We head for a town called Fangshan today which is a borough if Beijing – we're nearly there and the sense of excitement is palpable. Kate can barely keep her arse on her seat and intermittently lets out little yelps of excitement – poor Seth must think she's crazy. The ride has one or two steep-ish ascents for us to conquer but overall the rest of the terrain is flat as a pancake and we make good time to Fangshan. Once there, at 3.30pm, we spot the local Giant bike shop and decide that it would make sense to have our bikes fixed overnight here (new chains and gear cassettes). That was the plan until we found we could not find any hotels that were either willing to take foreigners or had rooms available. The plan quickly changed into getting our bikes fixed asap in Fangshan, get some scran and then cycle the remaining 50 – 60 km to Tian'anmen Square.
We cycle another 60+ km to get to the there, with Kate squeaking nearly all the way and it's 8:30pm (and dark) when we finally arrive at Tian'anmen Square with 127km on the clock. It's all lit up and looks imposing, but unfortunately it closes to the public at 7.30pm and despite our nature of arrival, with explanations from Seth to the security forces guarding it, we are not allowed in. We did take some pictures but later when looking at them, they were quite blurred and not to Kate's usual standards – Seth did take some and we will put them on the blog when he sends us them.
Kilometers: 127
Total Kilometers: 4546
Day 163 to 167: Beijing
The first day was spent with Seth and his friend Chun – Seth treated us to a delicious roast duck lunch at a very plush hotel and as we walked it off, we came across a tattoo artist's studio. We went in, and voila:
We decided to have this tattoo, “ni li” (pronounced phonetically Nigh Lee) mid way to Beijing. They are the Chinese characters for the word “endurance”; the ability to physically exert oneself over a lengthy period of time. Quite fitting.
Unfortunately, Seth had to leave that evening to return to work and took a taxi to the station for his unbelievably long 29hr train journey (ouch) back to Schenzen. After waving him off, we suddenly felt a little exposed – we're alone again. This feeling doesn't last too long, however, and before you know it, we've planned and booked our day trips out, conquered the subway system (pretty easy actually)
but remain stumped when it comes to Subway sandwich stores locations. All in all, we visited nearly all of the major sights, including the Olympic Park, the Ancient Observatory, the Great Wall (WOW!) and Tian'anmen Square (by day). Laughably, we were forbidden from the Forbidden City when we tried to enter as it was closed for rehearsals for the upcoming 60th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution and the start of the annual week-long National Holidays beginning on 1st October.
Day 168: Beijing to Nanning (via train)
Our last day in Beijing and we're very sad to leave, although we've spent way over our budget on both getting and being here. This has been the best city we've been in since the start of our trip, although Xi-an is a very close second. We make our way to the station with plenty of time to spare and grab a spec on the floor to wait for our departure. When we're let through, we decide to wait for the massive surge (many people in China are still unable to grasp the basic concept of queuing). When we finally get to our carriage, we're dismayed to find the headroom is tiny on our top bunks, but at least Kate can lay stretched out fully. We have some dinner (cold hamburgers, lovely) and at lights out at 10pm we sleep.
Kilometers: 0
Total Kilometers: 4546
Day 169: Still Beijing to Nanning (via train)
And sleep and sleep and sleep – well Kate does anyway. She got up at 12pm for lunch and then went back to bed till 5pm when she rose for dinner. The journey actually goes quite quickly thanks to the music and books we have and at 12.10am, 29 hours since getting on the train, we finally disembark. We have to find a hotel in the midst of being hounded by taxi drivers and hotel touts. Not quite what you need after a mammoth journey – these people must by quite brave. We hold our ground, refusing all offers on the table and head for the nearest hotel we can see.
Kilometers: 0
Total Kilometers: 4546
Day 170: Nanning
Our babies are fine – we collected them from the unfriendliest cargo workers in the world this morning and Lee Lee's miffed to find he has a flat back tyre. I'm just happy that they're here in one piece. Sadly, we leave Nanning tomorrow for our final three cycling days in this amazing country.
Kilometers: 0
Total Kilometers: 4546
Day 171: Nanning to Dasi
The plan for today was a very early start about 7am in an attempt to get as close as possible to Fangcheng, if not the city itself (137km away). Good plan until morning came and we finally got out of bed at TEN am. It then took us till mid-day to get breakfast and escape the city. Unfortunately, at one confusing crossroads, we headed in the wrong direction which meant a 10km round trip for absolutely diddly squat – very annoying when that happens. Anyway, we finally managed to get on the right road with a little help from a friendly Chinese lady. Lee Lee found the first 20km very hard going, but said it got easier as the day went on and by 3pm, with 60km under our belt, we were breezing along with lush scenery and a good road under our wheels. Dasi was uninspiring, but much larger than we expected. We had a delicious evening meal of beef in oyster sauce with the EFG.
Kilometers: 96
Total Kilometers: 4642
Day 172: Dasi to Fancheng
A pretty easy ride to Fancheng today, weather is getting hotter the further south we go and we're running out of sun-block. Not much to report other than having a drama with the first hotel we checked into – said it had internet but it didn't so we moved (after being reimbursed) to the plusher Southern City Hotel a little further down the road. For dinner we had the best plate of beef noodles in China to date; it's a shame we're leaving really. It's getting very near the end of our China stint and Kate (who's loved just about every minute of it here) is getting apprehensive about Vietnam. I might have to drag her across the border...
Kilometers: 51
Total Kilometers: 4693
Day 173: Fancheng to Dongxing
The one thing that I was looking forward to seeing again (the sea) was marred by a ridiculous argument between Lee Lee and I today, the subject being - when did we last actually see the sea? It petered out (the tiff, not the sea) of course, and we were on speaking terms again shortly afterwards. With regards to the cycle ride, the coast road we'd chosen was not the flattest we've traversed – does this mean that Vietnam's coast won't be also? – we need a rest! Dongxing was very built up, as you'd expect from a border place and we splashed out on a four star hotel (still only £15.80) for the night, trying to get rid of the leftover RMB/Yuan we have. Apparently it's dead money out of the country (ahem).
Kilometers: 54
Total Kilometers: 4747
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