Tour De China 2011

[Fast Orange]

Originally Posted by Joe Dick

most of the gear was for mongolia. had to be very self sufficient as there are not a lot of towns there. dead weight for lots of the china leg. though at times I was glad i had it. could have ditched it and curled up in a tarp (Corax et al)

I am planning on bringing a tarp for emergencies actually. I figured I could use the bike to fashion a kind of lean-to. Better than a tent as I'd like to keep a low profile and from a distance, I'll just look like a pile of garbage lol.

[Uncle Duke]

communist china looks like it has dope weddings.

[Fast Orange]

Originally Posted by Uncle Duke

communist china looks like it has dope weddings.

Nah they're just expensive and usually in incredibly poor taste by our standards. That wedding cost about 1.5 mil RMB which is about 220 grand Canadian. Yet they had the wedding in the ugliest place I could imagine. All around the venue was nothing but factories and garbage. For that coin you could probably rent a jet and fly all your friends and fam somewhere that's actually nice.


EDIT- on the other hand the wedding was likely a profitable venture for them. It is common not to bring a gift to your friends' wedding in China but an envelope of cash instead. When I went to my friend's (the photographer) wedding I gave him 1000rmb in an envelope and most of the guests at this wedding have a lot more money than me.

There would have easily been some 10000 - 20000 kuai envelopes given that night and with 2000 guests a pop concert wedding quickly becomes a good investment lol.

[::Liam::]

what an awsome trip! deffinatly looking forward to hearing more about this.

[Poz]

Originally Posted by Adam West

by east do you mean west?
cause im fucking confused

yup, whoops. Obviously I was confused

[Poz]

Originally Posted by Fast Orange

What kind of bike were you riding?

I'm hoping to stick to the pavement whenever possible so if the national road turns to dirt maybe I'll just poach the expressway or something.

When I was there in June and July 2009 they were in the process of building up and paving the road. It doubt it will be one of the awesome expressways China has but more like a paved mountain road. Probably similar to something in BC.

[Joe Dick]

this thread makes me want to go touring again.

I hope you have a great time Fast Orange.

[Fast Orange]

Well tomorrow's the day. I'm crashing in a hotel in Beijing tonight and starting off at the crack of dawn.

Here's a shot of my ride all packed and ready. Doesn't even feel too heavy when riding but it took a bit of talking to let me keep my bike in the room lol. I imagine I'm going to go through that convo again more than a few times...



First stop is a small city called BaZhou 96km's south of Beijing. I've never been there before, I've never heard anything about it and I have no idea what it's like. Probably dirty and ugly but that's a lot of what this trip's all about.

Wish me luck now guys cuz next time I post will be from Kunming.

oh and Go Canucks Go!

[zahgurim]

Awesome!

Don't get smooshed on the highway, and post up boobs (and riding pics/stories if you must) whenever able.

[switch]

You need a 2nd water bottle cage. Drink, drink, drink.

Keep us updated if you can.

[enduramil]

Don't know if this interests you. But the 2011 FISU games are in Shenzhen this August.

[patrolskid]

first stop in Kumming ?

sounds like it is going to be a good tour .

good luck , and remember " pics , or it didn't happen "

[Fast Orange]

No advil, jet skis, or gay little dune buggies to help me either. Which sucks because I could really go for some advil right about now. I'm one week and 500 km's into the trip and I'm in some pain but my legs are still working well and I'm feeling strong.

I'm in Xintai. http://maps.google.com.hk/maps?hl=en...nt=3,0x0:0x0,1

It sucks here but I've been loving every minute of it. You guys wouldn't believe some of the shit I've seen.

Little bit from my log:

(I say log because I'm writing everything down in a notebook with a pen.)

.....up until now my surroundings had been quite nice. Clean smooth roads, reasonable air quality (for China) and fairly quiet but it quickly changed into an industrial hellworld the likes of which I have never seen. On the side of the road people were working with metal, using primitive ovens and torches. Above the ovens were short smokestacks belching black smoke that was quickly driven down by the wind to ground level. Multitudes of decrepit repair shops as well surrounded by stacks of rusty scrap metal and partially disassembled vehicles. I saw a mechanic pull some kind of part off from under a truck and watch as the oil spilled out and streamed down into the road. Trucks were everywhere and they came in every size. At one intersection they were jammed up so bad I was literaly rubbing elbows with semis on either side of me to get past. At regular intervals there were piles of garbage on the side of the road. Each pile was about the size of a car. Each pile was also on fire. My lungs were protected thanks to my highly advanced-athletic-air-filtration mask. My eyes had no such protection other than a pair of cheap sunglasses and they burned and watered from the filth, dust and smoke. Further to the east and west I could make out the outlines of elctricity generating coal plants and much heavier industry. Every so often drops of oil falling from the air would land on me, ruining my t-shirt and mixing with my sweat to form a kind of brown grease...

Only picture of me you guys will ever see:

Big ups to Respro
http://www.respro.com/products/indus...t/techno_mask/

Water stop:



Burning garbage... This pic was taken around 1030 am too.



Think of this as an "evidence" picture...106 national road is what I was riding on and this stone marks the 248th kilometer from Beijing. Every 100 metres there's a smaller stone.

Out there...



Woohoo! Crazy tailwind!




Even further out there...



Rep for anyone that knows why this 5rmb note is so interesting..



Hope I can update you guys again next week!

[Fast Orange]

A couple more cool pics:

Old burial mound a guy I met took me to:



Super nice guy. Saw me from his car as I was rolling into town and helped me find a hotel. Later he invited me to his home for dinner and I met his family.

Gnarly accident. I tried to take a pic from closer but a cop yelled at me so I had to take one from up the road:



The smaller blue trucks front end was completely smashed inwards. I'm certain whoever was driving is no longer with us.


Restaurant(sorry, I took the pic while riding):


Food from the restaurant:

[Straw]

Awesome.

Good work sticking it out in China. I could only last a year! How long did it take you to be reasonably fluent?

I saw an accident in downtown Guangzhou that had a pedestrian lying on the ground, 10 ft away from a taxi. There was a smash in the windshield from his head. He was lying on the ground, very dead, some blood around his head. He had a peaceful look on this face though, so that was comforting. His hand was outstretched and his briefcase was about 3 feet away from it.

First and only time I've seen a dead person not in a casket.