Breakfast was included in last night's room price – we turn up bleary eyed expecting the usual range of spicy noodles and largely inedible fodder but we are pleasantly surprised to find doughnuts on offer, as well as hard boiled eggs. I don't know exactly how many eggs I consumed, but suffice to say that they repeated on me for most of the morning. The ride to Gucheng was long and difficult, with a return to mountainous terrain, but the climbs weren't that arduous compared to what we've already encountered and we were pleased to return to beautiful scenery. The main problem today was not knowing how far Wudang Shan is from Gucheng – people we asked gave different amounts and upon finally entering the town at 79km, we were pestered by touts the whole length of our journey down the main strip. Digs found for Y100 (including internet access) – the staff are very friendly, albeit crap at maths – they initially offered 80% off (I calculated this at Y34.50) but it turned out that they were offering the room at 80% of the price. Still, the room is good value; clean, newly decorated and has an attached bathroom, unlike the others we viewed. The supermarket has a large stock of Snickers bars which I will endeavour to clear by the end of our stay. Our alarm is set for 6.00am in preparation for tomorrow's climb up Wudang Shan; this is the first of three sights that we have travelled to China to see and we can't wait!
Kilometers: 79
Total Kilometers: 3940
Day 137: Climbing Wudang Shan
We finally rouse at 6.40am and make it to the entrance gates for 7.30am. The ticket price is high: Y360 (£36) for our entrance and we clamber aboard the shuttle bus to the base of the mountain. We don't see much on the way there due to the mist that has enveloped the range overnight – hopefully it will clear by midday. We get off with everybody else at the final stop and follow the crowd to.......the cable car entrance. People are soooo lazy. We finally get to speak to someone who speaks a little English to ask about the walking route and we're pointed towards a small stone path which looks pretty vertical from our view. We're also told that when the road forks, always take the path to the right. We start climbing the rocks that have been laid as stairs
we expected that there would be proper steps and more people considering this site's recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site but maybe we're early and the proper crowds have not yet come. Two hours later, we're absolutely drenching wet. The mist has not cleared, there are spiders and webs everywhere and we have only seen one person on our way up and he was carrying bundles of paper napkins. To top it off, we have not seen one single temple on the way and our guide book says we should have. However, we continually hear voices not far away from us so we're sure we're headed in the right direction and when we finally near the summit, we realise that the voices were coming from the lazy sods in the cable cars just feet above our heads that were kept invisible by the mist. The climb is absolutely worth it; the temples up here are amazing. The mist fails to clear, giving a range of 30m visibility but it adds to the atmosphere of the whole place – it feels like we're on the set of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and we almost expect warriors to appear from the treetops. It's rather mystical and very, very beautiful. We pay the extra Y20 each to enter the Forbidden City and we have a 2hr rest looking around the many temples on view. We also find the proper stone steps we should have walked up and decide to go down this way to see the temples we missed on the way. It would appear that we took the rather long and dangerous route to the top.
The way down is difficult – 4km of stairs and we still can't see any views. The temples are lovely, but we miss a few because we're just so knackered. We've calculated that we've walked/climbed over 25km today and we're beat. We head to the exit and the walk back to the hotel is very painful.
Kilometers: 0
Total Kilometers: 3940
Day 138: Wudang Shan (rest day)
Ooooh, we're not good today – our calves, thighs and bums are so painful it's actually quite funny. Watching Lee Lee trying to walk has me in stitches. I prefer to stay in bed, finally rousing at 3pm and its then Lee Lee's turn to howl as I attempt the short walk to the bathroom. I've never felt pain like it and we're bemused; we've cycled 3940km to get here – how can our muscles be so painful? It doesn't get any better during the day. The four flights of stairs and half a kilometre walk we have to traverse to get some food takes about an hour. We walk like a pair of 90 year olds and hope that we're feeling better tomorrow.
Kilometers: 0
Total Kilometers: 3940
Day 139: Wudang Shan (an unexpected rest day)
Not so. We're still in as much pain as yesterday – we're going nowhere today.
Kilometers: 0
Total Kilometers: 3940
Day 140: Wudang Shan (another unexpected rest day)
Still in quite a lot of pain today, although we have got our walking speed down to that of 70 year olds. It's very painful to walk down the stairs or even lie on our sides and we don't even consider cycling today. The hotel staff are bemused at our condition; “are you sure you've cycled this distance?” they inquire....
Kilometers: 0
Total Kilometers: 3940
Day 141: Wudang Shan (Another unexpected rest day)
Feeling less sore today, we start talking about actually leaving this place which is just as well cos we've cleared out the local supermarket of strawberry yoghurt. Kate never did empty the shelves of Snickers bars, although she did give it a good go; sometimes eating two per day. We feel that if we are able to get the bikes down the stairs in the morning then we will go to Shiyan (40km away) and see what our muscles are like. Cue another day of internet surfing; we managed to download the new(ish) film Rendition in a record 4hrs. Having watched it, we decide to re-subscribe to Amnesty International immediately on our return to the UK, this time playing an active role.
Kilometers: 0
Total Kilometers: 3940
Day 142: Wudang Shan to Yun Xian (and reaching the 4000km mark!)
Woohoo! 4000km! A total and utter vindication considering we've spoken to quite a few of you back home over the past week whilst we've been resting and been informed that the general consensus was we'd quit after 6 weeks. 6 WEEKS!!!!!!
Our calves were still a little tender today, but we decide to press on with our plans to get back on the bikes. We stop at 10km for water refreshment and are worried that our legs feel quite sore after just this small distance. However, as the day progresses we find that our muscles loosen and by the time we reach Shiyan we figure we could do an extra 30km to Yun Xian. At 3.00pm we hit the big 4000km and take the obligatory photo accompanied by a lot of whooping which brings a little old lady out of her house to see what the hoohaa is about. We can't converse but she gets that we're happy! Thankfully it's also back to wonderful scenery, although we do have to traverse a couple of massive hills to see it.
Kilometers: 76
Total Kilometers: 4016
Day 143: Yun Xian to 10km after Tan Shan
Up for debate for most of last night was whether we should head the longer way to Xi-an which looks less hilly on the map, or go the shorter but very, very hilly route (the difference is a whopping 70km but would take the same amount of cycling days). We finally decided on the longer route after taking into consideration our still tender calve muscles and the distant nightmare that is Wangmo. We are out of the hotel for 10am but don't actually get out of Yun Xian until 11.30am after a delicious breakfast of fried noodles with pork and a wrong turn out of the city. It's not long before that distant nightmare reoccurs – three hours later we finally get our downhill. To be fair, the mountains weren't as lengthy as Wangmo, but they were a lot steeper and I'm in 1.1 from the start of them. After an exhilarating 12km descent we're faced with another mammoth climb. The 68km journey took us 7hrs to complete. We end up in the middle of nowhere and crash out at a hotel/restaurant somewhere very close to the Henan border. The scenery again was magnificent – it made the climbs all worth it. At the first of our water stops we decided that the man and woman already sitting outside the shop were gossiping – they lowered their voices many a time during their conversation apparently failing to consider that we couldn't understand a single word they were saying anyway. After they'd finished they made us drink some vile alcoholic cider drink. A whole cup full of this stuff would have sent us over the edge. Literally!
Oh, and we had our first Chinese dog chase us today – a big Alsatian raced after us, barking and snarling viciously for about 50 metres. It was horrible and we shouted at it to go away but apparently it didn't understand English.
Kilometers: 68
Total Kilometers: 4084
Day 144: 10km after Tan Shan to Xiping
Not the most pleasant of cycling days today – the weather turned nasty just after we left last nights hotel and persisted for most of the day – we were drenched within minutes. The restaurant we stopped at for breakfast offered us a room for free as they looked alarmingly at the sky and indicated it would be raining for a while. Very sweet but we have a tight schedule to follow and we declined their offer, much to their disappointment (they were taking pictures and videos of us the whole time we were there). We had another photo shoot halfway though today's journey in a little village – three young fellas bribed us with apple milk (gross). They seemed absolutely excited to see us and after the shoot they left, only to return 10 minutes later to give us a great big bag of monkey nuts.
The cycling shirts we bought meant we dried out pretty quickly when the rain ceased although there was one last heavy downpour as we neared Xiping. Again the scenery was just breathtaking – we cycled for about 50km alongside a river which was beautiful but again we had a dreaded chasing-dog battle which thankfully we won. A hotel in Xiping found us quite quickly – a giggling little old lady took us to the room and we agreed a price (Y50). We headed out to the local supermarket to find me a snickers bar but were unsuccessful. Great dinner tonight of beef and potato braised in soy sauce with steamed rice – though it would have been better if the bloke on the next table didn't stare at us for the entire meal.
Kilometers: 70
Total Kilometers: 4154
Day 145: Xiping to Xian
With the morning starting off with a little light rain we said our goodbyes to the lady at the hotel and left for breakfast further down the road. When we were having our breakfast (EFR) it started raining heavier and heavier and heavier so we admitted defeat and decided that we would catch a bus to Xi-an. Thanks to the owners of the restaurant we managed to flag a bus down and put our bikes in the storage hold. However, when the bus pulls away we're asked for Y300 for the journey! Y300 is far far too much, considering the chef's wife said it would be about Y80 each. After a little discussion and Kate's negotiating skills we paid Y200 (£4 extra for the bikes) and everyone seemed happy. We're very very happy to get off the bus at the end of the 5hr ride cos the woman in front of us has been chucking up since the moment she got on. We're dropped off inside Xi-an's city walls – they stand 12 metres high and stretch for 16km around the city. They are an imposing sight, more so when we learn that they used to enclose an area five times as big when they were initially built. Xi-ans' streets work on a grid system so it was pretty easy to find the hostel when I finally realised that the expected numbered streets were in Pingyin. Doh! We settle into the Seven Sages Youth Hostel is charming – set in an original courtyard with circular entrances to different parts of the buildings. We rang them on the bus to tell them we were coming earlier; they said they had a room but when we arrived, we were informed that we would have to kip in a dorm the following night due to a mix-up; we're 34 and 32 yrs respectively, married and we don't do dorms. At least not without quietly grumbling about it to ourselves. Tomorrow night will be interesting.
Kilometers: 6
Total Kilometers: 4160
Day 146-153: Xi-an
Sunday: we stayed at the hostel for most of the day as we have to stay in the dorms tonight and therefore have had to quit our double room at midday. The whole day is spent guarding our gear but our fears turned out to be unwarranted as the hostel appears to be safe as the proverbial and most people appear to be leaving their backpacks all over the place. Kate finally manages to get her paws on a book; she has not read since Wuhan.
Monday: we transfer back to a double room which is lovely - finally able to leave our stuff unguarded without having a coronary thinking it's gonna be nicked, and head off to find the local PSB which is actually 8km away from where the Lonely Planet 'Guide' says it is. We finally find the Bureau and apply for our second and final 30-day visa extension which we are told will be ready to pick up on Friday. The second task of the day is to find the local Giant bike shop to get our bikes serviced (over 1500km since the last one). However after some confusing exchanges with the proprieters it turns out that they do not have the tools or skills to service the bikes (?!) and so we set off in search of another bike shop that will. We happen upon a university student from Kazakhstan whose bike is also in need of repair and we follow him; he speaks Chinese and manages to get the shopkeeper to give us a good price on fitting new brake blocks to replace the worn ones we have at present – but still a no go on the clean and service they so desperately need so we admit defeat and decide that we'll have to do them ourselves. Well, Lee Lee will. Back at the hostel we meet Mark, a fella from Leeds who is on a 5 week excursion and has travelled to China via Scandinavia and Mongolia (lucky bugger) and at this stage of his trip he is traveling alone. We mention our anticipation of going to see the Terracotta Army (TA) tomorrow and we decide we'll all travel there together; safety in numbers and whathaveyou. Truth be told we're going to get the public bus there tomorrow and each of us will be glad to have support.
Tuesday: We meet Mark for breakfast and head off to the train station to find bus 306 to take us to the TA, Y7 each and off we go. We take the Lonely Planet Guide's advice to see the pits in reverse order and WOW - the attraction is worth the 4200km of cycling alone. After 5 hours of viewing this incredible site, we are left absolutely gobsmacked at the time and dedication it muct have taken to produce so may warriors; no two with identical features. The biggest pit, holding over 2000 statues, all standing over 6ft tall is breathtaking.
When we get back to the hostel at 5pm we find an email awaiting us from Seth stating that he would be arriving in Xi-an by train at 4pm today. Kate waits excitedly outside the hostel for a couple of hours but by 7pm he's still nowhere to be seen so we reluctantly head out for a well deserved Indian meal which was gorgeous – onion bahjies, beef samosas, naan bread, chicken tikka masala, chicken vindaloo and to top it all off, a cold BEER. As we leave the restaurant we pass a bike shop and the owner tells us that they can do services - we tell him to expect us tomorrow. We take a walk through the park to the Big Goose Pagoda and Mark takes some amazing photos which Kate is insanely jealous of as we stupidly forgot to bring our camera. We will have to return tomorrow. Back at the hostel we meet with Seth, who arrived 15 minutes after we left. Typical.
Wednesday: today we meet Nick who by all accounts is a nutter on a bike – cycling through leech filled rivers and forests on his own, being chased by packs of wild dogs whilst on a night time pursuit. He sold his bike in Korea but will be buying another as he wants to traverse the middle east next. With our babies delivered to the bike shop we relax for the rest of the day before returning to the Pagoda in the evening to watch a water fountain display (awesome), take some fabulous pictures and pick up the bikes. Mark is teaching Kate how to use the camera functions properly and there are some stunning photos; many more to come I hope.
Thursday: today we venture to the Tomb of Emperor Jingdi which comes recommended as the most underrated sight in Xi-an.
However, the Lonely Planet 'Guide' tells us will cost Y200 in a taxi as there is no public transport to the site. However, it only costs us about Y20 and a couple of hours using.....yes, public transport. For anyone interested out there, you can take bus 600 (heading north) from the Bell Tower, pass through the North gates and after 5km, alight and take the Tourist bus 4 for about 15km – you then have to get on the another Tourist bus 4 to the museum but the bus conductors are helpful. After another interesting day seeing the sights around Xi-an, we return to the bike shop on a very crowded and long bus journey. Brake and gear cables have now been changed – we decided to leave them there last night so they could do this work. The cables had become pretty rusty. On the now dazzling bikes we return to the hostel via Subway for a foot long Italian BMT (it's only the third Subway since we got here).
Friday: we meet Seth and Mark for breakfast before walking Mark to the airport bus and bid him a fond farewell, then we head off to collect our visas – only they were not ready. Kate told them that we were leaving tomorrow and that we needed them today so we were advised to return at 4pm. Seth took us for lunch at a near by cafe before returning to collect them – but still they were not ready. Finally, at 4.30pm, with people locking doors around us they are ready, the only problem is, they've only given us until the 25th September to stay in China, 5 days less than expected (and what we've paid for). We try to point this out but it's nearing 5pm on a Friday and we concede defeat. Back to the drawing board for a new route to Beijing.
Saturday: today we sadly leave Xi-an by bus to Pingyao which will enable us to ride the required distance left to Beijing in the given time frame. It's quite disappointing really – we hoped that we'd have 6000km under our belt but it would appear that we'll only get 4800km. Nevermind – we'll make up for it in Vietnam (we've just found out that we'll have to do 1700km in 30 days).
Kilometers: 0 (plenty of km's cycled around Xi-an, but not included in total)
Total Kilometers: 4160
Day 154: Pingyao
We wake up to a miserable morning and it rains all day long. Like Peter Kay says, it's the fine stuff that soaks you through... To top off, it's a freezing 16C (we've been sweltering for 5 months), Kate has caught my cold and she's even more miserable than the weather. We venture outside for a walk; Pingyao is beautiful – an ancient walled city – but very touristy; we get asked to look at tat the whole way.
Back to the hostel for some more sleep, reading and internet surfing for the remainder of the day. We aim to start cycling again tomorrow but the forecast isn't good.........
Kilometers: 0
Total Kilometers: 4160
Day 155: Pingyao (unexpected rest day)
It's still raining heavily and extremely cold– there's no way we can cycle today. Another day spent in the hostel – we don't even venture outside apart from a dash across the street to stock up on juice. Kate is still poorly and coughing, she's sure the staff think she has swine flu. We plan again to leave tomorrow – the proprietor says the rain is due to stop tonight.
Kilometers: 0
Total Kilometers: 4160
Day 156: Pingyao (unexpected rest day)
The proprietor was mistaken – it's still weeing it down and it's still very cold. Kate continues to suffer from her cold and we decide that we can't stick around any longer. The forecast says it'll be cold and raining for the foreseeable future. We head down to the train station to book tickets to take us to Shijiazhuang tomorrow evening and put our bikes in for transport there and then.
Kilometers: 0
Total Kilometers: 4160
Day 157: Pingyao to Shijiazhuang (by train)
Another miserable day in Pinyao; although it ceases to rain in the afternoon, it's still unusually cold and Kate is still ill. We catch the train to Shijiazhuang at 6.30pm and arrive at 10.30pm. We have a few difficulties in locating a hotel – one won't take foreigners (meanies) and the others are full. Thanks to Seth and his mobile phone we secure rooms at a well known hotel chain and finally check in at midnight.
Kilometers: 0
Total Kilometers: 4160
Day 158: Shijiazhuang to Xingtang
We're so glad to be on our bikes again and looking forward to see how Seth fares on the first day of his first cycle tour!
The weather is gorgeous and after a slow start – getting out of a large city is always time-consuming – we find that the road is very flat which enables us to maintain a good speed. However, halfway into the journey, the road suddenly turned into a river of muddy water.
After 100 metres though, the muddy water turns into thick mud and before we know it, we're in too far to turn around. The bikes are absolutely filthy in seconds and the chains are grinding; we're a bit miffed cos we this is the first day of cycling since we had them cleaned and serviced in Xi-an. This goes on for three kilometres and when we finally reach the end, we are absolutely caked in mud aswell. I inadvertently misjudged a mud puddle and found my foot sinking a foot deep into thick mud. We later found a gas station that had a hose and managed to wash the big clumps off but they still look filthy.
As the day progresses, we find that travelling with our Chinese companion has it's pro's and con's. Communication is more varied with the locals as Seth is able to interpret for us but on the downside, we find that our direct contact with them diminishes due to this. However, whatever downsides exist, it's really good to experience this; for two months we've muddled our way through China, getting by on the few basic phrases we have learned, our well worn information sheets or miming. It's great to be able to get past the core information we dole out on a regular basis and really have an in-depth conversation. Seth is also tickled to hear what we can't understand, what people say about us when we pass them (mostly about how tall I am) and whilst searching for hotel, he informs us that the whole town now knows of our arrival as it's been passed from house to house whilst we've been eating!
Kilometers: 67
Total Kilometers: 4227
Day 159: Xingtang to Tangxian
A much better day than yesterday, roads mud-less and continue to be of the flat variety. It was raining early morning, but it eventually turned out to be a sunny day. Seth is turning out to be a trooper on the bike, keeping up with us the best he can. However, it later appears that he cycles best when leading the pack, so I relinquish control of pole position and take a breather from being director. Seth also takes great delight in being constantly asked by the locals how much we are paying him to be our guide!
Kilometers: 60
Total Kilometers: 4287
Day 160: Tangxian to Mancheng
Kate takes the opportunity for a lie in this morning, refusing to get out of bed whilst Seth and I hit the hotel breakfast - truth be told Kate missed a pretty good choice of omelette thingies and steamed dumplings. With regards to the days ride, about 20km from Tangxian we pass a sign suggesting that we are 35km from Baoding which is concerning because Mancheng is 15km closer than there and we reach our destination at a poxy 46km. On the plus side, the weather has been great today with the temperature around 26-28 Celsius and plenty of shade from the trees along the way as we're heading north. We have lunch at a local restaurant – Pork with green pepper, EFG. Seth ordered some veggie dish (bose?) which was gorgeous. With time on our side we cycle for a while looking for a good hotel with internet connection and eventually come across a small out of the way place for Y100 that delivers all we need.
Kilometers: 46
Total Kilometers: 4333
Day 161: Mancheng to Luishi
Another bright morning and what turns out to be a pleasant riding day, Seth has now caught up with the pace and is able to stay with us for the best part of the ride. There is plenty of lovely scenery around today however, there are also lots of electricity cables making photography impossible. We head up towards Yi Xian but when we figure out that it may only be 40 -50 km away we decide that it would make much more sense to head on to a town called Luishi, this town takes us on a better road to Beijing according the locals who say that the mountain road is very dangerous and dirty, which makes Seth a little nervous.
Kilometers: 86
Total Kilometers: 4419
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