In the mountains

Today has been a very interesting day - I didn't actually go that far - about 55km, but it was over the mountains. The first 25 km were a pretty steep uphill - I was pretty tired after yesterdays 120km jaunt, and I knew that today I didn't need to go very far, so I took it pretty easy. The result was that it took me a really long time to get very far - I din't leave until 10am, because I needed to update the blog, and the internet was available back in Jinshiqiao. So, combined with my late start and the weather (it was raining this morning), I progressed pretty slowly - it took me 3 hours to go 20km......it was a steep uphill and I pushed the bike almost the entire way. Finally, I reached the peak, but instead of going downhill it was a series of up and down hills - I was expecting a steep downhill as I got over the pass. Talk about disappointment.

However, after continuing along the road for about another 20km, I saw a sign that said "steep downhill next 11km", and I felt fairly happy. This was an incredible downhill - it was much steeper than the uphill had been, and I almost wore my brakes out completely going downhill - it was actually terrifying at times. I had my brakes on max, and I wasn't really slowing down much. Combined with the steep downhill were extremely tight turns as the road looped down. On one of the tighter turns, I actually had to use my feet to slow down - otherwise I would have gone over the edge, and that wouldn't have been a pleasant experience. I tried to go as slow as possible, but near the end, my brakes were clearly failing, so I walked down the last bit rather than risk death by no brakes. Pretty intense. However - by the time I was going downhill, it had stopped raining, and it was an incredibly beautiful valley/gorge that I was going down, complete with the farming terraces that you think of when you think about China. I took several pictures (when I was able to stop), so later I'll post them.

These are some pictures of the terraces/houses in the gorge. I don't know how well the pictures convey how beautiful this portion of the trip was - it was a really cool downhill.

At the bottom of the slope there is a small township called Dahua (Big China), which on my map showed a waterfall. I asked the locals, and took a small road that lead to a rather large and inspiring waterfall - it wasn't Niagara Falls or anything, but it was still pretty cool. Again, I'll post pictures when I get the chance.

Cool little waterfall - it is probably even better when most of the water isn't being diverted to the power generating station there.....

Here in Longtan (about 7km from Dahua), I registered with the police, and it was clear that the police did not trust me. They were like "what are you doing here".....and "why is your Chinese so good"......so they felt like I was up to something. After all, tourists are supposed to not speak any Chinese, right? It was a little strange.

Anyways, to confirm my suspicions that the police didn't trust me, about 10 minutes after coming here, the boss of the hotel I am staying at comes into the internet bar, and tells me that the police called the hotel, and that I am supposed to go directly back to the hotel after I am done here in the internet bar. When I asked why, he said it was "for my safety" - which is really lame. In fact, the more I think about it the more it ticks me off - I mean, it is almost as if they are acting like I am a prisoner. What if I didn't want to go back to my hotel? What then? Would they force me back to my hotel? It all seems so weird to me sometimes - these people really can be jerks sometimes - I mean, I am doing nothing here in town but spending money - they should be thrilled that I am around - but instead they act like I am some sort of dangerous criminal element. Lame.