A few days without a post... In fact, I was planning to write a new post yesterday evening, but it just did not happen. We arrived late afternoon in Mojiang, went into town after refreshing ourselves, had dinner, went to buy a few groceries and came across... a nice bottle of Chinese wine! As we planned to have a rest day the day after (today), we bought the bottle, and that was the end of my writing plans.
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| A village just outside of Ning'er; notice the gray drizzly weather |
The past 2 days have been fantastic!
The mountains are becoming higher and higher, more and more spectacular. The scenery is incredible, beautiful nature, terraced farming fields on steep slopes, small charming villages, ... These villages are changing, they look very different from what they were in the first days. I guess it's the difference between the different population groups: first it was mostly Dai, now it's Yi. It's all very rural most of the time, it's clear that we're in the more remote, rural, less populated regions of China here. The people are also still so nice, reactions varying from totally surprised to see those aliens (which, by the way, is really how foreigners are called in China) to enthusiastic hello's (which sound more like "chelleu"), people waving out of their car windows, making pictures, giving us thumbs up, encouraging us on the long climbs; but they're never over the top, never shouting, not artificial. And as mentioned before, they're always ready to help and get things done. Oral communication is virtually zero (I now often just speak Flemish, it doesn't make a difference anyway), but we get everything done - through sign language, pointing, online translations, and laughing!
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| Cycling uphill through pine forest. |
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| This is where we are, and that is where we go. What a scenery! |
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| Beautiful terraced fields, with some kind of wheat crop |
The cycling in the past 2 days can be summarised with 1 proverb: what comes down, must go up! (I should register this for a Viagra commercial). From Ning'er we started the day with a "modest" climb of 300m over 13km; the scenery even became a bit alpine like on this part, with a different kind of forest and a lot of pine trees. After that climb, we had a very very long descent: 10km steep, but in total almost 50km down!!!! It was cloudy and drizzling, we got really shivering cold riding down, and needed to warm up in the sun afterwards during our coffee break (luckily the sun came out, even though it was still only weak sunshine). We lost only 700m altitude in that long descent, then crossed the Black River (which was entirely red) to start climbing these 700m up again. A 25km long and gradual climb, with a perfect picnic spot stop midway. We stopped for the night in the town of Tongguan - more about that later.
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| Charming houses and villages on our way |
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| Village |
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| The climb on our way to Tongguan, with the valley where we started still visible below, and some of the hairpin bends |
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| The picnic spot (first one we've seen in China) midway on the climb, perfect for a short stop with some quick energy intake (Orio and sweetened soy milk) |
Leaving from Tongguan it was a similar ride: 150m up over 7-8km, 1000m down (what a great downhill ride!) in 20km, and yes after that 1000m up again with another long but smooth 25km climb. Luckily we decided to have an early lunch in the small town before the climb, because there was nothing the entire way up - and we definitely needed the energy! We ended the day with 18km down into Mojiang, our place for the night - and a rest day. I guess it could be boring to read all these numbers, it's just nice to understand and remember... Not sure about the next number, but I estimate we had close to 50 hairpin bends in yesterday's road... The scenery along these roads has just been absolutely astonishing, the cycling is so rewarding, we had high expectations for China and so far, these have definitely been exceeded! We're also lucky: from Andy and Claire's blog, a year ago, we read that the road was quite bad in parts, with a lot of construction going on. Well now, that road has been fully finished, is in perfect condition, with even plants and flowers planted alongside it!
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| The view, leaving Tongguan in the morning |
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| Mountain scenery, becoming more and more impressive |
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| Crossing the Amo River after 1000m descent, ready to start climbing the 1000m up on the other side. |
In Tongguan we found a nice, simple, rather new small hotel at 50 CNY (less than 7€) with super friendly owners. Tongguan is a weird town: it's a very small town full of hotels, many of them new. Other than these hotels, there is almost nothing. Very few restaurants, a few small shops. There are 2 big boulevards through the town, each just a few 100m long, and that's about all there is. I think the town has a lot of people stopping over for the night, as it's located both on the G213 and more importantly, just next to the expressway. Weird, but not unpleasant at all, and again: super friendly people!
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| The way up, with series of hairpin bends, but always with a gradual gradient |
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| Impressive terraces on the mountain side, with the expressway carved right through it |
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| Nothing wrong with this location for a coffee break! |
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| On the way down again |
Mojiang on the other hand is rather a small city. To Chinese standards it's only a small town probably, for us it's a small city (well, 350,000 people live in Mojiang county!). Ideal for a 1 day rest stop, well deserved after 5 days in the mountains... We had a great dinner here yesterday, probably the best we've had so far in China, in a restaurant called Mao Master. They made some kind of Sichuan hotpot. You put whatever you like in a bowl, one for veggies, one for meat, straight from the fridge. They weigh what you took, calculate the price (12 CNY per kg veggie, 36 CNY per kg meat), you choose what kind of "broth" to use, and you get served a nice spicy hotpot with rice, delicious. So good we'll probably go back to the same place today! We then strolled through town afterwards, and enjoyed observing the evening activities in the city park. It's very hard to describe. People get together in the evening in the open spaces in cities, parks, squares. They just hang out, kids often playing, on roller blades, bikes. Many people, mostly slightly older ones, are dancing in groups of 10-30 people: from folk-like dance to aerobic. It's really fantastic to see - and close to impossible to describe.
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| Mojiang city square |
So today we take a rest day. We need to do some laundry, wash the bikes (that will be done in our hotel room shower for a change...), do some shopping - we really need some warmer clothes - and visit the Tropic of Cancer park. Incredible, we've cycled from just north of the equator to the Tropic of Cancer already!