A Sunday ride

Sunday morning, the morning after the 59km ride, I got up early and prepared myself for another ride. I must say that I am no fan of the idea of setting an alarm clock on a weekend; however, I did not want to be the person that held everyone back.

As it turned out, I remembered that I was not wearing my helmet when I was almost at the start point and felt that there was not time to return for it. In this I was wrong. When I arrived at the start point there was only one other person. The result was the even though we had committed to leave at 07:30 we did not pull out until slightly after 08:00. I have to say that this sense of time is very common in China. About the only thing that is generally, but not always, on time is the train.

We left and went directly to the highway that leads from Zhengzhou to Wuhan. After about 10km on this road the pack separation was already pretty evident. I was with the front runners vying for second and third (out of about 12) and often held back due to the lack of clear directions (I have no doubt that they would have been clear if I had understood what was being said). A few slower riders and a person on a lower grade bike were in the rear, followed by the mechanic on his bike.

Some of the riders

One thing that was interesting was an experiment done to see what the impact of the lower grade bike was having. That rider was permitted to swap bikes with the mechanic on a single leg (the distance between rest stops). He went a lot faster on the better bike. I think a lot of riders on more expensive bikes were glad to see this. After all, when one buys a more expensive bike there is a certain satisfaction in seeing that it really does make for faster riding.

At a rest stop (waiting for the stragglers)

We turned off the main highway at about 15km and then at about 35km we turned on to an even smaller road. While it remained paved, it was a single lane (both directions) road that, after passing under the freeway, meandered through several small villages. At 50km we turned off of even this road and began traveling on dirt.

The dirt road quickly went from being a road to a path. Once it turned to a path we left even the small villages and the only other person we met was a shepherd with a small flock. By this time we were fording small creeks and packing the bikes over short sections.

Eventually it was clear that this path had been more at one time. At one point it had been paved with flagstones; however, at this point it was simply a rough path. This took us to appoint where we parked out bikes by the method of leaning them against the brush and we began to walk.

Where we started walking

The walk was not far and took us to a creek and series of small pools that were surprisingly clear. Part of the reason for the clarity was the waterfall that we walked to. It provided movement that caused a significant amount of air to enter the water. I noticed that this was a very seldom visited place and there were almost no signs of other people: including footprints, broken foliage, and litter.

After resting on the rocks near the waterfall we walked back to the bikes and continued the direction that we had been traveling. This is where the weight of my bike was slowing me down, carrying it. The path turned out to have many unused and overgrown staircases on it. There was no way to ride these sections and we all ended up packing.

I managed to stay second so when we got to the rideable portion the lead rider and I went ahead until we found a nice shaded spot to rest. While there we ate some berries that tasted a lot like green apples (sort of looked like them too).

Back to the ridable sections

It wasn't far from here that the trail turned to a section of double track and allowed for faster riding. This took us to a village where lunch had been planed at a farmhouse. The tree in front of this farmhouse was claimed to be over five hundred years old. One interesting thing was the number of relics at this location. It seems that a small temple had existed on the site and, while it was about three thousand years old, it had been ordered destroyed.

The farmhouse A fellow rider

The result was that the farmhouse had stones that made no sense for a farmhouse, things like multi-ton monoliths being used as foundation stones and ornately carved stones with dragons reaching out being used in the walls. We walked a short distance to a monolith lying on the ground that the farmers were unable to lift and move somewhere more useful. One of the paving stones was covered with centuries old writing.

Look closely at this paving stone, we sure did

We then had lunch in the farmhouse. It was interesting that the farmhouse still had a large screen TV, a satellite dish and a DVD player. The dinner was typical Chinese fare. This means that I did not eat most of it. It simply was heavy in things that I, and most other westerners, simply find unpalatable. There was enough and I did get some food that I was willing to eat; however, it was still a very light lunch for me.

After lunch we lounged about for another hour, one must remember the Chinese habit of sleeping in the afternoon. Most of us did find the latrine and in a reasonable amount of time the guides started asking the owners of the farm house about the way to the next valley.

Lounging after lunch

This is where things went wrong, the farmers think in terms of walking with all loads on their back or across their shoulders. Very simply, they did not think of bikes. The route we were given included narrow levies between rice paddies with deep drops into stagnate water on each side, and steep climbs up dry, seasonal, watercourses. Very simply, we wound up carrying our bikes over the hill and into the next valley. The state of exhaustion was incredible and as a front runner I ended up not only packing my bike, but helping stragglers with theirs.

We finally came out in a small village, where it was possible to start riding again, and were pleased when a man on a tractor told us that we were near a road the would lead to a two lane road. We scooted down that road and eventually did end up in a small town along the road that had a shop where many of us, me included, were able to replenish our rapidly dwindling water supply.

Outskirts of the village where the trail started to improve

While resting here we met another group of riders, from the same club, that had gone on a different ride. The two groups combined and we were off again.

Small town where we rested

It was on this stage that I bonked. I simply ran out of steam. I was unable to keep up and fell to the back. It was a long 10-15km stretch and found myself in the back with a straggler. The mechanic then fell back and pushed the other straggler by putting his hand on her back as he rode, thus forcing her along, and I fell in behind them drafting. I made it to the next rest stop and he insisted that I have two ice fruit bars, they were good and it turned out that it was just what I needed. I left with thee pack as we pulled out of the roadside shop, there were now over twenty of us, and quickly pulled into second place where I stayed for the rest of the ride, about another 10km into town.

You can see where we went trekking from the destination point on the map (Lotus Pond) to road Y030, for that matter, you will also notice that there is no road from X032 Lotus Pond.

It was a good Sunday, exhausting but fun. Total distance not counting the distance from my flat to the shop where I started and ended, which is just at 5km each way, was 97km.

If you noticed a change in style in the middle of this post it is because I interrupted it by going on a 20km fitness ride (with a crazy Dr. who thinks he is going to make me loose weight) and dinner (the reason riding with the crazy Dr. will not cause me to loose weight).

Reservoir Ride

Wednesday, 27 June 2007
Reservoir Ride

From Robert C

It has been some tine since I have expanded this chronicle of my life in China. As many of you have read, I have visited Debra in Xian. I do not visit her there often as it is a four hour train ride for her and a twelve hour train ride for me. However, as all readers have gathered, I tend to take a night train and, after crawling into a bunk, sleep, pretty much, the entire trip.


The semester and I have made plans to stay another year. This leaves me with the summer, which scheduled itself surprisingly fast.


Debra informed me that my account of my trip to Shanghai was not as entertaining as my writing in the past. I do have to say that even I noticed this transgression. I know what went wrong. There were two things. First, I was using the Belkin Keyboard on the Toshiba Pocket PC. I have to say that it is not a very good keyboard. As all of you know, I am no typist; however, a bad keyboard just makes it worse. I was getting frustrated with all of the corrections that I was making.


So much for blaming a mechanical device for human failings (something I hate about Stephen Kings writing); the real reason is that a travelogue is best served cool. The best writing is not done while one is doing. First, the stories do not move smoothly and the days do mot fold into each other smoothly. The second is akin to the first; there are no stories, the account becomes just that, and account, or report, of events.

I have concluded that one should keep a journal and attempt to avoid the loss of details and facts. A great writer with a name that that I can not longer once gave an important bit of advice, “never let a fact get in the way of a good story.” This admonishment should be taken with temper and caution, it does not mean that one should be fast and loose with the facts and turn a story of something that did happen into a story of something that did not; however, one should not bog a story with such details that the story itself becomes lost in the telling.


Here we have the difference between a travelogue and a trip report. Either recount a journey or, as the name makes so clear, a trip. However, one appeals to the little account in many of us; the other, it speaks to the artist in our soul. (So much for the mindless drivel that you can find of any one of ten-thousand blogs, on with the show).


I see that the last thing I have mentioned is the local riding group. I have continued riding with them.

Rather funny, to me is that I have be delegated to the “fast” riding group. One thing that the fast group tends to do is to ride faster; however, they also ride further.
Almost immediately, I noticed the twenty kilometer rides stretching to thirty.

On one of the long training rides it was mentioned to me that they also go on long weekend rides. I was told that on that very weekend there was a 100kim ride planned. Of course, I agreed to go. I was told that all the information I needed would be found on the website which, of course, turned out to be in Chinese.

I was able to make enough sense to get a start time and on Saturday I was there. However, it was not a 100km ride. We only went 59 Km. However, most of it was off road and the destination was a seldom visited reservoir. The group consisted entirely of men and it was at a bit of a competitive pace.

While we rode hard the ride was enjoyable. We turned off the main roads rather early in the ride and continued through several small villages. I discovered quickly something that has continued to be a trend on these group rides. I am a front runner. I do not ever want to be in front simply because I do not know where we are going; however, I am not many places back. I find this interesting because of the popular idea of the Chinese as a bicycle riding culture and my knowledge of where I placed when I was racing (there is a good chance that when I return I will also return to racing, I am as healed up as I will ever be). Generally, on all the rides, I finish second.


After passing through these villages we turned off the roads to single track paths and continued ridding hard (I had to stop once because I got tangled with a rope that was attached to a goat). There is the normal resistance to being the first one to start walking (…yes, the walk of shame) and the times I ended op doing so were generally the result of a missed shift or someone in front to me stopping.


We finally reached the reservoir which prompted a photo moment (note that when I took the photo I did not realize that not all the straggles had rolled in) and a couple of the guys walked down to the water to splash it on them selves. This is something interesting; it was about 30-32c we had been pushing hard and no one got in the water. The Chinese do not swim. I have seen one person swim the whole time I have been here. While the poor water quality would be seen as part of the reason, the other is that they simply do not swim. The students have told me that it is very uncommon for a Chinese to know even the basics of swimming. As a result, even on this very hot day they just sat on the shore and splashed water over themselves.

We left on a slightly different route that also involved both single-track and narrow single lane roads. When we finally reached a highway (a different one than we had started on) we waited for the stragglers and the shop mechanic made any needed repairs. I was the last one for repairs, my headlight had vibrated loose and was flopping, and so I left the rest stop last. As luck would have it, a small, slow, truck passed me as I was starting a hill and I was able to draft (to use another vehicle to break the wind making it much easier to go faster) him and quickly dropped right back into second. In all, it was a good afternoon.

One thing that is making these rides hard for me is that I made the decision to get a touring bike. In its essence this bike is a compromise. It is not a high speed road bike, it is not a mountain bike, it is made for durability over long distances. As such, on the off road stretches I am at a bit of a disadvantage. However, the disadvantage is not as much as one would imagine. The gearing is still quite low and while the tires are 700s (700mm) instead of 26inch they are wider than some road tires and work pretty well off road. I would say that the biggest disadvantage is the weight. Because I am using only one bike, not a large stable of bikes, I have fenders and racks and plenty of other things on this bike. Also, due to the road focus, the frame is also larger than a mountain bike would be and for durability it is made of heaver materials. This all adds up to a heavier bike.

If I were starting out with the intent to stay a while I would have quickly built a stable of bikes (ah, the benefit of hind sight). First, I would want an electric bike (or a beater) for going to class and local trips. Second, a road bike for, you guessed it, road riding. I am not talking about shopping here, that is covered in the first category, I am talking about high speed trips around the lake and long trips on local roads. The third category to be filled is a mountain bike. These are all unique and distinct roles that cover not only basic transportation, but also recreational riding.

Shopping in Wuhan

06 Jan 07

As many of you know, I ended up working this weekend. The reason really made no sense to me, or the other westerners; however, it seemed to make perfect sense to the Chinese.

We worked Saturday and Sunday so that we could take Tuesday and Wednesday off, following the holiday on Monday. The thought, on the minds of all of us westerners, was, why not just take Saturday and Sunday off? Instead, this goofy approach messed up all of our schedules, their schedules, and, undoubtedly, the schedules of millions of people across the country. I really think that the reason was just to do something different; whatever the reason, I worked Saturday.

I would have also had to have worked on Sunday, except that I traded classes with another teacher. Julia has several of the same classes that I have.

Remember, the students are assigned to a class group at the beginning of their college life and that class group is given a number (easy enough, I have classes one through five). They then attend all of their classes, and many out of class activities, as a group.

Because she, Julia, also has classes one through four, we were able to make a trade in the classes. This left us both with classes on only one day, I did Saturday and she did Sunday. (And no, Julia is not her real name. However, her family name sounds a bit like Julia, it is a name that I can pronounce, and the students know who I am talking about when I say, "Julia." [Even if they do laugh when I say it]).

An example of the, out of class, activities, that are attended as a group include the Friday that immediately preceded this weekend, in which I had to work. The student classes reserved large rooms at the college and held various parties. As a teacher I moved between the groups that were, generally about two classes, or about a hundred students. Some of the parties focused on, student produced, skits and dances. There were a lot of song and musical instrument recitals. Some of the classes got together and watched movies on the large, projection screens (there is a… um… "Free" web site there in China that allows a person to watch any of hundreds of movies, there is a reason that this site is unusable for my classes; however, it allows anyone with web access to watch them. So, the students start the projector and the movie, and then they enjoy free theater.).

On Saturday I then showed Titanic. I used some discs that were purchased here in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />China. So, to no surprise, they did not work well. They are copies and are not good ones. Toward the end of the movie the disc froze. The good part was that it really was the last scene, I still was irritated. One part of the movie was sort of funny. I have mentioned the disregard for heat in the classrooms; as it happened, there has been a bit of a cold snap and the classrooms never got above 40f all day. So, at the end of the movie, when everyone is in the water and freezing, I looked around the room and observed that everyone watching the movie was freezing, right along with the actors on the screen.

I ended up showing the film twice, this allowed me to show it to four of my classes; like I said, I was doubling up my classes. I first showed it at 10am and a second time at 2:30pm. It really felt like I was running a theater.

On Sunday, because I had made the arrangement, I had no classes. Instead I went to the usual meeting with some of the westerners, which we hold on Sundays and then returned to my flat in order to do some writing; I also did quite a bit of lounging around and reading. (Wow, it is hard to type this, my fingers are cold; thus I am producing a lot of typos. Therefore, my usual, very slow, typing, is slowed even more by the number of corrections I am making.)

Monday was a rather normal shopping trip. Ellen, a female student of Michelle's, went with us and provided quite of bit of help. It is always funny when you ask for help finding something. All I wanted was some spices and vinegar. I ended up being brought vegetables, soup mix, and other things that I can not remember or identify (they seem to be food), in the pile were my spices and vinegar; so, I did not complain.

It was at that time that Michelle and I discussed the possibility of an upcoming trip to Wuhan. We are both considering purchasing backpacks for our, upcoming, winter break. We were initially planning to purchase them when we arrive in Xian, while we are on vacation, and still may do that. However, there is some logic in purchasing them ahead of time so that we are not left carrying two pieces of luggage. I would also like to visit the museum in Wuhan. One thing that has disappointed me, in China, is the lack of museums. According to the travel guide that I borrowed from Debra, there is one there.

That night I went to dinner with He Zhi Qing and some of her dorm mates (There, a real name for those of you who complain that I do not include real names. She tends to ask me to call her HZQ because I often mangle her name so badly.). Even though her roommates are not English majors, instead they are majoring in Chinese, they speak English well enough to communicate.

We did not go where we had planned because the place was full. Instead, we went to another nearby restaurant. From her I am learning to identify restaurants (not always as easy as it sounds) and going to more "authentic" places. She is the same student that took Debra, for several hours, and showed her what the student dorms look like.

We (He Zhi Qing, her roommates, and I) made plans to go on Tuesday and walk around the city; however, it was snowing so we called it off. In all, the vacation was too cold to enjoy.

That night, I had a slight problem. The house phone rang, I differentiate that from my cell phone, which is used for almost all communication. The house phone is primarily used for calling people on campus, and in the dark, while stumbling to answer it; I stepped on the power supply for my computer. Not only was it a wrong number, as most of my house phone calls are, but I broke the power supply. Breaking the power supply prompted me to write this letter to my good friend from High School; and all around Mac Genius, Mike.

Last night when getting up to answer the phone, it was a wrong number, I broke the connector on my Macally power supply, I long since replaced my Apple supplied one.

This power supply has a plug in the end that connects to the supply; so, the cord that plugs into the computer also unplugs from the supply. It uses a non standard plug. However, I am first going to look for the plug, if I can not find it I will solder the cord directly into the supply.

My question is this; the cord that connects to the Mac has one strand and a shield (thus, two conductors). I am assuming that the shield is negative and the core is +24VDC@2A. Looking at the tip I see it as having three elements, a shield, as is found on an RCA audio connector and a plug in the center that is similar to a stereo headphone connector, just smaller. This very small plug has three elements. What should the voltage be at these various points? (Yes, I checked the apple site, it has no real useful information on this that I was able to find)<>

I got a response from him that advised that, seeing as the part is made in China, that I should replace it in China. He also included some helpful information. However, by the time that I received his response (remember, the time is almost opposite here [gmt +8]) I had already gone into town and gotten it, sort of, repaired; prompting this letter.

The really funny thing is that a lot of the stuff made here is not available. When it is, it costs more than it does, after conversion, in America. As an example, I saw an iPod Nano (4gb); after conversion (of course, it is priced in RMBs [aka, CNY]) it would have cost $280USD. What I was told is that the stuff is first shipped to the states and then shipped back to china, where it becomes an import and is subject to very steep taxes.

I did manage to get it fixed. There is no "do it yourself" culture and near all tools are only sold to licensed repairmen. As such, I took it to a computer repair shop and HE ZHI QING (my student, I can not pronounce or spell her name) was having trouble telling them what I wanted done because the idea of fixing something was totally unknown to her.

Finally I walked behind his counter (with permission, if he understood what I was asking) and picked up his solder sucker, soldering iron and Multimeter and started working on it myself. After I had it all positioned I let him solder the parts together (and he did a terrible job of it). She was laughing the whole time; it seems that this is not the way things are done here

I suspect that I will hear about this in class... However, it is now working.

That Wednesday, after we had canceled our plans to wader about the town on Tuesday due to the snow; He Zhi Qing, more of her roommates, and I went to go and get this done. To go into town she first tried to hire a three wheel cab; however, the driver would not budge on the price so we took the bus. We then went to get the repair done, which was the, afore mentioned, ordeal.

After we did that she insisted that I go and eat lunch. While I had not eaten lunch I could have done very well to miss that meal (I have lost about seven Kilos since I got here, then I pretty much stopped loosing weight). However she was very uncomfortable with my having not eaten (she, and her friends had eaten before we met) so I had some soup that she ordered for me at a lunch counter.

[Then people ask why I hate using windows. Here I was typing along and I get a message that the windows OS had encountered yet another error and has closed word. I only lost a little because I save often; however, this does not happen on my UNIX, a real OS, based Mac …oh where was I…]

After we did some shopping, I decided that I needed more long johns, we went for a walk. The only problem with wearing the long johns is that it tends to reduce my level of empathy with my students. After all, I am not freezing, there is no reason that they should be acting like they are (other, possibly, than that the room really is freezing).

The walk we took led through one of the larger city parks and a small bamboo forest that had several footpaths leading through it. It was, obviously, a popular place for young people to stroll.

We then walked along the river; stopping at a playground to enjoy the exercise equipment (me v. them on the teeter totter was funny, if not a bit embarrassing). I took some pictures of the old city wall and we also did a bit of other shopping (I needed some eggs, which are not sold in cartons as they are in the west) and I returned to my flat.

We had walked quite a bit, including the entire return trip, however, it was fun. Even better, when I plugged in my, newly repaired, power supply it worked!

This week was obviously a short one for classes, consisting of only two days. We talked about many of the terms used in Titanic. I discussed the, upcoming, exam in my class. However, I was not able to use the material that I normally use in the second half of my class. I normally use a podcast from a pair of Doctors in Linguistics in Los Angeles.

I use the audio skit in their program and then build more lesson material around that. I was not able to do this for one of the very reasons that you have not received these blogs in some time. The internet connection to China has been very slow as a result of a damaged cable in Taiwan. This is making the access to may websites, the sending, and receiving of both audio and pictures nearly impossible.

I hope that this is repaired soon and I will be able to send pictures of Wohan.

This afternoon, this being Saturday, I got a call from He Zhi Qing asking if I wanted to go on a bike ride with them. They are, of course, her and a couple of her roommates. One of her roommates did not want to ride and, apparently, claimed that she did not know how to ride a bike. So, she rode on the rack on the back of the bike. It is amazing, to me, to see how often people ride on the cargo racks on the backs of the bicycles. They are clearly labeled that they are not capable of holding people; however, many of them are padded and there are often handles and footrests on them. We are not talking of carrying small children, we are talking of full sized (well, fill-sized means something a little different when talking of Asian women) adults.

They generally ride on these racks by riding side saddle and mount after the bicycle is moving slowly. I have a cargo basket on my rear rack so I have not carried any passengers.

So, we rode the three bicycles, with one passenger, to the local lake. However, none of us wanted to pay the entrance charge so we then headed back on the other side of the river to see the construction on the Pagoda that has been in many of our pictures. When finished, it will be a temple.

While riding we noticed that He Zhi Qing's bicycle had a flat tire; so, as I rod off in search of a WC she went and borrowed an air pump from a repairman. I was under the impression that she had the tire repaired until we had ridden several blocks; only to discover that her tire was flat again. At that point we went looking for a repairman and were unable to find one and ended up back at the same person that had loaned her a air pump earlier.

By the time we returned, it was too dark for the repairman to see well enough to find the flat, he was completing the work he was doing by the light of nearby cook fires. I quickly dismounted the tire form the rim, it is normal here to leave the wheel on the bike while going the here, and located the hole by wetting my hands with water he provided me. I than roughed the area of the hole and he put the patch on for her. This was all done by the light of my torch (silly Brits' insist on calling a flashlight a torch). Instead of using the patches we are familiar with, he used a section of tube that one of the girls cut to the shape that we needed, he then poured some cement on the tube and used the cut portion for a patch. All I can say is that it worked.

While we were doing this it was getting darker rapidly. In addition, I received a phone call from Ilwn, a graduate student, reminding me that I had planned for him and Merry, one of my students, to have them over for dinner. So, once repairs were completed, we rode back, rather quickly, in the dark. I will point out that I do not recall seeing a single bicycle light in the country. Other bikers, in the dark, are the real scare when riding this way.

At that point He Zhi Qing and one of her friends joined us for dinner. They cooked, which made it a very easy night for me. However, I was getting a bit tired, and I expect that I was looking it. We also looked at the on-line train schedule and determined what train we wanted for the trip to Wohan.

Today, Sunday, I went to our Sunday meeting. After that, the Browns and I watched a movie, "The Bodyguard." I then went for a bike ride with Walik. I prefer to take my bike to the store and on local trips, instead of relying on the bus service. It just leaves me with a bit more freedom to do what I want.

After returning to my apartment and watching another movie, "timeline," Walik and I went to dinner. It was pretty much a slow day. Most of my Sundays are slow, which is just fine.

Never race your mechanic

Today I tried something truly new. I involved myself in a community social activity that did not involve my students.

I discovered that there is a bicycle riding club that meets at the giant shop several days a week (I was unsure as to just what those days were) and, from there, goes on a spirited 21km ride (which took well under an hour). I found this out when I was having my bike serviced and the group of them rolled in, completing the ride, last week. I was not told what day, as we were having trouble communicating days of the week; however, I gathered that they leave at 6:00pm.

Seeing as Tuesday is my slow day, I left my flat about 5:30pm and rode to the shop. On the way there I noticed that my headlight was loose and wobbling so I pointed this out to the mechanic when I arrived. I then asked about the ride. Keep in mind that this was my first attempt to engage, in an activity, with a group that, simply, does not speak English. I was trying to ask about the group that leaves at six and he was telling me five. It turned out that there were five riders scheduled to go and two of them were not there yet.

We got that straightened out and the others arrived, the mechanic got his bike, and off we went. The pace was spirited and I think that they were all surprised that I was not the slowest (I was also not the fastest). We took a series of back roads that ended up with us crossing the dam at Niawan Lake (the large lake I visited and took a boat to Monkey and Bird Islands). There we met with others and waited for stragglers. From there the front runners, of which I was one, raced into town.

As we approached the university I shouted, "Bye," to them broke out of the pack and headed to a café for dinner. It was after dinner that I noticed something. My brakes were dragging. Not only were they dragging, but they were not fully releasing.

The headlight attaches to the brake mount. It must have been over tightened when he adjusted the headlight. My brakes had to have been dragging the entire time. That being the case, I figure that next week I will be a lot closer to the front…

New toy, and feeling a bit ill

This week I have had a bit of a sore chest and trouble talking. Of course, my job is to talk at a classroom voice level. I even ended up having my class on Thursday leaving early. I just told them I was done. It did not help that this was an inspection week so I was not able to get anyone to walk me to the clinic. I need the person to go with me from the office so that she would be able to tell them who I was in order to get the service free. There is also the point that I have never been to the clinic so I was not all too sure where it was at.

This morning I went to the clinic. I took a newspaper to read while I was there. The newspaper was entirely unnecessary as the clinic was not crowded and I was pushed to the front of the line. I was then given some medicine and there was no need to go on base to see the specialists. I am now sitting at my flat listening to Car Talk on NPR recovering from the medication.

Earlier this week I did get a new bike (yes, a pushbike). I was not even aware that there was a Giant dealership in this town. I have seen some Giants and I finally located the dealer. In general, there is no room for dickering on the price. This is an odd thing to the Chinese. I am not as concerned about price as I am with not feeling like I have been cheated. So, after I looked at it I then went and got Gao and returned. I got a Giant Tourer2.0. This is a model that is not available in the US but I think it will serve me well. I also got another cycle computer with it. The reason for not using the one on the current bike is about threefold.

The first reason is that I am intending to keep the bike for Zeneta to use and I think that she will like speedometer. The second is that I am continuing to use this bike for on campus riding. I want to keep the speedometer and they must be programmed for the wheel size of the bike. The other reason is that the speedometers have odometers and I like to know how many Kilometers that bikes have gone.

So, I expect to do more road riding soon. As you can see from the name, it is a touring bike, not a race bike. Gao looks at it and calls it a race bike because it is a multigear bike with non-mtb tires (they are 700x41c, not really a narrow tire). Once I find a way to get My space to post pictures again I will put them up.

Merry and Debra in Xian

Last weekend I went to visit Debra in Xian. This plan, to visit her, started when she called me asking for some books. It turned out that she also had some books to return to me with the intent that I would, eventually, give them to Zeneta. I also wanted to get some more movies for my class. Merry was visiting as I discussed the details of this visit with Debra and I invited Merry to come along, an offer that she agreed to.

This left me, on Tuesday, trying to get two tickets on a train that worked with both my schedule and hers. This was harder than I thought. I normally get tickets on, what I will call, vacation schedule. Vacation schedule means that I am not overly concerned with when I leave or arrive; however, this schedule had to match class schedules.

As should be expected, nothing went smoothly. It turned out that there were not two sleeper tickets available on any of the three trains that I had listed. Further, I was not going to go twelve hours, to Xian, in a hard seat. It just was not going to happen. I ended up calling Gao (that's right, gentle reader, another YL, they are all YLs', it's a teaching college) and getting tickets on an earlier train.

The rest of the week really had little to write about except for the process of making reservations at the Hostel and insuring that there would be no problem with Merry staying there (more on this by private email). On Friday afternoon I began packing to leave for Xian. About four Merry arrived (I did notice that she was using the Gucci purse I got her. I am glad she likes it.). At that point we took off for the train station. Normally when I head to the train station I stop at the market and get some munchies to nibble in route; however, she gave the cab driver instructions to take us straight to the station and that was the end of that plan.

Once we were at the station we had a slight disagreement about where we were to wait. She was convinced that we needed to wait in the common waiting area. I was not interested in that idea and finally steered her to the lounge that I normally use (she has been to that lounge with me many times; I do not see why this must always be a point of confusion).

While I was waiting for the train she ran off and got some food, arriving just before we needed to head for the platform (yes, I was mumbling, "where is that girl," the whole time as the departure came ever closer) We located our bunks and ate the dinner that she had purchased. I now know that I do not like Chinese Goose eggs, they are way too salty. The other stuff was pretty good.

As is usual for these trips, I read a while and then entered a restless slumber for the remainder of the trip. We awoke a little out of Xian and, after breakfast, prepared to depart.

It was here, when we arrived in Xian that I did the first thing that was, clearly, not Chinese and this began her exposure to traveling with westerners. The absolute first step was purchasing the return ticket. The reason was obvious. In order to insure that I had a ticket I wanted to get it as soon as possible. I also wanted to know what time I needed to be at the train station. That would leave me a lot freer on Saturday.

Merry commented that my reasons made sense. However, she, and most Chinese, would have just waited until Saturday and then gone to the station and made the effort to get the ticket then. As it was, two days in advance, we didn't get the tickets we really wanted. I can not (well, really I can, they would have been standing tickets) imagine what it would have been like trying to get the tickets on Sunday evening.

We then walked to the bus landing and, after waiting a while due to it still being early, got a bus to the Bell Tower. I will say that the moment I walked up to where the hostel had been was a shocking moment. It wasn't there. Where the entrance had been was a closed Nokia (mobile phone) shop. Then, as I was turning, doing the "WTF will I do now" scan, I notices a sign with directions to the new door for the Bell Tower Hostel. It seems that the hotel that they had been over went out of business and they had to move the entrance. That also meant that they no longer had a lift, such is life.

We stumbled up the stairs and found Debra, still sleeping, in her room. After we put our bags down Merry discovered that this place had 24-hour hot showers and she was gone. I then went and waited for them in the restaurant on the second floor and chatted with a gentleman from VA. When Debra arrived, and discovered that he was from VA, she began asking him a number of questions about the area near Hollins.

It is interesting, with out having been to Xian so many times and living in the country, at the hostels people are beginning to question us as if we were experts on living in China. We come to hostels, in part, to hang out with westerners; they come in order to see China, but at a manageable level. We did get a normal western breakfast.

We then went walking. We first went to a small temple. It turned out that the temple grounds were under reconstruction. The temple itself was intact. When we visit the temples, we go in, look, if it is safe we will even snap a picture, and then we leave. It was clear that Merry felt that it was incumbent to pray at these temples. It was a reminder that the places that we visit as curiosities are indeed holy places to the others in them.

We then went and did some shopping for relatives and I went and looked at a bicycle. I have mentioned looking for a touring bicycle recently. The most common high end brand in China is Giant, this would be considered mid line in the west. Very simply, I did not like the offer that was made, so I left. I did consider it helpful to find the Giant dealer because of the warranty program in China. It is a simple warranty, take it to any Giant dealer and it will be fixed. No time limit on the warranty and at no cost. The reasons are simple and there are two of them. They are selling a premium product at a very premium price and need to offer something. The second reason reflects on the first. They do not want people, potential customers, seeing Giant bicycles in poor repair. They want a potential customer, when they see any Giant bicycle, anywhere and at any time, to see a good bike that is in good working order. It is smart business and it seems to be working for them (oh, and of the four Giant dealers I have visited so far, only one of them did not have a English speaking employee, even if the one in Xinyang had to send for him).

From there we went looking for a dress (a 2000RMB Dress!!!) that Debra wanted to get; however we did not find it. My suggestion was to go into any ole dress shop and have Merry describe what Debra was looking for; but this wasn't what Debra wanted to do and we finally gave up on finding the dress. We then went and visited a small Mosque and went to the Foreign Language Book Store. After lunch it was Merry's nap time and Debra went and got some more gifts, these were for Ken and Scott (and they cost more than I expected them to, it is clearly tourist season). While she continued to nap, Debra and I went to the post office and shipped some things, including the gifts, back to the states (They are going surface freight; so, with good karma, expect to see them at some point in your next life).

Merry had a couple of interesting experiences. One was simply doing the math on the Hostel. She sat and listened to a staff meeting of the Hostel employees while she was, ostensibly, napping in the lounge and discovered that this was one of the highest rated Hostels in the country. She also went and talked to the front desk people and got a good idea as to the profitably and operation practices. It will be interesting to see if the gears turn, and mesh, in a way that benefits her.

She treated with great amusement one incident. She was asked what county she was from. While it was an amusing moment, it also shows how the Hostels tend to not cater to nationals.

She commented to me at she had never seen as many westerners at any place in her life. We were walking in a subway and came around a corner in a subway and walked into a western group and I thought nothing of it until I looked at her, there was an expression of being entirely overwhelmed on her face.

There was One thing she, specifically, wanted to do. She wanted to go to the Foreign Language Institute in Xian. This is a very highly rated college for learning English. In simple terms, it has a much better reputation that the college I am at has. I had Debra go with her; as I felt that it would be more fun for the two girls, who are of similar age, to do something together. It turned out that, after arriving, Merry talked to the administrators and the decision was made to have another student show her around the school. The student that was showing her the school was in the same grade.

Both students were sophomores, or second year, university students studying English. The part that was funny was when Debra was noticed. Merry was able to talk to her, in English; however, the student of this famous university was entirely unable to. This student then admitted that she could read and write English; but, could not speak, or understand, the language. I think the incident left Merry feeling better about the quality of the instruction that she is getting at this school.

The next day, after Debra left for Ankang, we went to the Drum and Bell towers. I have been to them before but Merry has not. I think she enjoyed them both. I think the thing she will remember (other then me telling her not to touch the museum artifacts) was the German couple we met. Very simply, she has seen very few blacks and this was the first black that she had spoken to. The biggest trouble was that we both ran out of words fast. My German is limited to H.S. German, which helps, and his English was also limited. He asked us if we spoke French; however, my French is worse than my German. So, it was a short conversation. It did help that his wife spoke English. As I have said before, if as an American, you really want to travel you have one good thing going for you, you already speak English, now learn French.

We then went to the open air fruit market and got some dried fruit (I left mine in her bag and never got it). We then went to Mc Donald's, she didn't like it, which is fine, I just wanted her to try it. I definitely did not like the steak I had eaten at The Hong Kong Restaurant the previous night. I realized what was wrong; it had been fried in oil. Everything in China is cooked in oil; it should come as no surprise that they cooked the steak in oil.

We then had to leave for the train station. Once there she located the correct VIP lounge and was happy to have an opportunity to spend more time talking to westerners. By being with me I think westerners are more willing to talk to her because there is the assumption that she had already been vetted and that there is no scam underway.

The car back was very crowded, as the ticket process indicated to me that it would be, and she was not in the same compartment. So, we did not talk much on the way back. We arrived a bit late for her first class and I hurried to prepare for my class.

Back in Xinyang

I got up on my last day in ShangHai and decided to go for a walk before checking out of the hostel. The route I decided on took me to SuZhou Creek, which I followed to the first bridge that crossed the Huangu River. At this point I crossed in to the PuDong district.

This is a new district that is almost entirely post war. There is very little that is intended to be "touristy" in this area. Instead, following the streets and alleys took me to the real Chinese street markets that I have become accustomed to.

As it approached tome for me to begin heading back I happened to notice the China Post Museum. It was free and I wandered in. For something that is not in the guide books or mentioned anywhere, it was a very good museum. As one can guess, it was devoted to the Chinese postal system and had an impressive stamp collection. While there were many other displays I think it was that stamp room that stood out.

I left there, returned to, and checked out of, the hostel. Stopped for a café for lunch and caught a bus to the train station.

Like the rest of ShangHai, the train station is huge. However, it is well marked and easy to navigate (except for traffic barriers that seem to be placed to force pedestrian traffic into the street with the auto and bus traffic). I chatted with some students while I was waiting for my train, they were taking the same train, and they offered to show me the local bike shops if I return to ShangHai.

Once I was in my bunk I became an object of interest for my cabin mates, who I was not able to talk to. At one point I was asked if I spoke Chinese; but they then asked another question that I was not sure of that I did not have time to answer, "no," to the first one.

Finally, I got tired of the rapid questions that came to fast for my, real bad, Chinese to deal with so I phoned Merry. I then passed them the phone and let her talk to them. The trouble with that was that they did not speak the same local language and she left them thinking that they needed to take me to the bus station to get me a ticket to Zumaden once we arrived in Xinyang. I finally dot off be telling them that I was not going to Zumaden this week, but next week (I was not going at all but this satisfied them that I did not need help).

One really weird thing happened on the train. The two old ladies were sitting on the bunk across from mine and the first one yawned, at that point the second said, "You should go to sleep." The first then replied, "It is still early." At the point the second lady got up and climbed the ladder to her bunk.

You may ask what was strange about that. Here is the strange part. I understood every word. It was like they were speaking English. I, later, asked Merry to repeat the words of the conversation and they sound nothing at all like the English words. I write it off to a high context environment, but it was still a very weird feeling when it happened.

I then caught a cab back to the college and went back to sleep for a few hours, as the train had arrived at 05:30; prompting the conductor to wake me up (I was actually already up) at 05:00. That evening he teacher from South Africa, Merry and I went to dinner at his favorite café.

The next morning Merry and I played scrabble for a while and then did some shopping. Today has been equally slow. I posted the journal entries that you have already seen and Ellen came over and cooked me dinner (she cooked a lot more that I was able to eat; so, I will have leftovers for a couple of days).