Through Sichuan to Chengdu

I know…. It’s been far too long (once again)!!! But I’ve stopped cycling and I’m living in Chengdu now. I’ve found an apartment and I’m studying Chinese now, so I’m kind of settled. But before I start telling about now, let’s go back to the start of my Sichuan adventure.

As I told last time, when I arrived in Chishui I was helped by a girl in a hotel to find me a cheaper hotel with internet. So the day after, I went back to her and gave her a some cookies and a small cake to say thanks. Of course it made her really happy and in return she invited me for dinner. So that night I joined her and she had invited 2 more friends and one of them was an English teacher. But although she was a teacher, her English wasn’t that good. Of course we could have a simple conversation, but that was about it.

The next day I went to visit Red Rock Gorge which was just 20km out of Chishui, so of course I took my bicycle. The road wasn’t very hilly and without bags I could finally cycle full speed and within an hour I was there.

This area is full of red rocks (surprise ;)) and waterfalls which makes a stunning scenery. After hiking all the way up to the top there was a path from which there was a nice view over the surroundings. And at the end of the path there was the Red Rock Gorge. A huge red rock/ cliff in the middle of the forest.

Ride 19, Chishui – Xingwen
After a couple of days in Chishui it was time to leave Guizhou and to enter Sichuan. Sichuan was actually just across the river as on that side of the river the town is called Jiuzhi. Along the way to Xingwen I cycled past lots of weddings, not sure if this was a special day (18-10-11), but coming across at least 7 weddings is a bit unusual I think.

In Xingwen I made a daytrip to the Stone Forrest which was just 20km away. Only the last 5km were pretty steep up the mountain, so that made it kind of tough. In this park there were of course lots of rocks to see in different shapes and sizes, but there was also a little settlement of the Bo minority. The special thing about these people is that they wouldn’t burry the death, but put the wooden coffins in caves or balance them on wooden stakes in the cliffs.

There is a site of this phenomenon about 50km south of here, but it’s really isolated and difficult to get to. But I was lucky, because in this settlement there were also a few hanging coffins, although not so many anymore as every now and then a coffin will fall down.

A little while later I walked into a huge crater-like valley. While I walked around this valley I walked into a little temple which was off the beaten path and there was 1 monk there. And I think he lived there alone, and didn’t meet many people, as he wouldn’t stop talking. Only 95% I didn’t understand, but for him it didn’t matter much as he kept on talking anyway. But then suddenly he walked away and got some very old firecrackers as they were covered in lots of dust. He hang them on the wall and lit them which made an amazing echo within the crater with each bang. I thanked him and decided to move on as otherwise I would be here the rest of the day.

When I completed the walk around the crater I went down as there was an enormous cave. There was a long walk through the cave and there were lots of stalagmites and stalactites, which all had tacky lights on them (although it does look nice on the photo’s).

Ride 20, Xingwen – Shunan Bamboo Sea
This day I only had to cycle 40km as the next destination was really close, but it was on top of mountain. After a long climb I finally made it and could enter the park. I had found a hotel quite easily and after a shower it was still early afternoon, so I decided to cycle around the area.

As it’s called the Bamboo Sea there is bamboo everywhere, so I was cycling through corridors of bamboo. After a little while I found a temple which was build on a hill and there were lots of steps to the entrance of it. Once at the top, there must have been an amazing view of the surroundings, but unfortunately I couldn’t see it, because there was heavy fog. It’s really typical for China at this time of the year I guess, because I would come across much more of it the next couple of weeks.

A little bit later there was a cable car which went over the Bamboo Sea. It was an amazing view (and luckily no fog here) and also a bit strange as the cable cars I’d taken before were over snow and mountains when I went snowboarding. Nothing compared to this, although both are really beautiful.

The next day I changed hotels to a hotel on the other side of the park, so I would be closer to Yibin for the ride of the next day. I found a new hotel easily, but the owner of this hotel was the tiniest woman I’ve seen so far (Inge, ik weet zeker dat ze 1 kop kleiner was dan jij!!!).

Ride 21, Shunan Bamboo Sea – Yibin
When I left in the morning it was raining a little, but I didn’t want to wait for it to get dry, so I put on my rain cape and left anyway. Luckily it stopped half way, so it wasn’t too bad, although there was a lot of mud on the road which made me and my bike really dirty.

And then something strange happened. I was cycling on a motorway with 2 lanes (as there’s never a cycling path) and a car drove next to me very slowly. And while he was driving he took out a SLR camera and started to take photos of me. Behind him several cars started horning, but he didn’t care. It was actually kinda funny, so I waved at him, but he motioned to me to just cycle and not look at him… well whatever!?!

Late afternoon I arrived in Yibin and just when I got dressed after taking a shower someone knocked on the door of my hotel room. I opened the door and it was the girl from the reception with a police officer. They started talking in Chinese, but I didn’t understand much of it, but then I figured out I wasn’t allowed to stay in this hotel, because I was a foreigner. I know that’s possible in China, but it had never happened to me before, although some hotels had refused me at the reception.

Anyway, I had to pack my bags and the police officer told me he would bring me to a different hotel, a four star hotel, just down the street. I wasn’t really happy with that as for sure those rooms must be very expensive and I had planned to stay a few days here in Yibin. When we entered the hotel I saw the sign with room prices and the cheapest room was 400 yuan… no way I’m going to pay that!! I told them that was way too expensive and I couldn’t afford it. But then they said they had cheaper rooms in an older building next door and after negotiating I got a room there for 80 yuan which was acceptable.

Later that day I was walking around town and ready to eat dinner, but the guy at the noodle shop didn’t really understand what I wanted. But two girls who were already there helped me a bit and told me to join them at their table. We chatted a little bit and when I was finished they offered to pay for me… well thanks! After dinner we walked around town together and decided to meet the next day in the afternoon.

So the next day we met at Wall-Mart and I hadn’t been in such a big department store for ages as in Chinese towns there are only small grocery stores. We walked around a bit and afterwards went to play badminton. It was nice to play some sports again as it had been a while. When we were finished we said goodbye as the next day was Monday and both of the girls had to work then.

So the day after I cycled around town a bit to look for a bicycle shop, because one of my brakes still wasn’t perfect. I couldn’t find a Giant shop, but nearby was a Trek shop. The boy who was working there was great and knew a lot about bicycles. He adjusted more than just my front brake and afterwards it rode perfectly. And best of all… when I asked him how much it was, he said nothing :)

The people working in the shop said their boss also loves cycling and he had cycled several times to Tibet and this summer he had also cycled a tournament in France (but I forgot the name). They showed me some photos of him and by the time we were finished he entered the shop. He spoke some English, so we exchanged stories and he asked me to join for lunch.

After lunch he wanted to show me the Wu Liang Ye factory where the famous Chinese baijiu (rice wine) is made. So we both got on our bikes and cycled to the factory which was about 7km away. It’s a huge complex, has a small museum and some nice scenic spots.

When we came back to you shop he asked me if I liked swimming and I told him I really do. So he asked me if I wanted to join him and his friend to swim in the river later this afternoon. By now it was already the end of October, but if they can do it, I’m ok to join. So later that day he gave me a swimming short which he had in his shop (unfortunately a Speedo, which wasn’t sexy at all with my white upper legs and below a dark tan, because of the cycling in shorts). His friend joined us and together we drove in his Jeep to the river.

By that time it already began to get dark a little, but luckily is wasn’t really cold. We changed at the river and then it was time to enter the water, but WOW…. the water was freezing cold!!! We slowly entered the water, waited for a few minutes and then dove in, but… it was still freezing cold. So to get warm I quickly started swimming. We swam a little against the current, but it was quite strong so we didn’t really move forward, but just stayed at one place.

After some time I got a little tired, so we decided to stop swimming and when I got out of the water it wasn’t cold at all anymore and it actually felt really nice. Then they told me they do this every afternoon for the whole year, even in winter! When we drove back we parked the car at the friend’s house and he showed me he had a Harley Davidson in his garage. He said he was 1 of the 2 people in Sichuan that owns one, so I figured he must be quite rich.

Then they invited me for dinner and along the way they met a friend and she also joined for dinner, which was nice, because she spoke quite good English. We ate some kind of barbecue at the restaurant, but instead of doing it yourself there is a waiter at the table who does everything for you.

Of course they ordered lots of food and after a few beers they changed from the local beer to Heineken :). I hadn’t drunk this for more than a year and a half and as I’m so used to Chinese beer now it actually tasted quite strong. Haha, who would have thought that Heineken could taste strong, but with an alcohol percentage of about 3.3% in China it’s no surprise.

During dinner this friend mentioned he was the owner (or a high manager) of the Wu Liang Ye factory, so that explained something about the Harley. He also said he might be able to get me a job for this factory in Yibin or Chengdu, but that first my Chinese would have to improve… so who knows, maybe in the future.

Ride 22, Yibin – Zigong
The next day it was time for me to leave Yibin and to cycle to Zigong, the dinosaur city. In the morning I saw a few cyclists ahead of me and when I caught up with them I saw it were some older Chinese people (around 50 I think). With the little bit of Chinese I was able to speak I figured out they were going to Chengdu and would cycle for a few days. But they cycled a little bit slow for me (and went a different way too), so I continued by myself. Along the way I met more of them and in total I think I counted about 14 of them.

Around 12 o’clock I stopped in a little town to drink something and to take a rest as I had cycled about 70km with only 2 short stops. The people from the shop were very friendly and even people from a shop across the street hurried to join the conversation we were having. They were excited I was cycling through China and they offered me to join lunch with them.

Of course I didn’t refuse, so minutes later I was given a big bowl of rice and was eating with them. I was friendly forced to eat the local specialty of boiled pigs blood. It’s not on my list of favorite foods, but I couldn’t refuse and it didn’t taste that bad, but it’s more the texture I didn’t like.

After lunch I gave them a big thank you and continued cycling. But after about an hour I noticed I had taken a wrong turn somewhere and to continue this road would be even longer than turning back, so I had to go back. Unfortunately this was the only part that had a few hills, so now I had to do them twice :S.

Then finally after 110km I had reached Zigong and I was exhausted, so decided to take one of the first hotels I found. It was a nice hotel, but I couldn’t leave my bicycle in the lobby. Instead I had to put it in my room on the 6th floor, but luckily they had an elevator! The room wasn’t very big, and with the bicycle in it, it looked even smaller :).

The next day I cycled to the dinosaur museum which was only 15km outside town. When I got there I saw they were renovating the museum, but luckily most of it was still open for visitors. They had some huge skeletons of dinosaurs and it was quite interesting to see and read about it. I also met some Chinese students who walked with me through the museum and showed me around a bit.

Ride 23, Zigong – Leshan
For this day I had planned to cycle 128km, which was the longest ride during this trip. Luckily it was a sunny day and I knew because of the internet that there weren’t any big mountains, so it wouldn’t be too hard.

I felt pretty good and cycled really fast, so by the time I went for lunch at about 1 o’clock, I had already cycled 2/3 of the way. As I didn’t have any big breaks before it was really nice to sit in a comfortable chair. Only ordering food was a little bit difficult as (of course) they didn’t speak English, but for some reason they weren’t really helpful, but just tried to avoid me a little, so they didn’t have to deal with me. Anyway, after a little bit of talking I ordered something and sat at a table. But because it was really busy, a Chinese couple joined me and they tried to talk with me a little. They were really nice and also insisted I had to eat the food they had ordered. By that time the staff got more curious and also started to talk with me a little. After lunch the couple paid my lunch and I continued to cycle the last bit.

By this time I’d been in Sichuan for about 2 weeks and the people here are really friendly (and probably a little wealthier than Guizhou). I say this because since these 2 weeks I’ve been treated for either lunch or dinner every other day! Sometimes I meet someone on the street, we talk a little, walk around and when we eat together they insist to pay for me. But sometimes as this day, I just eat at the same table and talk just a little bit and they still pay for me…. this would never happen in Holland or any other western country I think.

Anyway, in the late afternoon I arrived in Leshan which is famous for the Grand Buddha. It is 71 meters high and has 7 meter long ears (with some grass growing inside ;)). I visited it the next day, but I was a little unlucky, because it was weekend and it was really busy! There were people everywhere and if you wanted to climb down the stairs at the Buddha you first had to stand in line for a couple of hours. So I skipped that part and just took some photo’s from the top.

There wasn’t much else to see in Leshan, but I took an extra days rest as I had a long journey before and it was really nice weather to just sit outside and read a book.

Ride 24, Leshan – Emei Shan
The next ride to Emei was only 35km, so it felt like nothing. I already arrived there before lunchtime and I decided to take 1.5 days rest, because I would then climb mount Emei, which is 3099m high and a really tough climb.

So two days later I left my cycling bags and bicycle at the hostel and just brought a small backpack to climb the mountain. I took a bus to a little village near the base of the mountain which was at 700m. and from there I decided to hike all the way to the top which was a 30km hike with lots and lots of steps!!

When I was eating lunch at a tiny little shop, two French girls (Anne & Emma) walked by and the owner convinced them to eat lunch here. I started to talk with them and we decided to continue together. They study for half a year in Guangzhou and were here for a short holiday.

For me the climbing of all the steps wasn’t too tough, as it’s a bit of the same action as cycling. The girls on the other hand had much more trouble with it. So we stopped every now and then and took some short breaks. During the climbing we noticed we couldn’t reach the top this day, but there are several monasteries along the way where you can spend the night.

Just after 6 o’clock we reached the Elephant Bathing Pool monastery and by then it already started to get a little dark. There were also quite a few Chinese tourists (young people) and we joined them in one of the rooms. There was a small heater there which felt quite nice as it had rained a little all afternoon.

The room we got was really simple, but most important was… there was an electric blanket! And this was a real treat, because at night it was around 0 degrees and the walls and glass were really thin. There were also showers, but unfortunately there was no warm water, so I skipped it.

And then Emma walked up to me and asked if I could help her to ask the monks something. Because what had happened… she went to the toilet (a hole in the ground, built at the edge of a cliff) and while she squatted, her telephone fell out of her pocket…. into the hole!! So I helped her to ask the monks, but I already knew the answer… no way it’s possible to get that phone. So the monks smiled and indeed said there was no way to get it.

The next morning we got up at 6.15 and joined the monks for breakfast. After that the sun was rising and for the first time we could see the mountains and forest around us, because the day before there was fog everywhere.

And then it was time to continue to hike up all the steps to the top… and it seemed there was no end. But around 11 we finally reached the top, but unfortunately the fog was there again and we couldn’t see much of the scenery around us. But this high up the mountain there was some snow which looked very nice.

Up the mountain it was a lot busier then on the walking paths, because most (older) tourists take the bus all the way up the mountain and only hike the last 3.5km to the summit. Or they don’t even do this and take the cable car instead. Anyway for us it was time to hike back down again as we didn’t want to take the bus and had 30km ahead of us. But this time it was downhill instead of uphill.

While we were walking down we passed an area with monkeys. They looked really cute, but they were really cheeky. Of course it is caused by all the tourist who give them a lot of food. Anyway, one of the bigger monkeys, must have thought he didn’t get enough food, because he walked into a group of people and grabbed a bag out of someone’s hand. But it wasn’t just a person, it was actually a monk! (see photo) But the monkey didn’t care and started throwing the stuff from the bag onto the ground until he found some food. Then he grabbed the food and ran away. By that time a lot of people had gathered around him, but nobody actually helped ;) Me neither, but it was a funny situation.

The later it got in the afternoon we were actually in doubt if we could make it all the way down. There was a cable car in one of the small villages near the bottom, which leads to the bus back to the hostel, but the cable car and bus would stop at 18.00. So time kept ticking and my feet and legs got more and more tired.

But then at 17.30 I saw the cable car and a little later I had reached the ticket office. But they had already started to remove all the cabins from the rail. I asked her if we could still go down and she looked a bit surprised, so she looked around and asked someone else. He said it was ok, but we had to wait a little longer. Then when only two cabins were left on the rail we could get in and went all the way down.

At the parking lot the last bus had already left, but there were several men waiting, which acted like taxis, and they took us back to the hostel. That evening I was sooo exhausted… I had hiked about 60km (30km up & down) from 700m to 3099m high, about 25.000 steps and all this in just two days!

The next day I had the worst muscle ache ever. Luckily my room was on the first floor, but I had to do laundry which was on the 3rd floor :(. I decided to take 1 day rest and I actually did nothing that whole day as it was so difficult and painful to walk.


Ride 25, Emei Shan – Pengshan
The next day the muscle ache was still pretty bad, but I wanted to leave Emei and go towards Chengdu. But Chengdu was 150km away, which is too far for 1 day. So I decided to do at least 80km and then I would see where I would stop.

Unfortunately it started to rain a little in the afternoon, but it didn’t last more than 1 hour. Just after half the distance to Chengdu I arrived in a small city an decided to spend the night here. There weren’t many hotels and I got even refused at one for being a foreigner, but I did managed to find another one.

Ride 26, Pengshan – Chengdu
And then….. after 2400km in 8 weeks of cycling I had finally reached Chengdu!!!!! It felt really amazing to cycle into Chengdu and although it was raining I had a smile on my face and just kept going. Anne and Emma who I had met in Emei had advised me to go to a hostel called Nova and luckily it wasn’t too difficult to find, although Chengdu is a really big city… about 8 million people live here.

The first few days I didn’t do much, just cycle a bit through Chengdu and eat some local, spicy food. I did visit the Panda Reserve and there were a lot of baby panda’s, about 12 which is more than usual.

After staying in Chengdu for a week, one of my former students (C) from Yangshuo visited me and he stayed in the same hostel with me. He also invited two girls who he had met during his travels in Nepal. In our room was also a French guy (his name was too difficult, so I just called him French) who had stayed here for a month, because his credit card got hacked while he traveled through Russia. So he had to wait here while his new card was being send over and there was also a Spanish couple. With all these guys together we had some nice evenings and the owners of this hostel were good friends with the owners of a fancy club in Chengdu. So we could go there and when we phoned this guy, we would get a free table with unlimited free whiskey and juice for the whole evening!

While we were in the bar every now and then some Chinese would come up for a chat and ganbei (bottoms up) with us. One of these people was a Chinese girl who celebrated her birthday and she invited us to join her table in the VIP area. They had some other drinks too and we happily joined them for more drinks. About 4 o’clock we wanted to go home, but the Chinese asked if we wanted to join them for some midnight food. So we took a taxi together and ate hotpot in a restaurant.

Another night we went to the same bar, but when we were at the door and phoned the guy we knew, he wasn’t working :(. So we decided to buy some alcohol at a supermarket and drink something outside in the park before we would go into the bar, as it’s so expensive there.

Later that evening we actually went to another bar and we didn’t have to pay an entrance fee. Inside we danced a little bit and soon some of us were asked by random Chinese to join their table and drink together. We actually stayed in this club till 7 in the morning and all night we had been given free drinks… it can be so nice to be a foreigner in China!

By this time I has decided to stop cycling and to stay in Chengdu to study Chinese. So the next step was to find an apartment as a dorm room with 5 other people can be nice to meet new people, but there’s not a lot of privacy.

There are a lot of apartments available in Chengdu, but most of them are offered through the internet and it is only in Chinese. There are also a lot of agencies, but they usually don’t speak English and they also ask for ½ or 1 month rent as a service fee. So I would need someone who could speak Chinese and English to help me.

Luckily people here are so friendly that it wasn’t a problem at all. My Chinese teacher helped me and a student at the same school, who is also Dutch, asked his local wife to help. With them I visited varies apartments. The first few apartments were either really small or very dirty. But after one week I had found an apartment in the south of Chengdu. It is on the 7th floor (no elevator, so I still get my exercise every day) and I share it with a Chinese couple who just graduated from the Sichuan University. The guy studied English, so that’s very convenient for me although he’s kind of shy, so he doesn’t talk a lot. I have my own bedroom and I share the bathroom and kitchen with them.

I have more to tell about Chengdu, but it’s already such a long story, so I’ll save the rest for next time… and no, that won’t be after 2 months ;)

And of course I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas, !!!