CHINA 7: Hebei Province

Hebei is the last province I went through before taking a boat to South Korea. It was nice to get out of the desert and back into some lush mountains. I opted to go around Beijing rather than go through it, in part because I didn't want any run-ins with police. The mountains north of Beijing were quite nice and the area around Beijing was far more developed than the rest of China, which annoyed me for some reason. Highlights of Hebei province were eating donkey meat and being extremely baked; reading books all day.

Hebei Province

A boulder sits on top of a mountain waiting for the right victim

One night I had to relocate after setting up camp because I noticed hundreds of these guys in the trees around me. Not sure if they are poisonous or not but by the looks of them I would assume so.

Sunset in a small industrial town north of Beijing

Setting up camp about 50m from the road

I hung out in this 'ancient town' for 4 days near Qin Huang Dao while waiting for a boat to Korea

Finally a sign I can understand! No need to try to ask directions in my piss-poor Chinese at this fork in the road!

An old couple selling breakfast from their bicycles; hers makes the tofu soup and his makes the bread!

Nothing like some fresh air early in the morning

Rain clouds loom nearing the mountains north of Beijing

A mountain

 Here are some photos of the food in Hebei:

Pan seared dumplings, and the owners even gave me a boiled crab!

Won ton soup

This lady is cutting up sheets of pasta fried with egg and meat...

...and then fries it all up with peppers, onions, tomato and chili.

Breakfast from the above mentioned old couple: Soft tofu in a mushroom broth with fresh fried bread

A very rustic meal: Fat fresh noodles with a hot dog, whole hard boiled egg (overcooked) and whole red chilis.

DONKEY! I was half way through these amazing sandwiches when the lady selling them was trying to tell me what the meat was. I didn't recognize the kind of meat (I only know pork and beef in Chinese) so she pointed to a picture of donkeys on the wall!

Donkeys on the wall at a donkey restaurant

China 6: Nei Mongol (Inner Mongolia)

Heading east across the desert of Inner Mongolia I noticed several things: There are lots of factories; The people aren't typical Han Chinese; There is Marijuana growing EVERYWHERE... Although the daytime temperature is comfortable, I had some really dreary nights in my hammock in the freezing cold. At one point I was convinced that both of my feet had frostbite due to a very painful numb burn on both of my heels.

Inner Mongolia

I followed the yellow river across most of the desert

Sunset in the middle of nowhere

These round igloo-like structures are where one obtains food

Some sheep enjoying the fresh air



Smog

I was curious as to whether or not the people of Inner Mongolia had any idea that they were surrounded by marijuana so I asked a guy walking on the side of the road: "Dama?" I said (Chinese for pot) pointing at the plants. "Bu shi!" he said surprised (No way!), and it was obvious that he had no clue what it was. Maybe it's the capitalist mentality that I have ingrained in my mind, but I can't help but wonder what would happen if only some of these very poor villagers knew that they were surrounded by a cash crop. All they would need to do is plant some of the seeds in the spring, then kill the male plants before they release their pollen, wait a couple months, and harvest the seedless -extremely potent- females and somehow get their product to a city. They could become millionaires, in Chinese currency anyway... (3 grams of pot sold for 500 rmb in Xi'an! (nearly US$100!))..        Click here for a great documentary about marijuana.

Wild Sativas

A lonely, unharvested, lady feeling depressed and under appreciated

Big girls like this one line mile after mile of Hwy 110

Cars and people pass by unaware

I spent a night in a guesthouse in a small village in the western part of the province. On a cold night, sick of the freezing midnight temperatures (this was before I bought a sleeping bag), I coughed up $10 for a room. As I was eating dinner (eggplant and rice) a bunch of Chino-mongol guys came to my table, sat down and started pouring shots of rice wine. 3 hours later I was extremely drunk and one of the guys helped me up to my room. The bathroom had NO WATER whatsoever (in the desert) and in my drunkenness I somehow managed to make an ungodly mess of that poor room as my body tried to rid itself of the intoxicating substance in every way possible.

I woke up the next morning at 6 am with one of the worst hangovers I've ever had and in one of the foulest smelling rooms I've ever been in. I packed my things and tried to leave, ashamed of the condition I left the room in. But how could I clean it? There was no water! And the owner was the ring leader forcing me to drink 3 bottles of liquor! As I was getting on my bike and leaving a policeman drove up and waved for me to stop. "Oh shit," I thought, "not now." Ten minutes later I was seated at a table inside an empty room surrounded by no less than 8 cops who spoke no English. All I could smell was the very strong scent of marijuana coming out of the bag by my feet, probably a few ounces plus a whole plant that I hadn't trimmed yet. Even though I don't smoke cigarettes, I accepted one from an officer in attempt to mask the smell. I was shaking uncontrollably and I remember wondering if it was caused by nervousness or the hangover or both.  The cops spent over an hour and a half dozen phone calls to figure out that my passport had a valid Chinese visa. I got on my bike and didn't stop or look back for 50k. wheeeeeew....

The contents of my bag while I was being grilled by Inner Mongolia's finest

Hohhot is the capital of Nei Mongol (pronounced Hu he hao te). I planned on spending 1 or 2 days here and ended up spending nearly a week. It was a very relaxing city and I spent my days reading in parks and eating lots of food.

Here are some photos of the food in Inner Mongolia:

A tortilla with egg stuffed with lettuce, various meat and strange sauces

On the street you can walk up and pull these hot skewers of meat, mushrooms,  tofu, and lots of other things out of a boiling spicy broth

Sauteed eggplant with peppers and onions

Noodles, pork belly

'Muslim noodles' with beef and carrots

Fried eggplant and potato

The 3rd of September marked the 3 year anniversary since I left NYC. I celebrated by drinking German beer and eating one of my favorite 'comfort foods'; peanut butter and jelly.

I left Hohhot and made my way east towards the mountains near Beijing with the idea of taking a boat to Korea from one of China's port cities. I knew that I was near The Great Wall so I kept an eye out (not literally). Unfortunately I never crossed paths with the great wall, or even a good wall.

My first night camping with my new sleeping bag, warmth!

I think this is wheat, people along the highway hurl it into the air so the wind blows away the outer skin, I think

This could take a while

China 5: Ningxia Province (and a bit of Gansu)

I made my way northeast towards the city of Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia, and the city in which I planned to extend my visa for a final month. I went through a portion of Gansu which continued with the 'anti-mountains' from the post previous, and seemed to pour rain - all day, every day - which made the going very muddy. After I entered Ningxia the scenery went from lush green and wet to completely dry desert very quickly. The majority of the people here are Muslim, which means no pork, although I did notice a high level of alcohol consumption which is surprising. The inhabitants of Ningxia are much friendlier than the other Chinese Provinces I've passed through.

Ningxia

Lots more caves

This ultra-nice family flagged me down as I passed through their village and invited me to stay the night after a hot shower and amazing dumpling dinner.

This lady was so sweet and reminded me of my mother, her son looks at a photo of me on her phone and surprisingly does NOT start crying!

I watched nervously as this very short Chinese man took my horse for a ride.

The landscape all-of-a-suddenly changing into desert.

If you were a homeless nomad, this is what your belongings would look like after 3 days of rain.

Rolling desert

A big canyon carved into the earth

A big Mosque in a small village

A little grasshopper hitches a ride

A very emotional and challenging day came when I unknowingly entered a massive road construction site on a very rainy and muddy morning. I will break it down by hour:

1st Hour:

I noticed that there was absolutely no one else on the road after about 10km of cycling and then I started to go through patches of road that was ripped up and nothing but mud. Then came a point of complete insanity and I was surrounded by huge walls of mud. The road was so bad that I couldn't wear shoes, which were very heavy and completely saturated with wet earth, and pushing my bike was becoming very physically straining. "Man I hope this ends soon," I thought.

2nd Hour:

A local man on top of a cliff saw me struggling and came down to advise me to turn back. I could only make out the general idea of what he was saying and, being extremely hard-headed which I am, I insisted on continuing. He helped me push my bike for over an hour through never ending mud. We came to a point where the road completely ended and it was obvious that we were on top of a mountain's side and I had to get down to the town at the river below. I'm not sure what he was saying, but I bet it was "See, this is what I was trying to tell you."

3rd Hour:

The angel-like man and I slipped and slid down narrow paths of mud next to large and very dangerous cliffs to get down to the lower part of the construction where I could once again push my bike through the mud. There is no exaggeration in saying that the fact that neither he nor I got hurt or even worse was a complete miracle. We got to a point where the road split: to the right was the nice paved old road and to the left was more muddy madness. The man pleaded with me to go the muddy way and he decided to turn back when I insisted on going the paved way. I was so thankful that I tried desperately to give him money, but he refused and left. "What a wonderful human being," I thought.

4th Hour:

This is where things get ugly. In the now pouring rain I went down the paved road to find that it ended not even a kilometer later and found myself on a huge, carved-out, side of a mountain. I stupidly climbed through massive piles of mud, which came up to my upper thighs, and followed narrow paths of slippery mud which was certain death to fall from. I kept calm and my nerves were under control until I got to a point at which I was surrounded on all sides by cliffs. At the moment I realized that I had no where to go and I would have to climb back through that hell to get to where the man left me. I began to scream at the top of my lungs, I needed to release all of the built up frustration. At this point I remember thinking that I would leave my bike and pack a backpack of essentials (passport, money, etc.) and hike the hell out of there. I gathered myself and decided to just bear down, go back to the mud road, and get to the bottom of this f#$%'ing mountain. As soon as I started back I stepped on a piece of metal or something in the mud which caught my toenail just right and ripped it off.*

5th Hour:

I put my right foot's big toenail into my waist pouch and a strange thing happened: I knew that it hurt, extremely hurt, but for whatever reason I didn't feel it at all. Maybe because my brain instinctively knew that I needed every bit of focus I had to make it out of there. The caked on mud stopped the bleeding and I made my way, slipping and sliding, down never ending hills of mud until finally I got to a village, looking like a comic book monster, covered from head to toe in mud. The first building I saw was some sort of Army base and the guys there gave me a hose to rinse off with and fed me rice, for this I am forever grateful. My now hurting toe and I proceeded to the first dumpling house we saw and sat there for a couple hours eating several plates of piping hot dumplings.

*In the beginning of this mess, when I was going through small, easily passable patches of mud, I had an imaginary conversation which I often do on the road. This time with my father who, seeing the condition of the road and the rain says, "Mikey, What in the heck are you doing!?"
To which I philosophically reply, "Dad, sometimes you just gotta take what the road gives ya."
Several hours later when I was knee deep in mud with my toenail in my hand I saw a very clear image of my father's face: eyebrows raised, cheeks narrowed, and lips puckered as if holding back laughter and he said in the very sarcastic tone that we (his children) know so well, "Hey Mikey, just take what the road gives ya that's all."

I exploded into uncontrollable laughter for a good 20 seconds.

Shoes are completely worthless in the mud.

Caked on so thick that the wheels stopped turning, this actually proved useful and slowed me down when going down steep hills.



Mud stopping the bleeding from where my toenail once was.



As I washed up at the Army base I remembered that I'd kept my toenail.



In the last post I was complaining that China didn't have any coffee or marijuana. Well, I didn't find coffee but the desert in Ningxia did have...

Hey, wait a minute, I know that smell...



For those of you who aren't cannabinoids, it's kind of like winning the lottery.



Wild beauty blowing in the desert wind.

Harvest

Drying above my hammock



One happy camper



I floated into Yinchuan (capital city) very contently and got a room for a few days to extend my visa...

Yinchuan may be the most sprawling 'small' city I've ever been to, spanning over more than 12 kilometers

"Where is this old lady taking me?"



As soon as I arrive in any big city I immediately look for Internet so I can talk to my girl in Saigon. Miss you baby!!



I could tell by the food that I was in a part of the world with very harsh winters. Very hearty meals to be had in Ningxia, and of course, no pork.

On a cold day there is nothing better than a steaming hot sweet potato.

Noodle soup with tofu, braised goat, tomatoes, and onion.

This street food consists of various kinds of sausages and vegetables on skewers in simmering broth. One just gets a plate with sauce and pulls skewers out and eats them. I ate about 20 skewers for just over a dollar.

Spiced chicken wings on the grill.



Goat fried rice, a lovely snack with a beer around 11pm.



Hearty fresh noodles with meat and coleslaw.

More noodles, this time with sauteed beef, bell peppers, onions, and a stalky kind of green garlic.

Noodles with dried beef and scallions.