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China/Qinzhou Adventure travel 2008
We woke to a rainy, misty morning but anxious to move on, we rode out of town. The road was fairly nice, little villages along the way marked with names in English (bamboo village, ancient prosperous village, etc). These were all located off the road along dirt byways. We knew we faced a lot of climbing in our day so we didn’t linger at these sights. We passed the Tropic of Cancer somewhere along the road (can’t read Chinese). We passed Jintian, the location of the Tiaping Uprisings in 1851, but again, we peddled right on by. A few kilometers and the scenery began to change: mountains, some karsts, some just big, all of them high. The steady mist drifted in and out of the canyons. Rivers flowed into dams; the hillsides had been forested and re-planted many times. The smells of pine, cinnamon and fragrant flowering tees were a welcome change from the ripe odors we’ve been accustomed to along the main roads. There was next to no traffic. Our lunch stop was a noodle stall that served the tastiest soup we’ve had so far in China. Things are looking up!
Up was the word, 15 to 18kms we meandered through the green mountainsides. Lumbering and milling logs kept the local villages busy. The smell of the cut wood was powerful. The mountain mist kept us cool although our Burley rain jackets are wearing out so we got wet as well. We came across many landslides on this newly constructed highway. Some of the slides were so large they almost closed the road! Soon we came upon our first tunnel under construction. No sweat we rode through as it as short. The next tunnel looked more foreboding: dark and long with construction equipment at the entrance and no lights. We had passed a warning sign earlier so we decided to take the construction road or I should say narrow single lane, rocky, steep trail to bypass the tunnel. We ended up walking and pushing Bici in some hair raising sections, finally working our way back up to the highway. No sooner had we started off again that we ran into another tunnel. This one was closed and under construction with no bypass. We had to turn around and return to our starting point for the day for a total of 70miles/115km.
We were dead tired but were able to get the same hotel room as last night. We went to the same restaurant and ended up having a wonderful dinner. All’s well that ends well.
PS: The road we took today was clearly marked as a major highway on the two different maps we have been using to plot our route north. One wonder at the mind set of the Chinese map makers who include roads under construction and not finished as completed highways. We will certainly have to try and check to see in the future if the routes we are choosing as passable!
April 24 China/WuXuan Adventure travel 2008 >
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April 20 China/Guiping Adventure travel 2008
Up was the word, 15 to 18kms we meandered through the green mountainsides. Lumbering and milling logs kept the local villages busy. The smell of the cut wood was powerful. The mountain mist kept us cool although our Burley rain jackets are wearing out so we got wet as well. We came across many landslides on this newly constructed highway. Some of the slides were so large they almost closed the road! Soon we came upon our first tunnel under construction. No sweat we rode through as it as short. The next tunnel looked more foreboding: dark and long with construction equipment at the entrance and no lights. We had passed a warning sign earlier so we decided to take the construction road or I should say narrow single lane, rocky, steep trail to bypass the tunnel. We ended up walking and pushing Bici in some hair raising sections, finally working our way back up to the highway. No sooner had we started off again that we ran into another tunnel. This one was closed and under construction with no bypass. We had to turn around and return to our starting point for the day for a total of 70miles/115km.
We were dead tired but were able to get the same hotel room as last night. We went to the same restaurant and ended up having a wonderful dinner. All’s well that ends well.
PS: The road we took today was clearly marked as a major highway on the two different maps we have been using to plot our route north. One wonder at the mind set of the Chinese map makers who include roads under construction and not finished as completed highways. We will certainly have to try and check to see in the future if the routes we are choosing as passable!
