Ride 3, Longsheng - Sanjiang, amazing scenery

A days rest in Longsheng was very nice. I First thought I didn’t have any muscle ache, but especially when walking the stairs to my room (luckily I was at the 2nd floor) I really felt my knees. I also got a light sunburn on my upper legs, but this isn’t too bad. Taking everything into account, I think my body held’s up quite ok.

In the morning I walked around town and quickly found the local market which is always fun to walk through. You see the most interesting things like loads of live animals from the common chickens and ducks to toads and rabbits. I also saw prepared dogs hanging from meat hooks and of course lots and lots of fresh vegetables and other groceries. The rest of my day I spend in my room, planning my further journey, writing my blog, checking the photo’s I’ve taken, etc. At the end of the day when the sun was not so strong anymore, I made a short bike ride around town which was nice and I briefly explored the way I had to go to the next day.

The next day I had planned to cycle to Sanjiang. This was 60km away, so it was a “short” ride with not too many climbs either. I woke up early again and I try to make a habit of this as this gives me lots of time along the way in case I need a break or it gives me more time to rest in the afternoon when I arrive early.

After breakfast I got on my bicycle and immediately I felt my knees again, but it wasn’t too bad (as long as it wouldn’t get any worse). When cycling out of Longsheng the scenery was amazing. I already knew the whole ride would be along the river, but it was really stunning the whole way. I took quite a few photo’s, but after a while I stopped doing that as I can never capture all of this beauty in a photo… you should see it for yourself!

After about 30km I had a climb that briefly reminded me about the horrible climb in my previous ride, but luckily this was a short one and it was quickly forgotten when I conquered it. After 2 hours of cycling I took a short break and ate some bananas which I had bought before. An interesting thing is that in every little town people are playing cards and it doesn’t matter which day of the week it is… they always seem to relax and play cards. Anyway one of the men started a simple conversation with the usual questions; “where are you from, where are you going/ where do you come from” which is nice to answer.

At 12 o’clock I arrived in Sanjiang and had finished my 60km ride in 3.5 hours… sweet! Then it was a little bit of searching for a hotel, but that wasn’t too hard this time. After taking a refreshing shower and washing my clothes I went outside to eat lunch and walked around town a bit. I decided to stay here for an extra day, because there’re supposed to be some small villages a little north of here with old wooden bridges and some drum towers which will make a nice day trip.

As usual, here’s the link to the ride I took:
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/49920542

Day trip to Chengyang Wind & Rain Bridge

The next day I was really happy to travel by bicycle, because now I can do daytrips further out of town without being limited to where the busses go. I heard there was a beautiful, 100 year old bridge just north of Sanjiang, so I grabbed my bike in the morning and drove off.

Along the way I saw the signs and noticed it was a little further than expected, 20km. “Oh well, no problem”. It was again a beautiful ride through the countryside, going up and down all the time and passing through very small villages. As I left in the early morning I cycled by several children who were walking to school and many of them greeted me with a happy “hello” :).

When I came close to the bridge I saw a visitors center, but it looked deserted so I didn’t stop and just continued. At the bridge there were many officials and they told me I had to buy a ticket to cross the bridge. In China it’s very normal to charge tourist for lots of different sights. If you want to climb a mountain often there’s a ticket booth at the bottom, hiking to a waterfall… the same, even some villages charge you money if you want to enter. So of course here it was the same. I asked the price and I was told it was 60 RMB… wow… that’s far too much for me, no thanks!

So I continued to cycle on this side of the river and along the way I saw several similar bridges, but not as big. I entered one of them and in the middle was an old man sitting. He pointed to a sign next to him and it explained that if you want you can make a donation (any amount is ok) and then you can write down your name and later it will be carved on a piece of wood that will be placed on the bridge. I looked around and there were loads of names already, and I think this is a much better way of asking for money (to preserve the bridge), so I made a small donation and wrote down my name. I wonder if I ever come here again, I’ll be able to find my name… without spelling mistakes ;).

When I walked back to my bike, there were several men standing around it and examining it. As most Chinese are very curious they looked at it closely, picked it up (to weigh it) and started chatting away (what I think was “wow, this bike is light, try it yourself”, as soon others picked it up as well. Of course they asked me the most common question (after where are you from) “how much is it?”. In China it’s not impolite at all to ask this, unlike in Holland where it’s kind of rude. So I told them 2000 RMB and they started chatting away again. Actually the price was 3000 RMB (about 300 euro’s), but I always say 2000, as it is a lot of money for them already and although I don’t think most people will try to steal it, it can’t harm to be a little careful.

Then I continued cycling again and after about 10km I turned around as I had to go back the same way again. When I came close to the Chengyang bridge I wanted to climb the hill on this side of the river as I’ve seen some photo’s in my hotel with an amazing view over the town and the bridge. So I locked my bike and walked up the steps, but after 4-5 seconds I heard some shouting and it was one of the officials who said to go up there I needed a ticket. I told him I thought that was too expensive, so I walked down again and unlocked my bike to leave.

I actually really wanted to go up there, but out of principle (and being Dutch) I didn’t want to pay. But then I remembered I’d seen another sign just down the road that also mentioned a hiking path. So I cycled back a little and parked my bike over there. It was just far enough to be out of side from the guards, so I hiked up the path and just hoped there would be no one up the hill to check for tickets. After a short but steep hike I was nearly to the top, when I heard some voices…”oh crap, there are guards up here” I thought. So I slowly and quietly walked the last steps, but quickly I saw it were no guards, but some Chinese tourists that had started the hike from the other side.

Then on top there was a little tower from which you had one of the most amazing views I’ve ever seen …. WOW!!! It’s hard to explain, but of course I’ve taken some photo’s, so you can see it for yourself below. I also made a short video, so check that one too.

Back down again I cycled back to Sanjiang, but when leaving the area around the bridge I noticed that now there were also some officials sitting at the tourist center. I guess I was lucky to be early, so that they weren’t there in the morning :).

This little day trip turned out to be a little bit longer than expected as I cycled in total almost 60km. My right knee is still a bit sore, but I hope it won’t be too serious as tomorrow I’ll have a long ride planned of about 100km to the province Guizhou. I’m still not exactly sure where I’ll go, because I prefer to go to Zhaoxing, but to get there I have to leave the main road after about 55km and I’m not sure if that’s well mentioned. If not I’ll continue the road and I’ll go to Congjiang and then later I’ll go to Zhaoxing through another road.

@ Jim – yes, an E-bike would be nice for those hills :D
@ F&L – mijn banden en remmen worden ook behoorlijk warm, maar afkoelen heeft niet super veel zin, want door het warme weer zijn zo na een paar tellen rijden weer warm.
@ Sigrid – haha, begin zeker al aardig in te burgeren hier in China :). Sorry dat ik je niet meer geantwoord had op facebook, maar ook al zijn we nu “dichtbij” elkaar in de buurt, even afspreken zit er helaas niet in. Geniet nog even van China, zover je daar tijd voor hebt tijdens je werk.