Chinese/American Breakfast

During the route check, Alan and Su found a new hotel so the itinerary in the catalog has been changed. We will leave the main road and cycle to a small town known as Little Guilin, so called because it has some of the same picturesque limestone formations and caves as its larger namesake.

As always, we review the written directions for the day's ride at breakfast. Generally, they have been fairly simple because there are a limited number of roads. The total directions for today's 51 miles of riding are: right at the T intersection and than right at the Y intersection. The first half is on the main road and is paved. We have mountain bikes for the second half.

The paved roads are generally in good condition with two lanes for traffic plus plenty of room for bicycles. We see several self contained road construction crews. They prepare t he road bed, cut trees for fuel to heat gravel and tar, lay the tarmac and then move on. This is an equal opportunity country and we see women working side-by-side with the men. Lots of hello-hello's, especially for the ladies.

It's time for lunch. After 25 miles of paved road and 6 miles of dusty dirt-road at 85 and about 90% humidity, this is the best ice cold Coca Cola I've ever had. The weather has been in the mid-70's to low-80's most days with high cloud cover. Today it is a little hotter with intermittent sunshine.

Perry has his Polaroid camera out. The Chinese tell Su that they have never seen Americans up close before. It turns out they haven't seen pictures of themselves either. They look at the Polaroids with eyes full of wonder and quickly sort out who is who.

One of the most poignant moments of the trip occurs when one little old lady recognizes herself, sees a smudge on her blouse from this morning's work, and is clearly embarrassed when she cannot brush it off.

All of the people we see in China are adequately clothed and their clothes are clean. The people we see are wearing a mixture of clothing appropriate to rural life. We see very few uniforms, even in the schools.

One young woman appears to be carrying a spear that is pointed at both ends. It is not a weapon, but a stick to carry dried ferns that are used for fuel. Each end is stuck into a bale of ferns and the stick is carried across one shoulder. The bales are so large that the person carrying them almost disappears. People in this part of China burn ferns as an alternative to wood. A major effort is being made to conserve existing trees and reforest the hillsides. There are check points along the road to be certain that trucks aren't carrying illegally cut trees.

First Americans

The hotel has about 30 rooms. It is run by a young lady who was assigned the job of manager when she graduated from college. Chinese college graduates are assigned their first job by the government and given a five year contract. After their contract is completed, they can seek other jobs. She makes US$30 a month plus room and board.

Several of us walk through a near-by village that has a mixture of adobe and brick buildings. Two of the women in our group meet a little old lady who walks back to the hotel with them. She pulls a plastic bag of tobacco from her tunic and offers to roll a cigarette for anyone. No takers, but she has one herself. Through the hotel manager, we learn that she is 79 years old-she was born when China still had an emperor. She has no family left but is part of the village.

The next morning we walk to a snake farm. They raise snakes in this part of China for food and medicine. Then we explore two of the nearby caves as part of a tour that includes several overseas Chinese from Taiwan.

The Taiwanese are also staying at our hotel. We are told 40% of the tourists that come to China are overseas Chinese from Taiwan, 30% are overseas Chinese from other parts of Southeast Asia, and the remaining 30% are from the rest of the world; Americans are a relatively small part of the total. During the trip we meet several people from England and occasionally hear German spoken in large cities.

When we return from the caves, our little old lady is waiting for us with a friend and several young children. We have gifts of Tootsie Pops, balloons and Coke cans for the kids. (They know about money for recycling.) As we leave she is crying. She tells the hotel manager that being with us is the most exciting thing she has done in a long time, and she is sad to see us leave.

Today's ride is a short 30 miles to Fengkai. But, the first part is uphill on a dirt road and the day is already hot. Several of us take the bus just beyond the top of the hill where we set up the day's picnic.

After lunch we walk down the road and across a draw to an adobe village. An old lady comes out to meet us. It seems to be a fairly common practice to send out an old lady. We don't know whether they trust the judgment of old ladies or if old ladies are simply the most expendable members of the village.

As always, we are welcomed into the village and offered tea. One little boy of about three has a clean, fairly fresh, full-leg cast. Even in remote villages like this, medical care is available. Throughout the trip, we don't see any unattended medical problems. Some of the older people have a lot of teeth missing, but middle aged and younger people have bridges and other evidence of dental care.

This village has a washing machine and a refrigerator. They share a common cooking room that is old and stained with smoke but clean. We are certainly the first Americans to visit this village.

The rest of the day is down hill or level-my kind of biking. The scenery keeps getting prettier.