The first part of an article on a bicycle trip with Backroads from Guangzhou to Wuzhou to Guilin in southern China and a tour of the North. I t's a Sunday morning in July and Pat is saying something about a bicycle tour of the Loire Valley in France. I mumble that it sounds interesting. Within the week we are signed up for our first bicycle tour with just six weeks to get in shape.

It's a Sunday afternoon in October 1990, two years later. Pat and I have bicycled the Loire Valley and the Ring of Kerry in Ireland. Pat and a girlfriend have toured Tasmania. Now we are on a non-stop flight from L.A. to Hong Kong heading for a bicycle tour of southern China. Because of the distance involved, we have added an escorted tour of northern China, as well.

We lose a day as we cross the international date line so it is Monday evening when we arrive at the hotel in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong

Our tour has been arranged by Backroads Bicycle Touring with assistance from the China Youth Travel Services (CYTS). This is Backroad's first China tour. We have two experienced Backroads guides: Alan Jay who bicycled the route two years ago, and Jim Grass who was a guide on Pat's tour in Tasmania. They will be assisted by Su Zhi Wei from CYTS who will join us in Guanzhou (Canton). Alan and Su have just completed a route-check by car.

There are 17 members of our group plus the three guides and three drivers. Self introductions show that this is a diverse group from Arizona, California, Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Several people are on their first bicycle tour but most have been on one or more tours with Backroads, either in the U.S. or overseas. A couple of people have fresh passports and several have been to all of the major spots plus unheard of outposts. We have a firefighter, nurse, doctor, restauranteur, motel owner, Christmas tree farmer and an assortment of other occupations including retired. There are four couples, three single women and six single men. We will learn over the course of the trip that the group ranges in age from 31 to 68 with most of us in our 40's and 50's-old enough to appreciate the support of China Youth Travel Services.

We are given a set of instructions for each day's ride. We will begin bicycling in a suburb of Guanzhou. Our route will take us parallel to the West River as far as Wuzhou. We will then turn northwest and parallel the Li River to Guilin.

Today is a free day for sight seeing in Hong Kong and dinner tonight is at the hotel.

This evening's dinner is the first of many multi-course Chinese banquets. Alan and Jim provide a brief introduction to Chinese table manners including how to deal with the fact that most restaurants don't provide napkins-wipe your fingers on the edge of the tablecloth. They also introduce the uninitiated to chop sticks. There are some real success stories over the next two weeks, but a few die-hards will manage to get a fork at almost every meal.

Wednesday is another sightseeing day in Hong Kong. This evening we will depart for China on an overnight steamer up the Pearl River.

The Chinese government has given Backroads permission to use their own 21-speed mountain bikes. However, part of the arrangement is that each person, their baggage and bike must clear Customs together. At 9 p.m. we help load baggage and bikes on the 289 foot M.S. Tian Hu and set sail for Guangzhou.