Jack's Trip to China
September 2004
Copyright © Jack Gregory, 2004
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Day 7
Well, that wasn't so bad, I crawled into my silk sleeping sack I'd bought from Mountain Equipment Co-op and had a fine sleep. Woke up in the morning and managed to use the outdoor "squat" toilet with out falling in, thank goodness, cause we'd already used the community shower last night.... and I do meant community shower.... the village we stayed in had a place in someone's house that rented out a shower stall to the village for 3 quai per person. At those rates, not too many showers a week please.
Anyway, that was yesterday. Today we biked about 65 kilometers total, and subsidized that with a short 5 kilometer ride to the top of "another bloody mountain pass", followed by a 8 kilometer bike ride to a village, then an 80 kilometer ride to a hotel in another "bloody mountain pass"...if I don't get healthy there won't be any excuse. The first 40 kilometers we did today were very easy (never thought I'd say that six months ago), we stopped for an impromptu tour of a small brick factory on the way...interesting.
(After this guy doubles the size of that load, he has every intention of driving it down the road!)
(photo opp, and an excuse to stop and catch my breath)
(The bricks come from over there and go down there, then you put coal in the little holes below your feet and keep everything hot for a couple of days)
(The workers in the brickyard, I think they thought we were nuts for asking to look at it, but were very proud of the work they did)
Dinner tonight was excellent as usual; the restaurant staff went out and picked fresh beans from the courtyard for us. A couple of good beers and a wide-ranging conversation that covered governments and religion, then off to bed.
(The excellent hotel, no hot water because there was something wrong with the heater, but...)
(you get hot water from these absolutly huge thermoses for your "shower")
(Do you see a shower stall here? Well there isn't, you just use the thing on the wall and make a hell of a mess of the bathroom and it all runs down the drain in the corner)
Day 8
The day started out with a nice ride for about 10 kilometers, all downhill. We rented a vehicle to carry us about 80 kilometers through some very high, and rugged mountain passes, then we finished off with another 20 kilometers or so of uphill, of course, finishing in Simiatai. This section of the wall still keeps the original appearance of the great wall of the Ming dynasty it is 5.4 km long, there are 35 watchtowers on it all together.
(Look out for the Corn Truck!!! Well not really a truck more like an overloaded corn tricylcle)
At Sumatai, we rode a chair lift, a cable car, and took the number 11 bus (that's a Chinese joke for walking) to the number 8 tower and there we were, on the wall! We spent the afternoon there and watched the sunset. Halfway down, we stopped and bought a few beers and some souvenirs. Supper at the hotel, then off to bed.
(Sunset on the Great Wall at Sumatai)
(The hotel in Sumatai)
(Another day done)
Day 9
We saw Peter off in the morning, then spent 9 ?hours (7.5 in the saddle) and rode 135 kilometers to Chengde. Boy, was my ass glad to see the tub in the beautiful hotel Godspeed had reserved. We have cycled 550 kilometers and seen some things I would never have imagined. We washed off all the day's accumulated dirt and went for a hot pot dinner. I tried the cow's throat and liver, but found I preferred something that looked like real beef instead.
So you want to know how the farmers harvest their grain? Well follow the pictures below:
(First you pick it, by hand of course)
(Then you make a nice neat pile in the middle of the road and your wife comes and tells you that you have done it all wrong. She then rearranges everything to HER satisfaction. In China they say that a husband who is henpecked is said to have a soft ear...from pulling on it I quess.)
(And you get some trucks and busses to run over it)
(Then you sift out the seeds)
(Finally, you make a pile of it on the side of the road so your neighbors can see how much you got)
Day 10
We spent a lazy day today resting and looking around the Imperial summer resort. The original resort was built in the 1770's (I think) and is a very large model of the country of China. It is several times larger than the Forbidden City and much nicer. We stopped for some tea, and also bought some. A nice lunch, then off to the hotel for some more rest. Tomorrow we take the train back to Beijing.
(This is a model of the Imperial summer Palace, it was designed as a model of China with the flatlands in the south and the mountains in the north. The Emperor would meet dignitaries from various parts of China here and had set up embassies for them to stay in that were modeled on the architecture of their province. The outside of the summer palace was surrounded by eight smaller versions of monasteries)
(I've got about a hundred pictures of various Pagodas. I need to figure out how to build one of these pagodas back home!)
(The background contains a scaled down version of the monastery in Lhasa, Godspeed has been to the real thing)
(I might get to see the real one some day)
(A theatre the Emperor used for performances)
(I bought some tea from this little girl/lady)
To see how to make a good cup of tea click here
(Our last supper, the stuff on the left is boiled pork something like side bacon, the stuff in the middle is an egg omelet of sorts with a meat sauce on top. The green dish is green peppers that have been roasted briefly then stir fried. The big green bottle is of course the beer)
Day 11
We slept in this morning, then took an afternoon train back to Beijing.
(Here is Godspeed and a friend of his, we have our bikes disassembled and are waiting for the train back to Beijing)
(No smoking, littering, or spitting on the train please)
(In case you've never seen a squat toilet, here is one on the train. It discharges directly to the train track. I'm not exactly sure how you use one, the best way I've found is to basically get naked, that way you don't end up with something on your clothes that you don't want there. Then you find something to hold on to and go for it.....no reading the paper as you can't squat like that for too long without serious repercussions on the standing back up front. Bring nice tissue paper, I've never seen any in one of them)
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