8/23/12

China 4: Shaanxi Province

The road northeast from Chengdu to Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi, was one of the most beautiful yet, passing through the Qin mountains. I was happy to see many Chinese cyclists each day heading in the opposite direction towards Sichuan and Tibet. Flat tires plagued my early days in Shaanxi and left me walking when I ran out of patches and thoroughly exhausted all of my 5 or so inner tubes.
Shaanxi Province


My last patch, literally seconds after taking this photo, while waiting for glue to dry on a tube, a gust of wind blew this little piece of heaven into a nearby sewer.
 
My dismantled bicycle
 
I copped this chic new metallic thermos to make my tea and retain it's warmth

A farmer marching his cattle up a mountain

This is a typical roadside toilet that one can expect to find in China, although it is rare to find any, which is a hole in an open stall, this one has chickens in it. It is not the privacy issue that I have a problem with (a year in Indonesia shattered any silly shyness I might have had with regards to bowel movements), but it's the unbelievably foul odor that serves as the main reason why I prefer to do all of my 'business' in the forest.

If you look very closely you can see a small light which is the opening at the other end of this tunnel. It is over 3k long and completely pitch black, very disorienting and difficult to cycle in a straight line.
 
Alone in the mountains may be my absolute favorite way to spend my time

This guy is the king, in his 60's and making a 2,000+k voyage from Xi'an to the heart of Tibet, you would be hard-pressed to find a more mountainous 2,000k route anywhere. In my very elementary Chinese we managed a wonderful 5 min conversation and were both equally inspired by each other's journeys.

"Above the clouds where the sounds are original..."


A young bamboo tree on a mountainside

These guys utilized the rainy season and used the flooded bridge as place to wash their motorbikes. 

6 a.m., I just sat next to this small stream and drank tea for about an hour, beautiful sounds and extremely fresh air.

An abandoned village near Foping

Not sure what these Chinese characters mean, but I'm guessing something along the lines of 'cross at your own risk'

Water pours out of the side of a cliff

I followed this river (Wei river) from a small stream in the mountains and I felt like a proud parent when I saw what became of it.

I had a sleepless night on the outskirts of the eery town of Foping up in the Qin mountains. everything was normal and I set up my hammock in an enclosure of waist-high bushes in a riverside park. After some reading I drifted off into exhausted sleep and was awoken around 2 a.m. by rough-voiced men lighting a lighter in front of my face to see who I was. I jumped up and instinctively started yelling obscenities (of the English variety). The men backed off and, although it was very dark, I gathered that a bus had pulled up and my bush enclosure was surrounded on all sides by several dozen dark-skinned bald men that appeared to be wearing some sort of gray uniform. They laid down on the cold concrete around me, one of them came into my enclosure and shamelessly pinched a loaf a few meters from my hammock, and I thought that the mysterious dark-skinned, cigarette smoking men were a busload of prisoners being transferred who's bus stopped to rest for the night in a park. I lay awake in my hammock, pocket knife in hand, and didn't move or sleep at all. At the crack of dawn (5:30) I packed up my things and left my bush enclosure, the now visible men that I was afraid to fall asleep around turned out to be a group of Tibetan monks, possibly the least threatening group of people on earth. I pedaled off feeling like an idiot, a very tired and drowsy idiot...
The outskirts of Foping at dusk

Sleeping monks at 5:30 a.m.

Xi'an is a big city with a large (slightly sleazy) expat community and lots of historical tourist attractions, of which I visited zero. On the road into the city I met a really cool couple who left London earlier this year and cycled all the way to China: Max, aka 'the amatuer', is a laid-back Frenchman and Julia who is half Spanish half Chinese, speaks great Mandarin and enjoys 'flying hawaians'. I was really happy I met them and we hung out, ate, and drank for the whole 5 days I was in Xi'an.

South gate, downtown Xi'an

Arab quarter was the coolest part of Xi'an in my opinion (not that I saw that much of the sprawling city)

I don't care what it is, I want whatever is in those steamers

A Chinese Muslim dissecting a goat

A woman cooking hand-pulled noodles

Max & Julia

The entrance to our hostel

I ate lots of wonderful things throughout my time in Shaanxi and I was happy that the mouth-numbing Sichuan peppercorns were only in some dishes, not all. Check out this video for hand-pulled noodles.

milky rice batter is poured into layered steamers then cooled and cut into noodles

A cook stretching 'hand-pulled noodles'

Thick noodles with cabbage, carrots, chili, and meat

Potatoes sauteed with tomatoes


Yummy pork belly with bell peppers and onions
 
Huge mound of spicy clams tastes great with cold beer
 
These crayfish were good but covered with so much chili that they were difficult to eat

'Halal' beef dumplings in the Arab quarter

Thick and bitey noodles with potatoes, egg, tomato, celery and meat

Steamed buns and dumplings

Dough stuffed with all sorts of things then pan fried

My new favorite breakfast in a small village northwest of Xi'an: Very soft tofu in a spicy hot broth with oniony pan-fried garlic bread saturated with oil. Sooooo good for well under a dollar

At the last minute I decided to abandon my plans of heading east towards Beijing and go northwest towards Mongolia. I entered a very unusual range of mountains, in that they did not rise up, but rather went down, I call them 'anti-mountains'. The fertile earth in the area seemed very dusty and I can imagine how rivers could carve 'anti-mountains' into the landscape over long periods of time.

I've had this hammock for 2.5 years since Sydney and she is on her last leg, ripped and torn I'm forced to think of creative ways to tie her to trees
 
Every 10k or so the flat road drops down into these canyon-like voids

This little guy must've been hit by a car, I found him in shock gasping for air sitting in his own feces in the middle of the road. I picked him up and moved him to the side of the road and later wondered whether I saved his life or simply prolonged the agony that would've ended when a car ran him over. Poor little dude.

Rice paddy lines the slopes heading down to the river

A village of cave dwellings tunneled into the rock

A nice cave dwelling with a door, window, and ventilation

A tree 'living on the edge'

Had it been later in the evening, I would've slept in this abandoned cave

8/12/12

China 3: Sichuan Province

After Guizhou I made my way northwest into Sichuan province which is the biggest province I've been to and I spent more than 20 days here. The only things I knew of Sichuan before I arrived was 'Sichuan peppercorns' which we used in kitchens in America, spicy food, and something about pandas...

Early morning in the mountains south of Luozhou


Morning mist so thick it leaves your clothes and skin dripping wet

After 20k I was cursing these 6" deep man-made potholes jackhammered into the road

A factory in the middle of nowhere

 
Rice and corn paddy

Lots of these little guys after the morning rain

"Is there anyone at the station that can speak any English? Somebody's gotta tell this guy that if we catch him on the highway one more time today we're gonna shoot him in the face."

A hammock in the woods, or as the mosquitoes call it, 'an all you can eat buffet'

beautiful landscapes nearing Chengdu
  Through the mountains in the southeast part of the province there was a constant heavy mist that beads on your skin and makes your feet and hands very cold. It feels like rain as you pass under trees because the mist collects on the leaves then falls in large drops. One morning I was very cold and hungry and when I finally got to a village I saw a lone noodle shop ran by two old people who reminded me of the proprietors of a local Chinese restaurant in my hometown, which was where I got my first dish washing job.

I was shivering as they put in front of me an overflowing bowl of noodles, smoked pork, bokchoy-like vegetables, onions and chili in a boiling hot meaty broth. All of the factors came together (my hunger and cold state, the nostalgia of the nice owners, and the amazing bowl of noodles) to create one of the best meals I've ever had...
Cold mountain morning bliss

The time of the day I enjoy the most is between 6-9am, the road is quiet and peaceful and the air is cool and fresh. I spend this time pedalling along in an alert kind of daze staring at things around me, thinking about chapters of a book I read the night before, daydreaming about my girl in VN, or maybe wondering what sort of breakfast will be on offer in an upcoming village. There are two substances found in nature that exponentially enhance this part of the day and elevate it from 'amazing' to 'divine' - Coffee and Marijuana - neither of which seem to exist in China. In light of this unfortunate lack of neuro-enhancement, I have allowed myself to become temporarily addicted to green tea, which is very cheap and I brew it very strong in an old water bottle...
Local green tea strong enough to put down a horse, a few swigs and my day has officially begun 

I got to Chengdu and stayed at a hostel for a week while I extended my visa (another $150) and fixed up my bike a bit. Chengdu is a massive city with lots of travelers, most of them seem to be trying to get into Tibet or in transit from the east. Like all the Chinese cities I've been in, Chengdu is extremely modern and practical, with little connection to it's very rich and lengthy history.
A girl wearing skull-and-crossbones overalls with a huge screen in the background projecting Chinese propaganda. I felt like I was in a bizarre scene from a George Orwell novel.

Downtown Chengdu

Public parks are lined with 'dating ads' which parents post for their kids, then other parents read them and call the number to arrange a meeting.

A man takes down a number from a dating ad.

People quietly wisp by on stealthy electric motorbikes

Two little girls take dead aim at a passerby and blast him with their bubble guns, this is about the extent of violence one can expect to find in a Chinese city

This young couple sat next to me in a restaurant one evening and I was inclined to take a photo because I've never seen a couple sit across from each other for an entire meal and never say a word or stop staring at their cellphones!

A rare building that appears to be more than 5 years old

The food in Sichuan is very spicy and the 'peppercorns' make your mouth feel very numb and tingly, which is nice at first, but I did get a little sick of the numbness every time I ate a meal. Overall it was a very good province for food.
Steamed dumplings are served in the 'steamer rack' for well under a dollar

"So a white chicken, a black chicken, and a Chinese chicken walk into a bar..."

I could definitely eat all of that in one go

The infamous Sichuan peppercorns

Markets are loaded with spices and chilies

A boy looks in as his father orders various kinds of pickled and fermented vegetables

Very spicy diced chicken (of course with lots of bones) and peanuts served with a 'black' beer

A great breakfast: A big bowl of spicy pork dumplings

Breakfasts in the countryside vary from village to village, but a version of this was very common in the northwest of the province: Spicy rice noodles with steamed pork buns for dipping in the broth, pretty amazing

Smoky pork noodle goodness

I had a brilliant idea, well at least I thought so at the time. Look at these 3 photos and see if you can guess what it was:
Hint: this region is said to be home to the 'Giant Panda'



Anyone who watched 'Winnie the pooh' growing up, as I did, knows that bears love honey. So, since the mountain road was lined with people making/selling fresh honey, I bought a small note's worth and tied it to my hammock with a loose lid with the idea that a Panda will come in the middle of the night, wake me up, and in exchange for my honey, will explain why there is no coffee/marijuana in China. Unfortunately the idea was a bust and only attracted a flying creature too small to be a butterfly, but too colorful to be a moth. After two nights-worth of attempts the honey began to find it's way into my morning tea

After Chengdu it was a 5-day ride northwest to the next province (Shaanxi), and it took me through some unbelievable scenic mountains and pine forests. Here are some photos from those 5 days:
Shamelessly camping on the side of the road, too tired to look for a more concealed spot

Hey there sexy lady

A jagger-bush

A stubborn old pine tree holds it's ground

Wooden boxes of bees and their honey can be found throughout the mountains



This little dude crawled out of my hammock as I was packing up one morning, it's body is the size of a pea and it's legs as long as a cat's!

'If scenic hath entered, thus I too shall enter'

Laundry day

Even poor people in small villages line their roofs with these solar panels

A panda-colored cockroach

a panda-colored dragonfly


Heading northwest towards Guanyang


A massive cave surrounded by rice paddy