We arrived in Pingyuo at lunchtime and had some soup in a cafe that served such delicacies as 'fried mushrooms with rape', pulls out rottenly' and 'cold vegetable in sauce cow tendons'! We found a hostel then looked around the town. I bought a fan and tried to negotiate a good price for a replica little red book.
We wondered around, although it was a touristy town, it also had a lot of normal people going about their lives in the old walled town. It had a great atmosphere. Needless to say we spent most of our time eating. We had a huge feast in the cheapest place we could find, mainly consisting of pork dumplings. In the evening we chilled out and played pool at the hostel. Neither of us got 7 balled, which was a good job cos the forfeit would have been running around the table with out trousers down!
The next day we left early and found a little family run cafe for breakfast. We left in the rain along the G108, a road we'd be following for the next few days. We had lunch in a posh restaurant and chose the cheapest food on the menu then left again in the pouring rain. It finally stopped in the evening and we found a wood next to a motorway to camp in. There was a huge que of lorries backed up on the motorway for ages, must have been an accident, but was difficult to sleep with the headlights and noise.
The next morning I turned 25! October 11th. It wasn't a particularly memorable day. We spent it riding on the motorway. We'd covered 50 miles by lunch, which we had in Yangquan. An English headmistress took us to a cheap booked place where we had soup, then we went nextdoor and stuffed our faces with pork dumplings!
We carried our bikes back onto the motorway trying to avoid the numerous human poos left by the truck drivers stuck in track jams. It was seriously disgusting. We sorted our way though a que of trucks waiting for a toll gate and darted between them stealthily to avoid being seen by the police and chucked off the motorway. We spent the afternoon on the motorway, got another 45 miles done then left it at a small town called Janxing. We found a great shop, bought dumplings for dinner, loads of snacks, rice wine and beer to celebrate birthday and candles. We left to find a place to camp and were rewarded with the best campsite of the trip so far. We found a ruined Buddhist temple carved out of a cliff. We climbed up and lifted our bikes into a cave. There were statues there, their faces had been defaced, probably by Muslims raiding the temples, like in the caves we saw in Dunhuang. We made dinner, lit the candles and table rice wine. Fantastic birthday evening!
In the morning I spent a while readjusting the spokes in my back wheel. It wasn't quite right after I rebuilt it in Xi'an. It had rained all night so it was good to be in the Buddhist cave. What wasn't good was that the road was now covered in a thick layer of wet coal dust, which we got covered in very quickly.
We whizzed downhill to Shijiazhung (very hard to pronounce when asking for directions!!) where we joined the motorway. We followed the motorway to bypass the city. After 35 miles we stopped at a service station which had an amazing all-you-can-eat buffet. We went to town on it and ate about 3x as much as anyone else there! We also managed to slip a plastic bag full of duck into my handlebar bag. We carried on along the motorway and got chucked off by the police at Gaocheng. We ate the duck sitting on a wall and fed the scraps to puppy. We got on to the G307, the last road in China, it would take us to the coast. We camped in an orchard that night, really nice campsite.
The next couple of days we followed the G307 all the way to the coast. Had some really cheap food. Dim sun for about 60p for a massive bowl of them. The road followed the motorway on the last afternoon. We passed huge sand flats and tidal channels and could smell the sea. We had fun blocking the narrow road to see how long it took to get honked at (not long).
Web passed harbours, boats then arrived at the port of Hunhuang and cycles East to try to find away to the sea. We ended up at a dead end at a power plant and they wouldn't let us through. We attacked about 5 miles against a strong headwind. I realised it was possible we weren't gonna be able to get to the sea, which would have been a massive shame. We asked around using a picture of the sea, nobody knew where to go. Eventually we explained to a couple of guys that we'd crossed the whole country and we wanted to get the coast. They smiled and told us to follow them. They got in a minivan and drove at bike pace for 6 miles. We finally reached the sea. It was an amazing feeling. I put my bike in the water, we'd made it all the way from England to the other side of China! 2 continents crossed, one to go. Phil had cycled from Urumqi the city furthest away from any ocean in the world, to the sea.
We didn't have long to celebrate because we wanted to get a bus to Beijing. We got in the back of the van with the bikes, Phil's was half out the back door, we were holding on to it from inside! They drove us to the bus station. It turned out that there were no busses to Beijing that day but there was one very early the next day, which would get us in about 11. We went to look for a hotel but China wasn't finished with it's unbelievable restrictions and ridiculous rules yet!
It turned out we were in another city that was closed to foreigners. No hotel would take us except an official tourist one, which cost about 40 quid a night. We were taken to the police and we explained to an English speaking policeman that we had just cycled here and we needed a place to stay but we couldn't afford to stay in the expensive official hotel. He suggested we should stay in the expensive official hotel. Great! We asked if we could stay in the police station, he said no. We asked why tourists couldn't stay in cheap hotels. He said because that's the rules. We asked why is that the rules, he didn't know. He never questioned the rules and took them as gospel. Common sense had gone completely out of the window. Having read a great book (Wild Swans) about Mao's communist party that was still around until the 70s, it was obvious that despite China's massive recent development, some things would take a long time to change.
In the end we were offered a place to stay by one of the guys who had guided us to the coast for about 8 quid. Was strange to agree to pay for a room in someone's house after the unbelievable hospitality in Central Asia and Tibet but we were happy and the family cooked us a big meal!
The next day we took a bus to Beijing. We stayed in a cheap hostel near Tianammen Square. Mao's face still looks down from a big portrait having from the gate of the Forbidden City. I was really impressed by Beijing though, lovely atmosphere, much greener than expected and brilliant to cycle around.
We saw the Forbidden City, ate Peking Duck, packed our bikes away into boxes, took a bus out to the Great Wall (spectacular), then bought knives and meat cleavers as presents. Before we knew it it was time to leave China. Phil was flying back to blighty, I'm off to USA, flying to San Francisco for the next leg. I'm nearly home, just the small matter of crossing America. First though, a week off in San Fran with Laura. I haven't seen her for about 5 months, which is far too long! Can't wait.
China still hadn't finished making things difficult. We paid a guy 2 quid to take our stuff to a metro station on the back of his tried thing. He didn't take us all the way so we struggled with the bikes down to the metro. They wouldn't let us on, but a girl and a man who worked there helped us carry our bikes and get a taxi that wasn't a complete tourist rip off. We loaded the bikes and realised there was only room for one of us with the bikes so I got in and Phil took the metro. As soon as Phil left, the taxi driver could see I was stuck unless I took his car so increased his price by 2 quid. At the airport we were offered a new iphone 4 for about 100 dollars. Good deal, except no charger, the "malasian" guy selling it to us looked and spoke Chinese and he had blatently nicked it from someone.
It was a shame to leave China on that note. I was pleased to be leaving, looking forward to the next challenge but China was fantastic. Having spent 2 months there I got to know it more than any of the other countries. I saw different people, different religions, very varied landscapes and climates and probably learned more and gained more than any other part of the trip. It was also very difficult at times, with some of the crazy rules, and that was when I valued Phil's company the most. Alone, they would have been hard to deal with but with Phil they were just funny. We made a great team, so thanks for coming Phil!
2 continents down, 1 to go...
We wondered around, although it was a touristy town, it also had a lot of normal people going about their lives in the old walled town. It had a great atmosphere. Needless to say we spent most of our time eating. We had a huge feast in the cheapest place we could find, mainly consisting of pork dumplings. In the evening we chilled out and played pool at the hostel. Neither of us got 7 balled, which was a good job cos the forfeit would have been running around the table with out trousers down!
The next day we left early and found a little family run cafe for breakfast. We left in the rain along the G108, a road we'd be following for the next few days. We had lunch in a posh restaurant and chose the cheapest food on the menu then left again in the pouring rain. It finally stopped in the evening and we found a wood next to a motorway to camp in. There was a huge que of lorries backed up on the motorway for ages, must have been an accident, but was difficult to sleep with the headlights and noise.
The next morning I turned 25! October 11th. It wasn't a particularly memorable day. We spent it riding on the motorway. We'd covered 50 miles by lunch, which we had in Yangquan. An English headmistress took us to a cheap booked place where we had soup, then we went nextdoor and stuffed our faces with pork dumplings!
We carried our bikes back onto the motorway trying to avoid the numerous human poos left by the truck drivers stuck in track jams. It was seriously disgusting. We sorted our way though a que of trucks waiting for a toll gate and darted between them stealthily to avoid being seen by the police and chucked off the motorway. We spent the afternoon on the motorway, got another 45 miles done then left it at a small town called Janxing. We found a great shop, bought dumplings for dinner, loads of snacks, rice wine and beer to celebrate birthday and candles. We left to find a place to camp and were rewarded with the best campsite of the trip so far. We found a ruined Buddhist temple carved out of a cliff. We climbed up and lifted our bikes into a cave. There were statues there, their faces had been defaced, probably by Muslims raiding the temples, like in the caves we saw in Dunhuang. We made dinner, lit the candles and table rice wine. Fantastic birthday evening!
In the morning I spent a while readjusting the spokes in my back wheel. It wasn't quite right after I rebuilt it in Xi'an. It had rained all night so it was good to be in the Buddhist cave. What wasn't good was that the road was now covered in a thick layer of wet coal dust, which we got covered in very quickly.
We whizzed downhill to Shijiazhung (very hard to pronounce when asking for directions!!) where we joined the motorway. We followed the motorway to bypass the city. After 35 miles we stopped at a service station which had an amazing all-you-can-eat buffet. We went to town on it and ate about 3x as much as anyone else there! We also managed to slip a plastic bag full of duck into my handlebar bag. We carried on along the motorway and got chucked off by the police at Gaocheng. We ate the duck sitting on a wall and fed the scraps to puppy. We got on to the G307, the last road in China, it would take us to the coast. We camped in an orchard that night, really nice campsite.
The next couple of days we followed the G307 all the way to the coast. Had some really cheap food. Dim sun for about 60p for a massive bowl of them. The road followed the motorway on the last afternoon. We passed huge sand flats and tidal channels and could smell the sea. We had fun blocking the narrow road to see how long it took to get honked at (not long).
Web passed harbours, boats then arrived at the port of Hunhuang and cycles East to try to find away to the sea. We ended up at a dead end at a power plant and they wouldn't let us through. We attacked about 5 miles against a strong headwind. I realised it was possible we weren't gonna be able to get to the sea, which would have been a massive shame. We asked around using a picture of the sea, nobody knew where to go. Eventually we explained to a couple of guys that we'd crossed the whole country and we wanted to get the coast. They smiled and told us to follow them. They got in a minivan and drove at bike pace for 6 miles. We finally reached the sea. It was an amazing feeling. I put my bike in the water, we'd made it all the way from England to the other side of China! 2 continents crossed, one to go. Phil had cycled from Urumqi the city furthest away from any ocean in the world, to the sea.
We didn't have long to celebrate because we wanted to get a bus to Beijing. We got in the back of the van with the bikes, Phil's was half out the back door, we were holding on to it from inside! They drove us to the bus station. It turned out that there were no busses to Beijing that day but there was one very early the next day, which would get us in about 11. We went to look for a hotel but China wasn't finished with it's unbelievable restrictions and ridiculous rules yet!
It turned out we were in another city that was closed to foreigners. No hotel would take us except an official tourist one, which cost about 40 quid a night. We were taken to the police and we explained to an English speaking policeman that we had just cycled here and we needed a place to stay but we couldn't afford to stay in the expensive official hotel. He suggested we should stay in the expensive official hotel. Great! We asked if we could stay in the police station, he said no. We asked why tourists couldn't stay in cheap hotels. He said because that's the rules. We asked why is that the rules, he didn't know. He never questioned the rules and took them as gospel. Common sense had gone completely out of the window. Having read a great book (Wild Swans) about Mao's communist party that was still around until the 70s, it was obvious that despite China's massive recent development, some things would take a long time to change.
In the end we were offered a place to stay by one of the guys who had guided us to the coast for about 8 quid. Was strange to agree to pay for a room in someone's house after the unbelievable hospitality in Central Asia and Tibet but we were happy and the family cooked us a big meal!
The next day we took a bus to Beijing. We stayed in a cheap hostel near Tianammen Square. Mao's face still looks down from a big portrait having from the gate of the Forbidden City. I was really impressed by Beijing though, lovely atmosphere, much greener than expected and brilliant to cycle around.
We saw the Forbidden City, ate Peking Duck, packed our bikes away into boxes, took a bus out to the Great Wall (spectacular), then bought knives and meat cleavers as presents. Before we knew it it was time to leave China. Phil was flying back to blighty, I'm off to USA, flying to San Francisco for the next leg. I'm nearly home, just the small matter of crossing America. First though, a week off in San Fran with Laura. I haven't seen her for about 5 months, which is far too long! Can't wait.
China still hadn't finished making things difficult. We paid a guy 2 quid to take our stuff to a metro station on the back of his tried thing. He didn't take us all the way so we struggled with the bikes down to the metro. They wouldn't let us on, but a girl and a man who worked there helped us carry our bikes and get a taxi that wasn't a complete tourist rip off. We loaded the bikes and realised there was only room for one of us with the bikes so I got in and Phil took the metro. As soon as Phil left, the taxi driver could see I was stuck unless I took his car so increased his price by 2 quid. At the airport we were offered a new iphone 4 for about 100 dollars. Good deal, except no charger, the "malasian" guy selling it to us looked and spoke Chinese and he had blatently nicked it from someone.
It was a shame to leave China on that note. I was pleased to be leaving, looking forward to the next challenge but China was fantastic. Having spent 2 months there I got to know it more than any of the other countries. I saw different people, different religions, very varied landscapes and climates and probably learned more and gained more than any other part of the trip. It was also very difficult at times, with some of the crazy rules, and that was when I valued Phil's company the most. Alone, they would have been hard to deal with but with Phil they were just funny. We made a great team, so thanks for coming Phil!
2 continents down, 1 to go...
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