the unknown. Everything had that unfamiliar feeling of being new but we soon settled in to cycling again and even rolled along one boulevard chatting to a Chinese man who spoke perfect English to us from his electric bike.
The cycling conditions were perfect: gentle sunshine, broad calm cycle lanes and flat roads with plenty of water/green tea stops. The busy city avenues slowly gave way to suburbs and then to smaller towns with tree-lined roads. Navigating felt easy with our bi-lingual tourist map and we even managed a quick detour to cycle past the Chinese Anti-Japanese War Memorial (you would think they would bury the hatchet and rename it!)
People were very friendly; so much so that they would come up to us and start an enthusiastic conversation .... all in Chinese! We even managed to negotiate a delicious and extremely cheap lunch of cyclist-friendly dumplings.
The only downside to the day was the almost unbearable pain I endured from breaking in my new leather touring saddle. I even heard two little Chinese ladies commenting: "I bet that saddle's an arse-breaker!" - At least I think that's what they were saying.
So we stopped a lot in the afternoon so I could struggle off the bike and do a cowboy walkto stretch my poor bottom. But when we finally arrived at Zhuozhou, it was all worth it. After asking only six people for "hotel, please" without the "please" as we don't know how to say it yet, we managed to find the most luxurious room ever which even had a small sofa and table for serving our tea on. After my visions of us sleeping on a hard floor in a "tourist-approved" prison style hotel, this was bliss. I don't know where I get all these awful preconceptions from.
Dinner was also good and between us we managed to order meat (chicken and mushrooms) vegetables (something similar to garden weeds) and some carbs (dumplings again). The young waiters and waitresses secretly watched us eat. We definitely need to learn more phrases though. We can't even explain that we don't speak Chinese yet!
Wednesday 7th September 2005
Zhuozhou to Baoding 54.1 miles (cumm: 100.3)
Trailing the Tractors
Cycling:Perfectly flat again. Very wide cycle lanes and great quality road but busy with farming traffic. Pleasant weather.
Noodle soup and meat bun $1
Dong Fang Hotel $18
Groceries $2
Getting back in the saddle today was somewhat painful for both of us. I tried to stay zen but it was like sitting on bruises all day. I am determined to break in my Brookes before it breaks me though.
We followed the trainline all the way todaythrough agricultural land, the stations helping us to follow the map. The trains appear to be very frequent, fast and comfortable, although we did see one happy passenger on the roof. The road was again lined with shady weeping willow trees and also marigolds almost the entire length. Dark-skinned farmers were busy driving hundreds of tractor-style vans up and down.
Now that we have finally mastered the correct word for hotel guesthouse - pronounced like penguin but with a B and a Chinese-accent - we found it quicker to find somewhere to stay in Baoding. Again though, it turned out to be a luxury hotel where we were quoted a price less than half the advertised room rate but still more than we wanted to pay. Still, it is early days so instead of complaining, we compensated with DIY dinner - instant noodle soups. This was probably a good idea anyway as the restaurant offered shark fin soup and royal donkey meat. We also bought a delicious pancake from a little boy who wasn't allowed to handle money. Notes had to go into a basket and he gave out coin change with a large pair of tweezers.
We are still unsure what to do about the accomodation. It isnot expensive as such, just not terribly authentic. We miss draughty rooms and lumpy matresses ....
Thursday 8th September 2005
Baoding to Zhending 81.8 miles (182 miles)
Red Dust
Cycling:Still flat,noisy, dusty and noisy!
Vegetarian feast $3.80
Jin He Hotel $11
Before we left, I read that China makes 85% of the world's tractors. This colossal market share is easily explained when you see that in this region, people drive tractors instead of cars. And the noise is quite something. Added to the fact that drivers use their horns instead of their brakes, it has been a pretty noisy day today.
But as the noise and dust increased, so did the number of friendly faces. What I really like about the Chinese is that every face is different - in the same village, there can be dark cheeks parched by the sun and porcelain white faces. Curiosity is the same in any language. With all the roadworks and contrustionc we passed today, I twice saw groups of people peering into deep holes. What is it about a hole that makes you want to look down it?
People are also very curious about the tandem and we watch them comparing the tyres to their worn out rickshaw wheels. Now when we get a torrade of Mandarin directed at us, we have taken to answering the same questions we got asked in South America - like FAQs. Sometimes even if we communicate an answer, people are still happy. It may not be the right one but everyone is pleased.
At lunch we stopped in a small restaurant. The clue to it being a restaurant was the picture of food outside. We had a veritable feast of vegetarian noodles and fresh chillis, eggs and tomatoes and more noodles in a soup. The plates kept coming so we eventually had to ask to pay to put a stop to all the food.
Some of the other customers squatted up on their chairs and spat on the floor which I still can't get used to. The lady from the restaurant was very patient and when I was ready to give up on a conversation I didn't understand, she always found a way to "speak" to us. She even managed to tell us about a shortcut by doing short and long hands!
We weren't sure if we would make it to Zhending, a pretty long ride, but a little man who sold us two drinks after lunch told us it would be about 3 hours cycling and it was exactly that. We hit the town just as we started to run out of daylight after riding through the busiest rush hour ever, with hundreds of bikes everywhere. Total traffic!
Friday 9th September 2005
Zhending to Zhaoxian 41.7 miles (233 miles)
Longxing Si
Cycling:Flat, busy, dusty and headwind
Noodles $0.50
Zhaozhou Hotel $12.50
We spent the morning wandering around the peaceful and serene complex of Longxing Si Buddhist Temple. The temple buildings house a two-faced Buddha and a 20-metre bronze statue of Guanyin among other artefacts but we were most appreciative of the calming willow trees and bridges in the surrounding gardens. Signs everywhere tell you to enjoy the gardens, especially ifyou are going to be cycling on to Shijiazhuang.
Shijiazhuang is the biggest city we have crossed since Beijing, a sprawling mass of buildings and commerces everywhere. And so many people. There were even people congregating under the supports of flyovers. We also found where all the manhole covers that disappear from British streets end up.
We found a hotel which seemed a little pricey in Zhaoxian but the locals haggled on our behalf!
Saturday 10th September 2005
Zhaoxian to ? 53.7 miles (277 miles)
Killer Hebei Pears
Cycling:Flat, busy, dusty
Zhaozhou Bridge $3
Que Shan Hotel $16.50
The sun stayed buried in its blanket of pollution for a long time this morning. China has 9 out of 10 of the most polluted cities in the world. Today, sadly, some of the bigger rivers we crossed smelt of raw sewage and by the time we finished for the day even our hair seemed to be caked in dust.
We visited the oldest bridge in China (1400yrs) and probably the priciest, then travelled west to rejoin the 107 road. A lady handed us a pear each from a tractor window. Grown in the area, they are huge, hard but very juicy, although perhaps not the best thing for cycling as we had to keep stopping along the road after eating them! The Chinese do use some suspicious fertilizers though.
We seemed to attract a crowd everywhere we stopped today and even found that people could say "sit down, please" and "thankyou very muchy."
The funny thing is that after we point to words in our phrasebook in Chinese, people think that we can understand and read the characters in Chinese so they write things down for us or draw in the dirt with chopsticks. Of course, we are none the wiser. However, today we did get good food, negotiate a reduction of 20yuan on the hotel and find an internet café. Two little girls also asked if I would be their friend forever. I said I would do my best.
We walked back from the internet in the dark, stopping to watch what people do for Saturday night entertainment .... line-dancing outside the supermarket. Women young and old danced set moves to crackly rave music outside two supermarkets. We think they chose to dance outside large stores as they are open late and have the most powerful illuminated shop fronts. They attracted a crowd anyway.
We are enjoying this road and our first introduction to China and it has given us time to acclimatise, get used to ourbilingual navigating and learn a few words. But soon we'll be keen to see some mountains and escape the smog and noise of the busy lowlands.
Sunday 11th September 2005
To Handan 54.45 miles (332 miles)
The Food Day
Cycling:Flat (we need some hills!) and very dusty
Noodles $0.50
Jinshan Hotel $12
Chinese Feast $4
Food played an important part in our adventures today. First we had a free breakfast at the hotel of a slippery kind of porridge, an egg, some uncooked bread/dumpling paste and some grated vegetable in chilli and vinegar. Then almost the entire hotel staff waved us off.
At lunch we stopped for delicious noodle soup. A young chef worked the noodle paste, separating it into individual strings at a little place on the side of the road. We shyly asked if we could take a photo but before long, the chef and his friends were taking pictures of us too with their mobile phone cameras. I think the chef was really pleased we were so interested in his food preparation and he loved Ben's sequence of action photos showing the different stages of him twisting and separating the dough. We left with a good feeling, although I sometimes wish we had brought our polaroid after all to give people a photo gift.
In Handan, we tried to phone home but our efforts were in vain as the phone centre wasn't international. We decided to have food, before an early night, at a restaurant to break our usual habit of instant noodles. We have taken to eating them a little too often as they are quick, easy and mean we don't get stared at too much at the end of a long day cycling. Cheating a bit really.
After a few minutes of pointing at photos of food and our phrasebook, we ended up with a set menu banquet which diners normally cook themselves in two vats of boiling soup placed in the middle of the table on a heater. That is diners who have an idea of what to do with what and in what order. Of course, not having the faintest clue, we received special treatment and the waitresses buzzed around us cooking our ham, eggs, rice noodles and chinese lettuce for us. Once I even got told when to wipe my mouth! But it was really good food and all eaten with a delicious peanut paste. We could get used to this!
Monday 12th September 2005
Handan to Anyang 40.5 miles (372 miles)
The Mouse That Woke The Cyclists
Cycling:Still flat and dusty. Power stations loom on the horizon, shrouded in the smokey air.
Zhongyuan Hotel $10
Internet $0.50
Bakery $1
After a relatively short distance of cycling today, we stopped in Anyang at a hotel next to a giant pagoda in our guidebook. We were pleased to find our cheapest room so far but didn't read further into our guide summary of it being in the "lively part of town." This meant there was no end to the tractor engines, squeaky brakes, horns and people singing and shouting outside our window. Even at 3am, the noise was still very impressive. Then a little rustle of our bag of buns told us we might have a non-paying guest with us too! The little Chinese mouse had to be the least discrete ever and made just as much racket running about disturbing things. At first I don't think Ben believed me but eventually he caught a glimpse of the little "mouse" on our top case. I like to call him a little mouse but we both know he looked more like a huge rat in the dark room! In the morning I gave his chair home a knock to wake him up too. We'll be wary of cheap rooms from now on.
Tuesday 13th September 2005
Anyang to Xinxiang 61.37 miles (434 miles)
The Sign
Cycling:See past 5 days.
Huaxin Hotel $15
Noodles $0.60
Dinner noodles $1.50
Every morning we collect our room deposit before leaving the hotel. You must pay a deposit in China in case you are tempted to steal anything from the room. Sometimes the hotel politely lists the prices of potential souvenirs like, the pair of rubber slippers and the flask of hot water which is always provided for tea (and sometimes for washing with!). But we have even seen a price listed for the television, in case "you want to take it as a souvenir." Pinch at your peril, basically.
I stood waiting for my deposit, daring myself to try to tell the hotel about the mouse. I could picture myself squeaking and doing little scratching gestures infront of the puzzled staff and decided against telling them. We confuse people enough here as it is.
Back on the bike, we were quickly depressed by our surroundings. Inspite of this being the start of the autumn harvest, with acres upon acres of bright cold corn spread out to dry in every available space, it only barely brightened the smoky grey countryside. My nose stang with soot and I needed a hankerchief wrapped round my face to stop breathing so much dust. I cannot believe how people can live in such a polluted environment and the fact that the area is mainly agricultural makes the sooty atmosphere even eerier. We both felt fed up but kept our heads down and pedalled through the smog. Incredibly, the people we saw were all dressed in immaculately clean clothes. How do they get their whites so white?
In Hebi, we stopped for a break and a cold drink and even saw a Chinese-made Giant tandem being given a test ride. We were quickly surrounded by about twenty people staring curiously at us. Luckily a funny little man appeared with two dogs pulling two bird cages on a strange support contraption. We have no idea what the point was but his was a friendly face in an audience of strange looks.
At lunch, the same thing happened. In Qi Xiaa, we picked the noodle stand with the loudest proprietor who kept shouting and pointing at us while we tried to eat quietly. We could hear her telling the gathering crowd very loudly that we were from France and England but when we did try to speak to her, she did her best not to understand. This seemed to be to make the crowd laugh but was very annoying.
Then by chance, we spotted a deaf man using sign language to communicate to us. We managed to tell the man where we started, where we were going, timescales and even that we preferred hills to flat. We all understood every word. It was so refreshing and uplifting to talk to the man and he was very patient and positive. He is the first to understand our Chinese! He reminded me of the thoughtful people we have met in the villages who shyly approach after we have finished eating and with whom we can talk through very slow words and gestures. In the towns today, we felt a bit like performing bears in a zoo.
But this deaf man made all the difference today. I realised that although the traffic noise had been driving me crazy all morning, it was at least important that I could hear it. The afternoon was much the same with hard, dirty air but I had at least learnt a lesson in appreciating our good health and getting to know Chinese curiosity.
Wednesday 14th September 2005
Xinxiang to Zhengzhou 72.6miles (506 miles)
Crossing the Yellow River
Cycling:Lost the 107 which turns into an expressway so took small country roads to the west. Crossing the Yellow River into Zhengzhou is busy but interesting
Golden sunshine Hotel $16.50
Sweetcorn - free (a nice lady gave them to us)
Feeling a lot more positive after a restful night, we crossed the pleasant, modern, open city of Xinxiang as morning activities were starting up. We didn't get monumentally lost but due to the reliable 107 road turning into an expressway, it was 30 miles before we knew where we were on the map! Quite an achievement in navigational incompetence. As it happens, we were better off adding 20km of detour to our route to take the smaller country roads, after all. Instead of the busy motorway, we got to ride along quieter tree-lined roads and through vibrant villages. We watched the corn turn to fields of wheat and rice and then to vast fish pools nourished by the Yellow River.
The bridge that crosses Huang He is about 5kmlong. Henan is a rich agricultural area thanks to the Yellow River, although it is called "China's Sorrow," due to its tendancy to flood. The vast bridge seems quite unnecessary today, spanning a river which is probably just a trickle of its former self.
As we cleared the bridge and contemplated our approach into Zhengzhou city, a very old man with a stick approached us. He had a weathered face and a typical short collared Chinese shirt. I wondered what nougat of wisdom, this old sage would pass onto us. But even my rough Mandarin could translate what we said: "How much is that bike worth, then?"
Thursday 15th September 2005
Zhengzhou - Day off
The Walled City
Cycling:Bus ride to Kaifeng, walled city
Bus tickets $9
Last night we conducted an experiment and we now know we can wedge the tandem vertical into a hotel lift. The hotel tried to convince us to put the bike in an underground public carpark but we would rather have slept down there ourselves than risk anything happening to the tandem. So after the longest check-in ever, we (all 3 of us) made ourselves at home in the room.
Thanks to a young girl in the bus queue, we bought two tickets to Kaifeng while the people further behind us got a little frustrated by our translating routine. As we said thankyou, she said "Welcome to China," and I wanted to put her in my pocket to help us later on. I know that most of our conversations with locals go something like this:
Chinese cyclist/chef/local: "Where are you from?"
Us: "Anyang."
Chinese: "Oh, you're going to Anyang. Where did you start out?"
Us: "France and England."
Chinese: "Crikey you've cycled from there. That must have taken a while?"
Us: "29 and 30 years."
Chinese: "What? Oh, that's your ages!"
Us: "Beijing, 7 days."
We wandered the grey streets of Kaifeng, willing the clouds and fog to lift to improve our photography. We followed part of the wall and saw the market next to the temple but we didn't want to pay to go inside Da Xiangguo Si. Before leaving, we stocked up on satsumas and bananas. We always prefer fruit you can peel. Both Kaifeng and Zhengzhou are awash with bright stands selling moon cakes ready for the Mid-Autumn festival this Sunday.
Henan province is home to 93 million Chinese and as the bus pulled into Zhengzhou, it seemed like most of them were in this expansive city. It even seems busier than Beijing, especially without the open spaces and parks in the capital. It was nice to gaze out the window and watch city life unfolding.
Friday 16th September 2005
Zhengzhou to Shaolin Si 59miles (565 miles)
Chinese Gumball
Cycling:Flat out of the provincial capital, then up and down (but mostly up) all the way to Shaolin at 500m. Weather still foggy and getting chilly
Water $2 (only hot water at hotel)
Room at Dharma Hall $10
Food $4
Today we were amazed to see our first cycle-tourers, but then even more impressed to see they were Chinese. Two seventy year olds who we think were going to Shaolin after 15 days cycling from Jiangsu province. At least that could be what they said.
They were immaculately dressed in beige slacks and shorts, nice shoes and matching t-shirts. And they had the same yellow helmets. We took some photos and as they pedalled off, we felt a little envious of them; being able to understand signs and maps and most of all, people, must be great.
After our now-habitual stretch routine, we caught them up again and went past waving but then gradually we came across more and more neatly dressed, veteran cyclists. An entire fleet of elderly cyclists, each with the same logo on their t-shirt, baseball hat or flag was pedalling along calmly in front of us. I have not often seen Ben so excited and we spent the day catching them up, overtaking and then Ben thinking of an excuse to stop so they would catch us up, Ben could wave them past and then we would start the whole process again. They were impressive cyclists too. Although they carefully slid off the saddles at the foot of the steep hills, ready to push up, they kept a constant steady rhythm. One happy old mangave usa run for our money and then eventually overtook us and beat us to Dengfeng!
The road was interesting today too. We loved the hills after so long on the flat and passed lots of outdoor workshops where lions were being carved out of stone tobring good fortune to the householders who place them at the front door. We also passed one of the region's famous cave dwellings; a house cut into the sandstone cliff edge which even had a dark, little cave shop attached, so we stopped for a drink and an excuse to peer in.
In Dengfeng, we caught up with the rest of the now huge group of cyclists. We wanted to ask two ladies where they were from and how many cyclists there were in the group but this caused panic within the group of people that were assembled to watch us. Thinking we were lost as we pointed to the map to try to establish where the ladies had cycled from, the gathered townspeople started taking the maps off us to try to show us where we already knew we were. Trying to explain we just wanted to "chat" to the cyclists made everything even more complicated. Who were these strange, lost foreigners who kept pointing at these poor ladies? Couldn't they understand they were in Dengfeng? And why did they keep saying No?
Eventually, after more people pointed to the ground and pointed to Dengfeng on the map to try to "help" us, someone eventually passed Ben a taxi radio with a woman's helpful voice on the other end asking in polite English: "Where do you want to go?"
An older gentleman came over who had a good grasp of English and we managed to ask him how many cyclists there were in the group. The only problem was, he told us 11. We could count at least 30 in front of us so it was then we decided to give up on our conversation with the cycle tourers. We were a little upset not to be able to communicate with our pedalling commrades without inciting mass panic but waving and shouting hello or "ni hao" turned out to be a lot better for everyone.
We saw other groups of retired cyclists on the road to the temple, some with an excrutiating level of focus and concentration on their faces. Some didn't even notice the double bike with foreigners shouting hello on the opposite side of the road! I find that in China, local cyclists and pedestrians are often like this and if a horn goes off behind them, they continue walking straight ahead without turning round or reacting. Ben says it is better for them to keep their trajectory and the vehicle horn is normally just to tell them someone is nearby. But I think it seems a little zombified to not have a natural instinct to react.
Still, now that today has been hilly, the local cyclists have disappeared and we are back Kings of the Road again - apart from all these retired cyclists that overtake us, of course. We just have to keep out of the way of the tractor-like lawnmowers that people drive about on as they are very, very slow, especially when we are going downhill.
Dengfeng has kungfu schools everywhere. Hundreds and hundreds of brightly coloured tracksuits practice their synchronised kicks and spins in front of modern temples. Everything that is choreographed in a group looks brilliant, even if it is not quite as authentic as the real Shaolin and some of the children at the back tend to muck about a bit.
We finally made it to the temple after a good distance of hills and decided to stay at the biggest school, Dharma Hall. This would give us an early start for a temple visit in the morning, probably a good idea as the touts out on the road had already started to hassle us for guesthouses when we arrived. They can be quite persistent.
The school is a different and interesting place to stay and quite exciting as you get to see some early morning practice from the windows. Little excited red tracksuits buzz around everywhere but at 10pm until the speakers howl at 5am, the hundreds of residents are all fast asleep. We were lacking a shower but got well-fed from an English menu - what a bonus!
Saturday 17th September 2005
Shaolin Si to Luoyang 41.15miles (607 miles)
Kung Fu Fighting
Cycling:Sharp downhill from Shaolin, nice views. Then flat to Luoyang, via Baima Si - very relaxed and pretty town. Not a cloud today
Shaolin entrance $25
T-shirt $2
Hotel $8.50
15 minute phonecall - $7
Noodles $0.45
As all the trainee monks started practicing this morning, we continued our kung fu pilgrimage to Shaolin Si Temple, a few steps from the school. We were among the first arrivals so at least for the first hour, things were pretty quiet. The temple was not as serene as Longxing Si; a lot of doors were locked so we didn't feel as free to wander. Furthermore some of the renovations have been made as recently as 2004, so there is a newness to the place which may remove some of the authenticity. But we were happy to see Damo's stone, with an imprint of the monk after he spent nine years meditating against it. We saw a brick floor with large dents in the surface from constant pummeling feet. And we also soaked up the atmosphere watching a monk get his head shaved and another high kicking a rubbish bin. So we were more than happy.
The Pagoda Forest is full of interestingly shaped shrines which look impressive against the hills behind. From quite a distance, you can make out an enormous white buddha on the highest peak. By the time we got there though, it was swamped with Chinese tourists bustling for their photos.
We made ourway to the Kung Fu demonstration next, not even realising it was part of the ticket price. In China, there are funny translations of the most complicated details of te history of stonework but never a sign to explain what you are paying for or where you should go; the basic things that tourists like to know. Perhaps if you are on a tour, you don't notice these things but when you try to do things on your own, it can get confusing sometimes.
The Shaolin monks martial arts performance made our visit. They were amazing. We were the only Gringos in the hall watching and I told the lady next to us that I was very excited. She didn't understand me but I could tell she was too. Ben missed the very start of the show because he was watching a videoof us on her camcorder! Sometimes, we are the celebrities here!
Firstly, the monks arrived on the small stage making as much noise as possible and shaking their heads and limbs as fast as possible. They did things like front flips on their heads; throwing nails through glass, without it shattering, to pop a balloon on the other side and jumping into the splits like James Brown. One monk balanced his body on a spear tip and was spun round and others performed amazing feats of elasticity. There was also the classic pushing spears into throats and crowd-pleasing spinning in mid air. It was brilliant. It was so full of energy (and shouting) that it almost tookmy breath away and I felt quite exhausted at the end. Even though Ben said some of the flips were "just physics," I saw him ooh and ahh plenty of times all the way through.
Strangely enough, a lot of Chinese talked all the way through and some even pushed past us to get to free seats, minutes before the end. There are no rules of politeness and decorum in China.
There were no real-life fights and they didn't play the 70s disco classic Kung Fu Fighting, but it was excellent fun and well worth our 100 yuan.
I didn't mention that today was our first blue-sky day since Beijing so we were very happy. Back on the bike after all the Shaolin fun, we sped down out of the scenic area hills and had great views over the valley, which we have also been yearning for. The road to Luoyang also passes plenty of different types of temples and monasteries. We didn't visit any after Shaolin but it made for an interesting ride. There are also some very famous caves in Luoyang but we gave them a miss too.
Later, I found us a room, almost without the help of the phrasebook and even managed to phone home. Then we had street noodles and watched hyperactive kids jumping off a wall. Kung Fu action right up to bedtime!
Sunday 17th September 2005
Luoyang to Mienxi 42miles (649 miles)
The Moon Festival
Cycling:Gentle hills back up to 400m
Hotel $7.50 (getting cheaper)
Pack of ten chopsticks - 50 cents
Bread 12 cents
This evening, the Chinese can eat their beautifully packaged moon cakes and gaze up at the moon to celebrate the mid-Autumn festival. There was a holiday feeling in Luoyang as we left, as people lined the pavements to play badminton and a variation where youkick a feathered shuttle-cock type object over a net.
Before arriving in Mienxi, we attracted our biggest crowd ever at a drinks stop. About forty people peered at us, then the bike, then back at us. Chinese people don't like to be the centre of attention but they don't mind making you it.We never meet any joker characters that like to stand out either but they don't mind making a circus of two foreigners on a tandem! Anyway, this means we are now aiming for 50 spectators for our next crowd. I also told Ben he will have to do some juggling or something for real entertainment for our audiences.
In the evening, there were fireworks and haunting Chinese music melodies but we had to watch and listen with the window open as I couldn't find the festivities buried somewhere in the crowded housing of Mienxi.
Monday 17th September 2005
Mienxi to Lingbao 70.15miles (719 miles)
Cave Neighbourhoods
Cycling:Very hilly with cold mist first. Down to Sanmenxia with sunshine, then after crossing the Yellow River (300m) we climbed back up to 400m, through the rain
Garden Hotel $14
Noodles $1
According to our guidebook, 1 million Chinese live in cave homes carved into cliffs and hills. Warmer in winter and cooler in summer, the ones we saw today had elaborate facades and medieval-shaped arched entrances. Very cute but pretty dark inside.
After a photostop with a Chinese motorbiker from Xi'an (and his enormous pooch passenger) the maize fields started to become coal mines and then maize again, then apple orchards. At lunch we stopped to eat at a selection of dusty tents in front of a factory. We used our chopsticks which we bought yesterday to try to reduce the amount of disposable wood we use everyday. In the chopsticks shop, a little girl had bright red chicks in a shoebox. Ben asked how they came to be red and the woman did a sort of spray paint gesture. I hoped she was joking.
Anyway, I hoped the people outside the factory didn't find our personal chopsticks too posh. But then I realised that if we were posh, we wouldn't be eating there in a dusty tent anyway. A man asked us what our names were and we told him but then we asked his name and he just kept repeating: "what is your name, please?" Well, nearly there, we thought.
Forour last stop before Lingbao, we reached our target audience of 50 villagers and did our best to entertain them with our vocabulary of two Chinese words. Luckily, they were more than entertained by our water bags and a demonstration of the kilometer counter. After the rain, I felt the air getting warmer but soon I realised that it was just interested bodies edging in on us.
Ben bought four flatbreads, declining the pork meat that usually goes with them. Last night, we asked at a shop for bread and got offered sausage and then egg. When the shopkeepers little daughter came in, she was surprised to find the buns she was carrying taken off her and given to two pale, round-eyed foreigners. Charming! But sometimes our survival instincts in China mean we have to take food from little children, especially when we don't know the words!
Tuesday 20th September 2005
Lingbao to Hua Shan 64miles (783 miles)
Dodging Haystacks
Cycling:More hills than yesterday, especially afternoon but less coal dust and much better views. Arrived at Hua Shan in another rainstorm.
Guesthouse $9
Fruit (bananas, kiwi, grapes) - 50 cents
Noodles and Bread $1.20
There were lots of children along the road today to cheer us along. At a tiny nursery school, chubby little feet jumped up and down and fingers pointed excitedly at us. If children are shy, they wait until we've passed by and then giggle really loudly. Girls with pigtails laugh into their cupped hands, boys look amazed and confused and pull at their friends sleeves without taking their beady eyes off us. Even small babies seem to notice us from the safety of their parents' arms. People dote on their children and babies are always centre of attention. That could be because they don't wear nappies though. They have a slit cut into their trousers so they can do their business in peace at anytime, but it does also mean that they have to be surveyed, just to know when "anytime" is.
We noticed today how everyone gets involved in village work. Whether its the different stages of drying corn, boxing orange fruit or working grain, even the oldest, tiniest grandmothers can be seen participating. The road is used as a base for this work and we have never seen so many haystacks anywhere on our travels as today, and not spread across the roads either. Then there is also the grain and corn and rice spread out on the road, sometimes placed so that cars will drive over it to release the pockets of seeds or grain. There is a lot of activity this time of year but with so many mouths to feed and only 20% of the land cultivatable, its no wonder.
In Hua Shan village, there are tons of guesthouses to choose from and just as many people to help you make your choice. I didn't feel hungry all evening after our best lunch yet in a tent in a village. It was soup cooked and served in the same piping hot clay pot with spinach, veggies and oyster mushrooms. Delicious!
Wednesday 21st September 2005
Hua Shan to Lintong 56.3miles (840 miles)
Cigarette Break
Cycling:Fairly flat. Drizzle at first then drying out. But very foggy all day.
Jinhao Hotel $16.5
Street noodles fried with egg $1.2
We had only been half planning a trip up the sacred mountain of Hua Shan, so when the rain continued through the night and into the morning, we weren't too disapointed. After all, we were close to the Terracota Army now anyway.
So we got back on the bike with a quick glipse at the limestone mountain towering over the town, a mountain which we couldn't see yesterday in the thick mist.
At lunch, we ate our noodles while we watched a puncture getting repaired. Both the repair man and the cyclist chain smoked one after another. The hole was repaired with an old piece of innertube and two sides of vulcanising glue. Old school style.
Thursday 22nd September 2005
Lintong to Xian 21.7 miles (861 miles)
Bingmayong
Cycling:Fairly flat and busy. All urbanised. Bumpy.
Shangde Hotel $10
Army of Terracotta Warriors $22 (for 2)
Fruit (pomagranite, apples, satsumas, bananas) $1
My new little friend, Wen Di, told us last night that the Terracotta Army site was hudge and it would be tricky to park the bike. So we got the early bus with all the suited tour guides and left the tandem at the hotel. Wen Di was right. The whole complexis massive and after two weeks of practically no tourists, we were amazed by the sheer number of visitors. Apart from seeing one scary group of Chinese tourists with their red caps dashing across the meuseum to get to an exhibition which hadn't actually moved in 2000 years, the whole place had an air of calm and in the famous pit 1, there is room for everyone.
Youcan now take photos of the soldiers so Ben was our designated photographer while I scanned the army. Every face and every hairstyle is different. I spottedtwo similar soldiers but Ben said they were probably brothers. The details are fascinating too and there is movement in the clothes no matter how solemn the soldiers look. In the past 30 years, 2000 of the 6000 warriors and horses have been excavated. But the most amazing thing of all is that the Emperor Qin commissioned the army to be built in the first place to watch over his tomb!
Wedidn't get spared bythecrazy souvenir sellers outside who seem to almost drag at your ankles as you try to walk away.
Backat the hotel, Wen Di was walking back from school and I passed her my book so she could practice her English. Iinstantly regretted giving her the book though as some parts are quite shocking. I don't like to think I have corrupted a nice helpful girl.
We made the short ride to Xian ingood time but didmanage to ride intoa dozy pedestrian on the way. Luckily, noone was hurt in the slightest but the incident reminded me of what I said earlier about traffic and pedestrians in China.Sometimes, you just can't make people react.We stocked up on juicy fruit too after being tempted by endless orchards of pomagranite. Lintong is such an interesting town and area, I was glad we had made a stop here and not just bussed across from Xian. The express road is not half as interesting.
We got to a friendly, English speaking hotel, tucked behind the walls of Xian, just as I was getting frayed nerves from crazy cars and busses. But at least we have arrived. Almost a third of our cycling milage completed and a third of our visa used. So we should be right on schedule.
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