Wan'an

So I got going in the morning on the 29th at around 8:30am - had a nice big breakfast to get me going for the day and such. My original goal was a township called Yanshi - around 25 km out of town, and on a fairly easy road - I thought that it would be a good chance for me to "break myself in" to life on the road - however, I got there in only 2 hours, and the locals suggested that I could keep going to another destination. However, at this point, I was feeling pretty tired, and if I had listened to my body, I would have stopped. However, the locals said that Baisha township was only 20 km away and that the road was pretty easy so that I should try to keep on going......I kept going for about an hour and then stopped off the side of the road to grab some lunch. I told the locals that I was planning on going to Baisha, and then on to Wan'an township the next day. At this point, I was feeling pretty tired, and eager to get anywhere just to have a break. One of the guys at the table next to me heard me, and told me that I should instead take a new road (which wasn't on my map) that went directly to Wan'an, and was a really good road to ride on. He said it was only about 20 km, and I could make it there easily.

So I was off to Wan'an. However I quickly learned two lessons:

1. Chinese people are extremely relative with their distances. When a Chinese person says that it is 10km, expect 20. And 20 is more like 40. And so on.
2. They also tend not to take into account elevation differences. Also, they don't know that I'm really a wimp.

Anyways, I kept going for about 5km, until I made it to the turnoff to Wan'an, and then got to the front gates off the road. There was a sign there that said "Wan'an 32km". Hmm.... At this point I was fairly exhausted, and I talked to the police people at the front of the gate about what the road was like, and they said that it was uphill almost the entire way. This was sounding worse all the time. To compound things, at that moment, the weather turned sunny. The weather forecast had actually been for rain, so I wasn't even sure I was going to go today, but it seemed nice enough in the morning, so I decided to head out. With the sun coming out, the temperature rose dramatically.

I began up the hill slowly - not biking at this point, but rather pushing my bike along the way. Every now and then someone would pass me with a look of pity on their face for the strange foreigner who was stuck going up a mountain on a bike. Sweat was pouring down my face, and it did not take long for me to drink the 3 water bottles that I had with me at the time. Luckily, after about 2 hours, I came upon a small shop that had more bottled water - I was beginning to think I would faint by the side. I bought three more bottles, and drank one on the spot and had a short rest for about half hour, chatting with them. The scenery was absolutely amazing - unfortunately, I did not take any pictures at all because the camera was at the very bottom of my pack (as was my sunscreen.....). At this shop, I heard the first good news in a long time - that once I hit the pass it was downhill the entire way. I asked how much farther I had to go, and the old man said 4km, but the son corrected him saying that he had measured it on his motorbike, and it was actually 8km. Finally a distance I could trust! So, I set out to push my bike up the remaining 8 km. The last bit was by far the most brutal. I almost completely ran out of energy, and I could only take a few steps at a time and then I had to rest. Eventually, however, I made it to the ridge, and it was true - it was downhill the entire way to Wan'an. The ride down was absolutely incredible, and there were waterfalls along the side of the road, and incredible forest views and such. I really wish I took some pictures, but it was absolutely breathtaking. I actually made it into Wan'an in pretty good time - I got into town at around 4pm. I got my small zhaodaisou (hostel) room (30 yuan a night! - the picture is the view of the area from the window in my room.) and then went to the police to register. I then came home and slept for two hours, before going out to a restaurant to eat. I was starved! I ordered tons of food, and the restaurant people said that I wouldn't be able to eat it, but I was so hungry that I ate every last bit, and could have even kept on going. It felt so good and satisfying. What was best, was just at the end, the people in the room next to me invited me to come eat with them, and they were all friendly teachers at the local junior high school. So, tomorrow I'm going to go to the school, teach some English but just have a good time. I think it will be a good chance for me to get to know some things here.