Jack's Trip to China
September 2004
Copyright © Jack Gregory, 2004
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Day 4
We rode our bikes through 16 kilometers of Beijing traffic to the summer palace. I think I need to find a T-shirt that says: “I rode my bike in Beijing and lived". Actually it wasn't too bad, most of the roads have really wide dedicated bike lanes (about the size of a car lane back home). These dedicated bike lanes are jointly shared by bikes, buses, taxis, motorcycles, some cars that come out of nowhere and the odd animal. Having said all that, the system seems to work fairly well, you are responsible for looking out for the front end of your bike (or whatever) and the person behind you is responsible for looking out after the back part of whatever it is your driving. There are two main rules that are involved: a) the theory of critical mass.... If you get enough of a group together, no car will dare run you over. And b) male ego or machismo or just plain chicken ... don't look like you see the car trying to cut you off, then he might back down. Taxis don't appear to know these rules, though.
Godspeed is a master at traffic negotiation; we just followed him like a couple of baby ducks following the mother.
The summer palace is another huge monument to excess and probably good justification for mass rioting by the oppressed masses. Judging by the descriptions on the monuments, the British and French seem to have done a pretty good job of burning the entire thing to the ground in 1870. It all got rebuilt in the late 1880's.
(Godspeed and David if front of one of the bridges at the Summer Palace)
(Godspeed and I at the lake in the Summer Palace)
( The boys in the band at the Summer Palace)
We walked around the large lake and stopped for lunch when Godspeed claimed he was going to die from starvation.... man I wish I could eat like that guy and keep as in shape/thin. Godspeed is a unique individual, China should declare him a national resource, he is a one man enthusiast, spokesman and general all around good guy when it comes to his country. For a young man (21) he has gained so much experience and loves to share his knowledge of this fascinating country.
The day ended with another ride back to the hotel and an excellent dinner at a Muslim restaurant. Godspeed's advice is to eat at Muslim restaurants; he said his father told him they were always the cleanest.... Dads oughta know.
Day 5
Man that was a killer. 85 or 90 kilometers through traffic for about half the time, the other half was on the side of the road and UPhill. David and I both had to get off and walk a couple of times. Godspeed says one of his nicknames is Hummingbird, I believe it, he's got energy, but then he's 21 and I'm older than Moses. I think I drank at least 6 liters of water today and only went to the bathroom once.... if you know anything about me, or my heritage, that's almost a physical impossibility.
We stopped along the way and bought some honey from some roadside beekeepers, we mix it with water and I use it as a power drink when the hills get too steep and too long, the downside is that you kinda run out of steam after the sugar fix has expired.
(Godspeed and David on the ride out to Badaling)
We stopped for lunch and had an excellent Won Ton soup, you should have seen that little girl make the wontons, man was she fast!
We ended up the day at 5:30 at the hotel. I thought I'd gotten a good tan until I took a shower and saw most of it run down the drain. I wonder if dirt and diesel exhaust has an "SP" rating?
Our hotel is right under the great wall; we will be going up there tomorrow morning to watch the sunrise.
(Our first view of the wall!)
Day 6
Today we saw the sunrise on the great wall at Badaling. If I had to put a word to it, it would have to be ethereal. I find it a piece of good fortune to know that I am one of a finite number of people in the world to have stood on such a structure. The following are pictures of the wall early in the morning as the sun rises.
After the trip to the wall, we had breakfast at a noodle shop that made the noodles right there... The noodle maker continually stretches and refolds the same noodle until he has one about a kilometer long. After breakfast we biked (uphill of course) to Song Yuen National Forest Park.
(It took this guy about 30 seconds to turn a lump of dough into a bowl of noodles)
The trip up was long, and hot, about 10 kilometers of it was that UPhill crap (are you getting the idea I don't like hills? Oh well as they say: "If it won't kill you, it'll make you stronger, hope its option number 2). Lunch was great, followed by a nap, then 2 kilometers of good, but of course, uphill road, then another 2 to 3 kilometers of really bad gravel, uphill road before Godspeed hired a truck to take us 7 kilometers through some really nasty switchbacks to the top of the pass. We felt pretty lucky that we didn't have to walk our bikes up the hill (it would have taken me the better part of a day to negotiate that crap).
(Lunch and a nap before the big hill)
(Me in my cool alien shirt with Godspeed, we're waiting for David to wake up from his beauty sleep!)
We stopped at the top for a bit of a celebration and David bought a watermelon from a passing farmer. The next 30 kilometers consisted of at least 20 kilometers ofl downhill on a gravel road, with a short stop for me to change a tube that blew on the sharp rocks.
(The truck...if you can call it that, which gave us a ride to the top)
(David and Godspeed enjoying the ride in the back of the truck)
(That's the farmer who was riding in the truck, empty after taking his cabbages to market)
(David and I called it a mountain pass, Godspeed called it a little hill)
( Watermelon anyone?)
(The other side of the park)
We are staying the night in a "guest house", more like a couple of rooms in the back of some village shack. The bed I have is a straw tick on top of hard wood...this oughta be good for case of bedbugs, I can see one now while I write this...oh well, I asked for adventure, and now I got it. Actually the room isn't that bad, the bed is kinda hard and its the first time I've ever used a sack of rice for a pillow.
(The outdoor toilet is just around the right side of the building, next to the chickens)
(Godspeed is a wired guy, seen here with 2 cell phones on the go, he'd spend the day simultaneously text messaging, talking to us, eating, biking and encouraging us to "just do it" ....a line he liked from Ben Stiller in Starsky and Hutch)
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