So, I made it finally to Guizhou! I'm pretty amazed that I've made it this far. I figure that as of now I've biked at least 1500km across some pretty crazy terrain in China. I've met a whole bunch of interesting people, and gained a perspective on Chinese society that I would have been able to get in any other way. Great experience so far, and I'm happy to keep on going.
Today was a fairly simple day - it is only 65km from Fenghuang to Tongren, Guizhou - but I planned to visit a couple sites that were along the way - the Great Wall of Southern China, and the Old City Huangsiqiao. The Great Wall of Southern China was something that I had never heard of before I came to China this time, but as I was watching the weather forecast one night about a week ago, it gave the report for "The Great Wall of Southern China" (Nanfang Changcheng). I thought that sounded pretty interesting, and I looked for it on my maps, but I couldn't find it anywhere.
It wasn't until the day before I went to Fenghuang that I found it on the map - it is located about 15km east of Fenghuang (well, at least the restored section that tourists visit). Construction on the Great Wall of Southern China commenced in 1552 in the Ming Dynasty, and continued until the Qing. It was built by the Miao people (also known as the Hmong - at least one group of the Miao) to protect themselves against the Chinese. Although it is much less touristed and much shorter (about 150km) than it's more famous northern counterpart, it was just as ineffective in stopping invasion (The Miao homeland is definately part of China now, and the Jin, Mongols and Manchu all got past the Great Wall) and the part that tourists visit is just as fake (well - I suppose it's not fake - but it is reconstructed like what the wall would have looked like). Anyways, with a student ticket price of only 25 yuan, the Great Wall of Southern China is much cheaper to visit than Great Wall locations near Beijing (I believe tickets there are 100+ yuan) and it was still pretty cool.
Today was a fairly simple day - it is only 65km from Fenghuang to Tongren, Guizhou - but I planned to visit a couple sites that were along the way - the Great Wall of Southern China, and the Old City Huangsiqiao. The Great Wall of Southern China was something that I had never heard of before I came to China this time, but as I was watching the weather forecast one night about a week ago, it gave the report for "The Great Wall of Southern China" (Nanfang Changcheng). I thought that sounded pretty interesting, and I looked for it on my maps, but I couldn't find it anywhere.
It wasn't until the day before I went to Fenghuang that I found it on the map - it is located about 15km east of Fenghuang (well, at least the restored section that tourists visit). Construction on the Great Wall of Southern China commenced in 1552 in the Ming Dynasty, and continued until the Qing. It was built by the Miao people (also known as the Hmong - at least one group of the Miao) to protect themselves against the Chinese. Although it is much less touristed and much shorter (about 150km) than it's more famous northern counterpart, it was just as ineffective in stopping invasion (The Miao homeland is definately part of China now, and the Jin, Mongols and Manchu all got past the Great Wall) and the part that tourists visit is just as fake (well - I suppose it's not fake - but it is reconstructed like what the wall would have looked like). Anyways, with a student ticket price of only 25 yuan, the Great Wall of Southern China is much cheaper to visit than Great Wall locations near Beijing (I believe tickets there are 100+ yuan) and it was still pretty cool.
After that I was going to visit the old town of Huangsiqiao, which was supposedly originally built in the early Tang Dynasty (600s AD). It is only 10km west of the Great Wall of Southern China, but I missed the turn - the highway split into two roads - the southern road goes through Huangsiqiao and is the new road. The northern road is actually closed to traffic, but bikes can get through - however, it is quicker when you are heading towards Tongren. At the intersection, I made the mistake of asking "which way to Tongren?" instead of "which way to Huangsiqiao?", and ended up on the shortcut road with no traffic - but in the process missed Huangsiqiao. Oh well. I've seen enough old cities - Fenghuang and Liukeng, and I am going to visit Jingdezhen just before going to Shanghai.
At the border between Guizhou and Hunan.
So, I actually made it into Tongren at around noon. Oh, but first, I had my first bicycle "accident" in China. I was zipping down a hill - so fast, so hardcore - and there was a motorcycle parked in the middle of the road at the bottom of the hill. As I came down, I moved to the left to miss him, when suddenly he started moving right in front of me. I hit the brakes and screamed and ended up clipping the end of the motorbike. I hit the edge of the motorbike with my upper thigh, but by a strange stroke of luck, impact was directly where my rather fat wallet was located. The result is a large, wallet shaped bruise on my left thigh - it isn't too bad, and if my wallet wasn't there, it probably would have been much worse. Also, my back tire now has a slight wobble to it. There was no damage to the motorbike, but I was more than a little shooken up, so I took it pretty easy.
Right after I checked into a hotel here in Tongren, it started to pour rain! I was so happy I made it into town so quickly - it was perfect riding weather in the morning and I missed the rain.
Anyways, I'm going to take a rest day tomorrow - I think that I've been riding every day for at least a couple weeks now, so I am tired. One day to rest up and I think I will be feeling awesome.
2 comments:
You are so incredible! 1500 KM! YEAH!
The Wallet Miracle story is pretty cool too.
I believe this worthy to be dubbed "The Wallet Miracle of 2007".
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