October 13 [1998] -- Tuesday -- 9:05 p.m.
Qing Yuan
First full day of biking, and Den and I went the entire 50 miles, together with five others from our group. We rode in the bus for a number of miles out of town, then unloaded the bikes and set out into the Chinese landscape. Fantastic day of sights, topped off with some exhaustion and a splitting headache the last two or three miles. The headaches evaporated as soon as we stopped biking and sat down nursing a beer!
The route was flat, much of it on the top of a river levee. We stopped a number of times for breaks, and were approached each time by curious locals.
October 14 -- Wednesday -- 6:25 a.m.
Qing Yuan
I conked out after writing one paragraph last night. Fifty miles caught up with me, along with ending the day playing several games of gin rummy -- which Denny is finally learning to like!
We began riding down tree-lined lanes, with only occasional trucks and motor scooters contesting us for the road. Everyone grins and shouts "Hello!" or "Hi!" Then up onto the top of the levee where we followed a path for some distance. We came down from the levee into a shady area where we stopped for lunch. Passers-by carrying loads on their shoulders or in push carts were popular subjects for photographs, and were rewarded by one of our group (Dick Zeiner) with Polaroid shots of themselves -- they were delighted. Denny and I took turns trying out Tom Richardson's recumbent bicycle -- too good an opportunity to miss. Denny took to it like a duck to water; I was a bit more wobbly.
By now it was 95 degrees and humid, and stayed that way the rest of the day. We passed through a number of towns. Most directional signs are in Chinese only, so it's a good thing we had a guide. (some of the signs on freeways are in English as well.)
We crossed the river on a small ferry, joining a mob of Chinese on bikes and motorbikes. The ferry crossing was a high point of the day. On the other side, we stopped at a small store and shelter - sort of an informal community center -- for cokes, and watched locals playing mah jong at a couple of tables. Money was changing hands, and our guide says that the Chinese are "very bad gamblers." About half of our group had got onto the bus by the time we reached the ferry, but most rejoined the active bikers for the final leg of the day's ride as we sailed onto a superhighway, went through a number of exchanges (cloverleafs), crossed a major bridge, and ended up here at this very nice, brand new hotel. Sitting here in bed, looking around me, I feel we could easily be in a Marriott Hotel in the U.S. -- spacious room and many amenities. On arrival, we traipsed into the lobby all hot and sweaty, and collapsed into the lobby lounge where we had beers before getting our rooms. Peking duck for dinner -- it's the skin that you eat, we discovered, wrapped in a kind of crêpe with onions and jam.
October 16 -- Friday --6:35 a.m.
Yangshan
After going 50 miles on Tuesday, Wednesday was an easy day. We rode some 30 or 40 miles in the van, and then biked almost six miles on back roads to our hotel in Jiu Long. Lucky, because after yesterday, I had a very sore butt!
Karst formations were now seen all over the place -- this area is called "Little Guilin." Our hotel was a pretty bleak concrete block -- only three years old and it looked like it had been around since the 1930s. Our room walls were chipped and stained. Many bugs and mosquitoes.
After settling in, we biked another couple of miles to the end of a little road where we had a picnic lunch, watched carefully by area children who materialized out of nowhere. Then we climbed aboard a couple of boats and were poled through an opening into the interior of a karst. Cool and silent, like a cathedral. We crossed the interior, dim and mysterious, under an opening to the sky in the karst high above. We then got out of the boats, and at this point Denny apparently moved his leg in an awkward manner and was immediately in pain. He thinks something has come loose inside the joint. Even so, he followed the rest of us up a path about half way to the top of the karst, where we had a view down through the interior of the karst to the water below. The karst seems to have been used as a fort by a band of bandits until the Communists came along and cleared them out.
Returned to our room for siestas, Denny returning in the van. Then about 4:30, we biked the opposite direction from town and took another short boat ride upstream a bit. We hiked through rice fields and pasture areas. Saw the friskiest calf I've ever seen -- he ran around like a dog. Denny's knee was bothering him badly.
Our destination was a karst formation with a cave in it, but the cave was closed when we arrived (there was a gate where admission was charged). A bunch of flags flying atop the karst marked a campsite set up by some boy scouts. We also visited a rather primitive collection of dwellings -- a tiny, densely populated village set in the middle of farmland. One of the men showed us his house, a dark room which we entered and inspected. Life here is obviously very basic. Zhi-Wei, our guide, says this "village" is centuries old. We returned to town, it being dark by the time we pulled onto the main street.
Jiu Long itself is a small, more typical village -- dirt streets, kind of run down buildings with small displays of fruits, drinks, household items -- the first we visited of what is turning out to be many similar small towns. They all have kind of a Mexican or other third world feel. Virtually no autos, lots of bikes, and quite a few motorcycles and scooters -- often occupied by a couple of teenaged boys buzzing around looking important. Kind of a post-war Italian feel. Lots of people in the streets, especially children playing. The children are extremely cute, usually smiling and laughing and often quite aggressively curious, joking around with us.
Yesterday, we left Jiu Long by bike -- another long day of cycling. Scenery was fantastic, with lots of interesting stuff to see along the road -- road workers, farmers, fishermen, small craftsmen. Before lunch, most roads were unpaved with some concrete strips which were being laid in places -- in a few years this will all be paved and much less fun to visit. We buzzed into one small town around lunch hour, and were mobbed by kids, all wearing inexpensive blazers as a uniform, and book bag backpacks. They were jumping on the backs of bikes to get rides and having quite a time. We are obviously like the circus when we come to town. Then up a hill and down a long incline at a pretty fast speed, all on unpaved rocky road, to our lunch stop down in the valley -- an exhilarating ride. I am delighted with the way the bike behaves on rough terrain -- the shocks obviously help a lot.
* * *
Today, we go into Yao country.
We biked for another four days, viewing varied types of countryside and cultures, ending up in Guilin. From Guilin, we flew to Guangzhou (Canton), where we stayed at the five-star White Swan Hotel, and toured the city. We returned by train the next day to Hong Kong.I'm glad we took this trip when we did, as China -- especially rural southern China -- was just making the transition from a poor agricultural country to a modern industrial state. I noted at several points in my journal my feeling that we were lucky to see this area when we did, because big changes were already under way. Although I suspect that many backwoods corners of the area still haven't changed much in the intervening 23 years.
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